Monster Makers from Prof. Heidi Breuer

Star Wars Cosplay Meet Up Hey Monster Maker! Let me just say this up front: San Diego Comic Con was a freakin’ blast. I wore villain cosplay. I saw villain cosplay. I screamed (lovingly) at villain cosplay. It was like dancing into a Monster Ball, and I didn’t want the music to stop. And let’s be honest: the Dark Side always shows up strong. Darths and Vaders and Mauls, oh my. Entire families in Sith robes. So many red lightsabers swinging proudly, I thought we were about to storm the Jedi...

Hey Monster Maker, Got your snacks? Because this month’s Monster of the Month will definitely ruin your appetite. We’re diving into a legendary villain who oozes power, rot, and grotesque charisma. You can’t look away—even when you want to. Meet your new favorite nightmare: 👅 Jabba the Huttaka: The Galaxy’s Most Powerful Mobster-Slug Jabba the Abject 🐌💀 Let’s be real. Jabba is gross. [And I totally need to take a nerd-minute to clarify that I mean the ORIGINAL Jabba from Return of the Jedi,...

Book by Thomas Macri 💌 Monster Makers What Star Wars Monsters Teach Us About Beast-Building 🧠 Monsters are never just monsters. They’re metaphors in cool outfits. Hey Monster Maker, So here’s a theory:Monsters don’t just go bump in the night.They go bump in culture. And nothing proves that better than my favorite galaxy far, far away. Enter: Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)”A big, juicy framework for thinking about monsters as mirrors of our fears, boundaries, and barely...

Star Wars Poster 💌 Monster Makers #6 Make Your World Weird (and Don’t Explain It) A Jedi, a swamp witch, and a Grootslang with three mouths walk into a cantina . . . and no one explains a damn thing. Hey Monster Maker, Let’s talk world-building. Not the kind that makes you draw twelve maps and create a trade system for haunted onions (though, mad respect if you do). I’m talking about the kind of world that feels lived-in, slightly grimy, and deliciously, monstrously weird. Because here’s the...

The Force Awakens San Diego 🕯️ FROM THE DARK SIDE 🌑 The Repressed Shadow Self Spoiler alert: it’s always personal. Hey, monster maker! Pull up a chair. Light something that smells like ancient wood and bad decisions. Today, we’re unlocking a dusty drawer in the curiosity cabinet labeled THE SHADOW. Contents include: 🗝️ Denied desires 🩸 Buried shame 🐍 Unspoken power Warning: May escape containment! 🔮 So What Is the Shadow? Psychologically speaking (hi, Jung), the Shadow is all the stuff we...

Elphaba Thropp Hey Monster Maker, Ready to get witchy with this month’s monster? We’re diving broom-first into the murky green depths of one of the most misunderstood villains-turned-antiheroes in modern speculative fiction: 🖤💚 Elphaba Thropp 🖤💚 She’s the Wicked Witch of the West–but morally ambiguous, androgynous, and increasingly misunderstood. The Wicked Witch of the West Gets a Rewrite (Again) Elphaba has been many things:A political radical. A gothic cipher. A Broadway belter. But who...

Why Haunted Houses Work Let’s be honest — some monsters just don’t work. They’re cool, but not powerful. They don’t give us chills, make us check the window lock, look under the bed. Twice. The ones that stick with us — like the demogorgon, Pennywise, or the classic horror staple, the Haunted House — are rooted in something deeper: fear of the familiar turned unfamiliar. The Uncanny Terror of the Haunted House A house is supposed to be safe. Familiar. Domestic. It holds your childhood toys,...

Hey Monster Maker! Let’s talk about one of the oldest writing rules in the book. It’s the GOAT for a reason: Show, don’t tell. But what does that actually mean when you’re building monsters? Great question! Nothing kills the terror faster than a monster explained instead of experienced. If you tell me “the creature was terrifying,” my immediate thought is, Why? What’s terrifying about it? If you show me its yellow eyes blinking sideways in the dark . . . If you let me hear its fingernails...

Let’s get one thing straight: If you're mean to me, there’s a non-zero chance you’ll end up as a villain in one of my stories — possibly cursed, maybe partially decomposing, and definitely dramatic. 🕷️How I Made My Frenemy Into a Monster (and Had a Bloody Good Time Doing It) Back in grad school, I had a friend. You know the type: heartbreak bestie, post-breakup ride-or-die, makeover queen. I was shattered, and she was happy to put the pieces back together — in her image. She styled me,...