Philadelphia. The late 1870s. Home to the famous anatomist and surgeon Dr Spencer Black. The son of a "resurrectionist", Dr Black 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? This book tells his story.
An extraordinary biography. A gallery of astonishing work. The legacy of a madman.
Philadelphia, the late 1870s. A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages-and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies 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 a childhood spent exhuming corpses through his medical training, his travels with carnivals, and 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 anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.
Named as Part of Bustle's Scariest Book in Your State for Pennsylvania.“Disturbingly lovely . . .
The Resurrectionist is itself a cabinet of curiosities, stitching history and mythology and sideshow into an altogether different creature. Deliciously macabre and beautifully grotesque.”—Erin Morgenstern, author of
The Night Circus
“Color us captivated. This collection seems a treat for anatomy enthusiasts and creaturephiles alike."—
io9“E.B. Hudspeth’s
The Resurrectionist is PFA (that’s pretty freaking amazing).”—
ComicsBeat.com “These detailed and fantastical drawings will intrigue any reader curious about the hypothetical anatomy of mythical creatures such as mermaids, minotaurs, and harpies. In the context of the story that precedes them, they prompt disquieting thoughts about the extreme lengths to which the fictional Dr. Black may have been willing to go to prove his assumptions, and what—or who—may have served as his models.”—
ForeWord Reviews “A bit of Charles Darwin and a bit of P.T. Barnum.”—
Inked Magazine
“Doctors Moreau and Frankenstein should make room for a new member of their league of extraordinarily grotesque gentlemen, for there is a new mad scientist in pop culture.”—Aaron Sagers,
MTV Geek“The vivid imagery unveiled becomes the dark fantasy response to
Gray's Anatomy.”—
Filter Magazine“The book is a welcome addition to any library of dark fantasy, with its beautiful portraiture and gripping description of a man’s descent into perversity.”—
Publishers Weekly, “Pick of the Week”
“A masterful mash-up of Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis Borges, with the added allure of gorgeous, demonically detailed drawings. I’ve never seen anything quite like
The Resurrectionist, and I doubt that I will ever forget it.”—Chase Novak, author of
Breed“Fans of Neil Gaiman, Hieronymus Bosch, and the Mütter Museum are sure to love [
The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black] and the rest will certainly be both astounded and intrigued by what you find inside!”—
The Garden Island 
