MONSTERS OF THE DEEP

This series of creature cards is produced by the excellent people behind the weirdly spelled wierdnwonderful project. They are essentially ‘knowledge cards’, produced with informative humour. I have featured a number of extraordinary creatures in my WTF? (What’s That Fish?) series, and many were, I later discovered, already featured in the cards. I tried to distil the essential weirdness and the most important aspects of each creature from my research. Annoyingly, I often found that the cards did it better, and with equal or better amusement value… The only thing they lack (but which I am fortunately able to provide) are the images to go with the factoids.

I’m a big fan of simple aides memoire. BIRDORABLE do a great job for birds, with their cartoons in which each species is depicted in a clear, recognisable and amusing way. The essential characteristics are caught. If you doubt me, check out their multitude of warblers, and the clever way in which they are made distinctive.