Every technique that artists need to create a terrifying painted purgatory is presented in this how-to manual, as author Keith Thompson instructs on the creation of zombies, ghouls, assassins from alien planets, and many more hideous specters. He starts by focusing on the basics of human anatomy, instructing on techniques for rendering skeletons, organs, and muscles, and then demonstrates imaginative ways of distorting these features, turning the bodies morbid, making them menacing or just plain ugly, giving them an aura of decay.