Happy Aliens Day!

In celebration of Aliens Day (4/26, as in LV-426… c’mon, people!), I thought it’d be nice to finish the Colonial Marine spacesuit from earlier.  This is based on a Tony Akins design from 1993’s Aliens: Colonial Marines comic.  I added some sweet modifications…

I should have a color version to share soon, as well.

Send in the Space Marines!

There were some very pivotal encounters in my childhood that set the tone for much of the rest of my life.  Seeing the movie Aliens was definitely one of those encounters.  Finding out, a few years later, that there were also comic books based on the Alien Franchise, was just as profound but in a slightly different way.  At that point, I felt that I could not only enjoy the world those stories were set in, I could participate!

I started drawing the space (Colonial) Marines from the world of the Alien/Aliens movies.  Back then, in the late 80’s/early 90’s, references were hard to come by.  So, when I series like Aliens: Colonial Marines came out in 1993, I was ecstatic.  The first three issues, drawn by Tony Akins, inked by Paul Guinan, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth, were just… phenomenal!  The first three issues were chock-full of new spacesuit designs, space guns, star ships, and dynamic action scenes.

Having gotten a new lease on my drawing-life recently, I’ve been inspired to start drawing some of those designs myself.  Here’s a pencil sketch of the security from the Sungun station:

I’ll clean it up in the near future.  In the meantime, here’s a taste of one of the wonderful treats that series offered up:

Time is a thief and my passion is a monster.

Yes, the days slip by, becoming weeks and months.  There’s so many things I want to draw and stories I want to share, but my minutes of free time are few and I’m tired.  Nevertheless, it’s impossible to ignore desire , as nagging and vicious as it can be, and once in a while I still manage to get a little something on paper.

Here’s my little friend.  I thought he came out looking neat.  Someone else told me he’s scary, and one other said he was cute.

Visualizing what you’re reading.

I love reading sci-fi.  Something about those fantastic, new worlds where anything can exist just makes my day.  After reading so much of it, though, I notice that it’s hard to surprise me anymore.  One of the best ways to keep my imagination engaged is to feed me a little information without overdoing the details.  You know it’s a good sci-fi story when the characters development is strong enough to carry the reader along without a full description.  I noticed this in Dan Simmon’s Hyperion/Endymion books and even to some degree in Frank Herbert’s Dune novels.

Even the best writers can leave you wanting though, and I desperately want to know what the aliens look like in John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” series of books.  Specifically, what the hell do the Obin look like?!

I finally gave up trying to find a detailed description or image online and just made my own.  This is how I picture the Obin when I read Scalzi’s books, which are really great.

They’re described in the books only as a cross between a hermaphroditic spider and a giraffe, but they often send the human characters into a fearful tizzy. Picture these guys speaking in humorless monotones, fearless, but with hearts of gold.  Kind of…