Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation, originally titled simply Aliens, is a comic book short story that was first published by Dark Horse Comics in the anthology series Dark Horse Presents, Vol. 1 #24, in November 1988. It was written by Mark Verheiden, illustrated by Mark A. Nelson and edited by Randy Stradley, the same creative team behind the first Aliens comic book. The issue of Dark Horse Presents also featured Aliens cover art by Nelson. The black-and-white comic serves as a tie-in to the four-issue series Aliens (1988 series).
In the Aliens comics line, Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation was published concurrently with Aliens (1988 series) and was followed by Aliens (1989 series).
Publisher's Summary
Writer Mark Verheiden and artist Mark A. Nelson present an all-new "side bar" story to Dark Horse's ongoing Aliens miniseries as they take us inside the mind of an Alien Queen!
Plot
The story is written in the form of an in-universe article by Aliens (1988 series) character Waidslaw Orona, with accompanying imagery of Alien life and development. It shows Aliens spreading via infestation of alien species and humans, and Aliens building one of their Hives, all accompanied by excerpts from Orona's article.
Reprint History
Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation was first collected as part of Aliens: Book One, a trade paperback re-release of the original Aliens comic published in November 1989. A deluxe hard cover edition of Aliens: Book One, again including Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation, was released in June 1990.
In April 1992, the short story was collected alongside a number of other Aliens Dark Horse Presents stories published up until that point in the special single-issue release Dark Horse Presents: Aliens Platinum Edition. Here the story was colored by Chris Chalenor and the issue featured a new cover by Simon Bisley.
In the United Kingdom, the colored version was again reprinted in Aliens magazine, Vol. 1 #17, in June 1992.
Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation was again collected as part of Aliens Omnibus: Volume 1 in July 2007.
Trivia
- Theory of Alien Propagation is recreated in the form of a presentation described in the novel Aliens: Earth Hive, an adaptation of the first Aliens comic book series (in which Orona is a major character).
- The comic is one of the few Aliens stories to depict another sentient Alien species in the form of a lizard-like space travelling race shown using energy weapons and being infested by Aliens. The others being the Space Jockeys of the film Alien, shown in various stories, the alien pilot shown in Aliens: Earth Angel, the Reapers from Aliens: Reapers, the hunting race from Aliens: Alien, and, of course, the Predators.
- The fictitious "Theory of Alien Propagation" by Waidslaw Orona is one of a number of in-universe books or articles that have been mentioned in various Aliens media, including "The Evolution of Television" by Emmet Webster (from Aliens: Book One), Cyberantics by Stanislaw Mayakovsky (from Aliens: Hive) and Space Beast by Robert Morse (from Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report).