25. So here we are at the end of Merrick: The Sensational Elephantman #01. On behalf of
myself, Luke, Nic and Clare I thank you for taking the time to check out our comic and
hope you enjoyed it half as much as I enjoyed being part of its creation.
Please share this issue with your friends, post the link any/everywhere and give us a shout
out on Facebook and Twitter, we really do appreciate it all.
I self funded this issue myself and if I were able to continue doing so I would. I have
many more Merrick stories I hope to tell and a definite direction if we were ever able to
turn this into an ongoing series. This is potentially only the beginning, Will Merrick have
his revenge? What is Treves and his cabal upto? And what will happen to the rest of the
Penny Gaff?
When this issue was released a Kickstarter campaign was also launched in the hopes we
could crowd fund the remaining three issues of this first story arc. If you had fun with
issue #01 perhaps consider checking out the Kickstarter and together we can make some-thing
that I think will be kinda special.
So thanks again. And I’d like to throw an extra special thank you out there to Luke, Nic
and Clare for all their hard work and to all the amazing guest artists who did a pin-up for
us: Lee, Joe, Jussi, Artyom, M.S. Corley, Tiernan, Ammar, Simone and Mark.
Now turn the page and take a trip back to the Penny Gaff…
Tom
facebook.com/theelephantmancomic
@merrickcomic
www.kickstarter.com/projects/ourtom/merrick-the-sensational-elephantman
26. Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890)
An unblemished baby at birth, Merrick’s physical abnormalities began to manifest
as he grew up in Leicester, England. After leaving home and a stint in the work-house,
Merrick found work as a ‘curiosity’. It was during this period in his life that
he met Dr. Frederick Treves.
Merrick tragically died of asphyxia when attempting to lie down and sleep ‘like
other people’. His legacy includes a play and the 1980 David Lynch film.
To this day, the precise cause of his condition remains unknown.
27. Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, GCVO, CH, CB (15 February 1853 – 7
December 1923)
A specialist in abdominal surgery, Treves rose from humble beginnings as
the son of an upholsterer in Dorset, England to become Surgeon Extraordi-nary
to Queen Victoria and later Honorary Serjeants Surgeon to King Edward
VII.
He was a writer, traveler, the president of the Society of Dorset Men, and a
Knight of Grace of the Order of St John. He performed the first appendecto-my
in England and later saved Edward VII’s life when the King was suffering
from appendicitis.
28. Tom Norman, (7 May 1860–24 August 1930)
Dubbed “The Silver King” by P.T. Barnum, the famous American showman, Tom
Norman was a charismatic showman who was as famous for his patter as for his
sensational exhibits. Born Thomas Noakes in Sussex, England, Norman was Joseph
Merrick’s manager until the police shut down their exhibition.
Vice-president of the Van Dwellers Protection Association (later the Showmen’s
Guild of Great Britain) he continued a successful career as a showman and later
an auctioneer of novelty shows and circuses.
