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Underground > Comic Books >

Aliens comics

Mister Six, whom all the girls

00:16 / 12.12.03

Now... before you start... I got a lump of these Dark Horse comics from a good friend a few days back. I was never interested in them, aside from flipping through the Mike Mignola story a few times in the store.

In 1988, Dark Horse began the short stories in their Presents title, only to follow it up with a full 6 issue series, a second four parter and the debacle Earth War before the series really took off and multiple stories were spawned. Even the Aliens Vs. Predator mini came out (only to beget additional Vs. comics, everything from Superman to Batman, even culminating in the menage a trois Aliens/Predator/Terminator series).

I have to admit that, after reading the second and third minis as well as AVP, that... there are a few great comics there. Nothing mind-blowing, but seeing a General waxing poetic about the bond of the flesh that the Aliens have which, given his vat-spawned upbringing in the military, makes them a warmer species than mankind. I'm also stunned that so many comic greats and also-rans are involved. The aforementioned Mike Mignola, Sam Kieth, Paul Johnson, Guy Davis, John Bolton, John Byrne, Chris Claremont, Steven Bissette, (current Daredevil artist) Alex Meleev, Will Simpson, even Peter Miligan have all worked on an Aliens story.

One of the best things about these comics is that you can more likely than not still find them in quarter bins.

So... anyone else out there ever read these or have any tales to tell?

Or is it once again... just me?

01:18 / 12.12.03

When I was just a young'un, I had a very large collection as an attempt to fulfill my obsessive appetite for anything ALiens or Predator. Most of which really fell flat, to me anyway. But I hear Claremont did a decent job on Aliens/Predator: Deadliest of the Species... check it out.

08:19 / 12.12.03

I think i posted in the starwars thread about Dark Horse and the top quality work they generally do on comics based on film licenced properties and the Aliens comics were definitely in the forefront of my mind - the original AVP in particular is extraordinarily cinematic, (a quality that it no doubt gains from having an artist who works as a hollywood storyboarder on board) and manages to spin a plausible fun action tale that actually involves fully formed believable characters...

Similarly Aliens: Hive is a fantastic old school Sci-Fi tale where again, the characteriszation of the humans involved is the key.

I'd also like to mention Dark Horse's last Terminator comic before they lost the licence the first time round - which featured the best pull the rug out from under the audience moment right at the end...

08:58 / 12.12.03

yeah i was well into all that at the time. lets be honest gang it was the violence wasn't it? they were as gory as 2000ad and for that we were grateful. the aliens franchise has done okay in comics really, ellis used them quite skillfully to close a chapter on like five years of trad superhero stories and inaugurate the widescreen era, and the dredd/aliens crossover from this year was brilliant as well, very satisfying in terms of body count, mega-slang and joe getting a facehugger on him but carrying on regardless. he's dead hard he is.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

09:12 / 12.12.03

I used to buy the british reprints - there were some decent stories in there - Book 2 with Denis Beavais(?) art was nice, and there were some decent one-shots by Mignola and Gibbons/Paul Johnson.

I remember being very unimpressed with Colonial Marines though. some stuff really scraped the barrel. Didn't like much of the predator stuff either. The franchise really suffered during the 90's boom.

DH reissued some of the earlier stories, replacing the deceased-as-of-Alien3 newt/hicks etc with new characters.

Sleazenation, what Terminator comic are you referring to? The one with art by Jackson Guice? I remember really enjoying that one at the time.

09:25 / 12.12.03

I was talking about Terminator - Endgame the one with the John Bolton covers...

Mister Six, whom all the girls

13:29 / 12.12.03

Yeah, I've read the first three minis so far and only the third, Earth war (hilariously redubbed 'Female War' in its trade) was lousy lousy lousy.

Aliens Vs. Predator is well worth a bargain bin purchase. The story and art are quite good and it definitely has an appeal that works nowadays. I mean, Christ, if you like any of those Ellis three parters released recently, you have no reason to avoid Aliens comics. A lot of similar elememts are there; strong macho lead (or female finding herself hardened by life), colorful background characters, and a firm storyline... with lots of violence.

I just finished the first Predator series and aside from some dodgy coloring, it too was OK... I'm starting on the Terminator next.

... Christ... what's happening to me?

13:44 / 12.12.03

I didn't read the comics but did read the novel adaptions of the comics (since they were considerably cheaper than the Graphic Novels)where the characters were changed from Hicks and Newt into Wilks and Billie (since Alien 3 had just come out and Hicks and Billie had died). They still ended bring Ripley back though in the books which sort of made the whole point of changing the names pointless.

They also novelised the first Alien Vs Predator series. They were pretty good and as a teenager I loved them.

Looks like you can still get them as well!

Earth Hive: Aliens Book I (Aliens)
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum (Book II)
Aliens: The Female War (Book III)

Prey (Aliens Vs. Predator)

13:47 / 12.12.03

the first terminator story is ace. tempest i think it was called? there's a bit where a terminator dressed as a cop gets his fleshface blown off with a shotgun which rocks all of the cocks. there was the robinson/wagner one-shot called oneshot as well wasn't there? really good art, wagner doesn't seem to get as much time to lavish on his projects these days. god i'm beginning to remember just how many of these things i used to have.

anyone ever go to the 'alien war' roleplay thingy they had in the glesgae arches then at piccadilly circus? must have been about the year alien 3 come out. fucking that's a good way to spend half-an hour when you're thirteen. fucking near shit meself.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

14:01 / 12.12.03

The Robinson/Wagner Terminator: OnesShot was distinctive in that it had a pop up section in the middle. In the UK reprint, you had to cut and glue it yourself.

The Terminator Chris Warner-Paul Gulacy-Vince Giarrano-Butch Guice arcs were excellent at the time - I should re-read them at some point.

BTW, Terminator:Endgame was the Guice-drawn one I was thinking of. It was black and white in the UK, with some spot reds, which was quite effective.

14:23 / 12.12.03

i seem to remember terminator vs robocop wasn't much

ahem

cop though, something to do with murphy's brain being the basis for skynet's AI system. whuh?

anyone reading miller's current robocop? is it much

ahem

aw y'know what i was going to say.

17:51 / 12.12.03

ey there, nothing with regard to the Aliens vs Predator series, but surely everyone here has read(or heard) of Aliens: Apocalypse - Destroying Angels? Amazing art(by Doug Wheatley) and brilliant story, that alas, shall not be followed up(art-wise anyway, as I heard from Doug the man himself).