Aliens 30th Anniversary: The Original Comics Series is a hardcover, "oversized" (8 × 12) format trade paperback comic book published by Dark Horse Books on April 26, 2016, as part of Alien Day. Published in black and white, it collects Aliens: Outbreak, the groundbreaking first Aliens comic series, in its original form, before it was edited to conform to the events of the film Alien3, alongside several related short stories. The book was edited by Freddye Miller and Randy Stradley.
In the Aliens comics line, Aliens 30th Anniversary: The Original Comics Series was preceded by Aliens: Fire and Stone, and was followed by Aliens: Defiance.
Overview
The comic represented the first time the original, unaltered version of Aliens: Outbreak had been made commercially available since The Compleat Aliens, a limited edition deluxe collection published in 1993.
As well as the first Aliens series, the tie-in short story Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation was also included — both the short and the series appear in their original black and white format. A second short story, Aliens: Lucky, was also included — originally produced for the celebratory A Decade of Dark Horse series in 1996, Lucky was something of a reunion piece for the creative team that created the original series, featuring the same writer (Mark Verheiden), artist (Mark A. Nelson), letterer (Willie Schubert) and editor (Randy Stradley). For the Aliens 30th Anniversary collection, the story was rendered in black and white to match the other comics, as opposed to its original color format. Finally, the trade paperback included a gallery of the cover artwork from the original issues, a foreword by Verheiden, an afterword by Nelson and a selection of some of Nelson's original pitch artwork.
Publisher's Summary
The original sequel to Aliens!
For the thirtieth anniversary of Aliens, Dark Horse is releasing an oversized hardcover edition of the unabridged and unadulterated series!
In 1988, Dark Horse's Aliens, with stunning art by Mark A. Nelson and a script by Mark Verheiden, took the comics market by storm... until the release of Alien3 forced the story to change.
In deep space, a salvage crew is attacked by seemingly unstoppable monsters. The Marines are called in, but they need someone with experience. Soon Hicks (the horribly scarred survivor from Aliens) and Newt (now almost eighteen) find themselves on a mission to locate and destroy the aliens' homeworld!