There was always something particularly creepy to me about early science/fantasy-fiction, an eeriness which played out effectively in contemporary illustrations. This image by the Brazilian Alvim  Correa  is a good example. Those staring eyes. You don’t get staring eyes any more. Its not over-designed. Its something lodged in the context. Its just obviously weird. Its a weird scenario. Now  the subject is long-amalgamated into culture as  a trope, an interchangeable sign: Mars Attacks. But its interesting to look at the initial reactions and see how effective they were at conveying weirdness. And the bigger the dissonance between the invader and the domestic or pedestrian environment, the more effective the image. This is why British fiction of this type was always more potent to me than (for example) its American equivalent – the domesticity of chimney-stacks, pipes and slippers compared to the Bosch irrationality it could be juxtaposed with. This is not only about large-scale apocalypse or eschaton – its also unsettling on a more local level – inside your mind.

I don’t know why the monkey and the organillo. Its like the burning cows in Mars Attacks . Mumble mumble threat to the Dominion of Man mumble mumble.