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Comic Reviews, Dracula

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA #5: FiNAL(E) BITE

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More and more headlines adorn the front cover of Dark Horse International‘s Bram Stoker’s Dracula as  strips and features are added, the comic morphing like the Prince himself on this great Mike Mignola image. Gone is the glossy cover, replaced with a good quality matte paper throughout that seems to suck up the ink magnificently, and you’ll notice a lack of specific dates on the spine. That’s right, the comic is now an ongoing monthly title instead of a limited series of three-weekly issues. Not that anything is made of this in the editorial. More on this below.

Our main strip runs to 17 pages, concluding the adaptation and again it’s the art that really stands out. The spectacular moments during the final 20 minutes of the film must’ve been daunting for penciller Mike, inker John Nyberg and colourist Mark Chiarello. The minimalist style flies in the face of the film’s production design but it works perfectly, such as with this opening scene above. The carriages aren’t even drawn but it works. (Accompanied by John Costanza‘s lettering of Jonathan’s diary.)

In fact there are some small, incidental panels of individual characters which, if combined in a grid, could make for a lovely minimalist poster for fans of the film. Look at these images below of Jonathan (Keanu Reeves), Arthur (Cary Elwes), Mina (Winona Ryder) and Quincy (Billy Campbell) and imagine that large poster made up of these and likewise panels for all of the others.

The first half of the strip concentrates on the journey to Dracula‘s castle and the inner fight of Mina’s as she struggles between her love for Jonathan, the enforced lust for the Prince and Helsing‘s attempts to save her. As with previous chapters the only negative here is the memory of these scenes from the film making for an unfair comparison. The horseback gunfight was an absolutely thrilling moment as our heroes fought the setting sun, accompanied by Wojciech Kilar‘s booming score. Reading it instead of watching it accentuates just how much their music brought to the scene! Also, the key factor of the setting sun is completely missing apart from one mention in text.

Meanwhile, further ahead at the castle Helsing battles with Mina’s soul. The powerhouse performances by the actors is replaced by some dramatic poses, which are highlighted wonderfully by the lack of detail, the silhouette of Mina over Helsing with the three vampire women scrawled in the background being my favoured panel here. A couple of pages later (after Helsing is seen entering a crypt post-sunrise) we see the ultimate fate of the three watching horrors. It’s surprisingly gore-free given what we’re actually looking at. In fact, gore is something that’s largely been missing throughout the adaptation.

Not that the film relied on gore for its scares, but the comic really dials it down to little more than the odd splash of bold red, such as in Dracula’s final moments after Jonathan slits his throat. From here on it pretty much follows the film shot-for-shot, word-for-word. Well, why would you want to change such a perfect ending? Throughout these months there have been other changes made to the overall film, and there was no way it could match the atmosphere or looks, but what this series did differently to other adaptations was make bold artistic choices.

What we’ve been treated to over these first five issues is nothing short of a work of art. An adaptation of a work of art into another, in fact. For fans of the film it’s just such a unique take, a love letter to the movie. It feels like the team has created a tapestry of the film in comic art and as such it transcends a mere “comics adaptation of the current blockbuster movie”. It’s best enjoyed as a piece of art in this way and when it is it’s the best movie adaptation I’ve ever seen.

Dave Hughes‘ Bloodlines news pages are chock full of goodies this month (although we’ll try to ignore the creepy description of actor Sadie Frost as “delectable”), beginning with the box office takings of the film so far. Until beginning this series I’d no idea it was this big at the time! Saying “set is the operative word” when describing where it was made is a reference to the fact the whole thing was filmed on huge soundstages. Even the outdoor scenes were elaborate sets, something I wish the comic had delved into in more depth.

There isn’t exactly glowing praise for something they then immediately give away in a competition, I wonder if Coca-Cola had anything to say about the ‘Cult Classic’ logo used on the Evil Force video cover, and after reading the Sound Bites it’s no wonder Gary Oldman loves playing Jackson Lamb so much these days. One last thing of note, I have no idea how that “natural conclusion” was made in the ‘Scarlett Woman’ news item! (Oh, and I’ve given up on the promised Sadie interview ever appearing now.)

Vampirella‘s strip (written by Archie Goodwin, drawn by Tom Sutton) is reduced to seven pages to make way for a second back up, although personally I’m quite glad there’s less this time. The place she found herself in happens to be where a cult is trying to bring forth a demon of chaos and the scantily-clad alien vampire is to be sacrificed in order to do so. The man she fell in love with after five minutes turns out to be the soul of a warlock in a dead man’s body. He saves Vampirella and decides the evil nurse woman will be used as a vessel instead. How romantic. However, when she says no to him he turns on her (which sadly sounds rather familiar these days) and soon he’s trying to sacrifice her again.

She’s saved by the monster from her visions, who is actually the soul of the deceased man inside the withered old body of the warlock. You keeping up? The summoned beast has come for their souls but instead devours all of the cult and the place crumbles under its power. It’s left up in the air whether it made its way through the portal and the strip ends with the revelation that Van Helsing is making his way around the graves of the crashed airplane’s passenger list, staking them all until he finds the vampire he knows was on board. (Such a shame the comic’s ‘Previously’ round up describes this despite it not being mentioned in the previous issue, ruining the twist.)

As my first delve into the world of Vampirella I’m not particularly underwhelmed because I had low expectations (see last issue’s review to find out why). I know it’s an old strip and it’s very much of its time, however I’ll admit there’s intrigue with Helsing’s mission and the chaos demons, so we’ll see if the characterisation of the lead develops more next time.

There’s a fascinating two-page article by Adrian Rigelsford about a forgotten BBC Count Dracula production from the year of my birth, 1977. (The article begins with a play on words based on the pop rock band Transvision Vamp so I was sold immediately!) I didn’t think I’d be interested in some older Dracula adaptation but as soon as I found out Octopussy‘s Kamal Khan himself, Louis Jourdan played the Count I was, ahem, sucked in.

It all sounds fang-tastic (sorry). Originally shown as a three-hour movie and then split into episodes for repeats, at the time of this comic’s publication it was thought to be one of those “lost” BBC shows, which as a Doctor Fan I know all about. However, in a spooky coincidence, in the same month this issue was released the BBC repeated Count Dracula as a two-parter, possibly spurred on by the success of Francis Ford Coppola‘s movie. It hasn’t been broadcast since but was released on DVD in the early 2000s, so there may be a little second-hand purchase for Hallowe’en this year.

Finally, there’s a second six-page back up strip simply called Werewolf. I sighed when I saw a credit for Vampirella’s writer but this is an error, it was actually written by Larry Ivie (Eerie, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, artist on Castle of Frankenstein) for #1 of Creepy back in 1964 by Vampirella’s Warren Publishing. This story follows a complete asshole of a big game hunter (aren’t they all?) but he’s by no means the hero of the story. Treating local tribespeople like simpletons and beating his assistant, the ultimate outcome of the strip is satisfying as a result.

He’s been hired to track down a fabled immortal beast that’s said to transform into a human during the day. It has never killed but its evil apparently infects those around it. In the end he does indeed track it down and empties bullet after bullet into it to no avail. Not until he hits the one tiny white spot on its body does it fall to the ground. It then turns into a previous animal hunter, who had been cursed to live as the beast until someone else skilled in killing innocent animals could take it down.

The hunter of the story then transforms into the werewolf, doomed to live this way for hundreds of years just like his predecessor. The moral of the story is clear and it’s always fun to see someone who hunts animals for fun get their commence in my book. Or in my comics, I should say. A simple, straight-to-the-point story with some gorgeous art by Frank Frazetta (Famous Funnies, Conan the Barbarian novel covers, album covers and movie posters), this bodes well for the comic’s choice of any additional back up strips from here on. Speaking of which, time to check out that back cover.

There’s a full-page Next Issue back cover just like Aliens had in its #8 and this too was used as advertising across the range. With four more pages (is this where Aliens’ four pages wandered off to?), the origin story of our main character, more Vampirella and an interview (fingers crossed) with Anne Rice, the comic is about to continue morphing into something quite different, heralded by the change in logo away from that of the movie’s. All for the same price though. Which of course is free for you lot, just tune into the OiNK Blog from Sunday 11th May (four weeks from now instead of three).

iSSUE FOUR < > iSSUE SiX

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Comic Reviews, Dracula

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA #4: THE CHANGiNG FACE OF EViL

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While it’s not the easiest to read (and so wouldn’t have stood out from the cover on newsagent shelves), look closely at Mika Mignola’s cover to this latest edition of Dark Horse International’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula and you’ll spot a new addition to this fourth issue. Vampirella has joined the comic as a back up strip, just as Xenozoic Tales would join the fourth issue of the publisher’s Jurassic Park later in the year.

For both series, sales figures had proved themselves enough that the three-weekly movie adaptations were turned into monthly ongoings, the final chapter split in order to get ahead of the new schedule and introduce readers to new content. Inside this comic, both strips run to 14 pages, Dracula himself getting exactly half the amount as normal. However, Vampirella gets no introduction anywhere and the editorial is still in the hands of Van Helsing.

I’m going to assume once the main strip concludes we’ll no longer have these characterful introductions so I’m enjoying them while they last. The final chapter begins with a scene that simply can’t be conveyed properly through still images, that of Anthony Hopkins devouring his food in the English pub like a savage. The result is a much more restrained version of the character, which is unfortunate.

In fact, I realise this has been the main problem for writer Roy Thomas all this time. It’s just impossible to convey in a comic the wonderful acting choices the talented cast made throughout the movie. However, when we turn the page and Mina questions him on how her best friend Lucy died, we do get one of the film’s rare comedic moments still intact. Darkly comedic of course. Very darkly comedic. 

This chapter includes the burning of the boxes containing Transylvanian soil Dracula had moved to his newly purchased, abandoned Abbey. It includes all of the ancient text, the Latin words spoken by Van Helsing to cleanse the place of evil. But more interestingly for me is the beginning of this scene with the rules of the vampire set out. They were a world apart from the clichéd rules we’d become used to from decades of other movies and TV shows.

Alongside the death of Renfield the main bulk here is dedicated to Mina deciding to join her beloved Count in eternal life. While it’d be impossible to convey how surprisingly touching this scene was (especially given what it was about!) thanks to the excellent performances of Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, penciller Mike, inker John Nyberg and colourist Mark Chiarello (alongside letterer John Costanza) do an excellent job of portraying their intimacy in what’s actually a shocking moment. For an adaptation of this movie it’s perfect.

The iconic moment of Dracula using one of his nails to slice across his chest, drawing blood for Mina to drink, is presented in a similar fashion. Then the colours are shifted for one panel to highlight the key moment. After two pages of blue this really stands out. Then, interrupted by Jonathan and Van Helsing, Dracula changes into his man bat form and reiterates his anger from the beginning of the film. I always found this the most fascinating and surprising part of the character; a devoted Christian who had sacrificed so much in the name of their God, the religion’s archaic beliefs and the selfish nature of its men betraying him.

I never knew this side of the character from the Dracula films we saw growing up; he and Christianity are essentially two sides of the same coin. While the cross and Van Helsing’s devotion to the faith fight evil, Coppola’s film never let us forget whose fault this was in the first place, why Vlad became what he did. On the flip side, he’s obviously a monster and a mass murderer but we never forget why this happened to him. The film perfectly balances this to such a degree that we’re both horrified and emotionally moved by him.

In the middle of the issue is Bloodlines by Dave Hughes, the usual two-page news section about all things vampiric in the world of 90s entertainment. Dracula’s Oscar nominations are mentioned and, while I could easily look up who did and did not win, I’m going to wait and let the comic tell me, just as readers at the time had to. I’m looking forward to finding out, though.

The competition informs us of the insane lead time needed when working on the comic, the Sound Bites are actually interesting this month with their comparison between 1977 (the year I was born, funnily enough) and 1993 in respect to thoughts about vampire films, and there’s mention of all-night events at the cinema. Personally, I found watching Terminator 1, 2 and Genisys back-to-back in a cinema long enough, never mind a whole night! (Especially given how that place smelled by the end.)

I have to say the choice of image for the award nominations as presented by Columbia Pictures is a strange one. To anyone not familiar with the film they could easy assume Tom Waits was playing the lead character. Then opposite this always-fun news feature is the first page of our black-and-white back up and I breathed a sigh when I saw it. Not of relief, but of disappointment and pessimism.

Over the years I’ve seen Vampirella comics advertised here and there and even as an impressionable teenage boy I always felt her clothing (or lack of) was shamelessly gratuitous. Not that I would’ve used those words as a teenager! As an adult I think she always looked like she was there to appeal to a certain type of male reader, of which I am not. So while researching for this review it was a shock to find out she was co-created by a woman.

Trina Robbins did so much fantastic work to raise the profile of women in comics that I’m rethinking my assumptions about this character

Vampirella was created by Forrest J. Ackerman (literary agent, actor, editor) and Trina Robbins (Wonder Woman, Strip AIDS, GoGirl!) in 1969. Trina did so much fantastic work to raise the profile of women in comics throughout her life I’m rethinking my assumptions about this character. In fact, it was Trina who designed her look. Editor Archie Goodwin then continued to write and develop her.

While the issue gives no official introduction other than the cover headline, there’s a brief history of the character in the strip. So, Earth’s vampires originate from Dracula, a forgotten member of the Vampiri race who left his homeworld (Drakulon) centuries ago only to be corrupted by the demonic entity known as Chaos. Vampirella is the last of her race who came to our planet after her own died out. With no other choice, she has to feed on human blood. However, underneath she’s good so I’m assuming she attacks and drinks but does not kill. Even Dracula was originally peaceful in his story. I also assume the ridiculously revealing costume is how her race dress.

It’d be polite to say this story is “of its time”. While Trina co-created her, this particular story (of which she was not involved in) feels very much like a strip written by men for men. Rescued from the cold by a doctor running a remote retreat for the rich, he’s amputated her apparently rotting wings and is clearly lusting after her, despite an angry nurse claiming he must keep his distance from Vampirella while dangling a satanic-looking necklace.

The best part is a graveyard scene depicting a descendent of Van Helsing‘s digging up bodies to ram stakes through their hearts. This might explain why this story has been chosen as a back up and it’s an interesting segue, but in the main I’m disappointed with our main character. She’s scared of the doctor, terrified even, and for most of the strip is portrayed as having a strong will to resist whatever drugs she’s on. She’s piecing together the mystery of what’s going on but then suddenly she’s snogging the man after a simple slug of his blood.

The strip is from 1970 so it’s very much from a time when a strong female lead character was rare. In fact, that was still a rare thing when Barrie Tomlinson created Kitten Magee in Wildcat comic in the late 1980s! But this was the 70s, so apparently a strong female character still had to be dressed to appeal to men’s baser instincts and fall for the man full of red flags at the drop of a hat. This doesn’t read well today.

Back to the comic’s title character and the Inside Dracula making-of series by Gary Gerani and Dave Hughes is only one page this month, possibly to spread the final part over two issues just like the strip. A piece about Salem’s Lot by Seamus Ryan is the random substitute for one page, in which he discusses its vastly different cuts. Disappointingly, there’s still no sign of the promised Sadie Frost interview and by this point I’m just going to assume it’s not going to appear.

The mention of deleted scenes reminded me I still hadn’t checked them out so I got my Apple TV on and watched them today. I like making-of features but usually skip deleted scenes (they’ve been deleted for a reason). After watching them for Dracula I can still say the only exception are the ones from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which I’d love to see added back in to that movie. Oh, and Dracula’s final box office? On a budget of $40,000,000 it raked in a superb $215,862,692 according to Box Office Mojo. Superb! And well deserved!

The final paragraph of director Francis Ford Coppola’s view on why he makes movies reminds me of why I write. So it feels like a fitting note to end the review on. I’m intrigued to find out what direction the comic is headed in and look forward to the art depicting the movie’s climax in just three weeks, on Sunday 13th April 2025.

iSSUE THREE < > iSSUE FiVE

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Comic Reviews, Dracula

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA #1: DARK ARTS

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The first new real time read through for 2025 adds a third title to the Dark Horse International menu on the blog with Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1993. This was released in the same year as their Jurassic Park comic and follows a similar formula, the movie adaptation taking up all of the comic strip space inside and followed by some extra features. This is similar to the Alien³ Movie Special mini-series from the previous year and has the same description down the left-hand border.

However, much like Jurassic Park, this comic would continue beyond the end of the movie and become an ongoing monthly, albeit with a rather big caveat (which we’ll get to when the time comes). The atmospheric cover by Mike Mignola (Hellboy, Rocket Raccoon, Baltimore) cements the dark, gothic feel of the strip  and upon opening we’re met with a suitably black interior design.

I defy anyone who has seen the film not to read the introduction in Anthony Hopkins’ voice. I note that subscriptions are offered so clearly DHI were hoping the adaptation issues would be enough of a success for them to carry on. However, while it was advertised as a fortnightly in other comics it’s actually triweekly like the aforementioned adaptations.

Edited by Dick Hansom (Jurassic Park, Aliens, Speakeasy), the 36-page comic has a lovely glossy cover with matte interior pages, a 28-page first chapter and two two-page features at the rear. So far, so DHI. The real stand out here is the strip’s art. Regular readers will know how I feel about movie adaptations but to see an original art style filled me with confidence for this one.

The art goes the opposite way of the elaborate, ornate movie. It may have quite simply drawn scenes and characters, but it’s the use of shadow that ties it in so neatly to the film. There’s simply no way of capturing the intricacy of the design and the style of Francis Ford Coppola’s direction so instead it feels like penciller Mike, inker John Nyberg (Action Comics, Doom Patrol, Nexus) and colourist Mark Chiarello (Batman/Houdini, Hellboy, Hush) have gone for atmosphere over detail.

It works. It looks old-fashioned but I don’t mean in an ‘out-of-date comic’ kind of way. I mean the individual panels feel like they could’ve been drawn around the time the story is set and cleaned up for the 90s. Simple, sometimes scratchy line work with a mixture of bold colours for the more horrific scenes and subdued, almost washed out colours for the spookier moments, with the swathes of black in all the panels capturing that claustrophobic, haunted feel of the film, it’s just perfect.

John Costanza (Jurassic Park, The Tomb of Dracula, Red) does an incredible job on lettering Roy Thomas‘ (Conan, Secret Origins, Stoker’s Dracula) script too. Whether it’s historical prose, different handwriting (or typed text) for each character’s diary or his regular style, it’s all very clever and captures the narrative aspects of the film, as you can see above. The original US comic edited by story by Jim Salicrup (writer on Transformers, Sledge Hammer and The A-Team), credited here as story editor.

Sometimes, however, the use of shadow can make it difficult to work out sequences of events and once or twice I found myself perusing panels a few times to work out what was happening, and that’s with me having seen the film recently. Like most comics adaptations the main audience would’ve been those who’d seen the movie already rather than new readers. Even more so with this one, I feel.

I’ve criticised previous movie adaptations for rushing through their screenplays or for being poor copies of their big screen originals, but I’ve also praised those that took the time to properly adapt the story to a different medium. Bram Stoker’s Dracula falls into the latter category. While what’s written on the page is basically verbatim from the script, the art does a perfect job of taking the movie fan back into that world to enjoy it in a different way.

A perfect example of this is the moment when the carriage comes to pick up Jonathan Harker. In the film a massive set was built for this scene and it was full of highly detailed, creepy imagery. Here, all of that is stripped back. Instead, the sparse nature of the art and the use of shadow captures how that moment felt for the viewer. This brings the chill of the scene to the reader much better than any attempt to just copy it ever could have.

The shadow work brings another benefit too. Previous attempts at adapting a movie have had mixed results in portraying the actors. Most times there’s no attempt at all (and that may have been due to rights), other times they’ve tried so hard to capture their likeness they become stilted and expressionless. This team does something different. Through clever use of dark shadows the characters look enough like the actors without having too much detail, meaning they retain their expressiveness and, most importantly (and something Alien³ failed to do) their faces remain distinct from each other’s.

Not all of the film’s iconic visuals translate well to the page though, the best/worst example being Jonathan’s train journey. While that marvellous model shot couldn’t hope to be replicated on the page, the zooming in on the peacock’s feathers makes no sense here and Dracula’s eyes in the sky just look weird. These moments were great examples of the film’s iconic style but I can’t help thinking they’d have been best left out here, or at least have the Count’s eyes elaborated on to make more sense in this medium than the seemingly random panel below.

The first chapter of the story ends on that horrible/terrifying scene with the baby. Anyone who has seen the film will know exactly which moment I’m talking about! Then it’s quite jarring to come to white pages. I kind of wish they’d kept them black, but that may have made them hard on the eyes. As with the first five issues of Jurassic Park, Gary Gerani’s behind-the-scenes feature is in parts and begins with the original source material. I remember at the time some people complaining about what they thought were “changes” to the character (e.g. Dracula walking about outside), so thankfully that’s all put to rest here, confirming this film is the one that follows the book and portrays the character most accurately.

I’m usually one who likes to read opening credits and link the names listed to other films I’ve watched, but I was surprised to find out which family-friendly Steven Spielberg movie James V. Hart had written! Although, I do disagree with him on the best way to read Bram Stoker’s novel. If it’s your first time reading any novel it shouldn’t be the annotated version, or at the very least ignore the annotations until your second reading. They can be fascinating on second reads, but they interrupt the flow of the work and can also contain spoilers for later in the book.

Dave Hughes’ Bloodlines is the news feature of the comic, similar to his Motion Tracker pages in Aliens. With Bram Stoker’s Dracula still in the cinemas at the time of publication the comic was keeping us up to date with its takings so far. It would go on to rake in over four times that amount. Also truly placing the comic in the past is the description of Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) as a new actor on the scene! But it’s surely another film release that will catch blog readers’ attentions.

Who knew that silly film would go on to be reincarnated as a hit TV show? A show I really enjoyed until (coincidentally) Dracula turned up. Treating him like an easily-slayed villain-of-the-week was annoying and I remember that season becoming too sombre and lacked the humour of previous years, so I stopped watching. But anyway, it’s another example of placing this comic in our own timelines.

The news pages also mention Malcolm X, another film of the same era that I must revisit sometime, and Anno Dracula, an alternate history novel by Kim Newman which sounds fascinating, although I admit even all these years later I’ve never heard of it. Upon doing a bit of research I found out that in Anno Dracula, the Count’s first wife is called ‘Elisabeta’, a name taken from this film. Also above, you’ll see the usual fun competition and address our comics and magazines like to do at the time.

Rounding off the issue on the inside back cover is this advert for a very 90s jacket tie-in The Master from Doctor Who would’ve liked, and on the back page is an advert for #9 of Aliens. Even though #8 was still to be released two days later, the next one had some exciting new additions and this was also used as a Next Issue page in the Aliens comic itself.

It’s never going to tell the story as well as the film for newbies but this comic was clearly aimed at those who had just enjoyed Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the cinema. In that regard this is the best movie adaptation I’ve come across so far on the blog. That art, that brave decision to create its own unusual style that somehow feels just right, is wonderful. There’ll hopefully be for wonderfulness in just three weeks with #2 on Sunday 9th February 2025.

GO TO iSSUE TWO

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Alien³, Comic Reviews

ALiEN³ MOViE SPECiAL #2: THE BiTCH iS BACK

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I know I write a comics blog but I’ve been looking forward more to the written features in this second issue of Dark Horse International’s three-issue Alien³ mini-series, way more than the comic strip. This is not only because the previous edition’s features were so good, it’s also because there’s a big, meaty interview with none other than Ellen Ripley herself, Sigourney Weaver!

Dave Hughes’ piece is definitely the highlight of the issue, although other pages do come a close second. If DHI had instead released a one-off special magazine with all of these articles and left the strip out it would’ve been the most amazing tie-in for this movie. But at £1.50 per issue it’s not like this was overly expensive anyway, even back in 1992. So let’s see what our star has to say about the film, her career and even her family over the opening five pages.

My first encounter with Sigourney on film was the original Ghostbusters but to me the first three (we’ll forget about the fourth) Alien films are what I know her for best (although her cameo during the end credits of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is hilarious). After the article in Aliens #2 which negatively reviewed the Aliens Special Edition it’s nice to read Sigourney’s viewpoint. It really did reinstate Ripley’s “raison d’être” as she says, something that had angered her when it was cut because she’d been playing the character a certain way, only to have the whole reason for her performance edited out.

I also totally agree with her description of Ghostbusters II; despite loving it as a kid my adult eyes see it for what it was now. The original idea for back-to-back third and fourth Alien films sounds interesting and I adore her initial reaction to meeting director David Fincher. I’m not at all surprised at the pathetic criticisms over the cast being bald (I mean, you’d expect stuff like that on certain social media sites these days) and while reading this I was actually saddened they brought her back for Alien: Resurrection.

“I came to realise that the only way she [Ripley] could finally get any peace was if I, the actor, was willing to go deep into the material and allow her a release.”

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney was adamant at this stage that Alien³ was her final film in the series but that they should definitely continue without her. What she says about giving the character this interesting situation, this amount of courage, and how she saw her as a friend and going deep into the material to give the character a release feels so genuine. I remember the first time I heard the recording from the end of Alien played out at the end of Alien³ and it was so poignant. She also doesn’t spoil the ending!

It’s touching to read how filming Aliens with Carrie Henn resulted in Sigourney wanting to start her own family and how this led to the autopsy scene in Alien³ being so excruciating for her to film (although she says it should be an excruciating watch), and I wonder if her wish to make a film about obsession led to Copycat, the fantastic 1995 thriller. It’s a fascinating read so please do take your time to enjoy it all.

After this great start I turned the page and realised I was about to endure 24 pages of the comic strip adaptation again. Maybe that’s unfair, perhaps it would see an improvement over last issue’s chapter. There are definitely some nicely realised scenes with the alien here, Christopher Taylor (pencils) and Rick Magyar (inks) seem to revel in bringing this very different version of the xenomorph to the page, but they still manage to make all of the human characters look identical.

While the film has a muted palette, just like the film the moments of horror bring an outburst of colour from Matt Webb that make these really stand out but the script by Steve Grant (written up by Clem Robins on letters) still reads like a copy-and-paste job from the film script. Overall, it feels like one of those rushed “Previously On…” bits you’d get at the start of a TV show which rushes through things as quickly as possible before getting to the main event. It’s just that this is actually the main event.

It does contain one of the main missing plots of the original theatrical release when they capture the alien only for Golic to become obsessed with seeing it released. This whole character arc for Paul McGann was excised, despite him being credited as the second lead actor, but any excitement felt at its reinstatement in comic form is soon dispersed because it’s all done within a few pages and really adds nothing to this version of the story, unlike the Special Edition of the movie. Such a shame.

Some of the funny moments are also conspicuous by their absence since they rely on swearing which the comic has to limit. It also really makes you appreciate the performances (both powerful and subtle) of all of the fantastic cast assembled for Alien³ and makes me want to watch it again to see how this story was meant to be experienced. In that regard I guess it does the job for a comic adaptation, promoting a film which was in the cinema at the time.

After I praised editor Dick Hansom for keeping the poster separate from the pages of the comic last month, he’s now unfortunately gone and done that pet peeve of mine and called it a “free” poster on the cover while printing it on the middle pages, with the comic strip on its rear. At least it’s still printed on lovely high-quality gloss paper so it really pops next to the matt paper stock. Those pages of the strip also look better now too, so it’s a shame they’d have to be removed to use the poster.

Alien³ Bug Hunting takes a look at some of the merchandise available for the movie, confusingly listed with letters instead of numbers, momentarily making me turn the page to look for the remaining 19 lettered entries. It’s a shame the soundtrack isn’t available on Apple Music because Elliot Goldenthal’s music really was incredible, and I like the funny comment here about what wasn’t included. Fans of the film will know exactly what this is in reference to.

Next to that entry is news of the UK’s version of the VHS pack containing Alien and the Special Edition of Aliens, both in widescreen which was a big deal at the time when we all had 4:3 TVs and were so used to only seeing half the picture of our films. With postcards of original art by Simon Bisley also included this would’ve been on the top of my wish list at the time… if I’d known about it.

After another two pages of that Aliens Vs Predator II strip (I showed you a chapter of it in the review for Aliens #3) You’ve Been Bugged contains no less than 16 quotes from various people involved with Alien³ (and one reviewer) and it’s a quick grab bag of opinions about the film, a smorgasbord of information for fans to lap up. Actor Brian Glover, who played prison warden Harold Andrews, is spot on and perfectly sums up what made the first three movies stand out so much to me (and to my mum when she and I both watch Aliens for the first time together, something she really enjoyed because of what Glover says here ).

By contrast the xenomorph’s original designer, H.R. Giger doesn’t seem to understand this very salient point, which seems somewhat short-sighted when you read the next quote from Tom Woodruff Jnr, who explains just how much Giger’s work inspired not only the alien but the design of the third film. There’s more contradiction between writer William Gibson and writer/producer David Giler in the next two quotes too.

Unfortunately the superb Michael Biehn’s (Hicks in Aliens) quote makes him come across as rather bitter that he’s not in Alien³ but of course we’ve only got this very small quote to go on, without the larger context of the conversation he had with whoever was interviewing him, so we’ll not dwell. David Giler returns with the final quote to ruin the ending again (even before the strip got to the end) and Screen International film reviewer Patricia Dobson seems to have wanted no more than a rehash of the second film instead of something original, which ironically I bet reviewers would’ve heavily criticised.

This bodes very well indeed not only for the next issue of this comic but also for the remaining 19 of Aliens itself

The issue rounds off its nicely varied features with a two-page Technical Readout which is always a great read in the regular monthly title. You may take a glimpse at this double-page spread and think, “Really, Phil? You expect us to read an article about an escape pod? About what is basically a space lifeboat?” Well yes, I do. When I saw this I immediately assumed I wouldn’t be including it here, because how interesting could it be? When I started reading I realised my assumption had been wrong and Lee Brimmicombe-Wood completely surprised me.

Yep, it’s actually an interesting read, isn’t it? That’s testament not only to the detail to be found within every aspect of the Alien universe but also to Lee’s writing, that he can create two pages about a space lifeboat and make it really interesting. This bodes very well indeed not only for the next issue of this comic but also for the remaining 19 of Aliens itself.

So there we go, great features and a strip with some decent alien artwork that has me wishing Christopher and Rick had created a cover or an original poster of their version of the xenomorph. These make up for the disappointing adaptation itself by some margin, and I’m looking forward to the third and final issue in just three weeks. Watch out for the review on the OiNK Blog on Monday 16th September 2024.

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ALiEN³ MOViE SPECiAL #1: THiS iS RUMOUR CONTROL

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While it may say ‘Monthly’ in the Dark Horse International border on the cover, the three issues of the Alien³ Movie Special were released every three weeks (bit of a pattern there) like the earlier editions of Jurassic Park would be the following year when it was also publishing its movie adaptation. Instead of being printed as part of their regular Aliens comic, DHI decided to release this adaptation separately and include a wealth of fascinating extras.

What I instantly like as I flick through the issue is the fact that the free poster is actually free! It’s separate from the rest of the comic and isn’t just the middle pages. (I’m looking at you The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Doctor Who Magazine.) It’s not the image you’d expect it to be from the cover but it’s still a cracker and on the gloss paper it really sizzles.

The comic’s cover is taken straight from their American publication rather than being an original like their monthly and it’s by Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies, Deadpool, Moon Knight). Inside, the editorial by Dick Hansom welcomes us to both this limited run comic and DHI as a whole, promising many more titles to come over the years. Of course, DHI would close down in 1994 but I love their ambition. While I hadn’t really discovered James Bond for myself at the time, that definitely would’ve been one for the blog if they’d gotten around to bringing it over.

There’s an interesting feature right off the bat written by the main title’s regular features writer Dave Hughes. 20 Things You Should Know About Alien³ is a smorgasbord of little tidbits about the film which was still 16 days away from its UK release date. What you as blog readers should know is that I’m a big fan of Alien³, even more so today than at the time.

I always enjoyed it and thought it made for an original contribution to the series, making the first three films very different from each other. Some friends weren’t as crash-hot on it though. However, since then the Collector’s Edition has been released and to me it raises Alien³ up to an equal footing alongside the first two classics. In it there’s a lot more story, a lot more to the alien itself and some of the characters we only saw a little of are now central to the plot. In the case of Golic, (played by Eighth Doctor Paul McGann) he went from being a background player to being a main lead and central to the more complex plot.

So it’s interesting to see there were more creatures due to be featured at one point, including a bigger, armoured version of the facehugger and there’s mention of the ‘ox-burster’ being replaced by the ‘dog-burster’. This was switched back again for the Collector’s Edition, which altogether is much closer to David Fincher‘s original vision for the film. Point four above hints at the chaos in pre-production (pre-Fincher) and you can read more about that in the review for Aliens #1.

Point 13 stands out as well to me, both that the film wasn’t trashed across the board and also what it says about American fans. According to Dave, of course. 

So now we move on to what is essentially the main event, the 25 pages of strip that make up the first part of the comics adaptation. For those new to the blog I’ll quickly explain I’m not usually a fan of movie adaptations, ever since being disappointed with them in childhood. However, since writing the blog I’ve seen some which definitely start off well and have potential to be really good (so I’ll always give them a chance), but ultimately they’ve fallen apart because there’s so much to cram in.

That’s the main issue here. There are only three chapters, one less than Jurassic Park was given, so within these 25 pages we’re already a third of the way through the film! As such it rockets along and leaves everything I love about the film (the atmosphere, the characterisations, the unique portrayals, the mystery, the plot development) behind in order to simply copy and paste passages from the script into speech balloons and accompany them with something looking vaguely like what we saw on the screen. There doesn’t seem to be any proper attempt to adapt this adaptation for a different medium.

Strangely, it starts off by showing us Ripley being impregnated by the symbiote after Newt dies in her cryo tube. In the film this scene was presented as quick-cut moments between the credits so we didn’t know what was really going on. We knew there was something wrong but the scene later when the alien doesn’t kill Ripley was a surprise and the audience could start putting two-and-two together, but here it’s all laid out for us before anyone in the UK would’ve seen the film.

Another issue is the art pencilled by Christopher Taylor (Old Man Quill, Hulk, Blood Pack), inked by Rick Magyar (Captain America, Deathlok, Rom), coloured by Matt Webb (Spider-Girl, Adventures of The Mask, Fish Police) and lettered by Jim Massara (Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, Droopy). I do like how it’s all framed in black, giving it an overall darker feel, possibly trying to mimic that atmosphere, but no one resembles their on screen actor in any way, not even Ripley. It also doesn’t help that all of the bald white men look identical here. There’s just no way of following who is who, who they’re talking to, or what’s happening to whom.

Moments that were jump scares in the film just don’t work and a lack of narrative captions doesn’t help either, so scene changes are very jarring, especially when they involve the same characters. Even for someone who has seen the film countless times this is a very confusing read. Unfortunately, script-wise it’s a very by-the-book strip by writer Steve Grant (The Punisher, X, Whisper). I don’t envy his task (as Don McGregor told us in The Lost World: Jurassic Park comic it’s ludicrously difficult to adapt a movie to the medium) but the end result feels even more rushed than most.

Take this scene above. When you first turn the page it certainly catches the eye, that’s for sure. But it’s only from watching the film so many, many times that I know what the characters are doing, why they’re lighting candles (even that isn’t obvious), or what happens in the sequence that sees one of them killed and has the other two running in circles trying to escape in sheer panic. In the film this is a terrifying scene, expertly directed and lit by nothing more than tiny flames.

The latter part of the comic houses more features by Dave, beginning with a look at the complex back and forth between the movie and UK model company Halcyon. I didn’t think I’d find this interesting but it really is, especially when founder Barry Jones admits their model of the alien itself isn’t accurate due to changes made during production of the film. They kept the model as it was because in a stationary pose it just didn’t look right with the changes, while it looked excellent in the film.

Unfortunately for readers at the time it’s a bit spoiler-heavy. Could they not have kept some of these details back at least until the film was released here? Then again, the fate of Newt and Hicks was already in the strip the reader would’ve just read. What’s most interesting is the fact that there was no definitive chest-burster alien to draw from before now, that Alien³ was the first time we actually saw one in its entirety.

“To me, the alien wasn’t just a monster, it was a character”

David Fincher, director Alien³

After that is a strange little two-page black-and-white Aliens vs Predator strip involving no more than three panels and a splash page that tells us the predators are responsible for spreading the aliens throughout the galaxy. It’s to continue across both Alien³ and the monthly Aliens so I’m sure I’ll show you a more interesting bit at some stage. After this is the best feature of the issue, called Trouble Comes in ³s, again by Dave.

Thankfully he moves beyond the heavily publicised pre-production problems and instead concentrates on the actual production of the film. Again, as great as it is I can’t help but feel it should’ve been held back for at least the second issue. Okay, so I don’t know yet what that one will contain but this is very spoiler heavy for any comic fans reading before watching the film.

Even the ending is given away! I do like how the feature praises first-time director David Fincher, who was unfairly maligned for problems the film faced even though they were beyond his control. What he did produce was great, and that newer version of the film in particular is testament to that. 

There’s mention too of the more complex story involving the capture and release of the alien by Paul McGann’s character, all of which was excised in the original cut before being placed back in over a decade later. The article also works as a fascinating look at the beginning of what would be an incredible directing career. Finally, effects technician Chris Halls is a name you’ll see more of on the blog as he’s the artist of some stunning covers for the UK comic to come. 

The issue ends with a brief one-page feature I won’t include because it’s a very quick interview with an incredibly arrogant British special effects supervisor who boasts about how his team made life awkward for the Americans working on the film and he does nothing but slag off (that’s the best way to describe it) the script. Not what I’d include in the comic when it completely relies on said film.

Out of the 48 pages in total the 23 that don’t contain comic strip are by far the best and as a fan of the movie I’ve found them fascinating, not only for the information on the film they contain but for how this eagerly anticipated sequel was covered at the time. As such, I look forward to more of those pages in three weeks when #2 of the Alien³ Movie Special leaps from the shadows and on to the blog on Monday 26th August 2024, and before that on Tuesday 20th August remember to check in on Aliens #3 too.

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