A look inside speculative zoology: After Man

Breakdown Press’ After Man: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition seems to have had some delays, but it’s out now.

The book is about speculative zoology, and I think that’s what GMs and DMs do every weekend with creatures and encounters. The 40th-anniversary edition has 18 new pages of never-seen-before sketches, and there’s also a new afterwards by Dougal Dixon.

Desmond Morris’ introduction reads;

Dougal Dixon has given himself the intriguing task of contemplating a future evolution on our own planet, closely based on species that exist at present. By waving a time-wand and eliminating today’s dominant species, including man, he has been able to watch, through his mind’s eye, the lesser animals gradually taking over as the major occupants of the earth’s surface.

Setting his scenario in the distant future, about 50 million years from now, he has given the members of his new animal kingdom time to undergo dramatic changes in structure and behaviour. But in doing this he has never allowed himself to become too outlandish in his invention. He has created his fauna of the future so painstakingly that each kind of animal teaches us an important lesson about the known processes of past evolution. By introducing us to fictitious examples of these factual processes, his book is not only great fun to read, but also has real scientific value”

The hardback is 144-pages and is currently on offer at Amazon UK. Breakdown Press is based in London and specialises in both comics and under-discovered classics.