Comic Review // Alien: The Original Screenplay
I am so excited to be reviewing this comic book. I have read a lot of good things about this Aliens Original Screenplay, and I hope it delivers. Here are the details:
Title: Alien: The Original Screenplay
Notes: Collects issues #1-5
Illustrators: Cristiano Seixas, Guilherme Balbi, Walter Simonson & Candice Han (Color Artist).
Writer: Dan O'Bannon.
Fluff:
In 1976, Twentieth Century Fox bought a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon entitled Star Beast. Three years later, with Ridley Scott at the helm, Alien was unleashed on unsuspecting filmgoers.
En route back to Earth, the crew of the starship Snark intercepts an alien transmission. Their investigation leads them to a desolate planetoid, a crashed alien spacecraft and a pyramidic structure of unknown origin. Then the terror begins . . .
Writer Cristiano Seixas and artist Guilherme Balbi have attempted to stay true to the characters, settings, and creatures described in O'Bannon's original screenplay--without replicating the famous designs of Ron Cobb, Moebius, and H.R. Giger. A new experience, but still terrifying!
Page Count: 112
Review
By now, you should all realize I am a big Alien fan, with the original film ranking in my top five of all time. I've been lucky over the last few years to get my hands on many of the Dark Horse comics and the old Bantham books. This has reignited my enjoyment of the film, combined with the Gale Force Nine board game - Another Glorious Day in the Marine Corps, the Free League RPG, and,d of course, the Fate of Nostromo. So when I discovered via the web about an original screenplay, I had to go looking, and I am glad I did.
This version of the opening story was created using Dan O'Bannon's screenplay; this formed the base of the rewrite David Giler and Walter Hill created. Alien, for me, shaped the first steps into my hobbies the second I saw it. It is hard not to try and compare this comic to the film; there is so much in common, and the script matches up at times as well, causing you to slip into the movie imagery before being grounded back into the comic. But these are rare moments as the comic artwork does a fantastic job of readjusting the known imagery. The plot, though the same (crew find alien craft, and shit hits the fan), is narratively different and exciting in its way. One significant change is the gore. This comic has a lot! The film uses your imagination to create horror and fear; the comic instead throws it at you. I can see how this version would not have worked in the cinemas then and the need for a rewrite.
The artwork is unique, but I can only imagine how hard it was for the art team to create. Imagine years of knowing, "This is a xenomorph," before being told to 'change it!'. Overall, the Giger Alien wins. But let us be honest and state that this is a full-on biased opinion; how could I think otherwise?
Once you are a few pages in, you forget the film for the most part, as the artwork is beautiful, and I have to say the navigator of the comic creeped me out more than the film version. The comic version has this sense of otherworldly, cyclopean nightmare of a Lovecraft creation. It is so different and terrifying to look upon. Is the star head a helmet or its face? Other keynotes are the crew, so many more characters to get killed off, and with the extra characters, we are treated to a more rounded view of how dangerous a Xenomorph is as it tears through crew and ship alike, causing them to react with more caution, which seems so much more believable than the film. This leads the comic team to attempt to capture the Alien rather than shoot it, opening up the classic crawl through the vent system scene we all love.
Overall, this will be a classic case where you will either enjoy or hate it. I can see hardcore fans/narrow-minded/gatekeepers hating it, stating that this is not their Alien! But for the open-minded, this is a view into what could have been. How different would our experiences be if this film had been made? All I can tell you is that I genuinely enjoyed this, and if you get the chance, pick it up and read it!
Thank you for stopping by and reading. If you are a fan of the Alien series, you may enjoy my YouTube channel, where I slowly build, paint and play the Gale Force Nine Game and play through the Alien: Isolation game. Here are some links:
Another Glorious Day in the Corps - Gale Force Nine
Cheers!
