AWESOME POSSUM!

IT'S HERE!

The cover of Awesome Possum volume 3     

I got my copy of Awesome Possum volume 3 in the mail yesterday. It is over 300 pages of natural history goodness! Stephen Bissette (yes that Stephen Bissette) inked the cover designed by Angela Boyle. Angela also happens to be the editor.

Surprise! Cats like birds and squirrels.

My contribution is a sketch of an anatomized opossum and a shark (each on the subway) as well as A Pictorial Anatomy of the Denizens of Manhattan's East Village, Gramercy Park, and Stuyvesant Town. Yes it's a bit wordy but I like old pamphlets with titles that take up the entire cover. 

This project gave me an excuse to buy A Dissection Guide and Atlas to the Rat and a couple of tomes on vertebrate anatomy.

UNICORN DISSECTION

SOME DAYS I CAN'T HELP MYSELF
And why should I? 

Here is a view of the retroperitoneal organs of the Unicorns abdominal cavity. 

I have no idea if horses have a peritoneum and this unicorn definitely did not.

I was browsing through one of my favorite reference sites, Historical Anatomies On The Web, and found myself once again engrossed in the equine anatomical illustrations by Carlo Ruini from Anatomia del cavallo, infermita, et suoi rimedii. I LOVE THIS GUY! I know this sounds nutty, but the illustrations of cadaveric horses are so.... alive! According to Historical Anatomies... the woodcut images were rumored (not confirmed) to be drafted by someone from Titian's workshop. They are quite beautiful. I am referencing the 1618 edition.

Ruin's title page

Comparative anatomy is very interesting. Usually I compare humans to animals but this time I thought of the substantial internal differences one might find in the anatomy of horses and unicorns. Who am I to passively worship  beauty when I can manipulate it into something whimsical and grotesque?