Illustration Summary
At first glance, this illustration should strike severe anxiety into the viewer. If it does not, perhaps take a closer look. A drawing merely suggesting the subject matter might even deter some people from reading the book. That possibility almost stopped me from including it as a plot device. After considering the danger, however, I obviously decided to include that certain aspect of our world into the story which I won’t directly elucidate in this article. I hate thinking about it, and especially detailed discussion. If it wasn’t such a big problem in the world today, I would have chosen another issue to include in the book. From the illustration itself, this misunderstood subject is easy to determine, specifically after considering the following:
- What the hell is a child doing in the picture?
- Why is that guy looking at his cell phone when a crazy man is aiming a gun at them?
- A child, two grown men, and a video camera all together in a hotel room, not a good combination.
This is the final illustration I have for Silent Subversion I. Those who have not reached this point in the book yet, can only guess at what might be happening. I hope it does not give too much away.
The Hotel Room Scene
Construction Background
As usual, there are many interesting details about the creation of these illustrations, but I’ll share just a few. To start, Kiel rearranged a certain snapshot in the hotel to maximize the visual impact and accentuate the emotional content. For instance, the child was older and not crying or sitting on the floor. He was, however, scared to death because of Freddy. In the book, I tried describing the bald man as the exact opposite of the pathetic looking one in the drawing. The image is a parody of a stereotypical man in poor physical shape, balding and watching child porn on his cell phone. In the book, he’s one of those dirty capitalists, as I like to call them, people who take advantage of horrible human practices, profiting by helping to fill the demand. Lastly, I attempted to paint a mental picture in the book of how strange and uncomfortably Freddy acted, especially around other humans. In this illustration, Kiel drew him almost like a maniac. To be fair, Freddy is pretty pissed for most of the end of the book so the image is accurate. I love it!
Freddy is Pissed
One final note from my perspective as a parent, writing some of the story caused extreme anxiety. When my wife read the story for the first time, she said I had to shorten some parts and make them more palatable to potentially sensitive readers. Without knowing the ending, some parts near the end of the novel may seem too frightening so her input, along with others’ encouraged me to add a little light to the darkest parts of the book. In an attempt to dispel further trepidation about reading the book, yes, some content is disturbing, but I have excluded the horrible details which only psychopaths could enjoy.