The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

GUNTHER VON HAGENS (1945– ) invented the science behind the original Body Worlds exhibit, which opens up preserved human bodies for educational display; he’s also the final word on its striking aesthetics. While his competitors have been accused of using corpses from unethical sources, von Hagens’s own exhibits hold documented proof of informed consent for the use of all the bodies. Which still leaves a healthy debate over the morality of showing dissected remains to paying onlookers — but, undeniably, it is powerful storytelling, and it is among the most profoundly weird.