The Alien films (specifically Aliens) resonate greatly with me as I'm sure they do for any self-respecting fan of all things nerdy, I saw it for the first time when I was probably too young, already obsessed with 'video nasties' my first viewing was on a now ancient vhs copy. The heady mix of sci-fi, horror and Ripley's fuck off, massive power loader really spoke to me as a small boy (and continues to speak to me as a nearly 30 year old boy to this day)
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| GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BITCH! |
The Nineties are responsible for many, many shitty comics (Hey, Marvel! the Clone Saga in Spider-Man ringing any bells with ya!?) and even more movie tie-in's and company cross-overs of varying quality. I vaguely remember looking through a friend's older brother's collection of Batman Versus Predator comics at the time and being intrigued (I would would have been around 12 at this point, I imagine).
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| Predator, there...probably still speaks in a more intelligible manor than Tom Hardy's Bane! |
These Batman Versus Predator comics were written, I found out years later, by Dave Gibbons (you know, the fella that co-created Watchmen and drew Rogue Trooper for 2000AD!). I duly forgot that Gibbons had written comics of this nature until about a fortnight ago. I was 'round at a friends house and we were talking, as one does, about Mike Mignola (Legendary artist and creator of Hellboy), my friend mentioned Mignola had drawn an Alien comic. After laundering my undergarments after the mild soiling I googled this information and was presented with the following:
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| Well FUCK ME!.... |
A few Clicks later and I had bid on this comic on Ebay and around a week later, after winning, it arrived in the post (I'm sorry you are all aware of how ebay works but please indulge me...)
I had in my hands an Alien graphic novel written by Dave Gibbons and illustrated by Mike Mignola....To say I was excited was an understatement.
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| what a delightful smile... |
Aliens Salvation saw the light of day in 1993, Both Gibbons and Mignola had already established themselves with their own projects and work for the Big Two (Marvel and DC, obviously...) which might be why this comics has slipped under my radar for so long (well that and the fact that I was 11 when this came out!). A slim 'graphic novella' of around 50 pages unleashed right around the time there were a shit-ton of Aliens and Predator comics bursting out all over the stands.
The narrative thread of this story is delivered in the form of an extended plea to god for salvation by the chaplain of a cargo ship carrying something back from deepest space for the very shadowy sounding Nova Maru company. After a violent and bloody altercation on board said cargo vessel the chaplain finds himself crash landed on a big, jungley planet with an injured, brutish member of the ships crew. They had found the cargo they had been carrying was very much alive and very dangerous, the injured crewman complaining of an acid like burn of his leg should hint a little at what we are dealing with here. YES! XENOMORPHS!
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| oh did i not mention...THATS RIGHT MOTHER FUCKER! PTERODACTYLS! |
This first act shows us how the chaplain chooses to survive in this hostile terrain (pterodactyls, son....damn!) with his hostile crew mate and the threat of being impaled on one of the aliens weird, little extending mouth things. Whilst not as brutal and depressing as something like, say, The Walking Dead this first section shows what lengths the chaplain already has had to go to to survive and how much of his humanity he is willing to sacrifice, even under the ever watchful eyes of his god.
Having never read anything written by Gibbons and not really knowing what to expect I was seriously impressed. I'm a sucker for the narrative technique Gibbons uses in this comic, a long monologue stretching the length of the story (peppered with dialogue, of course). It feels like a prayer, a desperate plea for salvation. The is a really pleasing three act structure to this story, it feels lean and focussed. The dialogue, especially between the crew of the cargo vessel feels authentic to the source material, for instance 'Screw 'em....dead anyway...only one lifeboat on this bucket'.
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| yes, it's in French...at least that way there won't be any spoilers... |
After freaking the fuck out for a few pages the chaplain goes in search of the cargo vessel. He finds it and the lone survivor of it's fiery descent, First Officer Dean. Dean is basically Ripley. Ballsy is not the word, the chaplain sees her as his angel, his way out of this hell he has found himself in. The second act follows them through the jungle undergrowth and soon become a really awesome chase and fire fight with the rampant xenomorphs!
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| more french..... |
Mike Mignola is a huge favourite of mine, his art is so distinctive, you can tell his pencils a mile off. His work in Salvation is no exception. As you can see from the pages in this article, he can pretty much make anything look amazing. The balance of black negative spaces and the muddy earthy colour tones used in the jungle chase scene (see above, yo!) are just beautiful, thanks to Kevin Nowlan's masterful inking and Matt Hollingsworth's restrained colour palate.
But no amount of me waffling on about how amazing Mignola is will ever be able to top just looking at this:
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| sexy, sexy shit... |
By the End of the third act everything has gone straight to hell in a hand-basket. We see how far the chaplain is prepared to go to stop the xenomorphs and we learn a few shocking surprises to boot. As a standalone sci-fi comic this works really, REALLY well. Its short enough to read in one sitting but doesn't feel like it is missing anything story and art wise. As part of the extended Alien universe I think this excels, it has the used, gritty and grimy feel the Nostromo had. The xenomorphs themselves are seen infrequently enough to retain suspense but do get chance to smoosh some heads with their weird mini-mouth things (YES!).
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| i didn't draw the moustache on....still funny though.. |
I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this comic. I already knew I'd love the pencils but the story blew me away that little bit more. It's a genuinely gripping and at times shocking tale that is executed by masters of the craft. Seriously pick a copy up if you see it (or I'll lend it you or whatevs)
Not bad for £2.99 on eBay!
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