At the annual Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, tens of thousands of visitors gather in their finest cosplay to commemorate the 1966 day that the “Mothman”—a 7-foot moth creature with bright red eyes—supposedly appeared from either the depths of hell or outer reaches of space to terrify onlookers. The festival is full of Mothman fans, for whom the legendary cryptid has morphed from a haunting specter to more of a lovable hero. Now, he’s getting his own official stamp.
On November 9, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released an initial batch of stamp subjects for 2027. They run the gamut from traditional, subject-centric designs, like a stamp commemorating baseball’s Willie Mays, to designs aimed at a more artistic crowd, like a series of whimsical watercolor unicorns.
The “Mythical Creatures” collection is a lineup of five American cryptids—the Mothman, Jackalope, Sasquatch, Squonk, and Champ—each designed by Antonio Alcalá, an art director at USPS, and illustrated by Nat Power, a tattoo artist. They’re sure to please folk historians, stamp collectors, and Reddit users alike.
Every year, USPS’s Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) restarts an intensive process of sifting through thousands of suggested topics from the public to land on the 20-25 new designs it recommends be produced. According to a 2024 USPS blog post , the final list has to be “uniquely American” and balance nods to topics like science, arts, history, and culture. The process leads to selections that traverse an array of genres, from Toni Morrison to Spongebob Squarepants .
Source link
