Aliens: Labyrinth

Aliens Library Edition #7

by Jim Woodring, Kilian Plunkett (Artist), Monty Sheldon (Inker)

Rumor has it that the crew members of space station _Innominata_ are expendable and can be used in clandestine experiments. Rumor has it that Paul Church, the Colonel Doctor in charge of the research facility, has been running tests to determine what makes the Aliens tick and that he's using Colonial Marines as bait. Well, the U. S. Government doesn't like rumorsthey like facts. And so they've sent Colonel Doctor Anthony Crespi to investigate. He's empowered to get the truth any way he can. His goal is to find a way that will get him off that station alive. Harvey Award-winning writer Jim Woodring (_Jim, Aliens: Kidnapped, Frank_) crafts a spellbinding tale of horror and mystery in _Aliens: Labyrinth_, illustrated by Kilian Plunkett (_Star Wars, JLA: Classified_).

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Aliens, Fiction, Comic Book

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Jim Woodring was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and enjoyed a childhood made lively by an assortment of mental an psychological quirks including paroniria, paranoia, paracusia, apparitions, hallucinations and other species of psychological and neurological malfunction among the snakes and tarantulas of the San Gabriel mountains.

He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.

He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.

Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.

-Walter Foxglove

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't survive the hive. I am the hive. When I look the cosmos in the eye, it blinks



Probably most gory and disturbing tale set in Dark Horse Aliens universe, infamous Dr. Paul Church's backstory inspired a lot android David and some scenes in Ridley Scott's Prometheus/Alien: Covenant, and the feeding/breeding parts inside the alien hive's flashback are probably going to haunt my nightmares this night.



Mostly a good read, just not too much great and it's a real shame Dr. Church simpky vanished from the franchise besides a mention in Aliens: Colonial Marines




'Nuff said.

[Sr3yas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jurassic park in space? Well, not quite.

In Alien: Labyrinth, we find a human civilization completely aware of the Xenomorphs and the dangers they pose. And we go on the offensive with our new toys.

But a single miscalculation can unravel best-laid plans.



Oh, that's just the prologue's outline. After the initial pages filled with relentless action, writer Jim Woodring switches the tale to a rather controlled environment Alien story, set aboard a spaceship which doubles as Alien holding pens for experimentation. And all this is being run by this man: Dr. Paul Church. This dude weirdly reminds me of the scientist from Independence Day.





But in reality, he is more like android David, with all his crazy experiments and devious methods.



The story is good, but not great. It delves deep into the biology of Xenomorph and their behavior patterns. I was not a fan of the artwork, and the writing was a bit AvP movie-style storytelling, focusing on disturbing imagery rather than the fear factor or mythology.

Nevertheless, the story has some wicked tricks up its sleeves, but not enough to recommend.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another mad scientist conducting experiments on Aliens and humans story, but this one is so well done. Woodring amps up the horror. It's really messed up. You can see how this influenced Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, both with the character of David and all the insane experimentation stuff.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional story with Ok art. But this one really enhanced the mythology surrounding the xenomorphs.
Recommended.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice mini series. Good art and story. Recommended

[James DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa one of the better alien stories. A doctor using his past to bring forth a new future. Lots of twist and turns with thr aliens being the least horrible thing on this ship.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the first alien comic i read in full and I think It was a great start bc you get to see inside a hive even if it was a dying one. I liked how damn DARK the story got about what went on in the hive. Thats what made me buy this. I don't seem to find any other stories with Church in them. Shame I'd like to follow more of what he's doing. Thats my biggest complaint and it is I wanted to see how far he'd go, damn shame to drop a greatly messed up depressive insane story line. Damn shame. A crime...

[Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quién sabe si esta habría sido una mejor Alien 3 que la película de Fincher del año anterior. Desde luego tiene momentos muy asquerosos, algunos me recuerdan a Alien: Resurrection y el personaje "mad scientist" siempre queda bien. Me ha gustado bastante, tanto por la historia de de Woodring como por el dibujo tan 90s de Plunkett, que tanto me gusta. Ideal para ampliar el universo Alien con la nueva película de Fede Álvarez (aunque no tienen nada que ver, ojo).

3,5 ⭐

[J K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vastly more interesting than most run-amd-gun Alien spin-offs. Exploring the Alien hive and what one man will do to survive there, this makes the creatures truly scary, and the twisted powers that try to exploit their physiology are even worse. Recommended. Artwork is gorgeous too.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a 3.5 most of the time.

I think "Labyrinth" was one of the earliest Aliens comics I ever picked up and it was around the time I first started buying comics when I was little. One could argue that these comics were certainly not for a 5th grader, but decades later here I am still a fan of Aliens. My first exposure to "Labyrinth" was very positive and I really liked the comic and the way they setup the whole mad scientist scenario was fascinating to me. However, as an adult and trying to revisit these tales in the order of publication, I think this story is pretty good. I think as a child seeing it was so new and fresh I rather favored it more, but now, I think I have read better Aliens stories and there is at least one thing I thought was "stupid" in this book.

Aliens "Labyrinth" returns to the tried and true theme of scientists studying the Alien organism. It's certainly a logical progression story wise, but if you read the comics in publication order this does seem like it might be a bit too predictable as it starts. For the first two issues things run in pretty much the same fashion as an earlier story, however, I must give credit where credit is due and Jim Woodring takes a twist by the third issue that is very unpredictable.

In this story we have a new military liaison, Crespi, being sent to a research facility, the pilot that flew him there, McGiunness, is also interested in the secretive research being done there. These two are and their possible subterfuge of the facility are a major part of the story. The lead scientist in this facility is Dr. Church and, honestly, he's probably the best part of this entire story. He's an excellent mad scientist and the traumatic experience he has at the hands of the Aliens in his past does an excellent job of explaining his obsession. His research may not exactly coincide with legality, but, as usual, many corporations and the military are willing to turn a blind eye to what he is doing in the name of progress. Crespi and McGuinness might have a different opinion on his work and this is where the greater conflict comes from in the story.


The part of the story I actually didn't like was the whole background tale of Dr. Church. Now, I think a lot of what Woodring came up with was actually a really interesting idea, so don't get me wrong. Essentially, when Church was younger his parents were terraformers and so he has a bit of that Newt quality to his background. However, on one of the planets they visit an Alien hive had been established and naturally he and his family get taken by the Aliens. The hive is very different from any of the other Aliens stories, because for whatever reason the hive is sort of dying or it's not a viable hive. I thought this concept was incredibly different and a really good idea. However, the weirdness of how the Aliens behave was not that great, in my opinion. In this situation they do all kinds of weird things with the humans like torture them and "study" them or whatever you want to call it. It just seemed far more out of character for the Aliens than you'd ever expect. And then there is a part where one of the females from Church's ship "gives birth" to a brood of Aliens, which makes no real sense physiologically speaking for the Aliens. However, to me, it seems like this spawned some of the ideas we'd later see in the writing of Alien Resurrection, which was a pretty good film until the whole Alien/Human hybrid showed up. The whole Alien scene from Church's past, while at first a novel and very cool idea, quickly descended into something out of character and sometimes stupid. I think Woodring was trying to show that Church was insane and he experienced all myriad of unspeakable horrors in that hive, which is true. But it was just out of character for the Aliens in my opinion. They came off as being caricatures of something Sade would write about.

The art, overall, was pretty okay. Killian Plunkett did an okay job, I think some of his art at this time feels a bit more like he's just throwing together a sketch, but he does do an excellent job of capturing the mood and atmosphere of the scenes. Honestly, that's all you really need for this kind of stuff. Capturing those elements are for more important than presenting a highly perfect and movie replicated drawing in my opinion anyway.

In the end, I still liked "Labyrinth," it was just a bit more diminished than when I first read the story. There are a lot of good ideas in here and some rather unpredictable twists, so it's definitely excellent writing in that regard and if you're a fan of Aliens, I still think the Dr. Church character is one of the better mad scientists created in the universe.

[Jean-Francois Boivin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2nd edition of the graphic novel collecting Aliens: Labyrinth #1-4 and its prequel "Backsplash" from Dark Horse Comics #12-13. Published in May 1997 as Volume 7 of the "Aliens Library" series it sports a different cover from the Aug. 1995 collection.

This series was originally edited by Ryder Windham, and the artist, a newcomer named Kilian Plunkett, was chosen based on unsolicited samples of his artwork. This was Plunkett's first professional work and he has enjoyed a great career at Dark Horse and beyond since then. The author Jim Woodring was used to writing more satirical or comedic comics, this might be his first horror/sci-fi story.

The combination was great, as the clear lines of art represented the grim story well. The story suffers from lacking originality, as it has some points in common with previous comics like Aliens: Rogue (mad scientist experimenting on human bodies and aliens, aliens in captivity escaping aboard an isolated station). But the best part of this story is the pages-long backstory of the crazed genius Col. Dr. Paul Church, as he tells it to the protagonists Col. Dr. Anthony Crespi and Lt. Sharon McGuiness in true evil villain exposing his motives fashion.

That middle part alone could have been a great story itself. It depicts 20 years old Church and his family and some friends landing on a planet that their terraformed years earlier, to discover that an alien hive has since sprung up and they are all captured by bugs and taken to it. They all suffer horrible experimentations and impantations by the aliens, and in the end only Paul escapes after 43 horrible days thanks to some fungus that kills the aliens' food and hive.

I suggest the comic just based on that story. The actual main story could be considered a bonus bookend... It's not that bad really, just somewhat bland.

[Grantcorp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another volume in the Dark Horse Aliens-universe. It builds on some concepts from the earlier works in the series but is basically standalone. The story revolves around an off the beaten track space station where classified work is going on and personnel rotation is unnaturally high. The environment is truly chilling and the author builds the tension effectively. The artwork while a bit grotesque in places tends to make people look cartoony but the dialogue and storyline is handled very well and an overall impression of dread makes it hard to put away. Highly recommended.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice art, interesting story.

I particularly liked the Aliens biology lessons to be learned from this one. Giving the Aliens a form of weakness was also an interesting twist.

Too many Doctor Colonel This and Colonel Doctor Thats... but I guess the military does have its protocols to respect.

I couldn`t help but picture the "Mad" Scientist as Brad Dourif for some reason, but hey, it worked for me.

[David King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly engaging and terrifying at the same time. Fantastic piece of horror and I could've read so many more issues set in this pocket of the alien universe. Felt like a very Cronenberg take on Alien and I loved that. The only thing that didn't work for me was that the main protagonist was a bit annoying with his constant changing allegiance.

[Babar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best comics in Alien franchise. It’s a must read for Nerds and fans.

I hope Dark horse will return to this series again because story still has a lot to offer and grow

[Pedro Plasencia Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunque hay algunas partes que no me han convencido, he tenido que ponerle 5 estrellas debido al enorme trabajo que hay tras el guion. El arte tampoco está nada mal, es sucio, como la historia, explota bien el gore y me ha despertado la nostalgia con esas ilustraciones noventeras que solía sacar Dark Horse. La trama exuda conspiración por todos sus poros, desde el principio de la misión a bordo de la Innombrable ya sabemos que va a haber ocultamientos, experimentos chungos, traiciones y gente jugando a ser Dios. Hay mucho esfuerzo por desarrollar la parte médica del relato, con muchos tecnicismos y explicaciones científicas. Todo esto le da una seriedad al contenido que no se ve en otros cómics de la franquicia.

Lo único que no me gustó del todo, como fan veterano y conocedor del universo Alien, fue el uso incorrecto que se da a ciertos detalles del flashback que narra el doctor para montar la justificación. Hay una parte donde no se respeta el ciclo biológico del alien y empiezan a inventarse cosas que no concuerdan con lo que establecieron las películas, con embriones raros, embarazos imposibles y comportamientos que no se sostienen. Al principio me molestó bastante, pero si se pasa por alto y se tiene en cuenta que estos comics iban un poco por libre y trataban de explorar ideas nuevas, entonces estamos ante una maravilla.

Review in english:

Although there are some parts that did not convince me, I had to give it 5 stars due to the enormous work behind the script. The art is not bad either, it is dirty, like the story, it exploits the gore well and it has awakened my nostalgia with those nineties illustrations that Dark Horse used to publish. The plot exudes conspiracy from every pore, from the beginning of the mission aboard the Unnamable we already know that there are going to be concealments, dodgy experiments, betrayals and people playing at being God. There is a lot of effort to develop the medical part of the story, with many technicalities and scientific explanations. All of this gives a gravity to the content not seen in other comics in the franchise.

The only thing I didn't like at all, as a veteran fan and connoisseur of the Alien universe, was the incorrect use given to certain details of the flashback that the doctor narrates to set up the justification. There is a part where the biological cycle of the alien is not respected and things begin to be invented that do not agree with what the films established, with rare embryos, impossible pregnancies and behaviors that are not sustained. At first it bothered me quite a bit, but if you look past it and take into account that these comics were a bit freewheeling and trying to explore new ideas, then we are looking at a wonder.

[Dave Farrance · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Urgh. Could not get into this one enough.
From the very start, the foreword to this graphic novel was written in such poor fashion that I was set off on a negative footing. It just didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.

Then we start the piece proper, and again the story seemed to just be hollow, unenjoyable garbage. The lead characters (bar McGuinness) had ridiculously uncomfortable names (Captain Lieutenant Corporal Doctor Whathisname Smithenson), which seemed to take up half of the page. It didn’t flow comfortably. The scene where the mad Doctor was explaining his experience in a dying hive was poorly executed, if not a great idea in itself. And it felt like there was way too much guff to get through before the action got anywhere, and then even that was short and sweet and washed out.

I’m sure I read this years ago. I wish I’d not had to go through it again.

Stars are for the gory artwork within, and the artwork at the back.

[Lupinedreaming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5

Aliens: Labyrinth has some very strong, memorable bits wrapped in a decent story. The core narrative about a man investigating a research station (at least, that’s what I think it is?) isn’t very compelling, and most of the characters are forgettable. However, one character is extremely memorable, and that character is Dr. Church.

There’s some really creative stuff here in the sections where Dr. Church talks about the alien’s behavior and biology, and the most standout section is Dr. Church’s backstory. His backstory is genuinely disturbing and unsettling — even more upsetting than some stuff you’ll see in the actual Alien movies. However, outside of Church and the parts of the story associated with him, I didn’t find this to be a deeply compelling story. Still, decent and worth a read, especially for Church’s backstory (if you can stomach it).

[François Vigneault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting artifact from another era, where a capital A comics auteur like Jim Woodring (Frank) got to play around with some major Hollywood IP. This is a nasty little comic that pushes the Aliens concept in new and twisted directions, and anticipates so much of what would come in films like Prometheus and Aliens: Salvation years later, from a broader alien ecosystem including other organisms to a character performing surgery on themselves using a high-tech system to remove an alien embryo.

I found the storytelling to be quite clunky, however, with walls of explanatory dialogue clogging the stiff panels. A promising project that doesn't quite pull together in the end.

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.5/5
A slightly unusual tale set within the Aliens universe, and certainly the most disturbing Aliens tale I've read so far at that. The writing was solid without being spectacular, with the artist giving more than a passing resemblance to Moebius, which is certainly no bad thing. Although the plot was interesting, with a nice, tense slow build up towards the conclusion, ultimately, the pacing wasn't quite on point with the 'reveal', and so the ending didn't quite pay off the lead up. A very decent read though, all things considered. 3.5/5


OmniBen.

[Elena Varg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here’s the thing: I wasn’t interested in the issues #1, #2 or #4, but even several weeks after reading this, I’m still thinking about issue #3…so it was very hard for me to think of an accurate rating for this one.

Because I wasn’t that big of fan of the art style and because I was mostly not interested in the comic, I landed on 3 stars. Could be better, but has some very interesting and horrifying stuff in it.

[J F Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful nastiness.

A classic, some elements of which, were used in the most recent Alien films. Killian Plunketts art work is so detailed, the aliens very alien and the narrative very creepy. Fully awesome.

[Hugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plunkett's art is excellent, if betraying a few inadequacies of a first work; the story is interesting (if probably better served in the movie Alien: Resurrection) though the characters' loyalties and motivations switch about so much according to plot demands it's hard to connect with anybody.

[Sean]

I was curious what a Jim Woodring "Aliens" comic would feel like, and now I know. Quite gruesome at times, almost comically so. Unexpectedly elaborate in its explanations, though also at times hard to follow. It wouldn't have been interesting without knowing the work closer to the author's heart.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, quite incredibly horrible. I've gotten through Nick Cutter novels without really flinching but this was, well, really quite something. Caveat Emptor, this was 90's ultra-grimdark edgy goresploitation at it's peak, but you'll certainly remember it.

[Gema Moratalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy bueno este cómic, con ilustraciones un pelín retro (que es algo que me suele gustar) y una buena historia.
A ver... No es que sea hiper sorprendente: a un fan le resonarán cosas de Alien Resurrection, Prometheus, etc. Sin embargo, hay algún giro interesante y que puede llegar a impresionar.

[Sophie Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best use of Aliens IP put to story. Great detailed dark art, and great creature design. Why hasnt this been made into a movie?

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strikes the right balance between action and horror.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can say Xenomorph. Just say it, you'll feel better. C'mon, say it...

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best run of any of the generally strong 90s era Alien comics. I ended up reading the novel version back then too and it was a good adaptation.