This is a collaboration with Luke Baker. Find his work on Twitter and Instagram.
1865. A photographer reveals his latest invention to the French Emperor’s court: the Portrait Tournant.
One of the portraits shows Baron Renard of Sévigné. It was deemed defective. Unbeknownst to them, the one in the photograph was not Renard. The Façade disappeared in 1895.
1960. A 6-year-old kid in Chicago is admitted to the Lurie Children’s Hospital after a panic attack. She claims there is a monster pretending to be her mother.
Her records show another panic attack at age 23, thought to be at the time when the Façade chose a new victim.
By Luke Baker
1896. During the X-Ray craze, people buy machines to show the strange radiation to party guests.
In one such event in Hamburg, financier Franz Mansfeld had this plate taken, revealing him to be the Façade. He kept the print a secret until he vanished during a trip to America.
The location of the Façade from 1917 to 1960 is unknown, but a string of unsolved disappearances throughout the United States point to it changing forms in quick succession, leaving scarcely any conclusive trace.
1977. A report to the Chicago PD:
“I swear he ate her! They were fighting. She lunged at him. It was a blur, then she was gone. And there he was, swollen, down on the alley floor… His face was shifting…”
The report was not investigated. The Façade’s current location is unknown.
Drawing by Luke Baker, composition by Eduardo Valdés-Hevia
1949. Last page of Renard de Sévigné’s notes:
“Years ago, I found the Shifting Skull while exploring the Paris Catacombs.
I have studied its mysteries since. How does it keep transforming? Is it… alive?
The answers must lie in the marrow.
For this experiment, I will break it.”
Drawings by Luke Baker, composition by Eduardo Valdés-Hevia
© Eduardo Valdés-Hevia and Luke Baker
Valdevia 