I first reached out to Peter Watts to enquire if I could print an edition of his great short story, The Things, two and a half years ago. He was amenable and we quickly signed a contract and I began thinking of how I wanted to visually represent this work.

What makes this story so amazing to me is that it's familiar but told from such a unique and alien perspective, literally. The Things is a retelling of the movie, The Thing, based upon the novella Who Goes There? published by John W. Campbell in 1938. If you know your science fiction and horror, you know about an alien dug up from the frozen wasteland of Antarctica that thaws and wreaks all sorts of havoc. So to read this tale told from the viewpoint of the monster, is just brilliant, in my opinion. The humans in this version are the things and the visitor tries to understand our violent nature.

It took months to determine how best to portray this unique narrative perspective. Bold pen and ink illustrations are printed throughout that interact with the UV illustrations. Under normal light, the alien’s thoughts appear as a blind impression, only subtly visible. When viewed with a UV light, the illustrations unite and form a deeper narrative.

I've been on press for the last week and I'm happy to say that it looks awesome! I finished up the colophon first so I could ship it to Peter for his signature as he was kind enough to sign the pages for me.

I've had to rig the press with a UV light projecting onto the feed table to ensure that ink is being properly laid down. To see sheet after sheet coming off the press with glowing horrors is truly a delight. Only seven plates to go!