Chet Phillips' Monkey Madness

Man has always anthropomorphized monkeys, most famously in Planet of the Apes, where we imagined them as inflictors of unbearable suffering -- a dream that came terrifyingly true with that other Planet of the Apes. For even more malevolent monkeys, check out Chet Phillips Illustration

Phillips is a Dallas digital artist with a penchant for unsettlingly overlordish simians endowed with evil qualities; trained in traditional art at UNT, he actually switched to Mac-assisted design way back before we'd actually evolved from our closest cousins (1992!). Available in archival prints, turn-of-the-century-style trading cards, and/or books, portraits range from the "World War Monkey" series (WWI general-inspired characters like the sneering chimp Prince Bruno von Sniffenfinger and the stately spider monkey Leonid Fleapickinoff), to "Steampunk Monkey Nation", to the just-released pantheon of power-mad ministers, assassins, and spies called "Society of Sinister Simians" (try saying that with a lisp/while being a monkey). Phillips also lends slightly less frightful humanity to canines & felines, in "Literary Pets" ("F. Scott Fetchgerald", "Kurt Vonnemutt"...), as well as Wrestle Pets: Lucha Libre-style masked characters like "Boston Terror", "Esmoquin Gato", and "Ay Chihuahuas", a tiny tag team that never lets up 'til the Taco Bell sounds

More randomly brilliant notions include vibrating sea-creature coin rides, faux business signs patterned after Atomic-era "Googie" architecture, and tiki totem portraits, evocative of the drinks that make you act like a monkey at night, then in the morning swear you'll never do a remake.