Tuesday, December 19, 2017

They Love Me In Poland!

Obviously, assuming anyone checks on this site anymore, my blogging has dribbled off a bit. Well, more than a bit. Time flies when you're having fun! Anyway, over the holidays I'll be presenting some of the greatest hits from my Facebook page and possibly even original material to dazzle and inflame!

First up, a recent Polish review of my first ALIENS graphic novel series, which was recently reprinted in fine form by those jolly Santas at Dark Horse.

The original is available at : http://artpapier.com/index.php?page=artykul&wydanie=338&artykul=6537

But the Google translate version of the article is below. Things I didn't know: Timecop was called "The Guardian Of Time" in Poland, and Aliens the movie was "Alien - Decisive Battle."

Przemysław Pieniążek,
WHAT WOULD BE, IF ... (ALIENS. 30TH ANNIVERSARY. THE ORIGINAL COMICS SERIES)
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If you're a fan of xenomorphs (however it sounds), this exclusive, jubilee edition of the graphic continuation of the hit "Alien - Decisive Battle" (1986) by James Cameron is a position for you. Dated 1988, a comic sequel, which is also a spin-off of the above mentioned film (for reasons of marketing and legal in the illustrated series could not then appear Ellen Ripley, returning in later cycles from Dark Horse), to today read and watch with real pleasure .
Screenwriter, writer and producer Mark Verheiden - including the script "The Guardian of Time" (both his comic and cinematic version directed by Peter Hyams) and low-budget production "My Name is Bruce" (made by Bruce Campbell incarnating on the screen in himself) - he created a non-linear narrative written on several narrators, in which he presented the fate of Newt and Corporal Hicks. The author convincingly showed the influence of past events on the characters' psyche, despite the passage of years still struggling with the demons of the past that haunt their dreams.
Staying in a closed Newt factory and a disfigured soldier once again face the multiplying creatures of acid instead of blood, which after space travels finally reach Earth. Although xenomorphs have chaos with their proper grace, some representatives of homo sapiens are immortalized as predators on the pages of the work. Like James Cameron, Mark Verheiden resigned from the futuristic-gothic horror convention of Ridley Scott's "Alien - Eight Passenger Nostromo" (1979), realizing the comic equivalent of an adrenaline pulsing, explosive combat movie. Which does not mean that the reviewed album lacks a climate of horror and tension.
Presenting a dystopian, technologically advanced future in which religion, consumerism and the ubiquitous world of media collide with the idea of ​​the aliens (vide: the intriguing topic of followers of the Church of the Immaculate Incubation), the screenwriter also broadens the spectrum of knowledge about the developmental cycle / abilities of Aliens and their home planet. The plot could not be missing the theme of artificial intelligence, as well as (original, though in retrospect not completely fetched) analysis of the form of petrified Space Jockey.
An undoubted advantage of this publication is a memorable visual setting. Mark A. Nelson - a cartoonist and academic lecturer in one person - prepared suggestive illustrations with an impressive level of detail (scenographic nuances, space vehicle designs, xenomorphs) and skillfully built oneiric aura, blurring the boundary between wakefulness, nightmare and poignant reminiscences (in one from them even charmingly "censored" Ellen Ripley appears).
Although the faces of the protagonists do not seem particularly varied, the artist convincingly reflects the emotions of dramatis personae, underpinning the oppressive climate with spontaneous bloodshed and scenes of high octane action. It is worth noting that in the beautifully published jubilee volume (enlarged format, blackened edges of pages, gallery of sketches and tasty covers), the reader will find original black and white illustrations of Nelson (in later editions, color variants appeared) made on Duo-Shade paper, covered with special reagents that allow for the contrasts desired by the author.
The bestselling series, enriched with the relatively lucky novel "Szczęściarz" (showing the adventures of the resourceful scrapper and his tailed "companion"), is a real masterpiece that can be contemplated as a sensational storyboard of unrealized superproduction. Because even though the story written by Marek Verheiden was excluded from the canon after the movie "Alien 3" (1992) by David Fincher, he still has adaptive potential, introducing many interesting threads to (not only) the film universe of xenomorphs. I have no illusions that the creation of such a work is less than likely today, which is why I encourage you to reach for this publishing rarity appearing in a very limited edition. Well worth it!
Mark Verheiden, Mark A. Nelson: "Aliens. 30th Anniversary. The Original Comics Series. " Translation: Paweł Biskupski. Scream Comics publisher. Warsaw 2017.
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