Could you represent the stages of human consciousness with a diagram? In the late 19th century, New Zealand psychologist Benjamin Betts tried to apply mathematics to the problem of visualizing human consciousness. What he produced were striking, almost floral designs that he believed represented the shape of out…

What do you get when you mix horror writer Edgar Allan Poe with a Japanese shōnen manga magazine from 1969? One issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine featured a series of Edgar Allan Poe's tales of terror, pairing them with these rich and appropriately bizarre illustrations.

We've already fallen for Brad McGinty's kaiju Santa cross-sections and xenomorph anatomy t-shirt. Fortunately, McGinty has continued to work with these fantastical physiologies, turning his x-ray vision on a range of movie monsters and aliens.

At first glance, István Orosz's illustrations look like ordinary, if vaguely cartoonish, scenes of medieval life. But contained in each scene is a picture of a human skull, if only you know how to look.

We've seen tons of interpretations and reinterpretations of classic fables and fairytales, often filtered through layers of Disney. Edward Gorey's illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, and Rumpelstiltskin are wholly his own, adding his understated touch to those classic stories.

Much of the Harry Potter we see gives the characters a soft touch, making them friendly and familiar. Angela Rizza's intricate illustrations take a different tack, rendering our hero as a stern-faced figure of myth, a high wizard in a hooded sweatshirt.

In 1919, everyone wanted a copy of the deluxe edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, but not because it was bound in vellum with real gold lettering. It was because of these grim and gorgeous illustrations by Harry Clarke, which added an extra dose of horror to Poe's already terrifying tales.

Illustrator Mike Bukowski has taken on the maddening task of drawing every creature that appears in HP Lovecraft's cosmic horror stories — from the squishiest Elder Thing to the lowliest Deep One.

Roberto Osti creates medical illustrations from a fantastical other world, pulling apart fauns and werewolves and searching for biological seat of the soul.