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Comic Reviews, Wildcat

TURBO JONES: A WiLDCAT GRAPHiC NOVEL

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It’s been a long time coming, 37 years in fact, but finally I’m going to find out how Wildcat’s Turbo Jones strip ends, thanks to the first of Rebellion’s graphic novel collections. Containing all of Turbo’s strips from the entire Wildcat series, including the Winter and Holiday Specials, it’s the strips from the merge with Eagle that I haven’t read yet. As such, I was a bit disappointed to find out on the contents page the character didn’t last long in that comic. Oh well, let’s dig in to what’s here.

A word of warning, I’m looking at these as classic strips just like the rest of Wildcat, so while this is a review of a book on sale it could contain some spoilers if you’re thinking of buying it and would prefer to go in fresh. After an introduction by Wildcat’s creator-editor Barrie Tomlinson, the preview issue and all 12 Turbo Jones strips from the regular comic, we get to Eagle and Wildcat and the conclusion to the Trial of Death Turbo had been forced into at the end of his own comic.

After the big build up the trial itself only lasts one issue before Turbo and Robo spot the Arglon army moving towards Borovia. Seeing a way back in with his former allies, Turbo assembles the army before promptly kills a dissenter! Then the rest just fall in line. What? Throughout Wildcat, Turbo was always quick to anger and get into a fight. Some leader of the human race, right? He was always taught the error of his ways though, but not here. It doesn’t feel right when I think back to Wildcat and the stories it told, the characters and situations it involved, and the morals it portrayed for the kids.

Then the battle-to-end-all-battles is hyped on one page as a fight that will be taught to successive generations, before it gets wrapped up after one page. Even more incredulously, after this one defeat the entire Great Ark council of talking skeletal heads just self-destructs. So no answers about who they were or their history. Nothing. After such great pacing, world building and storytelling in Wildcat this feels very rushed, which is all the more frustrating since I never bought the merged comic and have waited all these years for this!

As our heroes leave to return to the ship they crash land. Again. In what feels like a tacked-on two-part story they meet the Sens Protens, a race of psychic aliens who Turbo instantly distrusts and even gets into fist fights with. But it’s actually a funny little tale, from beginning as it does with Turbo and Robo about to be sacrificed by the aliens, to them becoming best friends within a few pages. However, just as it feels like it’s getting going it ends. Again. The problem is that Wildcat was meant to contain long-form storytelling. There were no individual tales as such in each of the main strips. Instead, they were designed to be never-ending, naturally moving from one scenario to the next. I loved that about it. But of course this simply wouldn’t work in Eagle.

There were four main character strips in Wildcat plus the anthologies, the Wildcat Completes. There was only room for two at a time in Eagle, and the little panel at the end of the above story tells the reader Loner’s story would restart the following week. It’s painfully obvious Turbo’s was curtailed to make room for other strips in a shared environment. Then there’s another two-part tale which ends with news of Joe Alien returning, so Turbo was clearly also used to fill some gaps between strips in Eagle. 

It’s a shame, because the character development for Turbo was excellent in Wildcat, yet here it has to stop in order to get the stories told quickly and out of the way. As such, he’s back to being the person he was at the beginning, including shouting constantly at poor old Robo, their developing friendship in Wildcat all but forgotten. Robo also never stops calling him ‘Master’ despite protestations, which I’ll admit does lead to some laughs when Turbo tells him off for it at the most inopportune of moments.

There’s a scene where Turbo is furious when an alien kills a human upon meeting because it deemed them unimportant. Bit of a cheek getting angry about that considering his own actions when meeting some of the more imaginatively designed alien characters! Speaking of designs, the art is as superb as always. Ian Kennedy gets top artist billing despite only drawing the first two strips (however he did design all of the main characters and the Wildcat itself). Vanyo is our most prolific artist here and their monsters are as imaginative as always. I’m sure these would’ve thrilled Eagle readers just as they did for me in Wildcat back then.

There are a few one-shot stories for Turbo as well. Some are a bit like the Wildcat Completes, however whereas those were satisfying and told a complete (clue is in the name) tale with a proper beginning, middle and end, these Turbo Jones stories feel frustratingly short. One introduces two species of fish-like aliens with what seems like really interesting origins, and in another a full-scale intergalactic war forms the background to the story, but both of these are just dropped, never to be heard about again. Were these ideas of Barrie’s he was originally going to flesh out in Wildcat later on?

There are other genuinely funny moments, such as when we see Robo trying to calm a terrified Turbo. As it turns out, this heroic, chisel-chinned leader of humans who takes no nonsense from any alien monster is terrified of the dentist. The final Eagle tale then shows just how horrible humans can be and questions whether we deserve to settle on another planet at all. It’s something Wildcat often considered in its stories. This tale seems to mirror the real world even today and the hateful minds of far too many people. Thankfully, the more enlightened version of Turbo Jones is on hand to make them see sense. In his own way, naturally.

I’ve loved rereading the Turbo strips from Wildcat again, it’s just frustrating how the epic nature of that comic had to be so obviously cut short because of the limited space and time available in the comic it merged into. If anything, the stories I’ve finally read now for the first time only confirm just how different Wildcat was, and just how original its style of storytelling was compared to the more episodic nature of its contemporaries. However, I still look forward to seeing how Loner’s story pans out in the second graphic novel. He proved very popular with Eagle readers and hung around for a lot longer as a result (his book is somewhat thicker than Turbo’s). 

For now, volume one ends with the strips from the Wildcat specials and a selection of covers and pin ups featuring characters from the Turbo Jones strip. Unfortunately, the gorgeous cover for #1 by Ian isn’t included. Parts of it are used for the book’s cover but it still would’ve been nice to see it in full colour alongside the rest. That kind of sums up the continuation of the story after Wildcat’s premature end. What’s here is good but it could’ve been so much more, reaffirming my belief that the end of Wildcat was one of the cruelest cancellations in comics history.

You can purchase both Wildcat volumes at the Rebellion online shop.

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #22: GAME OVER, MAN. GAME OVER!

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This Duncan Fegredo (Crisis, Hellboy, Lucifer) cover takes me back to travelling through Scotland on a train during an Easter holiday as a teenager. I’d flicked through a close friend’s issues before but this was the first Aliens I owned. I’d never read anything like it and I loved every page, even if I was a bit lost in the continuing stories at times. It’d be the only one I’d read until 2024 because it was also the last before its publisher, Dark Horse International went bust.

While Jurassic Park would get a reprieve and return after a few months under the Manga imprint (at least for a little while), DHI’s flagship title wasn’t so lucky and #23 would never appear. As you can see from the editorial it must’ve happened quickly because it’s business as usual. With hindsight, there’s even a somewhat unfortunate opening sentence from Dick Hansom, standing in for regular editor Cefn Ridout for the month.

Despite previous promises, Crusade hasn’t returned so we remain two parts away from the end, Colonial Marines has been with us since #9 and we’re still several months of issues away from wrapping that up, and there’s a new eight-part UK strip from Ian Edginton (Batman: No Man’s Land, The War of the Worlds, The Terminator) and wonderful Transformers artist (also Judge Dredd, Hellblazer) Will Simpson. Nice to see Northern Ireland get a wee mention, too. Although I was mistaken back in #9‘s review when my ageing memory told me this last issue also had a prose story!

Rogue gets 13-pages to spread its wings yet very little of consequence happens, but that’s only a complaint in the context of this being the final issue. Normally, I’d be praising it for the characters it establishes really well here, particularly the two female pilots. But knowing this is all we’ll get does affect things, which is unfair on the strip I know, but it can’t be helped.

One thing I really don’t like isn’t unique to Rogue, it’s across the whole Alien comics franchise (and the fourth film, Resurrection) and it’s how the aliens are now seen as a commodity. Yes, I know the company is always after them for their biological weapons potential but in a lot of the strips that’s already been successfully accomplished. They’re even milked (for want of a better term) for a recreational drug, reducing these supposedly terrifying monsters to cattle.

The best stories have been those that remember how the aliens are meant to be seen, in my eyes anyway. The human politicking, the nature of human greed and the associated social commentary are some of my favourite aspects of the Alien series, I just think it can be done without desensitising us to the xenomorphs. In fact, Rogue begins with a narration that explains humanity have forgotten we were once the prey instead of the predator, but it only acts to remind me of my above points.

One such boss, Ernst Kleist has sent Marines to recover an alien and berates them when one is killed, despite the fact it had ripped one of them apart! Will’s art, coloured by Robbie Busch (Babylon 5, Black Panther, Huntress) is great and pilots Zajer and Deegan are enjoyable. I assume they’ll end up fighting for their lives at some point as the main characters. For now, their banter is enjoyable while they bring a man called Mr. Kray to meet Kleist, although there’s no indication yet as to why. However, he does describe his trip with them as “enlightening” to Kleist, who just looks down his nose at the pair.

There’s definitely potential here. If you’ve read the full story (or indeed, any of the unfinished tales here) please don’t tell me what happens, I intend to finish them someday. After this there’s a competition to be a Colonial Marine at Alien War, despite the criticisms the comic had levelled at it. Then it’s on to our final slice of contemporary sci-fi news. I’ve enjoyed Dave Hughes’ Motion Trackers and my trips back to the mid-90s, the latest releases and the predictions for the then-future. Here, the Aliens toys do look fun but the column even states these are for kids so you have to wonder why they existed when the films were all ’18’-certificates.

That ‘Pixelvision’ short isn’t some cool retro-styled computer graphic film, despite its name and the fact it prominently features a computer game. It was a children’s film camera manufactured by Fisher Price, believe it or not. Director Michael Almereyda’s short documentary-of-sorts is on his website, although don’t expect to be too thrilled by it and prepare to struggle to hear what the two boys are saying. Frustratingly, you’ll want the camera to sit still while showing clips from the Alien³ game instead of all the stylistic shaking.

Colonial Marines starts a new chapter and it’s all change for the creative team. For the UK comic this is part 14 of what was meant to be a 24-part series and isn’t it typical that one of the best episodes of the whole thing so far arrives in the final issue. Writing, layouts and inks are by Paul Guinan, pencils by Tony Akins, colouring by Pamela Rambo (Preacher, Star Wars, Y: The Last Man) and lettering by Clem Robins. 

There are some great new characters here. I’m simply loving all of the robots who bring much needed levity to the comic. The art is a huge step up too and the human characters are once again easily identifiable so things are easier to follow. But why did they have to do the dirty to Billy? He could’ve been a star! These new robots and the synth are part of Beliveau’s secret group hiding out on a dirt ball orbiting the planet, where he’s stashed a secret supply of his company’s weapons for the inevitable fight ahead.

So, I thought he was the obvious mysterious bad guy to begin with but I couldn’t be happier to have been proven wrong. I love well-written misdirection. Marine Chen’s addiction to the alien jelly almost causes more disaster but I was less interested in that than the introduction of this hideout and its wonderful array of new additions. Like Rogue before it, this is about establishing characters and a scenario more than moving the plot forward.

But it still had me gripped thanks to this mechanical ragtag team and I’m gutted I won’t see them develop further. The overall Colonial Marines story had gone a bit stale in my opinion, possibly from the lack of an overall guiding hand (as I detailed last time) but this has reignited my interest again, just in time for us to say goodbye. I won’t forgive them for Billy, though.

The last Technical Readout is for those big-ass guns used in the movie that had to be attached to their users by a hip mechanism, then it’s time to move on to our final strip of the read through, the still-confusingly titled Aliens: Alien. Just eight pages but there are some great moments here. The hunting party keep failing to track the alien properly but for the readers its presence is always felt in neat little panels like this one below. You can also see what I meant last time about how Vickie Williams’ lettering hints at an alien tongue.

The teenager sees the men gruesomely taken out one-by-one, and even when they do manage to spear the monster they’re unaware of what its body contains. He tries to save his mentor by dragging him across the desert, desperate for somewhere to hide in the barren landscape. While the xenomorph retreats to heal, they come across a strange, alien (to them) structure in which they take shelter. But this sanctuary has more to it. In the morning he steps outside and, while he doesn’t realise it, we can see it’s a crashed spaceship. We also see a broken sleep chamber and the source of the xenomorph, which he remains blissfully unaware of.

This moment is a classic bit of Alien atmosphere. Things end when he spots a human in their full space gear, face obscured, making their way back. With a “To be concluded next issue” adding to my frustration, this neat this tale leads us into a four-page interview with no less than Bishop himself, Lance Henriksen. When I bought these comics for the read through I thought the cover was familiar, but it was the inclusion of this interview that confirmed this was the issue I’d bought as a teenager.

It’s a fascinating read, although it does annoy me somewhat that Dave Hughes concludes Alien³ didn’t work when he’s been happy to promote it in the comic and even work on the spin-off mini-series. I’m saddened that Lance didn’t like the film and I wonder what he’d have thought of the special edition released later, which also confirmed the Bishop cameo mystery. I’ve a funny memory of this article. Back in 1994 I was disappointed his role in the Super Mario Bros movie wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but seeing as how his cameo in that amounted to one line and about ten seconds of screen time I can understand why.

While I remember my surprise at seeing Bishop pop up briefly in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I’d forgotten all about him being in The Terminator until I saw it for the first time in years a few weeks ago on TV. There are a multitude of roles that sound interesting here, as well as some truly awful schlock horror. I’m intrigued with the idea of what The Terminator could’ve been like with him in the title role, although of course I think Arnie’s depiction is perfect.

Lance states the audience’s familiarity with him playing villains kept them on their toes with Aliens, but I think he’s selling himself short. That was the first film I saw him in and how he played the role did that anyway. I agree completely with him about that scene with Hudson, too. With the gift of hindsight of what he later directed (including the restoration of his original Alien³ vision), leaving David Fincher out of the great directors list doesn’t seem fair. It’s an interesting interview nevertheless, before we round things off with Bug Hunt and the Checklist.

As with Star Wars and Dracula before it, Total Carnage bit the dust after ten issues, and after we had to miss out on the AvP strip so it could print it instead! Gotta say Alex Impey’s complaint about “scrubby little sound effects or speech” ruining the strips is… a unique opinion. The Checklist shows us what might’ve been with #23. Crusade, Rogue developments and the conclusion of the teen alien’s story. Even a Chris Halls cover! Damn. Then, just to confuse things further the next page rounds the final issue off with subscription offers for all of DHI’s freshly canned range.

I have mixed emotions about the end of Aliens. It’s always disappointing when a comic just ends with no proper conclusion, even more so when it’s an anthology. All-in-all it’s been a fun ride. Nothing truly scary but plenty of atmospheric moments. The stories didn’t always hit the spot, but when they did they really did and the good definitely outweighed the bad. It ended because the publisher itself imploded, so its premature end shouldn’t reflect on its quality.

As it stands, Dark Horse International’s UK Aliens comic wasn’t just a flagship title for the publisher, for me it stands as a flagship for the UK comics scene of the 90s. Big, bold, brash, adult, gripping and, despite its limited subject matter, hugely varied. I’m so happy I finally got to read it all. I just wish teenage me hadn’t missed out. He’d have been thrilled with it!

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Beano, Comic Reviews

BEANO #452: AN iCON iS BORN

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Three months and six years after our last entry comes our third edition of Beano (or, THE Beano as it was called) from DC Thomson’s 80th Anniversary Box Set. It’s another lovely reproduction, the paper feels authentic and the printing once again could easily fool us into thinking we’re reading an original. There was also a big improvement on the title banner by this stage in the comic’s life; there was no need to be disgusted by Big Eggo as the new mascot. He wasn’t inside though. So who was?

It’s another 12-page issue (the World War II paper shortages still in effect) and as a result the overall make up of the issue feels vey different, even compared to the classic issues we’ve seen so far. There are less than five pages of comic strip here, the rest are made up of picture-panel and prose stories. This meant the kids still had plenty to read inside such a small comic and it was back to a weekly schedule after alternating with The Dandy during the war.

Dudley D. Watkins’ Biffo the Bear kicks things off and I’ll admit I can take him or leave him. Reading friends’ Beano books or issues as a kid I was never that enamoured with him, so I don’t have any particular memories of his strips. They must’ve been a bit forgettable for young me despite being one of the comic’s mainstays. He was the cover star from his introduction in #327 in 1948 all the way until #1677 in 1974 when he was dethroned by a certain character who makes his debut in this very issue.

Yep, this was the week readers were introduced to Dennis the Menace, drawn by David Law and developed by him and the comic’s chief sub-editor Ian Chisholm, in this fun little strip I originally read in the 50th anniversary book. While I do prefer the modern Dennis and the more sophisticated humour (obviously such things change over time) I did laugh at the quick transition between the 4th and 5th panels above! Of course, we now know this Dennis is our modern day Dennis’ dad in the current Beano, which is a nice touch. A quaint start for a true comics megastar.

The Granny Green story (now drawn by Gordon Ramsbottom) yet again reintroduces the whole premise as if this was Jimmy’s first time dressing up as his fictional relative, while confusingly also acknowledging he’d done so loads. It’s probably meant to play out as a repetitive gag the children reading are in on, knowing full well what’s going to eventually happen. I can imagine the kids of the day cheering him on to dress up, but today it reads like the exact same story from #1 dragged out over a page-and-a-half.

Noel Fielding’s hilarious TV series The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin may have spoiled me somewhat for comical tales about that particular historical figure, but in 1951 I’m sure Fred Sturrock’s The Hungry Little Goodwins provided plenty of smiles. Strangely, the picture-panel stories of this series that ran throughout 1951 were adaptations of earlier prose stories from just a couple of years previous.

Always hungry, the kids’ appetites were insatiable and it was always up to Turpin to get them out of whatever situation their rumbly tummies got them into. It does go rather dark in this issue with its workhouse and all that but it’s still fun and as unique a serial as you’re ever likely to find. On the back cover is a character I remember from reading friends’ copies back at school, and from about three months ago in #272.

This was Pansy Potter’s second series in The Beano, running from 1949 to 1955, with “in Wonderland” replacing “the Strong-Man’s Daughter” as the sub-title. She was now taking up the whole rear cover on her own, such was her popularity. Somehow stepping into a wishing well into Wonderland, Pansy found herself surround by characters from nursery rhymes. Bit random.

Pansy Potter was the first series to be printed in full colour on the back page

Drawn by James Clark by this stage, it might sound like a rather random set up but it hit all the right notes for the readers. All the proof you need of how well received it was is the fact this was the series the comic decided would be the first strip to be printed in full colour on the back page, as mentioned when we last met Pansy.

Elsewhere, Lord Snooty and His Pals are still in the same format (and still on the same page) and Tommy’s Clockwork Town is the unbelievable prose serial of a boy with a full clockwork town and its residents flat-packed in a lorry ready to be deployed in minutes. Jimmy and his Magic Patch picture-panel stories came to an end and the details of that exciting news on the cover amounts to no more than two separate sentences accompanying two stories inside.

Pansy may have finished the issue but I want to finish the review by nipping back to page two and Bill Holroyd’s Have-A-Go Joe. Judging by this one strip alone, Joe seems like someone who was up for anything and the more ridiculous and dangerous the better. There’s got to be an easier why to make a living. That guy he’s working for could also do with some heath and safety in the workplace training if this is how he tests bullet-proof vests. Joe would last for just over 100 issues before disappearing, then appear briefly in The Beano Cinema before returning much later in 1997!

Next time, we’ll jump forward to the ‘Year of Africa’, 1960 and the time of the first laser, the 50th star on the American flag, Cassius Clay winning gold at the Olympics, the iconic photo of Che Guevara, the Civil Rights Act, the opening of the Bluebell Railway and the premiere of The Flintstones. The inclusion of the next issue in the box set celebrates free gifts and, finally, there’s an increase in page count. So, more to read, review and (hopefully) laugh at in The Beano #954 on Monday 26th October 2026.

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Comic Reviews, OiNK Contributors

BRiCKMAN #2: SMACK-YOU-iN-THE-FACE FANTASTiC

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Finally Brickman #2 is here. After the brilliant first edition of collected strips from the character’s past I’ve been eagerly awaiting this (the middle issue of a three-issue mini-series) and it comes with four extra pages, a Combat Colin strip and even some extra features. Taken from the pages of Lew Stringer’s own Yampy Tales comic and the Brickman Begins book, the 27 pages of strips are again packed with enough gags to fill multiple issues.

It may be reprints but the new cover brings things bang up to date, especially that “moron cap” on one idiot’s head. Little gags like this are hidden away on every page throughout, and where the first issue aimed its social commentary jokes at Thatcher’s 80s Britain, here 90s culture is very much in the crosshairs. As a teenager of the 90s I was much more aware of the world around me and so a lot of these gags were even funnier to me than the previous issue’s.

We kick things off with a four-page Combat Colin serial from Transformers and it’s one of the most memorable of his entire run. Anyone who read the comic at the time will remember Colin and Semi-Automatic Steve ending up in a very Portmeirion-esque village along with a large collection of heroes and villains. Lew is a huge fan of the original The Prisoner TV series and this works as both a spoof and a love letter to it. It’s also how I was first introduced to Brickman as an 11-year-old reader.

It wasn’t until decades later I found out he wasn’t just a funny creation for this one Combat Colin strip. The main bulk of this issue sees Brickman returning to Guffon City after his adventure with Colin and Steve brought him out of retirement. But it’s been many years since he revealed his identity and left and his return sees a somewhat different city, filled with crime. But this is a Lew Stringer comic and the abundant crime problem isn’t anything like you’d expect, as you can see.

Anyone who has seen the Christian Bale Batman trilogy will know how hated the hero was when he returned and here, many years before those films Brickman (aka Loose Brayne) is met with hatred and fear, even from Commissioner Moron. We also get a funny recap of the character’s origin story without rehashed gags and with cameos from Colin and Steve, which are always going to be funny!

Lew takes plenty of opportunities to poke at the conventions of superhero stories, with a particular slant towards the already silly 60s Batman, as seen here in The Mad Cobbler’s overly elaborate and very slow, tedious death trap. As per usual, nothing is safe from Lew’s satirical pen. Sidekicks, last-minute escapes, villain reveals and of course comic book violence are all ripe for the Brickman treatment.

While there is a “Mature Readers” label on the cover there’s nothing overly inappropriate for slightly younger readers out there if you wish to share the laughs with your kids. As Lew explains in the editorial, “Although the story doesn’t quite venture into Viz territory, it is aimed at an adult readrship”. That adult audience will most likely get the most from it, but it’s also an excellent introduction to slightly more grown up humour for any teen readers out there.

Just like when I reviewed the previous issue I don’t want to give away too much. Some of my favourite moments are so good I’m gagging to share them with you because I just know they’d convince you to rush out and buy this. (Or, since this is 2026, rush to Lew’s online shop and click on it.) But if I did that I’d ruin the surprises and it’s the sudden jokes that come right of nowhere that happen to be my favourites.

So I guess you’ll just have to trust me. The panel below did make me laugh out loud though, particularly that 90s cultural reference. You might need to explain the occasional moment like this to your teenagers but for those of us who were around at the time the comic also succeeds in taking you right back with its gentle ribbing and/or outright mockery. So, despite never having read the bulk of this before it still made me feel like a kid again with the surprising amount of reminiscing I did about that rather strange decade.

The ending is also well thought out and turns an evil scheme on its head in an original, funny way, and for a moment I wished that things in today’s world could be fixed just as easily and enjoyably. There are also a couple of special features, the one about fanzines in the 1970s being my favourite because it took me back to the 90s again, to a time when I was creating a monthly fanzine on my Commodore 64 computer. Lew’s good times reminding me of my own.

All-in-all I’ve giggled, I’ve guffawed and I’ve finished the comic with a huge smile on my face. Does that sound good to you? It should, and you can get your own grubby little mitts on Brickman #2 for just £5.00 plus p&p via Lew’s own KoFi shop. While there, don’t forget to sign up for regular updates via his KoFi blog too. One more issue to go then and with promises of more colour and even brand new material, it sounds like Brickman #3 will be even better! What are you waiting for? Go and get caught up now.

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #21: FOUR MORE WEEKS AND OUT

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This month’s cover by Ilya (Ed Hillyer – Crisis, Manga Mania, Jean Genii) isn’t one of my favourites I have to say. It feels unfinished but his style certainly has its fans and so it’s just not for me I guess. It represents the final part of Salvation, even if the headlines make it look like it’s for Colonial Marines. There’s also a feature about H.R. Giger in this issue, so let’s get stuck in and see what we think.

I can’t believe it! With hindsight we know the next issue will be the last, so for Crusade to take a month off is devastating, meaning it definitely won’t be completed in time. The strip may have started off poorly but it’s become a real treat these last six months or so. Let’s hope we at least get some closure next time. It’s funny to read about the readers writing in requesting the comic change to a weekly schedule too.

We just didn’t consider the amount of work that went into our comics and always wanted more of them. I personally never looked at the date my next issue of the monthly Jurassic Park was due because then it’d feel like forever, instead I just let its arrival in the shop surprise me. The response here also reminds me of OiNK’s co-editor Tony Husband and how he felt that comic’s transition to a weekly (from a fortnightly) sucked the fun out of it for him. I do get the irony of this topic coming up in the penultimate issue of Aliens, too.

Dave Gibbon’s Salvation finale is first up with a huge 16-page chunk of the issue, and as Selkirk fights for his life atop the crashed spaceship the ground caves in and he finds himself dangling in front of a nightmare. There are bodies of the crew and the local creatures everywhere with holes in their chests but somehow he’s able to creep into the escape pod and meet back up with Dean. I said last time there was something more about her and I was right, she’s an artificial person (as Bishop would say).

In a shocking turn of events, Selkirk’s prejudices come to the fore and he tortures her for information, all while his internal monologue preys to his Christian god about how he’s doing good. Mike Mignola’s bold, shadowy art adds to the horror of this moment. Yes, she’s a synth but it’s gruesome stuff! Then, when he gets what he needs he simply kills her. He’s a twisted character and it’s a bleak strip because of this. Selkirk’s hatred for synths makes him blind to the fact that without Dean’s programming to save human life he’d be dead by now too. It’s compulsive reading! I find myself hoping more and more he gets his comeuppance.

Basically, the military wants the aliens wiped out but the company wants its bioweapons. This planet had one land mass and a species that reproduced quickly, so perfect for the company, the ship used to deliver the aliens whether the crew survived or not. Selkirk concludes it’s the company, not the aliens, that has been sent by satan and he takes it upon himself to be a martyr for Christianity, to self-destruct the ship and wipe out the entire land mass and all sentient life.

Wiping out all life not like him, seeing non-Christians as inferior, killing someone he liked when he finds out they were different to him, all while going “god’s work” is a scary enough conclusion until we get to the last page. Seeing this huge ship with its even bigger cross traversing the universe and bringing their god’s word to alien worlds is a more terrifying conclusion than anything I’ve read in this comic to date.

The next story is called Alien. Which isn’t confusing at all, is it? Seriously, Aliens: Alien is the name of a new short tale (will we see it conclude next issue?) written by John Arcudi (Barb Wire, The Mask, BPRD), drawn by Paul Mendoza (Tensor Matrix, Rage Across Las Vegas, Dark Horse Comics) and lettered by Vickie Williams (The Web, Star Wars Legends, Spider-Man 2099). Given the name of the original film couldn’t they have thought of another title for this? Very strange.

Set on an alien planet in a small village where the men are in charge and the women are subservient (yawn, how original), their individual face paint markings indicate they’ve made kills during their hunts for food. A teen is the star of this strip and he’s not allowed to join the hunts yet, but while the ‘big, powerful men, ug, ug, ug’ are out on a hunt an alien attacks the village and kills a family, leaving the boy as the only witness.

In fact, the alien has attacked every time the men have been on a hunt recently but there have been no male witnesses until now, so the boy is ordered to join them the next night. They’re going to find and kill the alien. That’s it for this part so there’s not much of a story to sink two jaws into yet, but the art and lettering make up for this. I particularly like Paul’s xenomorph and Vickie’s lettering in speech balloons (you’ll see them next month) which suggests everything is being spoken in an alien tongue and translated for us mere humans.

The H.R. Giger feature is actually written by horror writer and creator of Hellraiser and Candyman, Clive Barker. Initially I thought this was a hell of a coup for the comic, so it’s almost criminal how it’s presented on the page. The choice of background and text colours makes it difficult to read, in particular the first page is almost unreadable. Then there’s the admission at the end that it’s actually an introduction from an already released book, so not the coup I thought it was.

It’s more of an essay on general fantasy art rather than Giger (which makes it a strange introduction to a Giger book) and Clive rightly criticises the “pseudo-sophisticated” rubbish that people often use to write about art and how Giger doesn’t need that kind of review. Yet this reads just like that at times! It’s a bit of a disappointment overall, however I’m intrigued by the image of what looks like a female alien, as it’s very similar to the mysterious female the current Alien comic from Marvel have in their stories. Clearly they went back to the original inspiration.

The last strip this month is the next part of Colonial Marines, an epically-long tale when cut up into chunks for this comic, and one I’ve known from the off we wouldn’t get to the end of because I remembered reading a chapter of it in the final issue, the only one I owned as a kid. Back then I didn’t know anything about the characters but today I’ve been following them from the beginning and so I can’t help feeling somewhat betrayed by the main character, Lt. Henry.

Basically, he’s turned into a bit of a bastard. He doesn’t care at all about helping any of the innocent people he and his team’s actions have hurt by thinking they could outwit the aliens. He also doesn’t care about said team placing their lives on the line for him, as he’s placed explosives in their necks while they were in cryogenic sleep! So now, if they don’t follow his brutish orders he can threaten to detonate them! What?!

What happened to the fun character we got introduced to months ago, the character that’s meant to be someone we care about? Now I’m hoping he gets implanted! The story has changed writers a couple of times and perhaps this is part of the problem. There doesn’t seem to have been any coordination between them to ensure continuity, or any kind of long form plan or overall writer to steer this particular ship.

The new mission is to rid Alpha Tech of the bug men who have infiltrated the company, Beliveau not being a villain after all but someone trying to do the same thing from within. But subtlety is no longer an option. Things don’t get off to a great start when their captured bug man deals some alien jelly to the pilot of their space cruiser, deliberately overdosing him. High as a kite, instead of coming into orbit to collect the team he ends up getting too close and burns the whole thing up on reentry, the bug man sacrificing himself for his cause.

What’s so frustrating is how this started off so well way back in #9 and Henry was the main reason. I’m all for character development and when dealing with the aliens of course people are going to come undone somewhat. But Colonial Marines now feels like a collection of different stories with completely different characters, like each writer wanted to write something else. Such a shame it’s all come crashing down towards the end. No pun intended.

The Technical Readout is nothing to write home about this month, being a simple drawing of the comms panel of the Armoured Personnel Carrier and a lot of bland text, so the final highlight of the issue is a page reporting on the release of the Terminator 2: Judgement Day Special Edition on Laserdisc. Back then I used to lap up details like this about restored deleted scenes etc., but today I much prefer to find out for myself by watching the movies instead, like I did with the superb Alien³ Special Edition.

I have to laugh at the “Why bother with video?” comment. VHS would continue to dominate for a long time after this and even made advances in picture and sound quality. It only eventually gave way when DVD took off. The extortionately-priced Laserdisc could only dream of such success. Saying that, remember this was 1994 and as such we’ll forgive Terry Jones here. After all, who am I to judge when I went all-in on the supposed new entertainment standard, 3DO around the same time?

Oh now I’m reminiscing… how I loved those 3DO machines!

Ahem, anyway, a quick glance of the comics checklist on the letters page confirms Crusade will return next month for its penultimate chapter. Noooo! So close! Oh well, I’ll get back into my 90s head space and try to forget #22 will be the final issue until it’s all over. It feels like no time at all since I kicked off this real time read through, I can’t quite believe we’ve been on this ride together for over 20 months. Just the one terrifying (hopefully) trip to go on Tuesday 24th March 2026.

iSSUE 20 < > iSSUE 22

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