"He Looked Almost Human..." by Richard F. Yates

This piece (drawn on recycled cardboard with digital embellishments and color) was inspired by two things: (1.) a line from the song, "Generation Landslide," by Alice Cooper. The line goes, "... they looked just like humans / At Kresge's and Woolworth's / But decadent brains were at work to destroy..." The idea, of course, is that there are human-LOOKING creatures out there with motives that are, at best, suspect, and at worst apocalyptic. Next, (2.) I've been reading Jon Ronson's book, THEM: ADVENTURES WITH EXTREMISTS (I'll be writing a full review of the book once I finish it), in which Ronson (a British journalist of Jewish decent) spends time with several different folks who have been portrayed as "extremists" by the media---KKK members, survivors of the Ruby Ridge stand-off, Muslim fundamentalists, even Alex Jones and David Icke---and what he discovers is that most of these groups believe there is a small, insidious collective that secretly controls and manipulates the world to some specific, sinister end. Most of these groups blame a straightforward, identifiable population as the "EVIL" menace: Jews, Catholics, the Illuminati, sinners, capitalists... But a few of these folks think something more...EXTREME...is to blame, rather than the mere human capacity for evil. Some think the threat is decidedly NON-human, but disguised to APPEAR in human form...

So that's where this drawing comes from. The "person" in this image APPEARS human---unless you look carefully---but he's NOT. He is OTHER. He is cold-hearted, vicious, and willing and able to cause death and mayhem---and I have to say, some of the acts that people have been willing to commit against their fellow humans lately (or have ALLOWED to happen by inaction) sure seem to suggest an alien-demonic-monstrous presence (and subsequent LACK of humanity) in some of the higher-ups in government these days... Snake is skeptical of this creature's motives (because Snake is smart), and the Vampire Sun is indifferent. He shines down on human and monster alike---never judging and eventually consuming all life on the planet, when the time comes and his / her / its solar furnace goes super-nova...

My wife finds this picture very uncomfortable; (technically, she doesn't like it at all, which means I must have captured SOMETHING sinister in there...) Anyway, it was cathartic to create---and I'm glad it's out of my head now, and I can go back to making my regular monsters...(who are a lot less threatening and more about having a good time!)

---RFY (Holy Fool)