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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #9: ANOTHER GLORiOUS DAY iN THE CORPS

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I’ve been excited for this ninth issue of Dark Horse International’s flagship Aliens comic for a few reasons. First up, it includes the free gift mini-comic, a rare treat when buying classic comics. Secondly, Hive finally comes to its long overdue conclusion. Thirdly, the epic Colonial Marines strip I remember from the one issue I bought as a teenager begins. But there’s something else above and beyond all of that.

This issue contains the first British strip, never before printed anywhere else in the world. This must’ve been a hugely exciting development for readers, given the success of Marvel UK’s comics with similar mixes of imported and original stories, such as Transformers. The promise here is that every single issue will include an exclusive from now on and even decades later I’m excited by the prospect.

The excitement for the American Colonial Marines strip is tempered somewhat though, knowing I’ll not get to read the end. Unfortunately the comic would be cancelled before it’s 24 parts played out, but I’m still here for it and to experience it as readers would’ve at the time. The features pages have had a freshening up too as evidenced with the editorial above (where you’ll find full credits for this issue), and then it’s straight into the very-90s-UK-comic painted art of Sacrifice: Part One.

I remember not being a fan of this art style at the time in a friend’s 2000AD but it’s grown on me in the years since. Back then I didn’t like the lack of inked outlines and sometimes found them hard to follow, but now I think they look glorious. For Aliens, artist Paul Johnson is a very welcome addition to the inside of the comic after his previous covers for #2 and #3 (and this issue’s is his too).

For the first few panels of  the story I thought it was set underwater (teenage me would’ve been lost, no doubt) but Peter Milligan’s (Eagle, Egypt, Skin) story begins in a more familiar setting with a crashing spaceship. Of course I assumed the ship had been in distress because of an alien but we soon find out this story’s alien is actually already on the planet where Ann McKay finds herself as the lone survivor of the crash.

Sacrifice: Part One is 12 pages long, a typical length for a British strip and it’s certainly the star here, even if the story seems made up of several clichés pasted together. After stumbling upon a set of man-made stone blocks covered in blood and an alien nearby, Ann runs, falls and knocks herself unconscious. She awakes some time later and soon finds herself in a settlement filled with strange people acting strangely who don’t like strangers. You know the type from any horror film set in a remote village.

Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention

Ann finds out the alien has been stalking the settlement for nine months and it doesn’t take a genius to work out the link between the fact it didn’t chase her, the blood covered blocks (clearly altars) and the name of the story. So we’ve creepy people sacrificing one of their own to the alien on a regular basis and an alien who has decided it’s a good enough arrangement that it doesn’t attack? It can’t be that simple. It can’t be that bizarre!

The characters might be clichéd (we even see a nighttime scene of the villagers heading to the altars by torchlight carrying something that looks suspiciously like a baby) and the dialogue is stilted, but the art is superb and there’s an atmosphere and a mystery about it that intrigues me. Perhaps the alien just can’t get into the settlement and the sacrifices made are in vain? But why didn’t it chase Ann?

This final page is of Ann’s recurring nightmares of an alien floating above her bed. She’s imagining it with eyes, curious as to what the alien sees in her after she didn’t tell the one kind villager that she saw the blocks. She’s scared but can’t understand why. Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention.

Of course, Hive also had great potential during the first few issues but now I can’t wait to see the back of it and its characters. So it’s with great delight that I turn to the final chapter. Again, Kelley Jones‘ and Les Dorscheid’s art of the aliens themselves is superb and I’d love to see them team up to do a story involving likeable humans and a more interesting plot. Narrative captions wouldn’t hurt either, so I was glad to see their occasional use here.

Even though they’re meant to be taken from Dr Mayakovsky’s scientific journal on ants they help explain things that the plot and art sometimes struggle to. It’s only in the story recap (before the strip) that I realise the ship that landed last time belonged to the team’s rivals and not the main characters. The captions are a simple fix and ultimately allow the art to shine. So anyway, this is the final part and despite the story going downhill previously these final nine pages manage to be even more terrible. 

Basically, Mayakovsky sends synthetic human Gill to the ship to ask for help off the planet, but when he realises they’ll take all of the alien jelly from him he orders Gill to self-destruct and blow them up instead! But then he contacts his own ship and tells the captain he can have it all if he just rescues them? This makes no sense. Then, with rescue on the way he and his lover Lish overdose on the jelly to enter a state of euphoria and start making love instead of doing anything to try to delay the aliens getting to them.

So they’re all dead and I’m trying my best to not be glad about that, because we’re meant to be rooting for the humans and terrified of the aliens. But I was cheering the xenomorphs on by the end. To add insult to injury the art on the last two pages above looks very rushed. In particular that chest buster looks awful, like a child has drawn it. I don’t know what happened to the saving grace of the strip but boy, am I glad Hive is over! 

No matter how bad that got over the past few months, I could always rely on the Motion Tracker news pages to bring me some retro goodness and it doesn’t disappoint again. There are a couple of funny ‘shock’ headlines to begin with and that story regarding Sigourney Weaver shows just how much the world has moved on. These were the days when actresses were less likely to be hired for movies and TV just because they were brunette!

I wonder if that list of directors would’ve had a different order just a few months later after the release of Jurassic Park? Especially with innovation being a key factor. The comic gives away a copy of Alien³ on VHS despite panning the video’s pan-and-scan 4:3 ratio elsewhere in the issue. It also categorically states a Terminator 3 would be impossible, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it first mention of a movie that would spawn a future TV obsession of mine. These sorts of things are the reason I love looking back via these pages every month.

Written by Chris Warner, artist on the comic’s Aliens/Predator crossover, our second new strip, Colonial Marines: Part One is 12 pages (the strips are more evenly distributed this time around) and we’re treated to an exclusive Technical Readout of the corps before it for context. It kicks off on board a Sungun, a device set up on an asteroid by another huge corporation which literally fires barrels of toxic waste into a nearby sun. Clearly in the future universe of Aliens we’ve just taken our shit elsewhere. An autopilot dumpster arrives and there’s no response when it’s hailed. So far, so ‘Aliens’.

Elsewhere, Lt. Joseph Henry of the Colonial Marines is in trouble for striking a captain. Despite the fact the captain had been beating up a young female prostitute, only Joseph is in trouble. Recently his mum had died and because he was so far away in deep space he couldn’t be with her in her final hours, nor was his powerful military father who chose the job over her. The fact she died alone is eating away at Joseph, so I can’t blame him for punching the captain given what he was doing! In fact, I like him already.

His punishment sets up our story. Ordered to fly a team of replacement workers to an unfinished communications array in deep space, he’ll stay with them for a full year. So that’s an area of space where they can’t call for help, then. Plot point one established. But first he has to drop off a company executive to something called a ‘Sungun’ where an inspection is due to take place. Plot point two established. So exactly how are things going at the Sungun where they’d just docked the unmanned ship? Let penciller Tony Atkins (Terminator, Wonder Woman, Fables), inker Paul Guinan (Boilerplate, Chronos, Barb Wire) and colourist Matt Hollingsworth (Preacher, Catwoman, Death: The High Cost of Living) fill us in.

There we go, the plot is established and it’s so very in keeping with what we’re used to with this franchise. However, there’s a very likeable, relatable character in the middle of it all. Let’s hope the rest of the cast fall into that category. If they do, then we’re sure to be in for a great ride for the rest of the year. In fact, for the rest of the comic’s real time read through here on the blog!

For some reason the Aliens Vs Predator II strip is a reprint of the one from two issues ago. Hopefully that’ll be rectified next time, but before we finish off let’s take a quick look at that free eight-page comic. Originally printed one page at a time in Dark Horse Insider in the States it treads a very familiar path in two ways.

Firstly, the art by Denis Beauvais (videogame The Revenant, Aliens novels, Predator comics) is gorgeous throughout. Because this was created for publication at a rate of one page per month the love and detail that has gone into every one is nothing short of spectacular. However, the script by Mike Richardson (who also wrote Newt’s Tale in our previous seven issues) is sorely lacking.

The problem is that the story itself is nothing more than a series of scenes from the film in a different order with different characters. There’s a lot of recycling here. But just look at that art! For a freebie this is just stunning to look at, if not to read. What a shame that my next issue doesn’t contain its free comic with the second half of this, I’d just love to see more of that exquisite artwork by Denis. If you’d like to, you can also check out his official website.

After two great new strips this month there’s hype for more new stuff to come! According to the Dark Horse Comics Checklist, Aliens #10 replaces Hive with a new Predator strip (great, because I’ve already been missing it) and there’s a prose story joining the mix too! I’ve suddenly remembered there was one in the issue I bought as a teen so it must be a regular addition. Given how great the prose stories were in my Marvel UK and Grandreams Annuals I’m eager to see what Aliens does with the format. We’ll find out when #10 comes to the blog on Tuesday 25th March 2025. I can’t wait!

iSSUE EiGHT < > iSSUE TEN

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #8: ADiÓS, MUCHACHOS

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Any Aliens fan will recognise this scene depicted by superb Irish artist Kilian Plunkett (The Unknown Soldier, The Mask, Star Wars – The Clone Wars TV series) so we know the final part to the movie adaptation is inside #8 of Dark Horse International‘s monthly from 1993. Two of the strips come to an end this issue, while Hive will conclude next month so it’s all change for the first time since it began, as the editorial explains. The most exciting news is that one of next month’s new strips will be an exclusive created for the UK comic.

Given this news and the change in lineup the comic appears to be in rude health! As it was. It was a success for the publisher (as was Jurassic Park) but unfortunately the UK arm of Dark Horse wouldn’t survive for more than another year or so and their collapse would take these superb titles with them. But 1993 was quite the year for DHI and the same is true of the blog.

The conclusion to Newt’s Tale is the shortest strip this month, coming in at seven pages. I know it’s not officially an adaptation of the film but it’s long given up retelling the story from Newt’s point of view, which still disappoints me. It had done so, and brilliantly, in those first few chapters. But I can’t quibble about the art by Jim Somerville, Brian Garvey and Gregory Wright (full credits for all strips on the page above).

The alien Queen in particular is brilliantly portrayed and, while the human characters don’t look like their actor counterparts, they’re at least distinct enough from each other this month to follow along. Then again, there are only three left, including Bishop the synthetic. A rare piece of swearing makes it into the comic but it’s not like they could leave that line out! There was a great opportunity to see the terrifying chase between the alien and Newt from her perspective; her crawling under the floor panels, the alien ripping them off and just missing her each time. Instead, it takes up a mere three panels before concentrating on the climactic battle with Ripley.

Ironically, it’s in the final moment of this scene that they decide to show us something from Newt’s point-of-view. I know people will have seen the film before reading this, but when the past several months have been a beat-for-beat adaptation, to suddenly eschew that feels like a rushed cop out. If the whole strip had done this then these final moments would’ve fitted in fine, but those early compelling chapters and these final two pages aren’t enough to make this any different than any other movie adaptation. It’s a shame, but thankfully the art has sustained it for the most part and there’s that added surprise at the end to fit in with the newly released Alien³.

I didn’t rent Alien³ from a local video store at home originally, instead it was a year later while holidaying in the highlands of Scotland when I did so for the first time, from a mobile van library! Anyway, I never got to see the special extra video. Looking back now after watching the third film’s Special Edition it’s frustrating how director David Fincher’s vision was originally cut down so much. Oh, and it appears I was by no means alone with my thoughts about the comic’s review of the Aliens Special Edition.

In the middle of the comic the back up Predator: Cold War strip takes up ten pages for a brilliant ending to what has been the stand out strip so far. The solution to last month’s cliffhanger sees Lt. Ligachev rescue Detective Schaefer by gunning down the Predators and blasting out the wall behind him to loosen the wire traps. Then a very interest dynamic plays out.

As another Predator drops in, General Philips and his men arrive, firing off a warning shot for both the alien and the humans! The Americans want to get their man out of there so as not to interfere, instead letting the Predators leave before the Russians arrive and claim any weaponry. One of Philips’ men even threatens Schaefer and the whole situation is surprisingly tense for a comic.

The fact the alien is right there, observing, trying to work out what’s going on is a suspenseful moment. When Schaefer throws an explosive towards the ship an American soldiers opens fire and takes him down! I was genuinely shocked by this. Schaefer lies at the feet of the Predator, who replicates a human laugh and runs back inside, seemingly having worked out what’s going on. The soldier who shot Schaefer takes aim again and we see the targeting reticle dead centre on his head! General Philips, the character Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was last seen with in the film just stands by and watches.

Rasche may not have appeared much previously but he made a big impact, and that’s coming from someone who never read the previous story he and Schaefer starred in. It’s left to Lt. Ligachev to bring the story to a suitably explosive end. She knows neither the Americans nor the Russians can win. Seeing Schaefer helped to his feet by Rasche, by a friend, she realises he’s found peace at last so she has to find her’s. He watches her set the timer on the explosive and grins. Despite being on opposite sides of the Cold War, they are simpatico.

“As the American says, screw it!”, Ligachev screams as she kicks the charge into the escaping ship, recalling her football skills from an earlier issue. The ship explodes above their heads and Arnie-replacement Schaefer just has to get in the final punchline and shouts, “Yeah! That’s what you get for driving an import!” Hey, it’s based on an 80s action flick, what did you expect? Then on the final page Ligachev turns the tables on her superiors with one simple question.

After reading this strip for over half a year I’m really going to miss these characters and I think a story set in New York with these three would be a great read. It doesn’t even have to involve extraterrestrials! For now though, the Predator back up strip leaves Aliens on a high. As you’ll see below it won’t be here next month, although from checklists and adverts in Jurassic Park I know the series pops up elsewhere. The legacy of Predator: Cold War for me though? It got me watching the films for the first time!

Tucked away in the middle of the comic is Aliens: A Dire Tribe by Dave Hughes, a quick one-page feature about writer-director Clive Barker’s (Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Books of Blood) views on the Alien franchise after being approached to write Alien³. I was excited to read this but came away with a negative impression, not of the comic or of the article, but of Barker himself.

Such a famous and talented writer couldn’t find anything interesting about the aliens? The many various sequels since suggest that he just couldn’t personally come up with anything interesting. That’s fine, but instead of admitting this he blamed the franchise and the alien creations themselves, as if they were beneath him. Of course I can only give my own impression, my own takeaway, but that’s my conclusion from reading this, which is a shame.

Now we move on to the penultimate chapter of Aliens: Hive and unfortunately it’s the longest strip this time around. After barely making a whisper last month it takes up a whopping 18 pages here, more than the other two combined! I don’t want to sound like a stuck record as far as Hive is concerned, but the only reason I’m so disappointed with these last few months of the strip is because the first few chapters were so good and had so much potential.

Instead, that potential was swapped out for a run-of-the-mill thriller with unlikeable, stupid human characters who keep putting themselves into ludicrous situations. It’s like a bad teen horror, but with aliens. Captions are really needed here too because there’s a lot of very confusing art. I have no idea what’s going on in any of these panels.

We also get a sudden sub-plot involving synthetic Gill crushing on Julian Lish and it’s the creepiest thing I’ve yet seen. As well as poking her in the face and grinning maniacally while she’s unconscious, later he starts examining her hair and then kisses her, again while she’s unconscious and unable to consent. There’s no meaning to this in the plot from what I can tell, apart from giving the android some kind of thrill!

Hive is also frustrating because in scenes involving the aliens it’s clear artist Kelley Jones could produce some excellent Aliens comics if given a decent script. I pray he’s given something better at a later point in the run because as these two separate pages below show, the potential is there. Story-wise though, by this point I’m rooting for the aliens, which I shouldn’t be doing.

On to the Technical Readout and I have to hand it to Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, he has an incredible ability to take models from the movie that were created simply to look cool and fit in with an aesthetic and make it seem like every nut and bolt was very purposely created for a specific real-world reason. The ‘Jordan Tractor’ can be seen at the beginning of Aliens when Newt’s prospector parents drive out to investigate the crashed spacecraft from the first film.

I can understand having all of the Colonial Marines’ weaponry and vehicles broken down into very intricate details, but to do so with something like this is testament to Lee’s dedication to a movie he’s clearly a huge fan of. There’s simply no way someone could produce these to this quality if they were just a writer assigned a job. Plus, I want to see those races played out in a future film or TV series!

Not much happens in the latest two-page chapter of Aliens Vs Predator and on the letters page Terry Jones (not him) has a thing or two to say about “fans” who demand things of their franchises and attack those who think differently or who don’t create the exact sequel they wanted. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? No one tell Terry it’d only get worse with the advent of social media. Then there’s a special full-page Next Issue promo on the back cover.

This was also on the back page of Dracula #1 (even though it was released two days before this issue of Aliens) and I am super hyped for the next issue. There may be no Predator strip but the two new Aliens stories (and finally being able to say goodbye to Hive) will more than suffice, I’m sure. Plus, I’ve just checked and the free mini-comic is in my copy! You can check out Aliens #9 in its real time review on Tuesday 18th February 2025.

iSSUE SEVEN < > iSSUE NiNE

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Aliens, Christmas, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #7: MAYBE WE CAN BUiLD A FiRE, SiNG A COUPLE OF SONGS

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Of all the comics I’d expect to give us a Christmassy cover Aliens wouldn’t even have crossed my mind, yet here we are with an alien and their offspring getting into the icy festive feels. Chris Halls’ incredible artwork is so very 90s and, along with that funny caption it brings an eerie, gothic horror vibe to the season. Christmas is a perfect time for some scary stories and this tongue-in-cheek cover sums that up perfectly.

The editorial page has a Predator in the background, such is the importance of that franchise in the comic and I see Hive has only six pages this time around (the Predator back-up has 14). There’s an interesting tidbit about John Bolton’s images that I assumed were US covers and news of the next Dark Horse International release coming in the new year. Hmm, that one sounds good… Anyway, on to the rest of Aliens #7.

We kick off with Newt’s Tale: Part Six, the credits for it and all of this issue’s contents you can see in the image above. This chapter takes us from the room where the aliens come through the ceiling, up to the point when Ripley and Newt make a run for the elevator after torching the alien nest right in front of the queen.

There are some obvious differences here between the original film and the Special Edition this is based on, as well as moments that were still on the cutting room floor after the release of the longer version. These mainly involve company man Carter Burke. In the finished film (both versions) we see him escape the room and lock everyone in behind him, then he turns around and an alien snaps its inner mouth at him. Clearly, he died. But this wasn’t originally the case.

Here, he simply backs out of the room and we see a pair of aliens standing behind him and that’s it. I assumed we just weren’t going to see his death but several pages later (this chapter runs to 18) we see him alive in the nest and impregnated. Ripley can’t help him, it’s too late, but she gives him a grenade to end his suffering which he’s too cowardly to use.

Apparently this was filmed but cut out by James Cameron because he realised Burke should still have a facehugger attached to him at this point, so his exit from the previous scene was reedited. (While they didn’t reshoot a death scene, the shot of the alien made it clear.) I hadn’t known about this before. Moments like this and parts of the earliest chapters are what I expected from this story instead of what has been more or less a straight adaptation.

Newt also sees her mum when she awakens in the nest and then everything suddenly speeds up. Yes, things will be changed when adapting stories for different mediums; what works on screen may not necessarily work on the page. But still, while I don’t personally know how they could’ve conveyed the stillness and terror of the scene above from the movie, having it reduced to just over a page feels underwhelming.

Maybe even more so because I just watched the film three days ago. As I’ve said described before, the first time I saw Aliens was on my birthday back when I was a teen, watching it with my mum. In memory of my mum and I really enjoying the movie together I decided to watch it again on the night of my 47th birthday. I think it’ll be a birthday/Christmas tradition from now on. So, everything is fresh in my head as I’ve read this issue. Talking about going back in time, what did the news pages of Christmas 1993 have for us?

That Aliens comic story sounds terrible but then again I’m saying that with the hindsight of the subsequent movies. But ‘Xeno-zip’? And another red species more deadly than the ones on film? I don’t know if I’d have enjoyed it. Below that I have to correct the myth of the chest burster scene in the first film. Yes, director Ridley Scott used a lot more blood than he’d told the actors to expect, but that’s it.

Having now finally watched the first two films I have to say the pages involving the Predators definitely hit differently

Of course they knew what was going to happen. It was in the script. John Hurt had his head popping up through a hole in the table with a fake torso. There were cables and puppeteers everywhere. The first few seconds of the reaction is in response to the amount of fake blood, but then cut was called and the rest of the scene then acted out as normal. I hate these myths of directors “fooling” actors when in reality they’re just good actors!

As for the competition, given the terms and conditions mention “doctored photographs” I was surprised to find out the statement was in fact true! What is also true is Predator: Cold War is still my favourite strip in the comic seven months in. How’s that for a tenuous link, eh? Having now finally watched the first two films I have to say the pages involving the Predators definitely hit differently.

Quite a lot happens in the larger background of Mark Verheiden’s story this time too. The US president wants the mission terminated because a Moscow politician is on the way, so the Americans can’t be found there. General Phillips receives the message to clear all personnel out and “stop hostilities with the aliens” so that they leave before the Soviets get a hold of their weaponry. The audacity of the Americans to think they’re in control of the Predator situation is typical in this and the Alien franchises.

The Russian government knows exactly what’s going on and are escorting our Sheriff friend from previous issues to the site so he can extract his own friend, Detective Schaefer. Speaking of him, he and Lt. Ligachev find an unusually warm area where the ice is melting and discover the Predators’ ship. Striping off so they can bare some flesh while they fight (it was the 90s), they sneak on board.

You can see it goes well. Finding parts of Ligachev’s outpost used as patchwork repairs on the ship, Schaefer theorises they must’ve crashed; all of those people lost their lives so that the aliens could scavenge for parts. Ligachev ain’t happy. They fight valiantly and Schaefer is able to stab the alien that attacks them, but the screams summon its friends!

I’ve loved this story so far. What started out as a bit clichéd on the US side of things and interesting on the Soviet side has developed into a brilliant tale, with good characterisation and a genuine building of tension. Now, with the American government worried that Schaefer destroying the ship on Russian land and the Soviets knowing an American has stopped them from using its weaponry could start World War III, all the plot points are converging on what should be an engaging climax.

According to the Comics Checklist further below the next issue will contain the final chapter, so even this slightly awkward cliffhanger with Ligachev mid-sentence can’t ruin the anticipation. To be fair, this was probably the best place to leave it for a month. I actually think I’ll go back and read the whole story again just before settling down to next month’s issue, something I most likely won’t do for the two Aliens stories.

The Alien³ videogame gets a two-page review this month and it’s basically the same as you’d expect from all other licenced games back then. The vast majority were all platformers or driving games (sometimes a mix of both) until Goldeneye came along. Alien³ throws loads of weaponry and aliens at the player, two things the movie didn’t have. But hey, when did silly things like the actual movie get in the way of a movie videogame licence all those years ago? Since then, the first-person Alien: Isolation has shown us that you only need one alien for a great game, and to scare the bejesus out of me… I mean, the player!

(I still can’t play it on my Switch for more than an hour at a time!)

The penultimate part of Jerry Prosser’s Hive is only six pages and they’ve escaped the nest and made it back to the dropship to await rescue. Their creepy android loses an arm and Julian continues the trend of humans never learning in an Alien story when she fires upon one at close range, badly burning her face in the process with its acid blood. That’s pretty much it. While they wait for the aliens to come a-knockin’ Dr. Mayakovsky makes a random reference to Ancient Rome being the key to escape before the story abruptly stops. Just as with Jurassic Park, each story is of varying lengths each issue but this feels ridiculously short.

Even shorter, at two pages, but with much more going on in a much more enjoyable story, is the next part of the Aliens Vs Predator II strip. Our protagonist is still learning from the Predators (I wish I’d read the previous story to understand who she is), most notably that a rebuke is painful and you don’t try to save everyone. Seeing the alien Queen led off and her troops hanging back is foreboding and I find myself becoming more intrigued with each monthly snippet.

It’s painfully slow though. It’s like reading one of those old three-panels-a-day newspaper adventure strips, only with much bigger gaps. However, it’s good! Actually, it probably benefits from being told this way as I find myself clamouring for each tiny little morsel. Would it be as captivating if I’d simply read it all at once? I doubt it. It’s definitely won me over.

Here’s the Comics Checklist I mentioned above and as you can see Newt’s Tale is also coming to a close, so the rest of the movie is going to fly by just as quickly as this month’s chapter. However, it’s another comic appearing here for the first time that catches my eye. It’s completely right when it describes Bram Stoker’s Dracula as “stunning” and it’s a regular watch every Hallowe’en for me. Hmm… that gives me an idea…

That’s a lie, because if I was only getting the idea now to do a real time read through of DHI’s Dracula comic I’d need to have started collecting it months ago. You see, I actually had the idea last year but by the time I collected all ten issues it was too late to start the read through in 2024. So watch out for a special introduction to Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the blog on Thursday 16th January 2025, with the premiere issue just three days later! Happy New Year, eh?

I’ll finish with the only other mention of the festive season in the whole issue, in a response to a funny reader on the Bug Hunt letters page, below. Well I hope the images from this comic (especially that creepy cover) don’t stop you from drifting into a deep sleep tonight before Santa Claus visits your area. The first issue for 2025 will be here on Tuesday 21st January and we’ve a full year’s worth of xenomorph terror to look forward to.

iSSUE SiX < > iSSUE EiGHT

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CHRiSTMAS 2024

Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #6: HOW LONG ‘TiL iT BLOWS?

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After the rendered brilliance of last issue’s Chris Halls cover I assumed this still-brilliantly crafted front page image was one of the better American covers, but upon reading the editorial we find out it’s actually by another British artist, Pete Doherty (Judge Dredd, Millarworld, Shaolin Cowboy). The cover of Aliens #6 from Dark Horse International shows one alien being attacked by many others in Hive, which we’ll return to later in the review.

First up is part five of Mike Richardson’s movie adaptation… sorry, I mean ‘Newt’s Tale‘. Again, for this allegedly retelling the movie through the eyes of the young survivor of LV-426 she doesn’t appear at all over the first seven pages, which include another moment from the Special Edition a lot of readers may not have seen at the time. Unfortunately, the tense scene involving the ever decreasing ammo counters of the remote sentries is cut down to this one page.

The ammo counters are quickly referenced later but it doesn’t exactly convey the same amount of excitement as the restored scene in the film. We never saw the actual “shooting gallery” on screen either and it was much more tense that way. Elsewhere there’s a passing comment from Bishop that the aliens also captured the livestock to impregnate, foreshadowing Alien³ somewhat and there’s also one of the best delivered lines in the whole movie.

When Bishop tells them that one of the cooling tanks in the nuclear reactor has been damaged and it’s gone into a state of emergency venting, just when everything else already seemed so bleak and hopeless, Hicks’ line of “How long ’til it blows?” was delivered in such an understated, deflated way by actor Michael Biehn it made us laugh! It had the perfect tone of, “Of course it is.” A comic obviously can’t convey the delivery, but reading the line still made me chuckle.

The big moment here is one that finally involves Newt and it’s the scene in which she and Ripley secure themselves inside the medical facility to rest, unaware (as were the audience) that Burke had slipped in and let a facehugger loose. As this begins, penciller Jim Somerville and inker Brian Garvey produce this eerie, unnerving panel of the two characters asleep while Newt’s decapitated doll’s head seemingly looks on in terror, its mouth covered by Ellen.

As all hell breaks loose in what was a truly terrifying scene in the film, Gregory Wright’s colours come into their own as he gives certain panels a red tone, mimicking the alarm that was going off at the time without the need of large SFX lettering taking up necessary space. However, this double-page spread perfectly conveys a movie adaptation; as a comic in its own right it’s pretty damned good, but for anyone who’d already seen the film it feels rushed and a bit by-the-numbers.

This is simply because a comic adaptation can never produce the same feelings and reactions as a movie, it can never work to the same beats. The best adaptations are those that change the movie to suit the format, and unfortunately this one tries to stay too close to the source material, so overall it’s a bit lacking. This isn’t the fault of the team behind it, they were in a losing situation before it began, and the art is great.

Time for some contemporary Aliens news, pages I always look forward to every month. Well okay, only one out of the four pieces of news directly involves Aliens this month but it’s none-the-less an interesting look back in time to November 1992. Of note is writer Dave Hughes’ description of Thelma and Louise as a “role-reversal” road movie. Really? I also didn’t know it had a director’s cut. Then in the charts Warner Bros were having a great time of it but I pity the poor sods investing in the first three episodes of the weekly V series. I can sympathise. I was one of them. Not a patch on the two previous mini-series.

In the competition the question could only have been answered by those who had seen the film, even though surely those who hadn’t would want to enter, but at least it’s honest about knowing its readers would be lying about their age. Finally, that Spider-Man film sounds like the worst idea ever and at the same time like the most 90s comic movie ever.

On to my favourite strip, Mark Verheiden’s Cold War, our Predator back up and I’ve finally watched the first two movies! Having done so brings a new level of enjoyment to this, my memories of them and my imagination adding to the already gruesome art by penciller Ron Randall, inker Steve Mitchell, colourists Chris Chalenor and Rachelle Menashe, and letterer Clem Robins. The Predators are no longer stationery images on a page anymore, suddenly the still images here are accurately conveying some dynamic movements and thrills.

This is our sequel of sorts to both films and the Americans blow their way out of their entrapment from last month. A stand off occurs between them and the Soviets until Ligachev grabs Schaefer and makes a run for it, knowing both sides don’t stand a chance against the aliens, and even if they could neither side should get hold of those weapons. In the end they’re soon recaptured when the Americans’ expensive winter clothing and weaponry give out in the extreme cold.

Schaefer is in his own clothes (he’s police, not military) and soon the two leads find a ravine they agree they’d have chosen if they were the aliens, with Yashin and his men in hot pursuit and shooting to kill. At one point Schaefer puts his life on the line to shout a warning to them about the aliens but they don’t listen and one-by-one they’re taken apart – quite literally – by one lone Predator standing guard at the entrance to the ravine. 

At the time Predator: Cold War may have been seen as a bit of a role reversal between the two super powers

After the build up over the past few months this issue’s chapter is great! I’m not complaining about the story building slowly, I’ve really enjoyed it in fact, and this chapter works so well thanks to everything that came before. It’s a superb pay off for the human tension, not to mention the mystery behind these creatures for this rookie reader. Schaefer’s lone wolf attitude and clichéd 80s action heroism plays off perfectly against Ligachev’s humanity, which I’m guessing at the time may have been seen as a bit of a role reversal between the two super powers.

In the end, Schaefer’s heroics almost see him die at the hands of the Predator and it’s only Ligachev emptying dozens of bullets into it at close range that saves him. Even if I hadn’t seen those movies recently this strip does a superb job of conveying the terrors they’re up against. The odds couldn’t be more stacked against them in the icy wilderness and I can’t wait for the next chapter!

The widescreen release of Alien is up for review this issue and it’s by Jim Campbell again, who is thankfully a lot more positive than he was about the Aliens Special Edition. I remember this exciting time when favourite films of mine would get director’s cuts and widescreen releases, the latter of which really appealed to me. While we didn’t have a widescreen TV for several more years, I could easily ignore the black bars and enjoy a whole new cinematic experience for the likes of Jaws and the James Bond series.

Jaws was like a whole new film than the one on the 4:3 VHS I’d almost worn out, and despite the 60s Bond movies not being all that wide I still restarted my collection. I completely agree with Jim that this was a much better way to watch movies (even on regular 4:3 screens) and on the many benefits it brought; everything from just enjoying the full picture to actually benefitting the story, characters and, for the likes of Alien and Jaws the way the director created the suspense and jump scares.

Jim says the widescreen version of Alien better represents director Ridley Scott’s vision for his film and I completely agree. But surely that’s what the Aliens Special Edition also did for James Cameron, a version that Jim said was unnecessary and gave a negative review for in #2. Of course today these points are moot since we’ve moved on from this particular transition point in home media.

Poor Max! Part six of Hive continues the worst-plan-in-a-science-fiction-story ever and on the front cover we’ve already been told there’s a traitor in amongst the aliens, so we know synthetic Norbert has somehow survived. How he did is shown to us but not explained, as you’ll see.

We kick things off with Max dead and there’s a hole in his chest, ringing bells for anyone who had seen Alien³ in the cinema by this point (although I prefer the Collector’s Edition story in this regard). In keeping with the forced tension I talked about last time, Dr. Myakovsky can’t reach Max and he’ll obviously fall deep into the hive depths if he stretches too far, but he still tries to. Because of course he would.

Sigh. I saw that coming. And then of course Julian Lish and Gill open fire when they’re not meant to bring attention to themselves. Because, you know, tension and all that. Then comes possibly the strangest part of Jerry Prosser’s story since we saw Norbert and Max playing together in #1, back when the story had so much interesting potential.

Seemingly destroyed last time,Norbert appears to be able to pull from the alien hive around him to repair himself, and even grow a gun? No explanation is given as to how this is possible, and even though the art by Kelley Jones and colouring by Les Dorscheid are great, it really could’ve done with some letters by Clem to explain what the hell this is all about. It just looks weird. It’s also a bit too handy plot-wise and they escape the hive.

Rounding off the issue is the comics checklist and The Terminator has disappeared so DHI must’ve only been finishing off the previous publisher’s run. Then on the letters page there’s a mix of positive and negative correspondence regarding Alien³. The positive ones take the time to explain their opinions, while the negative ones are just angry rants with no reasoning, claiming it’s the end of the Alien series, that it was an insult to “true fans” (that old chestnut) and one even states that since fans are spending their money on these films they should demand what stories are told. It’s like social media before social media was a thing.

Given the results of the readers’ survey (image below), the letters really do evoke a certain hell site on the internet.

With that terrifying image we come to the end and I’m really looking forward to the next issue. I’m genuinely excited by what the next chapter of Cold War could contain and we may even be getting near the end of Hive. But most of all there’s the promise of finally taking a closer look at the first of Chris Halls’ Christmas covers! Christmas in an Aliens comic! When can we expect our next bit of horror? Why, on Christmas Eve 2024, naturally. Isn’t that the best time for a little horror story?

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ALiENS #5: i DON’T KNOW WHiCH SPECiES iS WORSE

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Incredible Brit artist Chris Halls (real name Chris Cunningham) created an original cover for the UK’s Aliens #5 from Dark Horse International, and that could be a xenomorph attending a certain type of American political rally! Although, the alien would probably be more civilised. Chris’ work is synonymous with this comic and you can see why, however he’s best known as a music video director and a visual effects artist on many movies in the 90s, including Alien³. There are some absolutely incredible pieces of work to come from him, including a festive cover or two! Can’t wait. This is his second, after Dark Horse wrapped up Trident‘s Volume One with a special issue.

As you can see the usual four strips are all back and surprisingly (for me) the one I enjoyed the most this month was Predator: Cold War. I’ll get to that in a bit, but first up there’s some exciting news at the top of the editorial page, Intro. According to editor Dick Hansom, in the new year UK readers would be getting brand new strips ahead of their American cousins, drawn by the artist of two previous original covers.

Given how #2 and #3’s covers were beautiful (while grotesque and horrifying, naturally) pieces of art, I can’t wait to see that kind of talent on a strip! It feels like DHI is doing everything right and at this point in 1992 it would’ve felt to me like they were quickly becoming the new Marvel UK. But before we get there we continue with the current crop of imported stories, beginning with part four of Mike Richardson’s Newt’s Tale.

This continues to basically be the official adaptation of the movie, albeit for the Special Edition version. For being a story hyped as the movie “told from Newt’s perspective”, she doesn’t even appear until the seventh page in this chapter. She’s on board the APC where Ripley and Gorman watch the video feeds of the horrors from inside the hive, but that whole section is missing.

If it had still been intact it would’ve made sense because we’d experience what Newt was seeing or hearing, but instead the story stays inside the hive the whole time. There are some great images though, such as the alien breaking through the glass of the APC while Ripley is driving. The art is pencilled by Jim Somerville, inked by Brian Garvey, lettered by Pat Brosseau and coloured by Gregory Wright. It makes more references to scenes from the Special Edition a lot of fans may not have yet seen, in this case the discussion about the remote sentries. As for Newt, she’s just stuck in as little panels here and there to remind the readers she’s still about.

Eventually we get to the scene where Ripley promises Newt she’ll never leave her and lays her down to rest in the medical bay, so we all know what’s happening next month. Happily, the strip does see fit to include a couple of moments that made my mum and I laugh when we both watched Aliens for the first time together on my birthday, a few days before Christmas way back in 1992.

The Motion Tracker news pages have plenty of interesting contemporary nuggets for this retro-loving fan. The bit about how Alien³ had been received around the world just proved Americans had poor taste (I’m kidding) and the news about Abyss corrects last issue’s error about Aliens not being filmed in widescreen. There’s also a competition for a Return of the Living Dead video which hilariously admits its inclusion here is tenuous. Finally, the comic itself helped organise what seemed like a really interesting Alien exhibition in London and publicised it with two rather bland photographs.

In the middle of the comic is the Predator back up strip, part five of Mark Verheiden’s Cold War, pencilled by Ron Randall, inked by Steve Mitchell, lettered by Clem Robins and coloured by Chris Chalenor and Rachelle Menashe. With our two leads (Detective Schaefer and Lt. Ligachev) finally in the same location it feels like things have stepped up a gear. On a side note, with it being spooky season as I write this I’ll soon be watching the first two movies at long last to get a better understanding of the franchise. I’ve only just realised Richard Chaves is in the first one, who will forever be Lt. Colonel Paul Ironhorse to me. (If you know you know.)

“None of us had come to the oil station willingly. In that sense, we were all wards of the state, doing what we were told because there was nothing else to do”

Lt. Ligachev

So, as explained last month it’s got the same basic plot as Aliens and it’s now all set up, so we’re good to go. As Ligachev sees the dead bodies of those she used to work alongside, she reminisces about how their presence wasn’t originally wanted, how eventually they all got to know each other, and how the Soviet Union forcing them all to be out in the freezing wilderness soon became secondary. They even played games. It was hard graft for everyone, but they’d enjoyed it.

Initially taking the Americans as prisoners, she pulls Schaefer to the side to tell him she knows what they’ve really come all this way for. When they find one of the scientists rambling madly on the floor about the aliens, Ligachev explodes at Schaefer’s quips, asking him what kind of man could see someone suffer and not care. In this moment Schaefer’s internal thoughts betray how his opinion of the Soviet soldier is changing to one of respect.

The Predators themselves only make an appearance on the final page. Apart from the first issue they haven’t been seen much but their presence has always been felt; they’re the reason all of these disparate people have been thrown together and there’s a mystery as to why creatures who require so much heat to survive would be out in the frozen wastes. It’s an interesting story, but more importantly than anything else the human characters make it compulsive.

For example, back in New York we get a few pages of Sheriff Rasche from a previous Predator comic using his own detective skills to get to the bottom of what’s really happening in Russia, where he’s convinced the aliens have returned. I like this guy. He’s concerned for his friend and isn’t taking any crap in getting to the bottom of it all. (I particularly like the visitor book entry.) With his fears confirmed I hope he makes it out to join the others. I think he could bring some much needed humour to whatever the climax will entail.

Meanwhile, authorities command Sgt. Yashin to take command from Ligachev, who the Soviets feel is being too accommodating to the Americans. As per usual in these stories said authorities see everyone as expendable when there’s a potential new weapon to be had. (See what I mean about the Aliens parallels?) The chapter ends with our leads sharing a moment over a clichéd Russian vodka as Schaeffer theorises over the Predators’ arrival.

Surely the mystery can’t simply be that they got off at the wrong stop? I hope not. I’m not sure how long this story lasts and I won’t be looking that up but so far I’m enjoying the human element of things and the slow build of the threat they face. The pacing is superb, like a well crafted blockbuster in fact, which makes sense given the franchise it’s based on (and the comic’s namesake it appears to have been heavily inspired by).

This month’s Technical Readout concentrates on one of the coolest vehicles from my teen movie watching and I’m almost positive one of my mates owned a model kit of it. I just loved this thing so I had to include it in the review. At the top-right you’ll see a behind-the-scenes photo of the full-sized one used alongside the models, interior sets and mock-ups. I wish we could get more such photos but the comic seems to prefer to keep things within the universe of the films, rather than the making-of features in the Alien³ mini-series.

Rolls Royce should be very happy upon reading this since they’ll apparently still be in business so far into the future, although it was really meant to go that fast? Maybe in a straight line… and downhill. I remember the terrifying scene set inside the APC as Ripley and Gorman watched the Colonel Marines’ heartbeats stop one-by-one as they fled the alien hive, a scene which also played out to great effect in Jurassic World. A homage, perhaps?

Speaking of fleeing an alien hive, that’s exactly what the least likeable selection of human characters and their one-dimensional android character have to do in part five of Jerry Prosser’s Hive. The What Has Gone Before pages feature some of the US Dark Horse covers and they’re great pieces of art in their own right but just compare them to the ones used by the UK comic, in particular the Chris Halls covers to come. Stick with the OiNK Blog and you’ll see what I mean over the next year.

As I explained last time Mayakovsky, Lish and Gil’s ship was struck by lightning as they tried to leave the planet after their android alien Norbert was destroyed by the real aliens. As Newt told us previously they mostly come at night and that’s what our characters fear as they look upon the hive with only two guns to their name. However, they do have the stupid comic invention, the Inhibitors. Designed to stop the aliens sensing them, still no explanation is given as to how this is possible but there’s something else which doesn’t make sense either.

According to Mayakovsky the Inhibitors only have a field of about three meters in all directions. So these world-destroying creatures, so successful in their ability to overcome anything in their quest to colonise and spread, can only sense humans if they’re nearly on top of them? (Or they forget what they were chasing when they get close to an Inhibitor?) We know this isn’t the case, and combined with the ludicrous plan below it all feels too forced. It’s trying too hard to create tension and instead comes across as silly.

They could stay in their ship until the storm passes but they say it’s too dangerous to trap themselves in their tiny escape pod with no weapons. So they decide to go through the hive instead? Some explanation about following Norbert’s energy reading to take them directly to the ship doesn’t make any more sense! The Inhibitors mean they can sneak their way through, but surely that’d also mean they could just stay on their ship, then walk around the hive when the storm passes?

Admittedly, there are some good moments as far as the art is concerned, such as this one when Lish shines her torch right on an alien in the darkness. Kelley Jones’ art and Les Dorscheid’s colours (with Clem on letters again) do bring a great deal of atmosphere to the proceedings but can’t take away the ludicrousness of it all. I mean, the Inhibitors stop the aliens from seeing a torch light shining right in their eyes… or whatever they have for eyes?

The last strip, the two-page Aliens Vs Predator II written by Randy Stradley and drawn by Chris Warner has potential with its tiny snippets of plot and character every month but, while I don’t want to end the review with two duds, it’s frustrating to only get such a small part every month. This impressive spread is the entire chapter for this issue. I love the black and white art but more would happen in those tiny daily tabloid newspaper comic strips from childhood.

Don’t get me wrong I’m still enjoying the comic. The two main Aliens strips have disappointed me these last two issues, but only because they showed so much potential before that. When the crossover strip finally comes to an end I’ll read back over it to see how it reads then. Meanwhile, the Predator strip continues to impress issue-after-issue and the contemporary features are always interesting. We’ve a long way to go. Let’s see if that early potential is followed up on with #6 on Thursday 19th November 2024.

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