Since I did a Frankenstein review with a picture featuring a Xenomorph, I think it’s only naturally right to do something Aliens related. And rather than do an obvious movie related piece, it’s far more interesting to delve into this gooey goop of arty goodness, Alien: The Illustrated Story.
There are two versions of this novel, and the edition I have is the coloured version with no extras. There is an original art edition also which looks mightily impressive and is presented with the original line work, no colour, and a good load of extra goodness. It’s many times more expensive than the edition I have, and although it’s something I would be interested in at some point in the future possibly, it’s not the edition I’ll be talking about here.
Alien: The Illustrated Story is a very well paced illustration based upon the original 1979 movie Alien. The story doesn’t deviate at all from the story presented in the movie, and although that may sound like a negative, it really isn’t. Sometimes you expect a re-imagining of a story when presented in an alternative format, but the illustration in this book compliments the source story extremely well and it retains the same dense atmosphere and dread the movie captured so superbly. The story is strong and it’s a show of confidence from the artists that they didn’t need to deviate from the original source material and that they were confident enough in their own talents to maintain the original storyline and still deliver an exciting and memorable novel.
If you’re not familiar with the Alien storyline, then you are a pooface. But just in-case, it tells the story of a deep space mining vessel, The Nostromo. A small ship with a crew of eight, who are awoken from hyper-sleep in-between their voyage back to earth, and find out they’re under corporate orders from their employers, Weyland-Yutani, to investigate a transmission of unknown origin on a nearby planetary surface.
The signals source is discovered to be coming from a large alien spacecraft and upon exploration of the ship, they come across alien life forms inside an area covered with extraterrestrial egg pods. Kane, the executive officer of the ship, ends up becoming infected by one of the species they come across and eventually in effect gives birth to a giant alien creature upon The Nostromo. The creature eventually stalks and kills off the crew one by one, leaving only Warrant Officer Ripley left to face the Alien in the finally of the story, and defeating it, securing an escape pod from the original ship, which was self destructed within the carnage of what happened onboard.
I know it’s a very quick overview of the basic story, but I’m fully assuming if anybody happens upon this review, they fully well know the story and are more interested in the illustration and presentation of the comic.
The artwork is beautiful, especially the line work. The colouring comes across as a little sloppy in places, but it does suit the style of the artwork well. The line work is what really stands out most, but the colour palette does have a great vibrancy to it, and has a nostalgic seventies visual look which of course suits the source material to a tee.
This book really is a very awesome piece of work, and the biggest thing that sets this illustration apart from the movie is the pacing. The movie has a very brooding and slow build up, where as this comic moves at a spritely pace, rarely letting up and constantly keeping the reader on edge as every page seemingly jumps the story relentlessly.
This is the best illustrated novel of a movie I have ever read and the work Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson have produced here is fantastic. This gets a solid eight of ten to a light nine from me and comes highly recommended if you’re a fan of the Alien universe. In-fact, it’s a borderline essential!
Goodwin & Simonson (1979). Alien: The Illustrated Story. Titan Books. ISBN 978-1781161296
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