The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black

The fictional biography of the great surgeon Dr. Spencer Black.

A dark, night time story in the streets of Philadelphia as you watch Spencer Black grow up. Starting as the son of a grave robber to becoming a doctor, a circus sideshow host, a husband, and a madman obsessed with a single idea. 

A brilliant book the likes of which you have never seen.  
     This is one of the most interesting and intriguing books that I have ever read. It is a short book, maybe 100 pages of text in the hardcover copy  with about 50 pages of illustrations. The illustrations depict the attaching of bone structures and muscle to and from a variety of creatures to create mythical beings. 

It is fantastic, strange, haunting, cruel, and something I have never seen before in a book. 

Philadelphia. The late 1870s. A city of cobblestone sidewalks and horse-drawn carriages. Home to the famous anatomist and surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a "resurrectionist" (aka grave robber), Dr. Black studied at Philadelphia's esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world's most celebrated mythological beasts - mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs - were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind? "The Resurrectionist" offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from his humble beginnings to the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black's magnum opus: 'The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray's Anatomy' for mythological beasts - dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus - all rendered in meticulously detailed black-and-white anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. 'The Resurrectionist' tells his story. [back cover]

Give the first few pages a quick read, you might find it to your liking. Amazon's first few pages I highly recommend it and shall not say anything more in fear of giving away the story. (video book trailer on the left of the Gread home page)

Sometimes you need to exhume the dead to find the treasure within,

M.

The Sandman Comic Book Series

He is the King of Dreams, the Prince of Stories, Lord Shaper, Morpheus, Oneiros, King of All Night's Dreaming ... He is the Sandman.

The Sandman series was written by the author Neil Gaiman who is known for his novels Coraline and American Gods.

The comic revolves around the Sandman in a beautifully illustrated world. It is a dark land the comic inhabits with a dialogue that is deep and riddled with underlying truths. The Sandman is a cold, distant character but one you find yourself liking more and more as you read on. He is not a hero, he is a dark protagonist who tries to do what he believes to be right and protect the people of Earth's dreams and the creatures that call the Dreaming home. 

Dream, Death, Desire, Delirium, Despair, Destruction, Destiny

Throughout the comics you learn more and more about the Sandman and eventually you'll meet the rest of his family, the Endless. 
Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. Destiny is the oldest. He is shown as an old man wearing a brown robe and carrying the Cosmic Log. Death is Dream's closest sister, she's a fantastic character, and seems to be able to provide advice for Dream (the odd times that he asks). Destruction is not seen for the few comics and has abandoned his role as a member of the Endless. Delirium's hair and clothes change as does her tone and the topic of her speech. She was once Delight but transformed to Delirium, a young girl with different coloured eyes and an inconsistent shadow. Despair is a fat, short woman and is the twin to Desire. Desire is both male and female or neither as she (since its a woman depicted above but in the comics it could be a person of either sex) represents all that a person may want. The Endless are all unique and greatly developed characters. 


The Endless are not the only gods or aspects to appear in the Sandman comics. Cain and Abel, Anubis, Loki, Odin, Lucifer, Beelzebub and many others appear to help Sandman or to reek havoc in the world. 

"The million lords of hell stand arrayed about you. Tell us, why we should let you leave? Helmet or no, you have no power here — what power have dreams in Hell?"

"You say I have no power? Perhaps you speak truly. But — you say that dreams have no power here? Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar... Ask yourselves, all of you, what power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven?" - Lucifer and Dream, in Preludes and Nocturnes

One thing you'll learn is that the Sandman is more powerful than you'd ever expect. He's above those who oppose, If something happens in the Dreaming it is because he has let it. He will reclaim his power if it stolen. He will walk to hell and back to retrieve it. He is the King of Dreams. 

It is a magnificent, dark comic and one that will always keep you on your toes, waiting to know what will happen next. 

Give it a read, it won't disappoint. 

M.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - Dream, in Dream Country