#usborne

I grew up fairly obsessed with Usborne’s World of the Unknown series: UFOs, Ghosts and Monsters. Image the frenzy that awoke inside me a few years ago when I learned that there was a second series of three books, from the same period, with the same style and art direction called Supernatural Guides. Worse, imagine my frustration when I found that they command frankly ridiculous prices second hand. Three kid books at 50 bucks a pop? Nah. Even this, the all-in-one digest remained well over a hundred bucks for longer than I liked. Eventually I got it off Etsy for like 60, which, fine, OK, more than I wanted, but still a good buy.

Anyway, three constituent books: Vampires, Werewolves and Demons, then Haunted Houses, Ghosts and Spectres and finally Mysterious Powers & Strange Forces, all originally published in 1979. Nice of Usborne to arrange them in order of my interest. This collected edition, The Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World, came out in 1990. Really love the world continents etched into the skull (someone used the skull for some knock-off toy packaging and the map aspect is a dead giveaway).

Vampires is my fave, naturally, though mostly for the demon section. Ghosts is solid and surprisingly doesn’t have much overlap with the World of the Unknown book. Powers is a potpourri of paranormal topics, including ESP, UFOs, Uri Gellar and so on. It’s fine, but I don’t have more than a passing interest in most of it.

1001 Animals to Spot (2002)

Text: Ruth Brocklehurst -- Art: Teri Gower

[start id: a black and white drawing cropped from p.29 of the Usborne Guide to Computer and Video Games (1982). The image shows a chessboard with lights and mechanical arm built in.

Image caption reads: "The robot arm on this chess-board makes all the computer's moves, and removes your pieces when the computer captures them. If the computer loses the game, it flings its arm about, flashes its lights and shrieks." end id.]

I assumed this emotionally dysregulated chess robot was just a 1980s fever dream, but apparently it exists, and glories in the name of "The Novag Robot Adversary":

Quoth the gorgeously Web 1.0 (but still updating in 2023?!) Chess Computer UK:

The Novag Robot Adversary is the most iconic of chess computers. There are several reasons. Firstly, for a product of 1982, its startling futuristic appearance. Secondly the robot arm which in terms of robotic character, comparative speed and range of movement is extraordinary for a consumer product. Thirdly the variety of functions - including autoplay, automatic setting up of the pieces for a new game, trace and review, best move, sound, lights, printer support, and not forgetting the tantrums produced by the ‘emotions’ button which involve waving of the arm, flashing lights and noisy sound. These functions all contribute towards a very impressive and entertaining machine, which was outstanding when it was first sold, and has not been bettered since.

That page also has videos of the machine in action, including this heart-rending footage of it losing its shit:

I am inordinately happy to learn about this. -- July 2025 Update: This post is my first (and so far only) one to get any notes. My midnight rambling while deliriously tired and anxious due to work travel in May 2023 got picked up by @derinthescarletpescatarian and spread to the various fandoms of cute little guys, and it has been utterly heartwarming to watch over the last two years. Thanks to everyone who added their comments in the tags, I've extracted some of my favourites below:

My absolute favourite (which I sadly did not screenshot) was something like "what having no vag does to a mfer".

Which is weird because to me as a child Usborne books were some of the spookiest books I could get my hands on. They filled the same place as Dorling Kindersley - colorful, creative, informative books that were educational as well as fun to read. And their approach to myths and legends was, not going to lie, very formative for me. If it wasnt' for Usborne, there might not have been ABC.

And much like Dorling Kindersley, Usborne went through a phase of extreme creative experimentation before stagnating into safer forms of publishing. But for a while, Usborne books were mindblowing.

So what has Usborne done then that aren't lift-the-flap books for preschoolers? Well, a lot. Puzzle Adventures. Extreme map and code puzzles. How to Draw Books. Cut-out and build houses, Trojan horses, and dinosaurs (by Luis Rey no less). How to Be A Detective. Nature spotter's guides. Nature Search books. Facts and Lists books that instilled cosmic horror in me years before I knew what cosmic horror was. I could go on forever.

There was a series of excellent myths and legends books which I posted about before.

These were illustrated by Rodney Matthews and were every bit as metal as you'd expect from something by Rodney frickin' Matthews.

Then there were the Quest books which were Where's Waldo-esque books that followed a storyline in a fantasy world.

In this case, they showcased lush art by Nick Harris in which you find various items or characters to make the story progress, as well as other random things (find 10 rats, find 8 clownfishes, etc).

The Tabloid Histories books, oh my gosh.

Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Medieval, etc. history told through tabloid articles and ads.

More about monsters though! There were books about folktales and legends illustrated by Stephen Cartwright.

For me it was my first time hearing of a lot of them, such as the Lambton Worm!

The Haunted World, now that was spooky! With lots of colorful, dripping art by Graham Humphreys.

Introduced me to a lot of ghosts, vampires, and monsters from around the world. Such as the story of Arnold Paole!

And there were maps and diagrams...

... and lindorns [sic] and mokele-mbembes!

The Supernatural Guides had denser text but sadly have not been reprinted anytime recently.

The World of the Unknown series, though... ohohoho those were good.

Of course (no offense to fans of ghosts and UFOs), I had eyes only for the Monsters book. With such gems as the Velue...

... the Lambton Worm...

... and cryptozoological rubbish such as the Monongahela sea serpent (below), the Loch Ness Monster, the Abominable Snowman, and their ilk.

You know, the sort of thing that would keep a 7-year-old fascinated (and perhaps scared under the blankets) for weeks.

JUST IN CASE YOU FELT LIKE SLEEPING TONIGHT -- THE MONSTERS OF TODAY LIVE IN THE WOODS.

PICS INFO: Mega spotlight on a gracile, thin-furred, "old man" Sasquatch and/or Bigfoot (which is a bit odd, given that the creature is depicted in a snowy landscape), from "All About Monsters," written by Carey Miller, and part of Usborne's "‘The World of the Unknown" series, published in 1977. Artwork by John Francis/Usborne/Miller.

EXTRA INFO: Resolution at 1019x1316 & 1000x1841.

MINI-OVERVIEW: "The illustration of a sasquatch – artwork by John Francis – always made the animal look too rangy and thin-furred for my liking (I much prefer my sasquatches to look super-buff and of lustrous pelt), but then there are at least some descriptions that do talk of creatures of this form."

-- TET ZOO (blogspot)