HRROOGA! And Other Vintage Comic Book Monster Sounds

There was no shortage of horror themed comic books back in the 1950s-60s… and that meant lots of monsters gracing their pages.  With such a surplus of hulking beasts and hideous hellspawn, writers had to get creative with the noises they made.  After all, you couldn’t have every creature going “GRRRRR!”.  Comic authors explored some pretty unique, often unintentionally humorous, monster sounds….

 

“RRAAAUUUGGHHH!” – The unmistakable sound of a book-carrying amphibian swamp monster.

 

 

What sound does a goat-monster make when it’s on the attack?  Evidently, “HRROOGA!”

 

I’m so glad they went with “NEE-Y-DIP-NEE-Y-D” instead of the obvious “RIBBIT”. Bravo.

Similarly, they could have gone with the unoriginal “MEOW” for the Egyptian Cat Woman – instead, they went with the far superior “MEE-YAA!”

 

What sound does a mountain-beast make when he’s bitch-slapping a villager? Obviously: “AAA-ROOW!”

 

A slight variation on the  “AAA-ROOW!” is the “AARROOOOOO”.  Two totally different sounds for two very different creatures.

 

This next writer really had his work cut out for him.  Coming up with the sound of a giant snake-chicken creature couldn’t have been easy. In the end, he went with a simple “AAROOO”.

 

 

Alas, the giant chicken-lizard’s cry is far from unique.  It seems this nocturnal slurping creature also howls “AWROOO!”

“EEEYAWARRRRR” – the wailing cry of pain that sends shivers down a Frenchman’s spine.

 

“That shirt — it’s Uncle Davos’s!…He has killed Uncle Davos!”

“GNNARRRR”  (Translation: “Deal with it.”)

 

“UUUUUUUUUUUUUU”  A personal favorite.

I’m not an expert in monster linguistics, but I can’t help but notice their every word consists of repeating letters.  It can’t just be “GRAWR”; it’s got to be “GRAWRRR”.

 

Just trade in the “R” for a “W” and now we have “GWARR-R-R-R!”  And, no, I don’t think Crane understands you.  You might want to consider running.

 

 

Hmm.  I’m not sure, but I don’t think “BWAAAAAA” is the sound of ten thousand crying babes.

 

You might remember, “EEYOOWWR!” is very similar to the cry that scare the pants of the Frenchman. A training monster-linguist will recognize the difference.

And another slight variation:

 

“EEYAWWRRR!” – the sound of a 1200 year old horror on a rampage.  It sort of makes you wonder why all these monsters announce their approach.  They’d be a lot more effective if they would just shut the f**k up for once.

 

“RRR-AAGHH! BA-WAK! RYRAWRR!” Okay, now we’re getting carried away. One might think we’re just randomly shoving consonants together.

 

I’m going to refrain from comment on this one.

 

“YAAROOO!” Really?  They did such a good job with car sound, I would’ve expected better for the lizard-man.

 

Indeed, no practical joker makes a sound like “NYAWRRRRR!”  The dad may be an epic wuss, but he knows his monster sounds.

 

 

Two different comics from two different years… yet all the same hallmarks are there: repeated letters with lots of “R”s.

 

Let’s face it.  Sometimes the sound is more scary than than the monster itself.  This creature is laughably bad.

 

“SKR-II-ICK!”  Nicely done.  That’s the sound I would expect a giant sewer-dwelling beetle to make.

 

 

“ARREEYAAAH!”  – the unmistakable sound of marsh-gas come to life.  Personally, I would’ve added an extra “Y”, but I won’t judge.

 

Finally, a comic book that provides a translation! But what would “BVDFTRW SPKTQUX MNKLRZU” even sound like?

 

Well, there’s no end to the comic book monster vocabulary, but we’ll end here.  Until next time… or as the well-dressed monster would say: “GRAWR-R-R!”