Alien: The Illustrated Story: Comic Guide
Alien: The Illustrated Story is a 1979 graphic novel from Heavy Metal Communications, scripted by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Walter Simonson. Heavy Metal had started in 1974 as the American edition of the French magazine Métal Hurlant, and Charles Lippincott edited this adaptation of Ridley Scott's film Alien while that picture was new. John Workman was design director. Simonson penciled and inked the 64 pages, and the magazine ran two eight-page previews in the May and June 1979 issues ahead of the Simon & Schuster release. The book was the first graphic novel on the New York Times bestseller list.
Plot Summary
The Nostromo Crew Awakens
Kane had coffee ready when the crew came out of sleep aboard the Nostromo, with Dallas in command and Ripley the warrant officer, the ship cat Jones on her shoulder. Lambert navigated, Ash was the science officer, Parker was the engineer, and Brett was the technician. They argued over bonus shares while a yellow light showed on Mother.
The Crew Follows The Signal Down
The tug was hauling the refinery when they took the transmission on the bridge, before the landing. Lambert homed in on a planetoid 1,200 meters across, with gravity of 0.86, about two hours out, and solid enough to walk on. The 2003 Director's Cut of the film includes that same reading. The landing clogged the intakes with dust, caught an engine on fire, and burned out a whole cell. The film's descent also left the tug in need of repairs, and Alan Dean Foster's novelization has dust through the intakes and a fire in engineering.
The Crew Finds The Horseshoe Hull
Dallas, Kane, and Lambert left the Nostromo in suits and walked to a wreck on the planetoid. Its hull was bent like a horseshoe, a central body between two long arms. Mother could not match that shape to any listed ship, and Dallas reported the same from the ground, a spacecraft the crew had not seen before. They entered through an opening in the side.
Dallas Shuts The Transmission Off
Inside the derelict they found a fossilized pilot in a chair, and Dallas shut the transmission off at that chair. Kane went down into the hold after that, and Dallas treated the descent as Kane's chance to see what the wreck was carrying. They brought him back at sunset with an organism locked to his head. Ripley had them on the screens and wanted a clear account of that organism before the inner hatch would open.
Ripley Loses The Quarantine Argument
Ripley held the inner hatch and wanted quarantine. Dallas overrode her, and the hatch opened. In the infirmary the facehugger had burned through Kane's viewplate. They tried to cut it free, and the cut tore his skin while the organism bled acid. Ash held the dead creature for tests, as a specimen that had to go back to Earth. Kane stayed feverish, and his vital signs were strong.
Kane And Brett Are Killed
Kane woke hungry and wanted a meal before he would rest. At the mess table the cramps hit, and the chestburster tore out of his chest. Blood went across the room, and the infant was moving when it left the table. Dallas sent Parker and Brett to seal that area and find it. The search ended in the hold, where a tail came up behind Brett and knocked his cap off. The adult Xenomorph's jaws closed on him, and Parker was in the hold when it happened.
Dallas Dies In The Air Shaft
Dallas went into the air shafts with a flamethrower to drive the adult Xenomorph toward an airlock. Parker and Lambert waited at a maintenance level to push it forward if it came out that way. Lambert tracked Dallas from there. The signal on her screen converged on his position, and she called for him to get out of the shaft. What they recovered was the flamethrower and no blood. Command passed to Ripley. Parker wanted the shuttle and a way off the ship, and Ripley refused to abandon the Nostromo.
Ripley Finds Special Order 937
Ripley asked Lambert whether she had ever slept with Ash. Lambert had not thought he was interested, and neither woman had slept with him. Ripley then sat at Mother's console. The computer gave no reply about Dallas. She used an emergency command override, and the screen brought up Special Order 937. That order rerouted the Nostromo, made gathering the specimen priority one, and required the organism returned to a Mil-Sci lab, with every other concern secondary.
Parker Strikes Ash's Head Off
Ash attacked Ripley and had her by the throat when Lambert and Parker reached them. Parker could not pull the android off her, and a blow took Ash's head off. The open neck was machine hardware, and the crew saw that he was an android. Ash had been protecting the creature under orders from Mil-Sci, for a bio-weapons program at the company they worked for. The severed head could speak. Ripley burned it after it described the organism as something the crew could not kill.
Ripley Starts A Ten-Minute Countdown
Ripley set out to destroy the Nostromo and leave on the Narcissus. She put Jones in his carrier, then threw a series of switches on the bridge and started a ten-minute countdown. Parker and Lambert were gathering coolant for the shuttle when that count began. The adult Xenomorph caught them together. Parker could not fire without hitting Lambert, and the creature killed them both. Ripley ran for the shuttle while the count ran down.
The Adult Unfolds In The Corridor
On the way to the Narcissus, Ripley came on the adult Xenomorph folded into a compact shape in the access corridor. That shape opened into its full body in front of her. She ran back into the Nostromo, away from that corridor, and reached the shuttle after that. She searched the cabin. With sixty seconds left on the count, the Narcissus looked empty, and she launched. The tug's destruction faded behind the shuttle.
The Creature Crawls Back To The Hull
Aboard the drifting Narcissus, Ripley found the adult Xenomorph in a supply locker, with Jones in the carrier. She got into a suit and blew the creature out of the airlock with the words "Goodbye, you bastard." The creature survived in the vacuum and crawled back along the hull toward the ship. Ripley met that return in the suit, answered "Guess again, you son of a bitch," and burned it off the hull in the engine blast. She repressurized the cabin and went to the sleep vault, the last survivor of the Nostromo.
Differences From The Film
- Dallas shut the derelict transmission off at the fossil pilot's chair. The film leaves that beacon running.
- Dallas overrode Ripley's quarantine order, and the inner hatch opened on his order.
- The chestburster birth threw blood across the mess, and the infant was moving when it left the table.
- A tail came up behind Brett and knocked his cap off before the jaws closed.
- Before Ash attacked her, Ripley asked Lambert whether either of them had slept with him. They had not.
- Special Order 937 rerouted the Nostromo and required the organism returned to a Mil-Sci lab. Gathering the specimen was priority one, and every other concern was secondary.
- Ripley started a ten-minute self-destruct while Parker and Lambert were gathering shuttle coolant. Jones was in the carrier before they were killed.
- The adult Xenomorph was folded into a compact shape in the access corridor and then opened. The theatrical film does not show that unfold.
- After the airlock, the creature survived in space, crawled back to the Narcissus, and died in the engine blast. Ripley's lines were "Goodbye, you bastard" and "Guess again, you son of a bitch."
Editions
Heavy Metal Communications published Alien: The Illustrated Story in June 1979 as a 64-page color graphic novel, and Simon & Schuster distributed it. Charles Lippincott edited the book. John Workman was design director, and Julie Simmons was managing editor of Heavy Metal Books. The copyright is held by Twentieth Century-Fox.
Titan Books reissued the story in September 2012 as a 64-page paperback, restored from artwork in Walter Simonson's studio, the same month Prometheus reached theaters. In October 2012 Titan also published an oversized Original Art Edition, printed in black and white from Simonson's boards, with the script, color tryouts, sketches, and an interview with him.
Behind The Scenes
Walter Simonson drew the corridor unfold from a rough cut of Alien, and he finished those pages while that beat was expected to remain in the film. He had visited Shepperton Studios while the production was shooting, and the 2012 interview in the Original Art Edition covers that trip. The theatrical cut replaced the unfold with a short glimpse in the corridor, so the folded shape is in the graphic novel.
Conclusion
Alien: The Illustrated Story is Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson's 1979 Heavy Metal adaptation of Alien. It follows the Nostromo from the beacon through Kane's death, Ash's orders, and Ripley's countdown. The book ends with the adult Xenomorph burned off the Narcissus hull and Ripley on her way to the sleep vault.
External Sources
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