Why...

[Kimarhi]

Mycomicshop.com has the majority of the alien comics.  I just finished my collection by buying all the rest of the stories from the DHP miniseries.

But I did that just to "finish" what I started.  I started buying them when I was twelve or so, and continued to buy them until this very year about nine years later.  Of course I agree lots of the stories are silly, but when I was young they did get the imagination fired up.

Whats kind of bad is that I was collecting the novels too, and actually ended up with Berserker (fortunate enough to walk into barnes and noble and see it right there in front of me).  I lent it out to a friend that forgot to give it back and MOVED away with it.

I could probably get it back if I asked him.  I just don't feel like driving to Tennessee to get it.

Actually collecting them was more fun than reading half of them. :\

[Wolfy]

merchandise overpriced, hence a waste of money
TY

[SM]

There is that aspect too.  Beyond the actual films on DVD I don't think I've bought more than 3 or 4 pieces of Star Wars or Alien merch since the Firstborn came along 6 years ago.

[Extroheal]

I agree with Corporal Hicks. There are plenty of comics and novels with interesting stories and lots of details worth discussing and arguing about, and yet there's hardly any discussion and whenever there is a novel-based topic it's usually a very simplistic 'did-you-like-it' discussion like Sil described. The novels and comics are not that hard to find so it's disappointing to find so little.

There are exception like the Yautja/Hish thread which I liked.

[SM]

Not hard to find?  Let's all have a good yack about the Berserker novel then.   

[SiL]

One of the first I read, loved it to bits.

Pity it was from the Library, up in Brisbane...

EDIT

Speaking of overpriced merchandise, I was searching for some Aliens literature in an online second hand bookshop. Saw the Colonial Marines Technical Manual for AU $113.74, which is fair seeing as it's largely out of print. Then I saw AvP: Eternal, new, for $206. It's a cold, cold day in hell before that comic's worth anything near that.

Interestingly enough, though, for people who live in countries other than Australia wanting some cheap AvP books, Alibris has most of them used for AU $3.65 and new at $5.65.

EDIT EDIT

And Berserker for as low as $12.22 used and $14.67 new.

New: http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=641597&qcond=6&wtit=Aliens&pbest=11%2E95&qsort=p&cm_re=works*listing*buynew
Old:
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=641597&wtit=Aliens&pbest=11%2E95&matches=3&qsort=p&cm_re=works*listing*buyused

[Kimarhi]

Perry did a good job humanizing the convicts in the novel.  The story is pretty flat (I had both the comics and the novel) in the comics because they don't go into the human characters personalities much.

Candyman was a pimp.  But I liked Teape character as well.

[CplWilks]

I agree, the characters convicts could have been 'expanded' upon more, but Teape was deffinately an interesting character.

Certainly would't have wanted his job 

[Kimarhi]

His death was much better in berserker novel than the comics.  In the comics acid splash ate through his head from Ellis going wild in the berserker.  In the novel, well you know he was put out of his misery painlessly by his comrade.