The outrageous and pompous image of Queen is not really that compatible with the surrealism of Hipgnosis. But another thing is soloprojects by the members and Roger Taylor used a design for his 1981 solo album Fun In Space. Storm Thorgerson got the basic idea as a sudden intuition while sitting in a traffic jam on his way to work .... and to put more meat on it, he went to a nearby (to their own studio) sci-fi shop The Forbidden Planet, to research graphical ideas.
"I found this 'Creepy' comic and fell in love with the monster. He seemed so friendly. We could have designed our own monster but this one seemed perfect. Roger Taylor agreed, so i flew to New York to meet Mr. Warren, owner of Creepy Magazine, and asked if I could use it. He agreed, if properly credited. Alistair Bowtell then made a model of Creepy out of polystyrene and latex. There are lightbulbs in the head to give the eyes extra life. They are positioned to look as if he is actually reading the magazine. Think he now lives with Roger" - Storm Thorgerson
"One of my other suggestions was a collection of covers for sci-fi books, full of strange people, enigmatic creatures and haunting landscapes. I like to look at them in the front of the book shop, but only en masse, never individually. Roger decided to use this on the inner bag. Each cover referred obliquely to songs from the album" - Storm Thorgerson
"Chauvenism is, I suppose, the main theme of this piece. The idea that beings shaped differently than us either look weird or are going to behave weirdly seems narrow-minded. Perhaps WE would seem odd to visitors from space. Weirdness is like beauty: it exists only in the eye of the beholder. Difference is no valid reason for distrust. Whilst we on earth read about extraterrestrials, albeit only in fantasy at the moment, perhaps they in turn read about us. Creepy thinks it is make believe as much as Roger does. At least they both seem enthralled. Fun in space" - Storm Thorgerson
