The concept of All Tomorrows, popularized by C.M. Kosemen's seminal work, has blossomed into a rich tapestry of speculative fiction, art, and philosophical inquiry. It's more than just a book; it's a gateway into exploring the myriad possibilities—and horrors—of human evolution and existence across cosmic timescales. This exploration has inspired a diverse range of related media, from paleontological reimaginings to biomechanical art and apocalyptic narratives, all connected by threads of curiosity and dread.
The Foundational Epic: All Tomorrows and Its Legacy
At the heart of this universe lies All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man. This book is the cornerstone, a work of speculative biology and cosmic horror that charts a billion-year future for humanity. It presents a vision where humans are reshaped by alien hands into forms both bizarre and tragic, exploring themes of identity, resilience, and the indifference of the universe. Its influence is palpable across a spectrum of creative works that ask similar questions about our past and future.
Looking Backward to See Forward: All Yesterdays
Interestingly, the philosophical companion to looking forward is often looking back. All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, also by Kosemen and others, applies the same speculative lens to paleontology. It challenges rigid reconstructions of dinosaurs, imagining behaviors and appearances beyond the fossil evidence. This paleoart book shares DNA with All Tomorrows in its core mission: to use informed imagination to breathe life into beings separated from us by deep time, whether that time lies ahead or behind.
The Genre of Dread: Cosmic Horror Connections
The existential terror in All Tomorrows finds a clear ancestor in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The feeling of cosmic dread—humanity's insignificance before vast, uncaring forces—is a shared theme. This connection is made visually explicit in adaptations like H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu (Manga). The graphic novel format brings a similar visceral impact to Lovecraft's mythology as the illustrations in Kosemen's work bring to his evolutionary nightmares. Meanwhile, books like All the Fiends of Hell explore apocalyptic fiction through a more terrestrial, yet equally horrifying, lens of invasion and collapse.
Artistic Visions: From Biomechanical to Literary
The visual aesthetic of evolutionary horror is powerfully embodied in the work of H.R. Giger. The HR Giger. 45th Ed. is an essential art book for any fan of the biomechanical and the surreal. Giger's fusion of organic and mechanical elements eerily mirrors the forced transformations humanity undergoes in All Tomorrows, making this collection a perfect companion piece for understanding the art of the grotesque and the alien.
On a completely different but equally compelling note, All the Tomorrows After represents the application of the "tomorrows" concept to literary fiction and family saga. It explores the emotional and personal futures of characters, showing how the theme of "tomorrow" can be intimate and human-scale, not just cosmic and biological.
Gaming the Apocalypse: All Tomorrows Zombies
The speculative universe even extends into tabletop role-playing. All Flesh Must be Eaten: All Tomorrows Zombies is a supplement for the horror RPG "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" from Eden Studios. It directly translates the themes of post-human survival and monstrous transformation into a gameable format, allowing players to navigate a world where the zombie plague has strange, evolutionary consequences. It's a fascinating example of how a core speculative idea can branch into interactive dystopian fiction.
Cultural Echoes: Music and Cyberpunk
The phrase "All Tomorrow's Parties" itself resonates in culture, notably through The Velvet Underground's song. All Tomorrow's Parties: The Velvet Underground Story is a definitive music biography delving into the counterculture and rock history of the 1960s. In the realm of cyberpunk literature, William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties (Bridge Trilogy Book 3) uses the phrase to title a novel about the convergence of technology and reality at the end of history. Both works, in their own ways, deal with the end of one era and the uncertain birth of another—a theme central to the All Tomorrows narrative.
Finally, for those who enjoy the meta-narrative, All Yesterday’s Papers continues the playful titling within a photographic context, showing the enduring linguistic appeal of the "All Tomorrows" framework.
In conclusion, the world of All Tomorrows is a conceptual hub. It connects to rigorous speculative science in All Yesterdays, to the deep wells of cosmic horror in Lovecraftian manga, to the iconic art of Giger, to emotional contemporary fiction, and even to tabletop gaming and music history. Each related product or book review you explore adds another facet to understanding this profound and unsettling question: what becomes of us in all our tomorrows?