Almond Eyes

"The Communion cover," Ted Seth Jacobs recounts, "was painted in my small apartment on East 83rd St, in New York City. Whitley sat with me first for a drawing of the Alien. As I sketched, he would indicate how to change the portrait so that it would more match what he saw. It was, I believe, the process used by police sketch artists. Every last detail was corrected according to his instructions. At one point, he said the image corresponded exactly to what he had seen. With Whitley beside me for the subsequent session, I began to paint the image on a wooden prepared panel, going through the same process as for the drawing, until Whitley finally said the image was exact. ... As to the gender of the Alien image, to tell the truth, the subject didn't come up. I don't even know if the 'greys' have gender as we understand it. Whitley corrected the developing image to have a certain fragility, a vulnerability. I suppose we Earthlings usually associate these qualities with femininity."

Staring

Going to come clean, if I woke up at night and saw this looking in on me, I'd die of fear.
Truly die.

Communion

Watched the alien abduction film COMMUNION last night. Being a huge fan of FIRE IN THE SKY, I'm surprised it took me this long. I heard a lot about it over the years, and I've seen that strange and creepy book cover illustration by Ted Seth Jacobs so many times.

Very scary film. Christopher Walken was amazing to watch.

It made me think again about an alien-themed haunt that goes for subtle terror, and not the sci-fi, glowing green lights, downed-ufo display (which I happen to dig).

As a kid, I'd probably skip a house that had a bunch of those aliens staring at me with those big awful eyes.