By ALEX CF (Alexcf.com; 2011)

In my review of E.B. Hudspeth’s elegantly grotesque 2013 art-fiction hybrid THE RESURRECTIONIST, I stated that it was “unique in every respect.”  Clearly I’ll have to revise that claim, as that tome was actually beaten to the punch by a very similar book: 2011’s MANY DEAD THINGS by the British artist Alex CF.

THE RESURRECTIONIST was about a deranged surgeon who created anatomical studies of mythological beings, visualized in the form of detailed drawings by the author. MANY DEAD THINGS likewise concerns a nutty MD, one Lord Merrylin, a collector of rare creatures.  This results in visual aids that go far beyond the pen and ink renderings of THE RESURRECTIONIST: here we get three-dimensional sculptures of Merrylin’s critters, complete with the jars, coffins, and cabinets in which the things were supposedly stored.

… three-dimensional sculptures of Merrylin’s critters, complete with the jars, coffins, and cabinets in which the things were supposedly stored.

A two-page biography of Merrylin, whose life is said to have spanned the years 1782 to 1942 (meaning he died at age 160), kicks things off.  We learn that travelling the world to collect unknown animal species was a lifelong passion, and that in the early 1900s Merrylin attained a degree of fame, even though his name was scrubbed from history books.  His collection was discovered in 2006, with its contents purporting to be catalogued in MANY DEAD THINGS.

Each object is presented via numerous photos taken from multiple vantage points, and accompanied by a brief explanatory text.  Included are examples of the Homo Lupus (or werewolf), the Homo Wampyrus (vampire), the Draco Alatus (dragon), and the Dinosauria (dinosaur, several species of which are presented in embryonic form).

The textual portions are literate and erudite, and quite referential toward classic genre literature.  THE LOST WORLD is directly invoked, as are THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, DANTE’S INFERNO, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and lesser known texts like Oscar Cook’s short story “Boomerang” (in a section on a parasitic earwig that burrows into peoples’ brains) and Donald Wolheim’s “Mimic” (in seal-sized insectoid critters that can mimic the features of humans).  It’s all quite interesting, although I will register a complaint about the font size, which is obnoxiously small—especially in a portion about Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, in which the words for some reason are nearly microscopic.

…literate and erudite, and quite referential toward classic genre literature. 

Regarding his many self-created sculptures, Alex CF displays a genius for realistic detail.  Bones and skulls (of the mutated variety) are quite prevalent, rivaled in frequency only by the long dead bodies of various unnatural lifeforms, whose mummified and/or fossilized appearances are entirely convincing.