Alien movie comic book adaptations.... anyone remember them?

[Whiskeybrewer]

So Prometheus and the two AVP films were the only ones they didnt do Comic adapts for but they did with Predators

[dragonthingy]

We never got an Adapt for Prometheus did we?

Only the Japanese novelization.

That still confuses the hell out of me - they go to the trouble of writing one, and of translating it into Japanese, but never release it over here...

Someone in Japan really REALLY wanted that Novelisation.

So Prometheus and the two AVP films were the only ones they didnt do Comic adapts for but they did with Predators

To be fair with AvP, they did Original Graphic Novels (Thrill of the Hunt and Civilised Beasts) and mini-comics (Sand Trap and Deadspace, not to be confused with Dead Space) and the Predators tied-ins were mostly prequel and sequel material.

IIRC, the reason they didn't immediately do tie-in material for Prometheus was that they were afraid to step on the toes of Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox, and that they had talks with Fox when doing the Fire and Stone comics to make sure they did the Engineers right. I may be wrong on this though.

Honestly, there's no logical need for movie-based comics and novels adaptations of that sort anyway. I'd rather have original expanded universe material than an adaptation of a movie I've already seen or own. Not to say that they can't be well done (everyone loves the Alien: The Illustrated Story and some of the 90s Aliens novels that adapted the comics). Although I bought the Batman Returns comics adaptation on impulse seeing it in the bargain bin and its pretty funny.

Even with all the childish-ness and bright colors I still love my aliens/predator comics. I don't know why but I have always had a fascination with them, especially now as an adult. I had a lot of the comics already as a kid but I pretty much left the whole aliens/predator fandom around 14 or 15. Then in 2015 I happened to find my old collection of comics and toys, I'm not sure why but I instantly fell back in love with the whole universe again (probably has something to do with being over 30 and being a new-ish father, needed a hobby i guess). Now i'm just about finished collecting every alien comic ever released, even the anthology dark horse stuff. All I have left is Aliens Xenogenesis and Countdown (hoping this is included with the the fancy pants hard cover of book 2.) I don't have the original graphic novels though, just the library editions re-released in the 90's, not sure if i'm gonna seek out and find the originals yet though. Next I need to start finishing my AvP and Predator comic collections.

You're fandom story is better than mine. I binged the Predator and Alien movies when I was 12 and tracked down the Omnibus collections at the same store that had the Yu-gi-Oh! tournaments. 

I ironically love some of the sillier ones, but there are a decent amount of genuinely good ones. I haven't been keeping up with the new ones as much as I should be.

[HuDaFuK]

Honestly, there's no logical need for movie-based comics and novels adaptations of that sort anyway.

Some people, myself included, enjoy movie adaptations because they often give some insight into how the production changed over time before finally hitting screens.

And it could be argued there's really no logical need for original stories either. At the end of the day, both are done simply to make money.

[Perfect-Organism]

There's no logical need for anything, including seemingly our universe.  That's why the old questions "why are we here?" or "what is our purpose?" still resonate so well.

I love adaptations.  It's fun to experience a favorite story in a unique, different way...

[dragonthingy]

Some people, myself included, enjoy movie adaptations because they often give some insight into how the production changed over time before finally hitting screens.

I guess thats a good point. To give an example, the Predator movie novel gives more detail about Dutch's past.

And it could be argued there's really no logical need for original stories either. At the end of the day, both are done simply to make money.

Agreed on the money side of things, although like I said in my post that I prefer original expanded universe material to adaptations of movies I can watch at home. There was a time long ago where these adaptations had more of a purpose, but VHS and DVDs allow you to watch the movie at home.

[chromhart]

I have all of them... including the swiss versesions of Alien and Aliens in different art and style. Do any one know is Alien Covenant getting comic book treatmeant?

[Perfect-Organism]

Woot!  I just got my Alien: Resurrection comics in the mail!!  Am I gonna enjoy this or what!!?

[SM]

More than you might imagine.  But not much more.

What'd they set you back?

[Perfect-Organism]

All of 14.99CAD + 5CAD shipping...

[SM]

Not bad.

[Perfect-Organism]

Well, I figured their worth about 5 in total, and experience tells me that shipping would be about 15, so since I'm in Canada, and the items were in Canada, the costs reversed themselves and it came out to about what I could have expected.

But....

I'm at a bit of a loss.  I mean I've heard mostly negative things about this adaptation and I had low expectations going in.  But this is a scenario where I actually achieved results below the expectations.  It may have been better if Sam Kieth illustrated this... 

I guess it can't really belong in an omnibus with the other adaptations as much as I'd like it to.  It's just not of the same caliber as Alien: Illustrated story.  No where near.

My order of these adaptations in terms of over-all quality would be:

1.  Alien
2.  Alien 3
3.  Newt's tale
4.  And that's a distant 4, Resurrection..

[SM]

Nothing compares to Alien though.

I'd put Resurrection over Newt's Tale.  Newt's Tale was a wasted opportunity in terms of the story, the art was sub par, and strayed too far from the source material.  Resurrection was just too condensed.

[Perfect-Organism]

Resurrection was just lazy.  At least Newt's Tale had lofty ideas.  Most of the scenes in A:R were missing any detail in the background.  It was just a gradient.  Compare that against backgrounds illustrated by Tristan Jones.  There's no comparison.

The characters' faces were drawn in a way that is on the verge of being cartoony, but lacks any unifying style.  The look just sort of looks squiggly, and doesn't convey any emotion.

Yes the series is rushed.  It could haven 3 or 4 issues.

It bothers me when comic adaptations are treated like fodder.  Alien: Illustrated Story showed that there is a right way to do it.  The thinking by the comic company is that it is just a film promotion piece, and vice versa, that the knock-on effect of a film's marketing will help to push a few copies of the comic at retail.  It's another opportunity lost.  This adaptation could have been better than the film.  Sigh.

[SM]

One thing that Resurrection got right over Alien 3 and Newt's Tale with the backgrounds was that they were dark.

The cartoony characters were cool because they were akin to Caro's original character designs.  It provided a point of difference to the film, but was still connected to the film.

I didn't see an lofty ideas in Newt's Tale.  River of Pain told a better story in that regard.  Both however completely glossed over things like the last stand and how Newt survived on her own.

[HuDaFuK]

Yeah, both attempts at telling the fall of Hadley's Hope have been huge disappointments for me.

Newt's Tale has always struck me as a really simplistic, teen-fictiony take on the scenario, an impression only reinforced by the garish colouring. River of Pain was better, but the unrealistic inclusion of a whole bunch of Marines and a few other oversights compared to what we know from the film really undermined it.

Neither has really done a good job of capturing the potential horror of the situation.