Talk:Mothman

Killer Moth

"Killer Moth's appearance in the Teen Titans animated series bears a notable resemblance to descriptions of the Mothman." is false. This cartoon villain looks nothing like the moth descriptions anywhere. google the image and you'll see.

Aside from being moth based, it is an obvious parody, the episoded ended with him destroying the town's suspension bridge.

Barn owl (Skeptical Enquirer)

2nd paragraph:

Skeptics have argued (notably in the March/April 2002 issue of the magazine Skeptical Inquirer) that the most likely explanation of the sightings is excited eyewitnesses mistaking a barn owl.

-I removed this paragraph because (on the magazine's website, I haven't read the issue in question, however) there is no reference to Mothman and/or a debunking in the Mar/Apr '02 issue contents. However, the "mistaking a barn owl" story reminded me of the debunking of a completely different "mystery monster" story in another issue. That issue turned out to be the Nov/Dec 2000 issue.

Hypernovean 11:27, 21 Dec 2003 (UTC)

• I put the Skeptical Inquirer back, as the article is, indeed, in that issue - I've got the copy right here, written by the indubitable Joe Nickell. (Note that it's 2002, not 2003) Here's a LookSmart link:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2843/2_26/83585954/p1/article.jhtml

Ahh, sorry then. I guess there are a lot of "barn owl monsters" :) Hypernovean 03:11, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)

None has or none have?

Regarding the changing of "none has" to . "none have" - this is a source of much grammatical debate. Purists say "none" means "not one" and therefore is singular but many people feels "none" means roughly "none of the possibilities" and therefore is plural. I won't revert, just mentioning it. DavidWBrooks 18:14, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Although it is a bit late, the correct grammatical structure is indeed "none have" because "not one" is actually not singular; it is instead a plural negation - a disinclusion of many people into a group, and all those people are the subject. The phrase "not one" is just a figure of speech. I know it's not relevant anymore, but I hope it helps someone in the future. --Deriamis 20:18, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Movie out

There is a movie out, on DVD as well called The Mothman Prophecies. Martial Law 05:32, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Mothman / Killer Moth

Do we have a source for that comment about Mothman being named for a villain on the '60s Batman series? The moth-themed Batman villain was "the Killer Moth", not "Mothman", and the one episode of that particular show that featured him never actually aired. 04:39, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Pop culture references

Do you guys think Mothmonster man from Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a reference to mothman? He does terrify them for a while, although he's rather nice and laid-back. Identity0 04:02, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

I removed the ATHF reference from the list. If anyone feels the need to put it back in there, it definitely needs to be rephrased. It said that the ATHF episode parodied a scene from the film "The Mothman Prophecies", in spite of the fact that the episode came out almost 4 months prior to the film. If it is a reference to the Mothman, it was not a reference to the film. Juansmith 08:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

The conclusion that in the Cthulhu Mythos universe the mothman sightings would have been Byakhee sightings seems entirely speculative, since AFAIK the Mothman was never mentioned in any books following the mythos. If this is mentioned in a book, or a Call of Cthulhu sourcebook or something, it needs to be properly attributed. Also, Raziel from Soul Reaver is a fairly typical design for a demon: his wings are batlike, and his body is more or less human with a distinct head and normal-sized eyes as opposed to a headless, furry mass with huge eyes set in the chest. Making a connection there seems spurious. Finally, Arthur from The Tick is just a guy in a winged costume, and aside from the ability to fly and the intent to be a moth (although everyone assumes his costume to be that of a winged bunny), he doesn't have anything to do with the Mothman (unless somebody can dredge up a quote by Ben Edlund of being inspired by stories about the Mothman or something). — Gwalla | Talk 18:32, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I fail to see how Arthur, the sidekick from The Tick, has *anything* to do with the Mothman aside from the moth-themed suit. Is any moth usage a "pop culture" reference to the Mothman? The connection to Silent Hill is just as spurious. The bridge is out, not wrecked, and not far through the game you activate it and cross.

ATHF Mothmonsterman

Yes, I know there's a reference to this in the previous Talk entry, but I see an edit war on the horizon since I've removed this two or three times, and it's been put back in every time.

There is absolutely zero evidence to support any connection between Mothmonsterman and the Mothman. People think Wikipedia is often wildly inaccurate for a reason. You want to help Wikipedia gain a better reputation? Stop entering baseless claims like this one. Encyclopedias are based on facts, not opinions. Kestrel 17:43, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

You want to help wikipedia gain a better reputation? Then try to be a bit nicer. 69.179.121.92 00:52, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you need to get off your highhorse and stop thinking your God.

HP Lovecroft

How can things written before the sighting of the Mothman be referances to the Mothman?--Atechi 22:51, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Popular Culture off-topic tag

Several items listed in the Popular Culture section are not focused on the main topic of the article. The Mothman article is about "a strange creature sighted many times in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 1966 and November 1967." Some of the items listed in this section reference creatures, characters, and entities that are moth-like, but are not related specifically to the "creature" the article is written about. A good way to deal with this issue without losing the interesting information already listed here would be to create a new article about moth-like creatures, and to create a disambiguation article. --ndyguy 01:50, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Tag was removed by (19:25, 13 August 2006 Treybien) with no significant change to the section and no reasoning left in the talk page. The tag was reinserted. ndyguy 23:59, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

A reminder, the article is not about creatures that look like or are called Mothman. It is about "a strange creature sighted many times in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 1966 and November 1967." ndyguy 00:04, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Mothman/Killer Moth

The character of "Killer Moth" was featured in Batman comic books of the period, but not in the TV series.

Repeated information

the section first sightings is largely a different telling of the facts in history.

Invader Zim

Dib's code name for the paranormal research group "The Swollen Eyeball" is "Agent Mothman" -n8lewis

Who is Dib? What is The Swollen Eyeball? Totnesmartin 16:14, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

First Sightings

The entire first sightings section is a mess and seems to repeat a lot of what was above. This should probably be merged to the history section of the article, removing all the redundant information. It also is totally uncited. Titanium Dragon 04:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Original Research

Most of this is not original research, and is from Keel's book. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Saintjimmy777 (talk • contribs) 12:57, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

Self promotion

Removed this book plug:

• A.B. Colvin, a local photojournalist and documentary film maker who claims to have seen the creature in 1966 and 1973, has produced a book and 32-hour DVD news series on Mothman called The Mothman's Photographer, with over 40 eyewitnesses and experts. Colvin's sister took a snapshot of him in 1973 that shows something looking like a Garuda or Thunderbird in the background. Colvin took a picture of an anomalous figure in a crop circle in 1979 that he alleges might be a spectral image of either his deceased father (whose Navy yearbook proves was at the site of the Philadelphia Experiment in 1943), of Indrid Cold, a 'spaceman' who reportedly contacted local resident Woody Derenberger, or of Duncan Cameron or Aleister Crowley, both connected to the Montauk/Philadelphia experiments involving time travel . While researching various forms of Buddhist philosophy and various Native tribes, Colvin seems to have reached the conclusion that both the Garuda of the Far East and the Thunderbird of the Native Americans are synonymous with Mothman, and that the Mothman was fulfilling a pre-ordained, archetypal role that involves stopping heinous crimes at pivotal moments in mankind's existence by sending visions, dreams, and messages to ordinary humans. Colvin presents testimonies from Charleston witnesses who separately saw Mothman, the Dover Demon, the Virgin Mary, aliens, black panthers, plasma figures, "intelligent" globes of light, and the Flatwoods monster in virtually the same spot, lending credence to his Mothman "shape-shifting" theory .

Don't know if AB Colvin AKA User:Mothphotog is a genuine researcher or not, but plugging his own book in a WP article isn't really on. If it's a good enough book, someone else can put a brief summary of it in. Totnesmartin 19:54, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

= Self promotion =

I have removed the following book plug. It was posted by someone with Coleman's exact IP address. This person has changed many pages all over wikipedia, inserting pro-Coleman claims and putting Coleman into the bios of famous figures. All references lead back to Coleman's own work. This can be proven by checking Coleman's address on posts to yahoo lists like mothmanlives. It wouldn't be so bad if Coleman inserted his own research in a halfway objective way, but he repeatedly removes modifiers that other people have placed on his assertions. For example, Coleman takes out the word "claims" in any sentence containing "Loren claims," in an apparent effort to make his opinion seem like gospel. Check the Jan. 2 and 3 edits to the analysis section of Mothman, follow up on that IP address, and you will find Coleman inserting himself into the history of recently deceased figures like Robert Anton Wilson. This seems to explain Coleman's obsession with obituaries:

• Cryptozoologist and author Loren Coleman, who claims to have been a friend and associate of John A. Keel since the 1960s, as well as a researcher of Mothman and the related phenomena dating back to 1960, takes a more down-to-earth approach. When Sony/Screen Gems were in the pre-production phase for their movie based on Keel's book, they allegedly encouraged Coleman to finish his forthcoming book, 2002's Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. In that work, Coleman alleges to have organized and placed into context the history, eyewitness accounts, and news stories to support his cryptozoological point of view of the Mothman series of sightings. According to Coleman, the word "Mothman" was coined by a copyeditor in Ohio who was a fan of the television "Batman" series, thus undermining the individual early avian descriptions given by eyewitnesses. Coleman found evidence for reports of large unknown birds in the Point Pleasant area dating back over 100 years.

Loren Coleman claims that there is a sinister, psychological post-Keelian nature to the phenomena. He imagines that this is related to a more human than supernatural factor. He has compiled a list of over eighty people that he claims have died because they have seen, researched, or had some connection to Mothman (such as the wife of the director of the 2002 motion picture, who also worked on a Mothman film) . Coleman feels that the influence of Keel has diminished the (supposed) cryptozoological realities that underlie the initial reports, even though Keel was using cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson (as well as Coleman) as his zoological advisors on the reports. Coleman now claims that he considers mundane biological explanations as a skeptical distraction from the cryptozoological nature of the real Mothman backstory. However throughout the years, it can be shown that he has consistently claimed that Mothman was a large owl or other mundane flying cryptid .

I have reinstated the Colvin material because it is an accurate portrayal of what is written in the introduction to Colvin's book sold on Amazon.

Gibleisha 17 Jan. 2007

so you took out stuff about the well known Coleman, and put in stuff about the obscure Colvin - who, incidentally, also tries to stick his name into mothman/flying thing related articles. Colvin's book seems to be about his pet theories, and his claim to have a photo of Mothman[1]. Totnesmartin 20:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

-------Mothman sightings in Mexico-------

I just found out oabout this, but before the hurricane hit Mexicos coast, they found in Tapachula a strange dead creature in the streets. They describe it as whiteish, with the face like a bat, a small mouth like a pirana, wings, and tentacles for fingers. They say that it was analised, but they didnt find out what it was and when they where gonna send it to mexico city for analysis, the hurricane came. That sounds like the mothman, or coincidence.