Alien: The Illustrated Story (Heavy Metal Communications, Inc.: 1979)
Script: Archie Goodwin
Artwork: Walt Simonson




I'm playing snap with @mrp today.

I first saw Ridley Scott's dark, squalid, psycho-sexual sci-if/horror masterpiece around 1984 or 1985, I suppose. It had passed me by when it initially came out (let's face it, it wasn't exactly aimed at 7-year-olds, which is the age I was in 1979). However, my best friend at the time had managed to see it somehow -- I guess it must've been on its TV premiere here in England in the early 80s, or maybe it was on video cassette. Anyway, he regaled me with tales of this X certificate sci-fi movie Alien, and -- as boys of 12 or 13 are wont to do -- he had gone into excessively gory detail about the famous "chest-burster" scene.

So, when Alien was next going to be shown on TV, we hatched a plan to surreptitiously set up my family's VCR timer to record it, so that we could both watch it when my parents were next out of the house (no way would they have let me watch an X certificate movie at that age!). Luckily, the covert recording operation went off without a hitch and, if memory serves, we watched it together late one night when he was staying around my house. Needless to say, I was blown away by the film and it's been a firm favourite of mine ever since.

Weirdly, given what a fan I am of the film, I only heard about the Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson comic adaptation about 6 or 7 years ago. I was talking with a friend about Simonson's run on Marvel's Star Wars comic and he suddenly dropped the bombshell that Simonson had also done an adaptation of Alien with Archie Goodwin at around the same time. Hearing this was all the encouragement I needed to track it down, because I love Simonson's artwork and Goodwin was another stalwart of Marvel's SW run. Thanks to eBay, I finally got hold of a copy at a price that I was happy to pay.

The adaptation itself is excellent. I wouldn't say that it is superior to the film, like mrp does, but it is a lot better than a lot of other comic adaptations of movies. Goodwin and Simonson work together in perfect synergy, creating a faithful adaptation that manages to retain the suspense, creepiness, and claustrophobic horror of the film (not necessarily an easy task with sequential art). Overall, it's a fairly quick read, but it's anything but lightweight; this is a comic book that carries the gravity and mood of the film extremely well. If you're a fan of Alien or Goodwin and Simonson's work, then this is well worth your time seeking out.

My #8 is a little comic that seemed to slip out in the 80s, based on a 20 year-old cartoon, about a boy and his dog and some science stuff. Each week, the kid and his buddy and their dog got in trouble, while the boy's scientist dad was helping some government or something or conducting experiments and dad and his male companion had to go rescue them from some nasty character; often a stereotyped figure. Dull stuff, right? Here, judge for yourself....



At least the music was cool.....

So, in 1986, Hanna-Barbera was launching a new syndicated version of Jonny Quest, with all new episodes and some new characters. H-B wasn't in the best of shape by these days and they went to a smaller company about developing a comic to help promote the series. That company was Comico and the series was awesome!



The series was written by William Messner-Loebs; for my money, one of THE most under-rated writers of 80s and 90s comics. He was perfect for this series, as his own Journey was a world of classic adventure, with interesting characters. Loebs brought the Quest characters to life and added layers to them. The second issue features the story of how Jonny's mother died and Race Bannon came to join the team. It's a moving issue, as we see how Jonny's mother helped light the spirit of adventure in Jonny and pulled her husband out of the lab and into the world. You only have a few pages to meet her and get to know her, before she is gone; but, you feel her loss as much as Jonny. Even Dr Zinn admired and respected this woman. That's writing!

Art featured rotating guest appearances, from creator Doug Wildey, to Dan Spiegle, Steve Rude, Dave Stevens, the Kuberts, and many many more. Regular art, after a while, came from Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley, who knocked it out of the park, every time.

Stories were new, featuring a mix of adventure and character moments, with old favorites, like Dr Zinn and Jezebel Jade reappearing, while adding new ones, like a social worker...........

(Sorry for the interruption; cate wanted to perch on my shoulder)

.......who checks up on Jonny and Hadji's welfare and schooling, ends up caught up in an adventure, and becomes a love interest for Dr Quest.

Bandit took center stage in a story about dognapping for illegal fights, where his heroism comes to the fore and we empathize with Jonny as he searches for his beloved dog. We get a potential future for Jonny, seeming doppelgangers for the Quests, in a small town, and even an evil, alternate universe version of the team. Dr Quest got an issue where his reputation allows him to use a garden hose spray nozzle to make a pair of crooks soil themselves! One featured a video recording for a time capsule, with everything told from the POV of the lens, while everyone acts differently, for the camera (hilarious issue).

Jezebel Jade got a spin-off miniseries and Doug Wildey recreated 3 classic episodes in Jonny Quest Classics. The series lasted longer than most expected, though it was little more than a cult favorite; but, it was a damned good cult favorite and the new cartoon series should have hired Loebs to write for them, as his work was far better than their stories, which few people saw, due to poor syndication. H-B proved unable to duke it out with the likes of Filmation (He-Man and She-Ra) and DIC (Inspector Gadget). Everyone still preferred the original series, where people got shot and killed, and monsters were truly scary.

In an age where tons of stuff is being reprinted, this series cries out for collected editions. The art is great, the stories are brilliant; and, Messner-Loebs could use the income.

I too stumbled upon this book in a bookstore about a decade or so ago, and it was one of my near misses. It is fantastic.

-M

#8: SUPERMAN'S METROPOLIS

Written by: Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier
Drawn by: Ted McKeever 



Fritz Lang's legendary film, the imagery of Metropolis was ripe for a comic adaptation. This Elseworlds from 1996 was a brilliant bolt from DC and a perfect match.  Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster combine with the vision of renowned filmmaker Fritz Lang in Superman's Metropolis, a remarkable Elseworlds graphic novel setting the Man of Tomorrow in the City of Tomorrow. Ted McKeever's beautiful painted art superbly evokes the powerful imagery of Lang's film and the classic heroism of the Superman comics in the story adapted by frequent Moebius collaborators Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier.  Honestly if this was written by an American, the feel of the book would've been too American. McKeever, who should be on everyone's list of favorite artists, paints these gorgeous pages that are straight from the celluloid. The city, Moloch to the Maria/Lois Lane hybrid... its a visual feast

Huh. I liked the comic better than the movie. I'm a terrible wuss but I didn't think Alien was all that scary and Simonson, at that point in his career, was a more interesting visual stylist than Ridley Scott. AlienS plural was pretty damned fun, but the original was just too slow for my taste.

#8  Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman film)       Magazine Enterprises 1949                plus a Timely bonus! 1948


Ingrid Bergman starred in the 1948 film Joan of Arc, which famously flopped despite the talent involved (Bergman, Jose Ferrer, Cecil Kellaway, Alan "Alfred" Napier, directed by Victor Fleming, screenplay by Maxwell Anderson). A few months after the film's release in November 1948, Magazine Enterprises published this one-shot Joan of Arc comic based on the movie: 





And a few months before the film's November 1948 world premiere in NYC, Timely came out with issue #3 of its Ideal: A Classical Comic series...and look whose likeness is on the cover. I've always found this cover captivating; I love the shading and details and Bergman/Joan's intense gaze. Such a striking cover image (the interior art has a nondescript, non-Bergmanesque Joan). 




Back in the 1940s, Bergman was identified with Joan (well, until she met Rossellini, anyway), since in addition to the film she'd also played Joan in the 1946 Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, an adaptation by the aforementioned Maxwell Anderson. In the play, Ingrid played an actress who was playing Joan. Basically, a "play within a play" set-up.  

8. Warp 1983

Publisher - First Comics
Year - 1983
Writer- Peter Gillis
Artists- Frank Brunner/Bob Smith





First comics company started publishing books in 1983 and I was hooked by their very first book called Warp. It was adapted from a play of the same name that actually played for a short while on Broadway after time in smaller theaters. The plot involves a bank teller Dave Carson who gets transported into another dimension to help fight a war involving magic and Sword play and is aided by a female warrior woman called Sargon. Neal Adams was involved in the set design for the play but I’m guessing they couldn’t afford him for any of the comic work. It’s quite a good series which included 3 annuals and a 19 issue run. It was nice to see that First comics could get Frank Brunner of Dr Strange fame to start this series up and try to compete with the big two.