Book Review: ‘Alien: The Illustrated Story’ Emphasizes Lost Art of Film Adaptations

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CHICAGO – I’m old enough dear readers to remember when books were more interesting tie-ins for feature films than websites and video games. When we fell in love with a movie, we had action figures, Happy Meal toys, and, believe it or not, books. There was a time when collecting everything related to your favorite flick meant a novel adaptation and one of the absolute best, the graphic novel edition known as “Alien: The Illustrated Story” has just been reissued to show readers why this is an art form they should miss.

Alien: The Illustrated Story Photo credit: Titan Books

In 1979, Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson created a graphic novel adaptation of Ridley Scott’s “Alien” that is no mere copy of the source material. Remastered for the first time using the original color artwork from the artist’s personal archive, “Alien: The Illustrated Story” doesn’t feature “drawings,” it feature art. Simonson’s coloring beautifully captures the tone of the film in a unique way and the way Goodwin chooses to break up the story allows for what is essentially artistic interpretation of the film and not mere novelization.

Nowadays, we’re stuck with novelizations as evidenced by the recently-released editions of “The Dark Knight Rises” by Greg Cox and “Resident Evil: Retribution” by John Shirley. I’m torn as to the value of releases like these as I believe that anything that gets more kids reading is probably a good thing but I question the value of reading over 400 pages that are an interpretation of Christopher Nolan’s work when you could just watch the actual film itself and read an original book. And lest you wonder if these works are more than just pure description, they very clearly take a bit of artistic license. For example, “He had rehearsed this visit a thousand times in his head, but it was one thing to actually go though with it. What if he was making a tremendous mistake?” That reads into Blake’s motives when he goes to meet Bruce in ways that Nolan may have not intended.

However, is that a problem? Isn’t it encouraging to present young readers with something that shows them in very clear ways how one artist can interpret another artist’s work in a new form? Even a movie as critically reviled as “Resident Evil: Retribution” could inspire readers to read more or maybe even use art to inspire them to write. Although it probably won’t come with lines like, “A thousand-pound dead walrus, sucked in along with the seawater, struck one of the troopers as the water rushed over him, crushing him.”

What it comes down to is this — there’s a level of artistry on display in “Alien: The Illustrated Story” that makes it something that should be read by all movie fans. And while I would never say that about a novelization of a CGI orgy like “RE: Retribution,” I do think there’s a service that these books still serve to the fans who want another way to experience their favorite flicks. I hope they don’t disappear as technology pushes physical books further and further out of the mainstream.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com