The Alien/Predator Comic Strips, Part Three
(For part one of this article series, click here. For part two, click here.)
By Jean-François Boivin
PREVIEWS (DIAMOND)
Diamond Comic Distributors is now the main provider for
comic shops all around the world. But when the company started in 1982, there
was a lot of competition. The company grew and absorbed other distributors, and
in 1990 they started publishing a catalog for pre-orders titled Previews (much like their main
competitor Capital City Distribution did the year before with their Advance Comics) that was sold to the public
through local shops. The magazine includes advance solicitations with
description of upcoming releases (in order of publishing company) and an order
form that could be filled out by comic shop owners to order for their
customers.
Most issues included preview pages of comics and promotional cards and posters. In its third year, Previews started including exclusive comic strips with the January 1993 issue (Vol. III, No. 1). That very first storyline was provided by Dark Horse Comics, and was laid out over 13 two-page installments. The selection was a biggie: John Byrne was given full freedom to write and illustrate his own story set in the Aliens universe, titled "Aliens: Earth Angel." Byrne had a bit of past history with the Alien franchise: in his end notes for the Dark Horse re-publication in July 1992 of one of his early stories, Critical Error[1], Byrne says that he was inspired by a photograph of the movie Alien that he saw in the pages of Heavy Metal. Now he had the chance to write an actual Alien story, and he chose to set it on Earth, in a small American town in the 1950s, and make it play out like an old school sci-fi movie. It'’s got a crashed alien ship, a motorcycle gang, and a town doctor who becomes a hero.
Labels: Aliens, Jean-François Boivin, Predator
posted by Hasslein Books @ 6:10 PM
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