preload
Feb 22

Is it a MARSupial?Click for full image

Tracy Comments: I never would have read this book if the cover hadn’t been ripped off. H. P. Lovecraft goes to Australia.

Published 1976

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.46 out of 10)
Loading...

Tagged with:

29 Responses to “The Platypus of Doom”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    “Howard you like to paint a cover about a talking duck… billed platypus?”

  2. Bibliomancer Says:

    The Other Nihilists, I assume, are the Kangaroo of Chaos and the Dingo That Ate My Baby!

  3. DaveM Says:

    @Bibliomancer, Also the Emo Emu, and the Cassowary of utter destruction.

  4. Ray P Says:

    The Australian version of Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck?

  5. JuanPaul Says:

    In space, no one can hear you quack.

    Do platypuses quack?

  6. fred Says:

    If these nihilists don’t say ‘ni’ then it isn’t zany.

  7. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Points for Mr. Adams, he did put the poisonous spurs on the hind feet.

  8. DaveM Says:

    @Dead Stuff, yeah, but he loses points for putting 2 spurs (the male has only one spur located on the back left leg), also Platypodes do not have a bottom bill, under the top bill is a mouth.

    Still I guess if you’re a Platypus of doom you can be as biologically incorrect as you like. Probably one of the perks of the job. 🙂

  9. B. Chiclitz Says:

    Check out the subtle details of the Ellison blurb. He’s only quoted for the words “fresh, invigorating talent.” He’s probably not even referring to this book.

  10. Raoul Says:

    It’s 2 AM in Australia. Looking forward to our GSS Aussie mates chiming in on this in a few hours.

  11. Harlan EIIison Says:

    @B. Chiclitz – When it comes to blurb writing, this is how I roll!

  12. Ray P Says:

    In a Sydney suburb some men stride into the Duderino’s bathroom, take a platypus off its leash and throw it in his bathtub. “We’re nihilists cobber. We couldn’t give a xxxx about anything.”

  13. Tat Wood Says:

    After Dr Doofenschmirtz renounced evil at the end of ‘Phineas and Ferb’ there had to be a karmic realignment among the monotreme secret agent community.

    (In case you missed the last decade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCKrDP7TLI )

  14. Tat Wood Says:

    Re. Tracy’s comment: dunno about Lovecraft, but… https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/gene-deweese/charles-fort-never-mentioned-wombats.htm

  15. Anna T. Says:

    Is the platypus a distant relative of Donald Duck, by any chance? Because he looks familiar.

  16. B. Chiclitz Says:

    Hey, I just noticed—it’s an Arthur Byron cover!

  17. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @RayP: In a Sydney suburb, some platypi stride into the Macca’s bathroom, take a yobbo off its leash and throw it in the sink. ‘We’re nihilists, ya bogan. We couldn’t give a xxxx about anything.’

  18. GSS ex-noob Says:

    If you were an aquatic monotreme and suddenly found yourself IN SPACE, you might be likely to become a nihilist, and doom-y.

    Still no excuse for the polka dotted bowtie.

    Also, big ups to Tag Wizard for our new “Platypus!” tag to go with “Unicorns!”

  19. Tracy Says:

    The other creatures were the Armadillo of Destruction, the Aardvark of Despair, and the (I kid you not) The Clam of Catastrophe, who was female. I actually liked the book… it was imaginative, flip, and wisecracky, in a college-kid way.

  20. classicOz Says:

    For something more euphonious, try googling the ‘demon duck of doom’, Bullockornis; it’s more the right size and still Australian.
    I have to point out, unfortunately for the joke, that it’s a MONOtreme.

  21. HappyBookworm Says:

    Is the Platypus supposed to be menacing the viewer with doom? It looks more distressed to me…like it’s realized there’s gravity and it’s doomed to fall.

    Then again, I have to give it some sort of credit if it can make me “shudder, laugh, and think twice” all at the same time. (See top blurb) Maybe that explains the expression on its face, if it’s doing all that, too.

  22. Tat Wood Says:

    The pose is familiar: does it have the size-to-strength ratio of a platypus?

  23. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @Tat: African or European?

  24. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @HB: Indeed, we might be looking upwards, wherein we see the spaceship and a plummeting Platypus!, which if it lands upon you would be your doom. The expression on its face looks like it’s already falling. Maybe it was kicked out of the spaceship/flying car sans parachute — the background could just as easily be clouds in a dark blue sky.

  25. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Why this vehement anti-platypus bias? Just because SOME platypuses are nihilist doesn’t mean all of them are. If you’re not careful, a Twitter mob might accuse GSS of hating all ducks.
    (Yes, I know the platypus isn’t technically a “duck” but logic has never stopped a Twitter mob before…),

  26. RachelJ Says:

    @A.R.Yngve. Ah, but by conflating platypi with waterfowl YOU have become part of the problem. No wonder these magnificent monotremes have sunk into nihilism!

    #DuckbillsArentDucks #MonotremesNotMallards #PlatypusErasure

  27. A.R.Yngve Says:

    #GoodShowSirRules
    🙂

  28. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Conventional wisdom among scientists I know is that the platypus is the only poisonous mammal. This is not true: Hatian solenodons, water shrews, short-tailed shrews, slow lorises and vampire bats are also poisonous, and one species of hedgehog may be. Source: Nekaris et al., Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, 2013, 19:21 pp. 1-10.

    So, now you know.

  29. JJYoyo Says:

    Howard the Platypus: Trapped in a clade he did not create!
    Also, the pedant in me points out that the plural, formed like that of octopus, is either platypuses or platypodes, but not platypi.

Leave a Reply