I Told You So

"You Shouldn't Have Taken the Peyote," Colored Pencil on Paper
by Karen Kay Remus, (c) 2018

Here we have two beefy white guys out in the desert; one admonishing his passed-out doppelganger for having taken the fungal hallucinogen, peyote.  We don't know from the drawing if the downed man is dead or merely unconscious.  We also don't know if he's down due to the peyote or to his partner having just kicked his ass.  Furthermore, we don't know if the conscious dude is scolding the unconscious dude about having taken peyote because it made it easier for him to kick his ass, or because some folks just can't handle peyote.  In either case, the scolding is too late, because, obviously the downed guy is not taking it in.

This drawing was actually inspired by an old film starring William Shatner, entitled, "White Comanche."  The film is sub-spaghetti-western in budget.  Perhaps you could call it a Spaghetti-O's Western.  The plot was cheap too.  Even though it was not Star Trek related, "White Comanche" cast young Bill Shatner in a dual role, where one character was evil and the other was good--a role so common to Star Trek's Captain Kirk, that Shatner fans became accustomed to bifurcated Bills.  "Let's split the Bill," his script writers would often say.  Of course, Shatner devoured these extreme roles, pouring every atom of his steroidal Shakespeare spirit into the part.

In the film, "White Comanche," The "Good Bill" kicks the "Bad Bill's" ass, and as Good Bill wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth, he says, "You shouldn't have taken the peyote," implying that it had weakened his evil twin.  It was not simply a case of "good vs. evil."  It was "good vs. evil plus peyote."  Good won.  I still wonder though, if peyote would have made the good guy even better.