There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.
These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.
These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.
***
It's hard to catch a break when you are the son of the town drunk. But one bright glimmer keeps Hank going: Alexandra Harrer, the orphaned niece of the richest woman in town. Not that their friendship didn't make things harder for him than they already were, but Alex softened the rough edges of his life... Most of the time.
Until she made an unexpected visit to his hidey-hole one night, rousing him from sleep and begging him for help.
When Alex vanishes soon after, along with her pet-an ancient creature Hank swore to keep secret-he lands in jail. Blamed for her disappearance, he's torn between confessing all and keeping faith.
But in the end, Blind Devotion wins out.
Ty Drago is a full-time writer and the author of ten published novels, including his five-book Undertakers series (optioned for a feature film), Dragons, an SF genre-bender, and Rags, an edgy YA horror novel set in Atlantic City. He's also the founder, publisher, and managing editor of ALLEGORY (www.allegoryezine.com), a highly successful online magazine that, for more than twenty years, has featured speculative fiction by new and established authors worldwide.Ty's horror novel, St. Damned, will be released in 2025, as will his historical saga, The New Americans. He's just completed Angelfire, a modern retelling of the Orpheus legend.He lives in New Jersey with his ever-patient wife Helene, one needy dog, and three goofy hens.
Until his decades-long disappearance, JW Harp was known for his trippy underground comic strip Captain Thetan, about a seafarer who controls reality for himself and others. This otherworldly character appeared in a dozen issues of the classic rare underground zine Sandanista Romp. JW has reemerged thanks largely to eSpec Books' Systema Paradoxa series. In 2023, JW started Skilletfire Studios with comic-book author Scott Eckelaert. Under the Skilletfire Studios mantle, JW has produced the graphic novel Boylon Heights, and the Gimme Five Comics series. Since its launch, Gimme Five Comics has included work by Artyom Topilin, Elena Cerisciola, John L. French, Keith Lansdale, and Joe R. Lansdale with more to come. JW grew up in the seedy parts of South Carolina, which is all of it. He feels part Canadian and part Costa Rican these days. He lives in North Carolina. Please get in touch with him at jwharp@skilletfire.com.
