Born in 1810, Cecil Creepseed was a noted psychical researcher and investigator of strange occurences. Best known for his early contributions to what would become known as parapsychology -the study of paranormal events including extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and survival of consciousness after death, Creepseed was also a founding member of the Society for Psychical Research in London[1] (1882) shortly before disappearing a year later.
Raised on the streets of Manhattan’s lower east side, Creepseed’s parents died when he was still very young at a dinner theatre performance of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus[2], leaving him an orphan. Although he drifted for awhile on the streets, Creepseed was soon taken in by a sympathetic medical examiner (Robert Cuthbert) who found him suffering from hypothermia in a near death state. Believing the young Creepseed to be dead, the examiner was able to nurse him back to life. It is from this point that Creepseed claims to have developed a psychic connection to the world of the dead. Cuthbert spent the next several years fostering Creepseed's innate curiousity towards an existence after death, even going so far as inducing drug afflicted reveries in an effort to expand Creepseed's levels of awareness, in which Creepseed began to refer to himself in first person plural personalities ("we" instead of "I")[3].
During one such sensory exercise Cuthbert was stricken with a serious illness causing him to require bed rest and eventually fall into a coma until his body could no longer sustain itself. It is unknown to this day what caused Cuthbert's illness, although accounts in Creepseed's journal speculate the such occurences are the result of an encounter with angry spirits. Undeterred by the death of his mentor, Creepseed resolved to continue his investigations, his work forcing him to move between several cities (including London). It was during this time that he planned to produce his own journal, dedicated to the documentation of the various passengers of dark infinity: spooks, spirits, legends of horror and merchants of death.
Unfortunately the information in this journal was thought lost when Creepseed disappeared in the winter of 1883. Recently, however, the journal resurfaced during scheduled renovations to The New York Public Library, buried beneath several layers of concrete in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature.
In celebration of discovering Creepseed's long-lost journal, we have gathered together the most macabre artists, designers and illustrators to share his final thoughts with the world. Seething with accounts of the sick, the weird and the grotesque these accounts have been restored and refurbished from their original source material. Welcome to the strange...
this is sick. i love it. im so excited!