Need some help with an Aliens graphic novel

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:00 am

I have been looking for this for many years, but among the ton of Aliens comic books I don't know where to find it.

I read one section that was serialised in Aliens magazine years ago, and it was about a General called Spears who was trying to tame the Aliens and use them as weapons.
It had an android who was ripped in half in it, and it had Hicks and Newt all growed up.
The art was amazing, painted, looked really great.

I have been lead to a book called Nightmare Asylum, but it all gets a bit confusing from here - I can't tell if it's a graphic novel or a regular novel?
Sometimes it says 'Steve Perry' on a different cover, and on the other it says 'Beauvais and Verdheim'. I know Denis Beauvais is an artist so I think that might be the one.

Anyone got any info on this, and clear up whether the story exists as a graphic novel?

Thanks for the help guys!

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:36 am

I have that in trade paperback. It's called Aliens Book Two. Art by Denis Beauvais. The first book is in black and white.

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:55 am

The way it works, Dark Horse made three different comic book miniseries after Aliens came out that continued the story, with Hicks and Newt as the main characters. They were all written by Mark Verheiden and a different artist drew each series. Collected editions were released not long afterwards.

Then someone decided to comission novelizations of the various Aliens comics. My guess is they wanted to get a piece of the pulp sci-fi reader market that gobbles up the hundreds of Star Trek / Star Wars / whatever novels, and it's easier and faster to adapt existing stories instead of writing new ones. Anyway, the novelizations of this trilogy were written by Steve Perry.

Years later Dark Horse would release trade paperback collections of the comics, but by then Aliens 3 had come out. You know what happened to Hicks and Newt in that movie, so their names were changed for the trades to avoid confusing people. They were also colorized.

The entries in the trilogy had different titles across different media.

Comic books
Aliens (series 1) [6 issues]
Aliens (series 2) [4 issues]
Aliens: Earth War [4 issues]

Graphic novels (B&W, original names)
Aliens: Book One
Aliens: Book Two
Aliens: Earth War

Compleat Aliens (collection of the graphic novels & the Aliens stories from Dark Horse Presents)

Novels
Aliens: Earth Hive
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: The Female War

Trade paperbacks (colored, altered names)
Aliens: Outbreak
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: Female War

Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1 (collection of the trades)

Edit: Looked around a bit and found out about the original editions Josh has on avpgalaxy.net.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:00 am

I have the first editions which were published in 1990 so they retain the names.

And holy shunt it looks like Sam Kieth did the third book.

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:10 am

Woah, I didn't know trades with the original names existed.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:48 am

Wasn't there a computer game sorta based off one of these?

Necronom · Post by **Necronom** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:00 am

Ed Oscuro wrote:Wasn't there a computer game sorta based off one of these?

Yep, there was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens:_A_ ... _Adventure
Never found the time to install and play it though...

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:38 am

Comic books
Aliens (series 1) [6 issues]
Aliens (series 2) [4 issues]
Aliens: Earth War [4 issues]

Novels
Aliens: Earth Hive
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: The Female War

Trade paperbacks
Aliens: Outbreak
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: Female War

I think I have them all. I'm not a great comic collector, but these Dark Horse Aliens front covers had amazing art. I had to buy.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:45 am

Coolest thing was having a living version of that mummified alien from the first movie.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:22 pm

which is what got the game creators sued i guess. Man I sure would love to play this. A PM with a link sure would be good right about now

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:42 pm

Aliens: Hive is also a really great story, both the comic and the novelization which was called Dark Harvest i think. Kelly Jones art ^.^

Genocide is pretty good too, with art by Doug Mahnke.

moonblood · Post by **moonblood** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:49 pm

DEL wrote:
Comic books
Aliens (series 1) [6 issues]
Aliens (series 2) [4 issues]
Aliens: Earth War [4 issues]

Novels
Aliens: Earth Hive
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: The Female War

Trade paperbacks
Aliens: Outbreak
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: Female War
I think I have them all. I'm not a great comic collector, but these Dark Horse Aliens front covers had amazing art. I had to buy.

There's a really nice dark horse artbook too called 'Avp cover to cover' or something like that, that collects all their best alien and predator art, its terrific.. I love mine

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:01 pm

moonblood wrote:
DEL wrote:
Comic books
Aliens (series 1) [6 issues]
Aliens (series 2) [4 issues]
Aliens: Earth War [4 issues]

Novels
Aliens: Earth Hive
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: The Female War

Trade paperbacks
Aliens: Outbreak
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
Aliens: Female War
I think I have them all. I'm not a great comic collector, but these Dark Horse Aliens front covers had amazing art. I had to buy.
There's a really nice dark horse artbook too called 'Avp cover to cover' or something like that, that collects all their best alien and predator art, its terrific.. I love mine

i am not a huge fan of western comic art. More and more reicentley I have been getting in to some of it though. McFarlins spiderman is great and I really enjoyed the Jurassic park dark horse art work.

Daigohji · Post by **Daigohji** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:03 pm

I used to subscribe to the Aliens magazine back around 92/93, which was an anthology of the Dark Horse comics. I thought Sacrifice was the most memorable story. I don't know if that one was ever published separately.

I never read the first few comic arcs, but I did read Steve Perry's novelisations. I thought it odd at the time how closely the protagonists resembled Hicks and Newt, so wasn't too surprised when I found out later that they had just been name swapped. Of course, that made it slightly disturbing that they ended up in the sack together.

moonblood · Post by **moonblood** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:31 pm

Daigohji wrote:I don't know if that one was ever published separately

Salvation and sacrifice got bundled in a paperback I think, so kind of. Awesome comics

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:42 pm

Are there any other good old Dark Horse comics? What about all those cross-overs? The Mask?

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:07 pm

Guys, thanks for all that info! I was away a couple of days but I do appreciate the help.
So Josh, is your Aliens: Book Two coloured throughout (I remember the section I read in the magazine had really atmospheric painted art?)

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:59 pm

Yeah, book two is completely painted.

Battlesmurf · Post by **Battlesmurf** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:23 pm

Lordstar wrote:which is what got the game creators sued i guess. Man I sure would love to play this. A PM with a link sure would be good right about now

was that it? I was wondering what exactly happened that got mindscape sued- and the office workers fired. Screw Fox. (lol..Alien 3 sucked,btw- 4 was marginally better- though still bad.)

I had heard that the director of the 2nd movie didn't like the script on the third and decided not to come back- so in spite they killed his characters from the 2nd movie.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:52 pm

Battlesmurf wrote:
Lordstar wrote:which is what got the game creators sued i guess. Man I sure would love to play this. A PM with a link sure would be good right about now

was that it? I was wondering what exactly happened that got mindscape sued- and the office workers fired. Screw Fox. (lol..Alien 3 sucked,btw- 4 was marginally better- though still bad.)

I had heard that the director of the 2nd movie didn't like the script on the third and decided not to come back- so in spite they killed his characters from the 2nd movie.

I was reading on wiki about it and from what I can gauge the use of the "pilot" might of been a big no no as it featured in the film and there contract said they were not allowed to use characters only the aliens themselves. Technicaly the pilot is not an Alien (the ones which the film features around ovbiousley its not human) but pffft you know big companies will screw anyone over if theres more cash to be had.

this is not a fact though its just me reading though bits on the net and its all i can gauge from what ive read.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:45 pm

JoshF wrote:Yeah, book two is completely painted.

Wow, talk about a stroll down memory lane. I had those, too.

moonblood · Post by **moonblood** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:01 am

JoshF wrote:Yeah, book two is completely painted.

http://www.denbeauvais.com/Comic_Pages.html

His page, beautiful stuff

http://www.denbeauvais.com/Content/Aliens_Den.jpg

And the two-page spread to the left there is pretty much what capcom used for one of the backgrounds in their AvP game

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:06 am

Capcom weren't the only ones it seems!

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer ... 45&image=1

I need this Book 2 then (or a collection of the original 4 part series?)

Anyone selling or know a link where I can find it. Ebay seems devoid of anything except for the novels.

Necronom · Post by **Necronom** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:44 am

Skykid wrote:Capcom weren't the only ones it seems!

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer ... 45&image=1

I need this Book 2 then (or a collection of the original 4 part series?)

Anyone selling or know a link where I can find it. Ebay seems devoid of anything except for the novels.

You can find (nearly?) ALL of the Aliens and AvP (Dark Horse) stuff on demonoid. Of course you should go for the real books on amazon first;-)
Lots of it however is not in print anymore...

@JoshF

From which issue is the page you posted? Looks interesting.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:38 pm

Don't know I just found it. The first three books were great though (The Mask/Returns/Strikes Back.)

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:07 pm

EDIT:

I've found that the story I'm looking for in particular has just been re-released in Aliens Omnibus: Vol 1, which appears to collect all the original comics for a very reasonable price.

Aces!

Necronom · Post by **Necronom** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:58 pm

JoshF wrote:Don't know I just found it. The first three books were great though (The Mask/Returns/Strikes Back.)

Seems I found the site you found it at. Looks like a page from the Grifter/Mask crossover.
http://www.sequart.com/articles/index.php?article=602

Btw, there's a really nice Aliens short by Simon Bisley. Taking Giger's brilliant creature design to a whole new level. I can definitely recommend that