I had the great pleasure of meeting Frank Anderson this past weekend. Frank is an animator, director, author, musician, painter and live action filmmaker. He’s an awesome storyteller as well! He was born on Basilan Island in the Philippines but his family has roots in Wisconsin. After moving to Deerfield, Wisconsin at age 11, he was struck by the many strange and fascinating folklore tales he heard and read about. He collects and shares these stories on his website, Wisconsinology.com, Here you can learn about the origins of monsters and mythology within Wisconsin. His spooky stories range from the Wendigo to the Hodag, the Man-Bat to the Thunderbird, the Ridgeway Phantom and the Mineral Point Vampire.
Frank designed a map, called Wisconsin Monsters, Myths and Legends, which features over 60 hand-painted vignettes of petroglyphs, ancient burial mounds, effigy mounds, lost treasure sites, ghost ships and much more. It’s a fun and engaging poster that beckons you to investigate more. For a Wisconsinite like me, it’s a history lesson about my home state that I never got in school. Thanks, Frank!