H.R Giger builder of the beast.

Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger was born in Chur in the capital of Graubunden in 1940. His father wanted him to be a chemist like him and considered art to be a waste of time. He studied architecture in Zurich in the 60's and married twice his first wife a swiss actress committed suicide.

His art went on to feature in Omni Magazine earned him international acclaim. Pieces like Necronom IV caught the attention of Dan O'Bannon who came into contact with Giger during the preparation for the filming of Dunne a movie that would never come to pass with either men involved. However in the late 70's Dan O'Bannon's movie Star Beast got the green light he convinced Scott to hire Giger to design the Alien Landscape and the Star Beast itself. Giger demanded to work alone and arrived with a trunk full of human and animal bones. However Scott and O'Bannon loved the guy and he was aloud to work unhindered.

Alien gained the artiest Oscar in 1980 and opened up interest in his art style for other horror and Sci-fi movies. The titles include Furture Kill, Poltergiest 2, Species and Batman forever as well as credited for the Alien movies. Along with designing a microphone for John Davies of Korn.

In 1998 Giger opened up a permanent exhibit  in Gruyeres which is still run buy his wife Carmen Maria Scheifler Giger.

Sil from Species

Giger's Batmobile design unused for Batman Forever

Giger's design for the low budget horror Future Kill

HR Giger's creature design for Poltergeist 2

RIP HR Giger

Sad to hear the father of Cinemas greatest  monster passed away age 74 after a injury during a fall.

As well as Alien he also worked on designs for Species and Future Kill.

HR Giger 1940-2014

Where's Bowski?

Did you know that Aliens has its kinda where's Wally game going on it. You see theres this marines called Trevor Wierbowski who gets little to know screen time at all. This poor fucker has become a cult icon spawning a group of fans know as Wierbowski hunters Heres their site http://www.wierzbowski.net/

Still some thing I find out that with all the attention Wierbowski gets how many of you guys out their remember poor Tim Crowe. Yep everyone forgets Crowe....sure you'd remember the poor fucker who got blown to shit buy bag of ammo that exploded but bet you never could think of his name. How come Crowe does not have his own website? 

Well heres to the Fallen and Forgotten.

Weirbowski

Tim Crowe

Interview with comic book creator John Cullen

Ive pulled up an old friend mine comic book artiest and writer John Cullen to discuss his likes and dislikes about the Alien series.




Martin: Which charater of the Aliens franchise was your favorite and why?

John: I know it’s probably the same answer nearly everyone gives, but I’ll go with Ripley (keep in mind that I’m only counting the first two movies here).

I like her because she’s a very believable ‘bad ass’ female character, without it feeling cheap or forced. You fully buy Ripley as an ordinary woman caught up in these extraordinary circumstances and it draws you into her world and situation all the more.

It’s also really interesting seeing how her character progresses and evolves over the course of the two movies.

Martin: Which of the Aliens franchise was your favorite and why?

John: No question: Alien.

Alien is just the perfect movie. It’s sci-fi, it’s horror, it’s character drama…all wrapped up in an absolutely gorgeous looking package. Other than ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing,’ there are very few sci-fi/horror hybrids that hold together as well as Alien does.

It is still one of the best looking sci-fi movies ever made and has aged fantastically well.

However, I have a lot of love for Aliens as well, as it was both my first Alien movie AND the first movie I ever saw on DVD. It still stands up as a great ‘80s action flick, but never quite hits the highs that the original does.



Martin: Where would you like to see the Alien franchise go considering the mess that was Prometheus?

John: Honestly, outside of the first two movies, I’m not overly concerned with whether the franchise continues in movie form or not. I mean, I’m sure it will, but I doubt anything will come out that will recapture how great the first two movies are. I was so excited for Prometheus, as it looked like t would be a return to form and would add some rich new lore to the franchise. Instead, it just ended up making things even more needlessly complicated.

The beauty of the first movie is its stark simplicity: it is a haunted house/slasher movie in space. That’s it. Perfect.

Unfortunately, I find that, due to the Alien/Xenomorph being such an ingrained part of movie and pop culture, it has lost a lot of its original mystery and scariness; a part of me wishes that I could go back in time to the late ‘70s and experience the movie and Xenomorph as audiences  did at the time: as this exciting, new, and terrifying thing, unlike anything that had come before.

In order for the franchise to become relevant again, it’ll either need to be taken in a drastically new direction or —dare I say it— rebooted.

However, I am *very* excited for the upcoming game, Alien Isolation, which looks to take things back to basics and actually attempt to make the Xenomorph scary again. Even if the movies never recapture the magic of the originals, there’s every chance that Isolation could be the beginnings of a return to form for the franchise and may be something that will teach a whole new generation to fear the Xenomorph again.

You can check out more from John here
http://nellucnhoj.com/
and also pick up his awesome comic book here.
https://gumroad.com/l/nhoj

Xenomorph caste 5:Drone

Also known as the Lurker the Drone was first encountered buy the crew of the Nostromo. The star beast is somewhat smarter then the warrior xenomorphs....as it was alive a shorter time period on the ship then the Warriors on LV426 yet still managed to evade capture and death at the hands of the crew. The Drone also seemed to be some what taller hence its other nickname "the Big Chap". With bigger dorsal horns and blade its a sight to be seen.
One other feature that the Nostromo Drone had that the Drones who later appeared in the series lost was the transparent skull. The dome was see through and underneath was a human skull making it even more frighting and savage something I think was lost with the later versions.
However it seem this design is returning with Alien Isolation and with it all the terror of being hunted buy a Lone Xenomorph. Its only fitting too as this was the creature that started it all.

Featured in

Alien

Alien Resurrection 

AVP

Aliens: Colonial Marines(Xbox 360, PS3)

Alien Isolation (Xbox One,PS4)

Interview with Sci-fi fan Dwayne Moloney.

I'm chatting to comic artiest, one of the voice's of  Secret of the Sailor Madness podcast and all round Sci-fi fan Dwayne Moloney about what elements of the Aliens franchise he enjoys and what could make it a good sci-fi.series again. 


Martin: Which character of the Aliens franchise was your favorite and why? Dwayne :Well, one of the many brilliant things about Ripley in the first film is she aint even the main character, she just kinda ends up that due to process of elimination, which is amazing! And while the first has her just barely survive, the second film has her come to terms with her trauma, to face it head on. Her character arc has her need to learn a new way to exist, to become a warrior, and to relearn how to be a mother. Its really quite brilliantly put together!

Martin: Which of the Aliens franchise was your favorite and why? Dwayne: Hmm, probably Aliens for the afore-mentioned reasons, but both it and Alien are near-perfect movies. Aliens only comes out on top for me as its probably one of the best film sequels out there.

Martin: Where would you like to see the Alien franchise go considering the mess that was Prometheus? Dwayne: I think there needs ta be a new main characters, unrelated to the previous films. It'd have to move to something on a larger scale, perhaps a colony during an infestation rather than after. The colonists could fight off the infestation… mebbie the colony could have been set up by WY to be infected, and the colonists fighting back or something! I feel the genre would have to change a bit too, that gives each story a uniqueness. Alien was kinda like a slasher movie, Aliens was vietnam influenced, thats why I like the idea of the colonists; an internal struggle against overpowering odds.

You can check out more from Dwayne here.
http://iamoftenwrong.tumblr.com/
and here
http://secretofthesailormadness.blogspot.ie/

Game over man Review: Alien vs Predator the last of his clan

This is the last of the Gameboy Alien games Ill be reviewing. AVP the last of his clan is a side scrolling beat'em up that puts you in the sandals of a lone hunter who must destroy an out of control hive which is clan allowed to be seeded on a populated planet. To my vast knowledge this is the first ever AvP game so that alone peeked my intrest and I had to buy it.

The graphics have not aged well and the music leaves alot to be desired but in fairness this is the first ever AVP game so cut it a little slack. Hell you got the Predator theme in 8 bit on the intro....what more could you want. The controls are basic as fuck and theres a sweet little menu for selecting the weapons....dont get too excited, you'll hear how sucky they are next.

The Yautja's weapons include Wristblades, Cuttingdisk, Shouldercanon and Bombs. Most are useless other then the cutting disk. Cloak seems only to be there to kill the facehuggers who jump on you. The foes include Facehuggers, Chestbursters and Warriors...along with the Queen boss. The Aliens are the toughest but the do constantly respawn and keep in mind there no medkits in this game at all.

While not a great game you could get a bit of fun outta it for oh the first 20 minutes but after that your going to be bored very fast. AVP the last of his clan for the Game boy is a game for hardcore fans only.