''Alien Worlds'' is an American science fiction

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

comic that was published by Pacific Comics and then Eclipse Comics between 1982 and 1985. It was edited by

Bruce Jones Bruce Jones may refer to: * Bruce Jones (actor) (born 1953), British actor *Bruce Jones (American football) (1904–1974), American football player *Bruce Jones (comics) (born 1944), American comic book writer *Bruce Jones (surfboards) (?–2014), ...

and his partner April Campbell.Johnston, Rich
"When Diamond Comic Distributors Flexed Its Censorial Muscles...,"
''Bleeding Cool'' (December 29, 2018). It was a sister title to Jones' horror anthology ''

Twisted Tales ''Twisted Tales'' was a horror comics anthology published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. The title was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell. Publication history ''Twisted Tales'' was published on a bi-mo ...

''.

Publication history

''Alien Worlds'' was published on a bi-monthly schedule by Pacific Comics from December 1982 to April 1984 for eight issues, with a single issue of spin-off ''Three Dimensional Alien Worlds'' published in July 1984. After Pacific went bankrupt, two final issues were published by Eclipse Comics in November 1984 and January 1985. Eclipse considered continuing the title but instead opted to create ''

Alien Encounters In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it were first suggested in astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek's 1972 book ''Th ...

'' with a variety of writers. Instead Jones took ''Alien Worlds'' to Blackthorne Publishing, who produced a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

featuring reprints of stories taken from earlier issues. In 1987 Eclipse struck a deal with Jones & Campbell's new packaging operation Bruce Jones Associates for new prestige format bi-annual versions of ''Alien World'', cancelling ''Alien Encounters'' to make room. However, only a single issue of the new format was produced. Following Eclipse's bankruptcy in 1995, the company's assets were purchased by Todd McFarlane. Believing that the deal included the names of the Jones/Campbell anthologies, he teased a series called ''Todd McFarlane's Alien Worlds'' in the 1998

''Total Eclipse''; however, the comic would never appear.

Content

Nearly all of the stories in ''Alien Worlds'' were written by Jones, with only a few exceptions (notably Jan Strnad's "Stoney End" in issue #8 and Frank Brunner's "The Reading!" in issue #9). For the most part ''Alien Worlds'' avoided the more intensely gruesome subject matter of ''Twisted Tales'', which was being published at the same time., though part of Eclipse's reason for starting ''Alien Encounters'' was to cut down on the amount of sexual content. Among the cover artists for the series were John Bolton, Dave Stevens, Frank Brunner, William Stout, and Joe Chiodo.

Features

1982 series

1987 series

Revival series

In 2010, Jones and actor Thomas Jane announced they were writing a revival series slated for release sometime in the future.CBR STAFF
"CCI: RAW Studios Panel: Actor Thomas Jane and artist Tim Bradstreet announced the relaunch of long defunct Pacific anthology 'Alien Worlds' and horror anthology 'Twisted Tales' in addition to other RAW Studios news,"
''CBR'' (AUG 03, 2010). no further news has emerged.

References

External links

* * * * {{Eclipse Comics 1982 comics debuts 1985 comics endings 1988 comics debuts 1988 comics endings Comics anthologies Comics publications Comics set on fictional planets Defunct American comics Eclipse Comics titles Pacific Comics titles Science fiction comics