1986: ALIENS MAGAZINES STARLOG HOUSE AD

The new ALIEN movie is out in the UK today.... so here is a STARLOG MAGAZINE House Ad for their two official tie-in publications to the first sequel, ALIENS.

I'm not sure whether the ad's copywriter (IE someone in the office) knew anything about the plot of the film (possibly not) or just decided to make up a top line that worked because there were two magazines regardless of the countless number of aliens that turn up in the movie itself.

1979: FILMS ILLUSTRATED SIGOURNEY WEAVER ALIEN COVER

From September 1979: FILMS ILLUSTRATED magazine calls it right with this Sigourney Weaver ALIEN cover.

SILVER DREAM RACER ain't bad either. Honest.

1979: ALIEN UK MAGAZINE ADVERT

From September 1979: A British magazine advert for the UK release of ALIEN...

Prepare to be scared....

1979: ALIEN BURSTS OUT OF FANTASTIC FILMS MAGAZINE

From October 1979: FANTASTIC FILMS magazine covers ALIEN.

This is Volume 2, Issue 5 of the second tier Star Age journal.

1992: ALIENS 3 MOVIE ADAPTATION (Dark Horse International)

From August 1992: a House Ad for the British edition of ALIENS 3, from Dark House International.

Maybe it was a sign of how the newcomer wanted to shake up the British business... Or maybe they just didn't have a firm grasp about how different it was to the US Direct Sales market... But launching a three issue mini-series in newsagents was highly unusual.

Of course, there are plenty of magazines and comics that only muster a few issues before sliding into oblivion. But that's a different business model.

As far as I know, this was the only time that DHI tried to publish anything other than ongoing series. The three "specials" (maybe the language was the key to getting it past the trade) appeared alongside the just relaunched DH edition of the regular monthly. 

The film didn't live up to expectations... Which might have had a detrimental impact on sales. 

1992: ALIENS Volume 2, Issue 1 (Dark Horse International)

From July 1992: the first issue of the second volume of the British ALIENS comic.

The Dark Horse strips (ultimately the strips that elevated the indie from being just another publisher to being a major player with those all important Hollywood connections) had previously been published under license (or possibly not: a DH published guide to their own output claimed the British editions were unlicensed although, as I've noted before, this seems improbable to me) by Trident.

But, when DH decided to follow the Marvel model and open up a London office, the publishing rights to Aliens, Predator and The Terminator (appearing in "his" own monthly) were brought in-house and relaunched.
The DHI editions looked more classy than their predecessors and benefitted from better feature pages and design work. I seem to recall DHI also claiming that the British edition would feature exclusive strips but, in reality, I expect they just appeared in the UK ahead of a US outing.

DHI pretty much followed the template laid down by their predecessors and also ported across the Predator supporting feature. They'd already crossed over in the comics but were still more than a decade ahead of a cinematic slamdown.

DHI also published (unusually) a three-issue mini-series adapting ALIEN 3.

Other titles in the ultimately short lived DHI stable included STAR WARS, TOTAL CARNAGE and MANGA MANIA. All of which I've posted about in the past.

1991: ALIENS Issue 1 (Trident)

From February 1991: the first issue of the first volume of the British ALIENS comic.  

This was part of the turn-of-decade mini-boom in more adult comics fare... and had the bonus of two movie franchises (The Predator was also along for the ride) to help shift copies.

As you might expect, the contents were from the US Dark Horse run.  I read, in one DH title, that these British reprints were unlicensed but it seems unlikely that anyone would risk the double wrath of a US publisher and a major Hollywood studio with a large UK base (in sunny Soho Square) and sister companies with considerable clout and influence within the British media.  

This first volume ran until DH opened their own (ultimately short-lived) British branch and took responsibility for British editions in-house. 

1979: THE BOOK OF ALIEN

I picked this up second-hand (and rather battered - some of the inside pages have pictures cut out!) for £2 from a central London bookshop a few weeks ago.  Despite the missing bits, its a beautiful and very detailed account of the making of the film including copious pre-production design work.

It's by Paul Scanlon and Michael Gross.  Published by Star Books in 1979.