Me, If I Were One Of H.R. Giger's Aliens

When I was in middle school, a girl I had a total crush on showed me a copy of H.R. Giger's Taschen collection, "Arh+," that her parents had, strangely, gotten her for Christmas. Apparently they were unaware of just how graphic Giger's biomechanical art could be. If you're unfamiliar with H.R. Giger, there are a LOT of varieties of mechanoid sphincters in his work. A LOT. And dead babies. It's not traditional Christmas fare.

One thing I did learn, though, is that the Xenomorph, the alien from the "Alien" movies, was also designed by Giger. And I thought that was pretty freaking awesome. The "Alien" aliens are incredibly creepy, disgusting looking and sufficiently otherworldly to make them a contender for modern horror archetypes... kind of a Universal monster for my generation.

They're also ridiculously hard to draw. This was reaching. I'm not even a mote of the artist that Giger is, so replicating an alien in his style was a challenge. While I didn't quite succeed, I think I managed a respectable showing... the glasses and goatee look especially like an afterthought on this guy...

Me, If I Were A Grainy, Faked Black And White Photo Of An Alien From Area 51

There's a relatively famous (famous enough that it comes up several times in a Google image search) "photograph" of a grey alien from New Mexico's Area 51. The photograph, even setting aside its improbable subject matter, is an obvious fake... but there's doubtlessly a smattering of folks who believe that it's proof positive of life on other planets.

So, here's me if I were a grainy, faked black and white picture of an Area 51 alien. Sinister, yes, but with a faux-hipster cred that can't be denied anywhere in the universe!