Aliens was one of my first favorite films, taking the title when I saw it at the movies in the summer of 1986 and holding it for about four years before its first serious challenger. Even still, it shifted in and out of the top spot throughout the '90s, watched tirelessly several times per year until I was given a VHS copy of the director's edition. As much as I appreciated the extra scenes, repeat viewings with the extended running time finally wore out the film's welcome. I took a break from it for a long while, typically watching it only a couple times per decade.
The realization that this year marked the 30th anniversary of the film and that Houston's Comicpalooza would be hosting a celebratory reunion (announced and even conducted long before San Diego, thank you very much,) reignited my dormant affection for the entire franchise. I finally bought the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray and watched the tetralogy (still working my way through the commentary tracks, though.) I also decided that since I was going to spend many hundreds of dollars to meet most of the cast, I ought to make a project of it. I usually get art commissions done at the local shows, and I decided to have drawings of each cast member done so that I'd have something unique and personally gratifying to get signed, as well as to perhaps serve as a conversation piece.
Vo Nguyen had done a number of pieces for me a few years ago, and I thought he would be a good fit for Vasquez's hard man partner in crime Drake. I was still thinking we'd be doing multiple artist jam pieces at this point, but that didn't pan out, which explains the negative space I ultimately decided needed to be filled. I've got about half a day's worth of hourly posts lined up to celebrate the exact day of Aliens30th, July 18, so check back later for those renovations...
Vo Nguyen
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