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 Philadelphias esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the worlds 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 Blacks magnum opus: the Codex Extinct Animalia, a Grays 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.