Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Invasion!"

Hostile, technologically-advanced aliens are coming our way!

Can we defeat them in only two pages?

The "menacing aliens are no threat because they're too small" trope is an old one, going back to golden-age comics.

My personal favorite, because of its' simple, effective storytelling by one of my all-time favorites, can be found HERE!

This never-reprinted Tim Truman written/illustrated "sci-fi Western" tale is from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #4 (1986).

There's a wealth of material from 1980s anthologies that has not seen the light of day since publication, and we will dip into this treasure trove of material as we find/acquire them!

BTW, "Fer SRB" on page 1 refers to fellow writer/artist Stephen R Bissette, presumably because the aliens resemble his creature designs.

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Scout

Volume 1

by Timothy Truman

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Monster of Planet Og!"

If you (like me) enjoy space opera, you'll love the tale behind this cover...

...which gives a kool new twist to the classic cliches!

Writer Christy Marx and artist Peter Ledger handle this never-reprinted story from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #2 (1985) like it's a 1940s comic written by an alien Edmond (Captain Future) Hamilton!

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EC Archives

Incredible Science Fiction

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Earth Invasion"

There's a twist ending to this alien invasion tale you won't see coming...

...if you're under 35!

I'm serious!

Ah, video arcades...

Kids today have no idea how important those darkened chambers filled with video consoles and pinball machines were to us in the pre-XBox/PlayStation/Nintendo days...and how much money we spent, quarter-by-quarter, in them!

Yeah, there's still Chuck E Cheese, Dave & Busters, and their ilk, but those are kiddie venues!

Written by Larry Shell and illustrated by Steve (Swamp Thing) Bissette, this never-reprinted tale from FantaCo's Alien Encounters one-shot (1981) captures the long-lost era perfectly.

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Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games

Friday Fun ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Now Jr Behave Yourself"

It's the 19th Anniversary of the terrorist attack on 9/11...

...and we think that, with all the problems in the world, we need a laugh!

Kids (even alien ones) will be annoying little shits, as this never-reprinted tale from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #4 (1985) proves!

Though best-known for his adaptations of Clive Barker's work to comics, Chuck Wagner could display a, well, nasty sense of humor.

Illustrator Bill Wray's Wally Wood-esque inking made him an in-demand inker, and his pencils were top-notch as well!

But his inking (and coloring) speed was much faster, so he concentrated his efforts on those skills to pay the bills.

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Star*Reach Companion

Reading Room Redux ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Outpost"

Because the printed copy of the story we presented a couple of days ago was so poor...

...we decided to re-present the never-reprinted tale using the original art!

Now that's a lot better, eh?

Note the art boards for pages 2 and 3 are from DC Comics.

The light blue (Cyan) guidelines were invisible to the film the printer used to create the negatives used for creating the printing plates!

However, in this case, the printer apparently over-exposed the film, causing a lot of the fine-line inking to be lost in the printed book!

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Alien Encounters

V1N1 from FantaCo

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Outpost"

From the original FantaCo 1981 b/w one-shot Alien Encounters...

...here's a never-reprinted tale featuring the most unexpected protaganist of all!

Didn't see that one coming, did ya?

Writer (and the book's editor) Larry Shell is one of those guys who've been around the business for decades. but few beyond the pros he interacted with know who he is!

As Larry himself explained...

I was former Director of Publications for the late, great Heroes World Distribution (the third largest comic book distributor in the country until its demise), where I edited and packaged their 250+ page monthly catalog, along with several specialty catalogs for 10 years.

My article, “How To Solicit In The Direct Market” was published in Comics Buyer’s Guide and served as a template for many small publishers for a number of years.

I have also done freelance marketing consulting for several small publishers.

I’ve been self-publishing sporadically since 1975 when I released a funny animal horror comic entitled, The Barn of Fear, whose contributors included such industry professionals as Doug Moench, Tom Sutton and Alfredo Alcala.

I also packaged a couple of other titles, 50s Funnies published by Kitchen Sink Press and the original Alien Encounters #1 published by Fantaco Enterprises. I later licensed the title to Eclipse Comics.

In the early 80s, in collaboration with Alcala, I contributed a story to Heavy Metal Magazine.

In the late 1980s, I formed Shel-Tone Publications, which published a number of trading card sets and a CD, the soundtrack to R.Crumb: The Musical. 

He's still around today, primarily as an original art dealer as seen HERE. 

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Alien Encounters

V1N1 from FantaCo

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Great Outdoors"

At long last, we can scream..."It's summertime!"

And what's summer vacation without (at least once) camping out?

The two creators of this never-reprinted short from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #12 (1987) are relative unknowns.
Illustrator Doug Medved's comics credits are limited to this, another Alien Encounters, and an issue of Tales of Terror.
Writer Ruby's credits consist of scripting all three of Medved's art assignments as well as one by Graham Nolan in Alien Encounters.
A pity, since both Ruby and Doug showed a lot of unrealized potential.

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Mystery in Space

Pulp Fiction Library

(which contains only a couple of stories from this previously-listed volume)

He did some excellent painted work for Topps' Universal Monsters cards in the early 1990s, then disappeared.

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Outcast"

What makes you different, even unique, from others?

Sometimes it's not what you think!

The highly-underrated Marc Hempel wrote and illustrated this simple, but effective (and never-reprinted) short from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #1 (1985)!
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MARS
by Mark Wheatley & Marc Hempel