Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension: Comic Overview

Published: July 1994, as a one-shot
Collected: Predator Omnibus Vol. 2 (February 2008), Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (December 2022)
Script: Jerry Prosser
Pencils: Jim Somerville
Inks: Brian Garvey
Colors: Ray Murtaugh
Letters: Clem Robins
Cover: Jim Somerville
Format: 48-page story in a 52-page one-shot, $3.95
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Setting: Hollywood and the hills of southern California, 1959

Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension is a one-shot Predator comic written by Jerry Prosser and penciled by Jim Somerville, published by Dark Horse Comics in July 1994. Set in Hollywood in 1959, it played the franchise as a B-movie homage, with a struggling studio betting everything on a monster picture filmed in a "4-D" process that needed special glasses to see the creature. When a real Predator landed outside the city, a boy named Tommy Anderson discovered that those glasses let him see straight through its cloak.

Story Breakdown

A Producer Out Of Ideas

The story opened in Hollywood in 1959, at American National Pictures, a second-rate studio where director Richard "Dick" Flynn had long since stopped making the films he cared about. His producer, Mr. Baldwin, worried that television was emptying the theaters and wanted a gimmick strong enough to beat William Castle. Flynn's answer was Invaders from the Fourth Dimension, a monster picture shot in "4-D", where the creature on screen could only be seen through special polarized glasses designed by the studio's inventor, Anderson. The film was set to premiere that night at a drive-in.

A Landing In The Hills

A Predator crouching by a fallen log as it checks its wrist gear in the woods, from Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension

That same day, a fiery object streaked across the clear southern California sky and crashed into the wooded hills near the city. A Predator climbed out of its craft at the start of what it saw as the hunting season, testing its gear on a rabbit with its triple targeting lasers and an electrical blast, and judging that it would be a good hunt. Meanwhile, at the Anderson home, young Tommy Anderson pestered his family about the premiere, squabbled with his older brother Jack over the family Cadillac and slipped away into the woods wearing a pair of his father's 4-D glasses.

The Boy Who Could See It

Tommy Anderson in 4-D glasses diving across the grass as a plasma bolt from the Predator streaks past him with a GZZHTT sound effect

In the trees, Tommy found that the glasses let him see what nobody else could: the cloaked hunter, crouched and watching him. The Predator realized it had been spotted and attacked, firing at the boy and hurling dark spherical grenades that burst in crackling electrical discharges. Tommy remembered a big rock where he used to hide from Jack, wedged himself underneath it and waited while the hunter scanned the forest in heat vision. Frustrated by prey that seemed to vanish, it eventually moved on, and Tommy ran home only to find that everyone had already left for the show.

A Dead Cop And A Stolen Squad Car

Armed with a slingshot and a handful of cookies, Tommy ran into the street and flagged down a police patrol car. The officers laughed at his talk of a monster until the Predator appeared and gunned one of them down beside the car. Tommy jumped behind the wheel and fled, with the hunter clinging to the roof for a moment before he shook it off, and he drove the squad car straight to the gates of American National Pictures to find his uncle.

Panic On The Studio Lot

The Predator walking among actors and crew dressed as movie monsters on the American National Pictures lot

Inside the studio, Flynn assumed his nephew was playing a prank until Tommy handed him the glasses. Flynn tried calling the newspapers, but nobody believed a B-movie director who claimed his studio was being attacked by a real monster. Then the Predator smashed through a window, and Flynn and Tommy fled past rows of rubber monster suits as security tried to hold the creature back. The chase ended in flames when the studio's gas-filled creature props exploded, and Tommy, too young to drive but doing it anyway, got the two of them off the lot in a hot dog promotional car.

Premiere Night At The Atomic Drive-In

The Predator towering over the drive-in with three red targeting lasers, beside an inset of a moviegoer in 3-D glasses and speech balloons

Flynn and Tommy reached the Atomic Drive-In, where the marquee announced the world premiere of the film, misspelled title and all. The Predator tracked them there and slipped into the crowd of parked cars as the picture began, its own invisible body a far stranger sight than anything on the screen. Through the glasses, Tommy watched the hunter loom over the moviegoers in front of the projected images while the audience, all wearing 4-D glasses too, took it for part of the show.

No One Believes A Kid

A close-up of the unmasked Predator's red eyes and mandibles

Tommy found his father, his brother and Jack's date and tried to warn them, but they only told him to stop fooling around and watch the movie. Police arrived after the killing of their officer and blamed the stolen squad car on Flynn's publicity stunts.

The Predator writhing and screaming YAAAARG in a storm of static as a caption says the creature is affected by the sound

When the Predator struck again, officers opened fire and the hunter cut them down, until a burst of sound from the movie seemed to leave the creature writhing and screaming, while the crowd around them cheered what they took for the film's effects.

The Cadillac Run

The unmasked Predator clawing at the windshield of the Cadillac with its mandibles spread

Cornered, Tommy fought back with his slingshot and then took the family's pink Cadillac, ordering Jack and his date out of the car.

Tommy Anderson in 3-D glasses screaming at the wheel of the Cadillac as the unmasked Predator charges up behind him

The unmasked Predator leapt onto the hood and clawed at the windshield, but Tommy swerved and slammed the brakes, throwing the hunter off the car.

The pink Cadillac blown apart in a fiery KA-WHOOOSH explosion at the Atomic Drive-In

He then turned the Cadillac around and drove it straight at the creature, headlights blazing, before the car was blown apart in a massive explosion.

An Ending With A Question Mark

The masked Predator standing tall with its spear before leaving Tommy at the drive-in

Tommy was thrown clear, and the crowd took the fireball for the film's grand finale as "The End?" appeared on the screen. Mr. Baldwin declared it the most amazing gimmick he had ever seen and demanded more movies like it. Later, the Predator stood before Tommy with its spear, and the boy held out his hand to it before the hunter vanished, leaving the family to go home for the night.

Back at the studio, Baldwin was already planning a sequel when Anderson brought him a new pair of glasses to try. Baldwin put them on, saw something no one else in the room could see and screamed, closing the story on another question mark.

Characters

Tommy Anderson was the boy at the heart of the story. Wearing his father's 4-D glasses, he was the only person who could see the cloaked Predator, and he survived the hunt with a slingshot, a stolen squad car and the family Cadillac.
Richard "Dick" Flynn was Tommy's uncle, a director at American National Pictures who made Invaders from the Fourth Dimension and was dragged into the chase.
Mr. Baldwin was the studio's producer, obsessed with gimmicks that could pull audiences away from television.
Anderson was the inventor of the polarized 4-D glasses used for the film.
Jack was Tommy's older brother, more interested in borrowing the Cadillac than in his brother's warnings.
The Predator was a hunter who landed in the hills near Hollywood and stalked Tommy from the woods to the studio and the drive-in.

Behind The Scenes

Invaders from the Fourth Dimension was released by Dark Horse Comics in July 1994 as a 52-page one-shot priced at $3.95, with a single 48-page story. Jerry Prosser wrote the script, Jim Somerville penciled it and drew the cover, Brian Garvey inked the interior, Ray Murtaugh colored it and Clem Robins lettered it. Robert Boyd edited the issue, with Diana Schutz as editor-in-chief. The cover showed a couple in 3-D glasses watching the title on a drive-in screen, a nod to the theater gimmicks of the 1950s that the story itself poked fun at.

The one-shot was translated for the Norwegian anthology X9 Spesial in 1995, and Dark Horse reprinted it in Predator Omnibus Vol. 2 in February 2008. Marvel later included it in Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 in December 2022, alongside stories such as Predator: Dark River and Predator: Big Game.

A B-Movie Tribute In The Predator Line

Most Dark Horse Predator stories of the early 1990s played the hunt straight, from the samurai of Predator: Blood Feud to the gangsters of Predator: The Hunted City and the Old West of Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa. Invaders from the Fourth Dimension leaned into satire instead, mixing the hunter with rubber-suit monsters, drive-in crowds and studio executives. Its child hero made it one of the clearest examples of Predators hunting kids, and its electrical grenades showed a different take on the Yautja grenade.

Final Thoughts

Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension turned the hunter's cloak into the punchline of a 1950s movie gimmick, giving the only clear view of the monster to a kid in cardboard glasses. Jerry Prosser and Jim Somerville filled it with drive-in kitsch, studio cynicism and a Cadillac charge, then closed on a wink that left room for another invader. It remains one of the strangest and most playful Dark Horse Predator one-shots.