The Alien/Predator Comic Strips, Part Two
By Jean-François Boivin
(For part one of this article series, click here.)
ALIENS (Magazine)
While Dark Horse Comics'
Aliens and Predator series were big hits in North America, they were hard to
obtain in Europe and had to be imported from specialty comic shops. But in
1991, a small, two-years old comics company and mail-order comic shop based in
Leicester, UK named Trident Comics (an offshoot of Neptune Publishing)
obtained the license for "the rights to publish these comics in Britain*."
These were magazine-sized straight reprints of the American material, and no
original content was ever planned. Like most European publications, each issue
contained several comic strips (in this specific case, three to four per
issue); unlike most European publications, the mags didn't contain much else in
the way of news, articles or editorials aside from "story so far"
blurbs at the start of each strip, a letters page starting with issue #4, and a
few extras listed below.
Whether the reprints were fully authorized or not, this was
a solution for the avid European fan who needed a monthly dose of his favorite
space monsters. The first issue was dated February 1991 (on sale date: late
January), numbered 48 pages and was priced at £1.50. The
first 11 issues were edited by Martin Skidmore (1959-2011), long-time editor of
the Fantasy
Advertiser comic book fanzine. The credits also list Jane Huband
handling the design and Nigel MacKay for the promotion. Issue #12 (January
1992) did not list an "editor" in the credits, instead Dan Abnett and
Nigel MacKay were credited as "production team." That issue also
sported a new design by John Mould (replacing Huband) and now contained 64
pages at the new price of £1.95 so a fourth monthly comic strip could be added. Issue #14 stopped
listing any credits aside from the cover artist, and issues #15-16 only
contained two strips each. Issue #16 (May 1992) was the last Trident Comics issue,
and while the Aliens: Genocide
reprint reached its conclusion, the Aliens
Book One strip was stopped abruptly at the equivalent of page 11 of issue
#4 of the original American comic.
* According to editor Martin Skidmore in a response to a
letter (issue #6). The details of this statement as to whether Trident was
licensed by 20th Century Fox and/or Dark Horse Comics falls outside
of the scope of this article.
As a side note, Trident Comics also published two other
series of Dark Horse Comics reprints: The
Terminator in July 1991 (12 issues) and Indiana
Jones in October 1991 (3 issues). A 52-page monthly Predator Magazine was announced for March 1992 reprinting the Predator 2 movie adaptation, but by all
accounts it never saw print.
Reprints:
- Aliens Book Two #1-4 (in #1-6)
- Predator: Concrete Jungle #1-4 (in
#1-7)
- Dark
Horse Presents #34 "Aliens"
(in #1; b&w)
- Dark
Horse Presents #35 "Predator"
(in #2-3; b&w)
- Dark
Horse Presents #36 "Aliens
vs. Predator" (in #4; b&w)
- Aliens vs. Predator #1-4 (in #4-11)
- Aliens: Earth War #1-4 (in #7-12)
- Predator: Big Game #1-4 (in #8-14)
- Dark
Horse Presents #56 "The
Alien" (in #12-13; b&w)
- Aliens Book One #1-6 (in #12-16 incomplete;
b&w)
- Aliens: Genocide #1-4 (in #13-16)
- Dark
Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special "Aliens vs. Predator"
epilogue (in #14; b&w)
- Dark
Horse Presents: Aliens (in #17)
- Dark
Horse Present #46 "Predator:
God's Truth" (in #17; b&w)
Extras:
- a
3-page preview of another Trident publication, the weekly Toxic! (in #3)
- a poster of a Dave Dorman cover (in #8)
- a "design your own frightening
monster" competition & a readership survey (in #9)
- the
six winning entries of the competition (in #13)
ALIENS (Magazine) Volume
2
Volume 2, Number 1 was published on June 18th,
1992 (cover date: July 1992) in the UK by Dark Horse International, the British
off-shoot of the five year-old American publisher. Volume 2 continued the same
design and content style that DHI had started with #17 of the previous series. During
DHI's short life, a few other titles (see
the entry for Total Carnage below)
came and went, but the Aliens series
was there from the beginning to the end and could be considered the flagship
title. Early issues had limited print runs of 10,000 copies (probably lower in
later issues) and became available through US retailers shortly after.
Unfortunately, sales dropped after the first year and the series was cancelled
after #22 (April 1994) when DHI ceased operations.
Dick Hansom took the solo editorial reins from Michael
Bennent with issue #2, and Cefn Ridout took over with #11. Dave Hughes
officially became the "Features Editor" with issue #3 and wrote most
of the articles in the series. Nigel MacKay became Production Manager with #21
replacing Mark Collings, and is the only staff that was also part of the
Trident Comics series.
This particular series has some appeal to collectors and
fans, as each issue between #9-20 included an original comic strip consisting
of two stories: "Aliens: Sacrifice" (#9-12) by Peter Milligan and
Paul Johnson was reprinted in the US as a one shot in
May 1993, and later collected in the Aliens: Sacrifice and Salvation TPB.
"Aliens: Crusade" by Michael Cook and Christian Gorny was next, starting
with #13, and was supposed to run in 10 parts until #22. Sadly the story took a
hiatus with #21-22 due to some last-minute artistic delays and so the last two
chapters were rescheduled for #23-24 never appeared in print, "Aliens:
Crusade" remains uncollected to this day. All we have of those last two
chapters are from the original solicitations (in outlets such as Dark Horse Insider and Previews) for #21's "Aliens: Crusade"
entry reads "where the horrors of the cathedral are revealed" and for
#22 "reaches its conclusion with a climactic confrontation between Channon
and the Alien Queen in the River Thames."
After "Aliens: Crusade" would have been concluded,
another story that was solicited for #23 titled Aliens: Matrix (with the "Crusade" delays it would have
been pushed back to #25). The solicitation (from Dark Horse Insider Vol.2 #28) reads "Aliens: Matrix is a new illustrated novella, written by one of
comicdom's top talents, Grant Morrison, with fully painted illustrations by
cover artist and Alien³
special-effects designer Chris Halls. A ship of synthetics lands on a snow
planet, but cannot imagine the horrors that lie in store for them." This
long-lost story is lamented by fans.
Here's the solicited cover for the unpublished #23. |
The cancellation of the magazine also interrupted the running reprint stories: Aliens: Colonial Marines went as far as the first half of the original issue #7 (of 10); only the first installment of Aliens: Rogue was published; and only the first two parts (of 3) of the "Aliens: Alien" story were shown.
Other exclusive items of interest in the magazine's run
included "Technical Readout" by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, which covered
in-universe data about various technologies mostly pertaining to the Colonial
Marines from the movie Aliens (most
of which were later edited as part of Brimmicombe-Wood's book Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual
[Boxtree, 1995; reprinted Titan
Books, 2012]); "The Motion Tracker" was a regular feature
containing Aliens-related news; the "Bug
Hunt" letters page, and various features, articles and interviews. Issues
#9-10 also included detachable reprints of the "Aliens: Countdown"
story from Dark Horse Insider #14-27
(see Part
1 of this blog), and is the only place it was ever collected or reprinted.
As a side note, ironically these two
bonus insert comics sported the same cover art (by Denis Beauvais) as Trident
Comics' Aliens Magazine #2-3.
Reprints:
- Aliens: Hive #1-4 (in #1-9)
- Predator: Cold War #1-4 (in #1-8)
- Aliens: Newt's Tale #1-2 (in #2-8)
- Dark Horse Insider Vol.2 #1-14 "Aliens
vs. Predator 2" parts 2,4,6-15 (in #3-14) (part 6 was duplicated in
#7 & 9; see Alien³ Movie Special
below for parts 1,3,5)
- Aliens: Colonial Marines #1-10 (in
#9-22 incomplete)
- Aliens:
Tribes GSA (in #10-16)
- Dark Horse Comics #1-2 "Predator:
Rite of Passage" (in #10-11)
- Dark Horse Comics #3-5 "Aliens:
Horror Show" (in #12-14)
- Dark Horse Comics #12-13 "Aliens:
Backsplash" (in #15-16)
- Dark Horse Comics #11 "Aliens:
Taste" (in #17)
- Dark Horse Comics #15-16 "Aliens:
Cargo" (in #17-18)
- Dark Horse Comics #1-2 "Renegade"
(in #18-19)
- Aliens: Salvation
(in #19-21)
- Dark Horse Comics #17-19 "Aliens:
Alien" (in #21-22 incomplete)
- Aliens: Rogue #1-4 (in #22 incomplete)
Original Material:
·
Aliens:
Sacrifice (in #9-12)
·
Aliens:
Crusade (in #13-20 incomplete)
Extras:
- "Martha
Washington's War Diary" story from Dark
Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special as an insert b&w
booklet (in #1)
- "Sole
Survivors" story from Dark
Horse Presents #10 as an
insert b&w booklet (in #2)
- Dark
Horse readers survey (in #4)
- Aliens Special Mini Comic #1-2
reprinting the "Aliens: Countdown" strips from Dark Horse Insider #14-27 (in
#9-10)
- Alien³ Super Nintendo game ad "Terminal
Addiction" (in #12)
- Free
Aliens postcard (in #17)
ALIEN³ MOVIE SPECIAL
The beginning of the Aliens
Vol. 2 magazine also corresponded with the release date of Alien³, and most articles were about the
making of that movie. For the movie adaptation itself, by Steven Grant and Christopher
Taylor & Rick Magyar (published June-July 1992 in the U.S.), Dark Horse International
chose to reprint it in a separate "Aliens Magazine Presents" spin-off
magazine, published
bi-weekly (or fortnightly as the British say). Also edited by
Dick Hansom, this limited series contained exclusive Alien³ articles (such as an Alien³
Technical Readout), contests and posters, and interviews with Stephen
Norrington and Sigourney Weaver The series also reprinted parts 1, 3 and 5 of
the Aliens vs. Predator 2 strip from Dark Horse Insider Vol.2 (see Part
1 of this blog) as a crossover with its parent publication.
#1 was published August 5, #2 on August 26 and #3 on September 23. All
three used the same Arthur Suydam covers as
the US original series.
TOTAL CARNAGE
During its two-year existence, Dark Horse International (UK)
published a few other titles aside from Aliens.
But there was only one other of interest for this article. Total Carnage started in April 1993 and was targeting the action
movie fanbase, with articles and interviews from the genre. With monikers such
as "COMICS WITH ATTITUDE" and "NOT FOR KIDDIES," the
magazine reprinted some edgier and a bit more violent stories, such as Grendel, The Mask and the Army of
Darkness movie adaptation. The classic three-issue crossover Batman vs. Predator by Dave Gibbons and
Andy & Adam Kubert was reprinted in #1-9. Issue #9 also started the
reprinting of Chris
Claremont's Aliens/Predator:
The Deadliest of the Species series, but it only lasted for two issues as Total Carnage was cancelled after #10 (January
1994) due to low sales. Solicitations for #11-12 were advertising the
reprinting of the Predator story "Blood Feud" from the anthology
series Dark Horse Comics #4-7.
The only cool extras in the series were a Total Carnage tattoo included with #1,
and a Predator postcard (forming the other half of the image from the only in Aliens Vol.2 #17) with issue #9.
As a side note, other DHI titles that were published were The Terminator in October 1992 (5
issues, taking over from Trident Comics with #13), Star Wars featuring Indiana Jones in October 1992 (10 issues), Bram
Stoker's Dracula in January 1993 (10 issues), Manga Mania in July 1993 (15 issues; then continued by Manga
Entertainment and later by Titan Comics), Jurassic
Park in July 1993 (11 issues) and Max
Overload! in March 1994 (1 issue). A RoboCop
series was announced for early 1994 but never saw publication.
NEXT: John Byrne's ALIENS visits the
1950's, and JUDGE DREDD's encounters.
Jean-François (JF) Boivin is currently writing If It Bleeds: The Chronology of the Alien/Predator Universe for Hasslein Books. He collaborated on Echoes of the Jedi—the fourth adventure of the Dawn of Defiance campaign for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game—with Abel G. Peña. He is a founding member of the Star Wars Fanboy Association, and contributes comics reviews for TheForce.Net. Boivin was listed in the acknowledgements for Ann Margaret Lewis' The Essential Guide to Alien Species, as well as Ryder Windham's Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force.
Labels: Alien, Aliens, AvP, Dark Horse, Jean-François Boivin, Predator
1 Comments:
I,d like to point out that, there is a lot of misinformation on various online Wikis and such, about Trident Comics, Dark Horse International, and the Aliens volume 2 final issues. I started to correct some of them but it just goes to tell you that anyone can write those entries without doing proper research. I never use wikis as references.
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