I became aware of author John Lemay after a random search on Amazon came up with his book, “The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: Showa Completion 1954-1989 (see review HERE).” Being a huge Godzilla fan, I knew this was a book I wanted to read. I also reached out to John, finding out that we had quite a few interests in common. I will be reviewing multiple books of his in the coming weeks but for now, John was kind enough to participate in this interview.
David: Were you always interested in the topics you write about? What were your influences?
John: Absolutely. Some of the first books I ever read were on monster movies, particularly the works of Ian Thorne, who was actually a woman writing under a man’s name. If Ian Thorne doesn’t ring a bell, then
maybe the publisher’s name Crestwood House will. They were the short, hardback books well illustrated
with publicity shots from the movies dedicated to King Kong, Godzilla, Dracula, Frankenstein etc.
published in the 1970s.
Then, of course, there were books on cryptozoology. As a kid, I adored the works of Daniel Cohen and as
I got older I graduated to Loren Coleman. My book Roswell USA: Towns That Celebrate UFOs, Lake
Monsters, Bigfoot and Other Weirdness in particular was influenced by one of his best-known books
called Mysterious America.
David: You have written multiple books on Japanese giant monster movies. What are your favorite movies
and why?
John: I’m a little bit of an anomaly, maybe a paradox, in the Japanese giant monster community. I say this
because I actually take these films 100% seriously. I know that lots of people laugh at the wacky
storylines and the outdated effects, but I never have. Not once. And yet, my favorites of the bunch often
are the wacky ones that everyone makes fun of, like GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, as opposed to the beloved 1954 original GODZILLA which I rarely if ever watch. To me, the Godzilla films of the 1960s and 1970s were great precursors to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved their sense of continuity, and also how like the Marvel movies, they didn’t take themselves too seriously even though the world was certainly at stake.
My favorite Godzilla movie of the first generation is either 1966’s GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER,
or 1975’s TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA. Considering I was a 10-year-old boy in 1995, what is called the Heisei era of Godzilla was also perfectly suited to my tastes. Therefore, I would say it’s much easier for me to list Godzilla movies that I don’t care for as opposed to those that I do. As much as I love Godzilla and his competitor, Gamera, oddly enough my favorite Japanese monster movie of all time is 1977’s much-
maligned LEGEND OF DINOSAURS AND MONSTER BIRDS. The basic idea was to do a Jaws-type film only with a plesiosaurus and set within an inland lake in Japan at the base of Mount Fuji. Admittedly, the effects are atrocious at times, but it still scared the hell out of me as a four-year-old. The film was mistakenly placed in the child section because it had dinosaurs even though it’s a 1970s gorefest that could potentially have been rated R. I couldn’t even finish it as a four-year-old, but as a ten-year-old, I loved it. The direction and the music, though decidedly dated, are superb in my opinion.
David: If you were to recommend a Japanese monster movie to someone who hasn’t seen any, what would be your first choice and why?
John: At this point, probably GODZILLA MINUS ONE. But, then again, it seems like a lot of people have seen it. Talking the older stuff though, that’s a tough one because some modern viewers have a hard time with the old method of special effects. As much as I love what CGI enables filmmakers to do, there’s also
something really fascinating about knowing that what you’re witnessing physically existed in some form.
Or, that is to say, that technicians actually built these intricately detailed miniatures only to have them
destroyed by either a giant marionette or an actor in a suit. So, all that said, my recommendation would
probably be 1989’s GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE or the 1993 version of GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA. At this point those two entries might qualify as “old movies,” but they are not as far removed for some viewers as would be the 1954 GODZILLA. As someone born in 1985, my cut off for the era of films that I enjoy tends to be the mid-1960s. Anything prior to that typically moves a little too slowly for me though there are of course exceptions. So that’s why I think the 1990s Godzilla films might meet a good middle ground for most viewers.
David: What started your interest in cryptozoology?
John: I would guess it was probably my love for monster movies. Of course, as a child you’re taught that
monsters are fairytale stuff, so when I learned there might actually be real monsters I was fascinated.
Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster were probably the only reasons that I actually had a library card as a
kid. As a child, I had more ambitious desires to actually trek to the farthest corners of the earth and be a
cryptozoologist. Now I’m content to just be an armchair detective focusing on what truths might reside
in old folklore and forgotten newspaper articles from the 1800s.
David: What is your favorite cryptid, and why?
John: Spring-Heeled Jack, who might be more of a ghost or an alien, really fascinates me, though I’m not sure he qualifies as a cryptid. So does Mothman, though again it’s tough to say if it’s an animal or an
intelligent being. But, at the end of the day, I suppose dinosaur-cryptids will always be my favorites.
Plesiosaurs in lakes and pterodactyls in the skies are a dime a dozen in the fortean realm, so I’ll go with
the Crosswicks Monster of Ohio, which appeared to be a carnivorous theropod which is rare. It was my
favorite case to write on in Cowboys & Saurians: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Beasts as Seen by the
Pioneers.
David: Out of all of the reported cryptids out there, which one do you believe has the most evidence of its
existence?
John: I don’t know that this one would qualify as having the most evidence of existence, but in terms of
highest likelihood I would choose the theropod-like Mokele-mbembe in the swampy region of the
Congo.
David: What is the most compelling evidence for this cryptid?
John: To me it’s the region where it lives, which is so dense and inaccessible to humans. It’s so dangerous
there in terms of the other wildlife that from what I understand it would be pretty tough to prove that it
doesn’t exist. There are a few good photographs and I believe footprint casts of it. The late Roy Mackal’s
book A Living Dinosaur was pretty convincing, plus Mackal really didn’t have any agendas to prove in my
opinion. In fact, the existence of a dinosaur in modern times really went against his belief system, as
opposed to someone who wants to prove dinosaurs still exist for whatever reason.
David: Have you seen GODZILLA MINUS ONE? If you have, what are your thoughts?
John: I have seen it once, and I have one good friend who’s seen it seven times now. I thought it was an
excellent film and I love what it’s doing for the community. I tend to enjoy Godzilla as a good guy
though, so I’m “one of those fans” that’s actually, gasp, more excited for the upcoming Godzilla X Kong.
Disappointing I know, but it’s the truth. But again, I think MINUS ONE is a superb film that deserves all the
attention it’s getting.
David: Where did your interest in the Old West and weird stories come from?
John: I live in Roswell, New Mexico, where the UFO crashed in 1947. Had the UFO never crashed though,
Roswell would probably promote itself as the homes of John Chishum and Pat Garrett, a couple of
Western heroes who tangled with Billy the Kid, and both of whom have been played on the big screen
by the likes of John Wayne and James Coburn respectively. So, basically, Roswell was very much a
Western town at one point and in many ways still is apart from the UFOs. Roswell is within an hour’s
driving’s distance of both the villages of Lincoln and Fort Sumner, both of which have some pretty big
claims to fame where Billy the Kid was concerned. As such I was pretty often inundated with Western
history growing up. So, more than anything, I enjoy the challenge of conjoining the Wild West with
Ufology, cryptozoology, and so on.
David: What are your thoughts on UFOs? What do you think they are?
John: I tend to reside within the John Keel school of thought that lumps aliens and UFOs in with cryptids,
poltergeists, fairies, and other folkloric notions and creatures. Keel, when he was investigating the
Mothman phenomenon in 1966, was shocked to find himself not only on the trail of cryptids, but also
the men in black, UFOs, and ghosts. Over time Keel came to believe that all these things were related
and instead of calling them extraterrestrials, dubbed them ultra terrestrials.
To dumb it down and simplify it, Keel sort of thought that these were interdimensional visitors from another spiritual plane rather than outer space aliens. In a lot of ways, they were the tricksters of old mythology, that’s why you can never really make sense of them. His thought was that they are here as either some message from beyond, or just a big cosmic practical joke to keep us all scratching our heads. That’s not to say that you can’t make some sense out of the paranormal, and make note of certain commonalities in different cases, but the more you research it, the more insane it can drive you. So, while I don’t think it’s outside of the realm of possibility that they are simply alien craft, I tend to lean on Keel’s ultraterrestrial theory more.
David: What is your favorite topic to write about and why?
John: I go back and forth between cryptozoology and folklore type stuff and film histories. Right now, my love of folklore is probably winning as I just finished The New Mexico Book of Witches which chronicled the many cases of witchcraft in colonial era New Mexico, which was a part of the Kingdom of New Spain.
But, that said, my real desire when I started writing was to do novels. Novels are feast or famine financially speaking, though. You either sells tons of copies like Stephen King, or none at all really. I did a murder mystery recently where old-timers who claimed to know Billy the Kid were being killed in the 1950s by a serial killer that seemed to be a Skinwalker. It’s called Once Upon a Time in Fort Sumner. Of course, none of your friends will ever tell you that your book sucks. They’ll all say that it’s great. How I know Once Upon a Time succeeded was because a professional narrator, Boyd Barrett, read it on Kindle Unlimited out of curiosity, then contacted me to say he wanted to do the audio book. I told him the book wasn’t selling well and I really couldn’t pay him for it, and he still wanted to do the narration! (We settled on a royalty split instead.) I have a feeling that the book will catch on eventually, it just hasn’t yet.
David: Are you working on anything now?
John: I tend to have five to six projects open at once actually. The two I’m focusing on right now are another folklore centric title, Legend and Lore of the Lost Adams, and the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Fort Sumner, which I tentatively am calling Billy the Kid & the Boy Bandit King.
David: Where can people find you online?
John: The easiest way is to just search ‘John LeMay’ on Amazon, but you can also check out
www.bicepbooks.com. (I chose that brand name on a whim, by the way, never thinking it through that I
might actually be stuck with it forever, haha!).