Obscure Animal Compendium is a very clever satirical book series spawned from the creative mind of author and artist Nate Marsh. Mimicking the style of a nature documentary, Marsh's books expose the ridiculous side of human behavior and our effect on the world around us by comically describing the lives and daily activity of fictitious creatures.
And what wild and imaginative creatures they are! Inspired by David Attenborough and his BBC series The Life Collection, Nate's narration makes the reader nearly believe these marvelous animals could really exist.
The fourth volume, which I have been fortunate enough to read for myself, tackles the follies of capitalism, the effects of deforestation, the constant bombardment of shameless advertisements in our daily lives, mankind's complicated relationship with animals and the way we project ourselves on them today and throughout history. And we're giving away one copy.
The books are full of fantastic illustrations (each hand-drawn by the author) that really move the stories along quite nicely and paint a picture in reader's mind, making OAC a very fun read. I've provided some examples of Nate's illustrations below.
We're giving a copy of Obscure Animal Compendiium away to one lucky commenter, along with a t-shirt.
If you want to win a copy of Obscure Animal Compendiium and an Obscure Animal Compendiium t-shirt, here's what you have to do:
- Read the post above about Nate Marsh's book, Obscure Animal Compendiium.
- Comment below telling us why you'd like this book and post with a picture of your favorite, real-life strange animal.
- One commenter will be chosen at random to score the book and t-shirt, courtesy of Nick Marsh.







Here is the T-shirt we're giving away:

Only entries left as comments on the this page will count as valid entries. 1 winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries and will receive one book and t-shirt. On Friday, February 25th, at 12am EST, we will select winners from the valid entries at random and will contact the winners via e-mail. By submitting content you agree to allowing us to post it on Urlesque.com. See Official Urlesque Giveaway Rules for more info on Urlesque giveaways.
- link:// The Obscure Animal Compendium





















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Comments
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2.18.11
By katie
I would love to read Nate Marsh's book not only to absorb the artwork and fine commentary on modern culture, but to also see whether or not he mentions the axolotl (http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01737/weird-animals-ixot_1737515i.jpg), a creepy salamander type creature that can regenerate random crucial body parts such as the spinal cord.
More info here: http://www.aforadio.com/index.php/aliens-on-earth-amazing-photographs-of-insectsspiders-and-weirdest-animals-aforadio-com/
Best of luck to you, Nate. Love your work.
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2.18.11
By CDNSushi
Cool! If I won a copy of the book, it would be a coffee table treat for our friends when they visit! Plus, being a teacher, I could bring it to class and show all my students and see what they think.
Anyway, my favorite real-world strange animals is.... .....
A geep! Yup, that's right! A chimera of a sheep and a goat! Geeps are awesome! You know you want one.
http://img841.imageshack.us/i/goatdm0802468x391.jpg/
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2.18.11
By Pavel
I've been following his RSS feed, and it's pretty fantastic stuff. A+, hope this really works out well for him. (And if I got a free copy of the book, that'd work out well for me, too. :P)
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2.18.11
By Brooke
i totally want this book because i absolutely love cute things and weird things and this book would definitely be a combination of both.
my current favorite obscure animal is the extinct auroch. I want to go for a ride on one...
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2.18.11
By Talarus
Oooh..I am a huge fan of monsters and creatures.
My favorite real-life oddity is the Okapi:
A member of the giraffe family that looks like a cross between a deer and a zebra. And totally not shopped.
http://www.roses-thorns.com/walls/okapi01_10x7.jpg
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2.18.11
By Juli
I'd love to win this book to pore over the lovely art work and social commentary.
Favorite strange animal: Barreleye fish
It has a transparent head!
http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2009/barreleye/barreleye1-350.jpg
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2.20.11
By Grig
This book looks amazing. :) Thanks for doing this giveaway!
My favorite obscure animal is platypus: http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/9201/platypus2ts1.jpg - such a weird creature...
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