Posted in: Comics, Halloween | Tagged: , , , , , ,


"Xenomorphs Still Scare Me" – Corinna S. Bechko Talks Aliens / Vampirella

One of the latest collaborations between Dynamite and Dark Horse combines to horror icons with Aliens / Vampirella. Byron Brewer talked with writer Corinna S. Bechko about the series as it moves into the second half of its run.

AliensVampi04-Cov-A-HardmanBYRON BREWER: Corinna, how have your feelings as a writer changed about these characters now that, with #4 in December, the end of your book grows near? Any surprises?

CORINNA S. BECHKO: I find that as a writer, characters always surprise you, if you let them. But in general the really unexpected thing is that the Xenomorphs still scare me. I've been living with them in my head now for a several months, so you'd think I'd get used to them. Nope, they're still creepy as hell.

BB: Is it difficult merging franchises such as Aliens and Vampirella when both members are really from the "dark side"?

CSB: Not as much as you might think. Clearly, Vampirella is closer to being human than the aliens are, and her sympathies in this story align much more with the humans than with the Xenomorphs. That said, with issue #4 a new player will come onto the scene, and Vampirella is going to have to make some tough choices soon.

BB: Vanpirella on Mars?? Where did this idea come from?

CSB: I love the idea of a human colony on Mars, but what if something older got there first? It's good to get off the Earth sometimes in fiction, since it changes everything about a story in fundamental ways. On Mars, everything is hostile to life, everything we take for granted, like the air, is lethal. Even the force of gravity is different. I couldn't resist the challenge of working those things into this story.

BB: Differences between your iteration of Vampi and others, in your writer's perspective?

CSB: She's a character who has been written a lot of different ways by a lot of different people. I tried to keep most of the personality that Nancy Collins imbued her with during her recent run, although that was set in a contemporary context. I figured she would have changed a bit over the intervening years, perhaps become a bit more skeptical about certain things. Still, it was important for this story that she at least start off working with the humans, not hunting them, and so she had to feel some empathy for them.

BB: Vampirella is known for humor as much as horror. How do you work in humor in a tale co-starring the Aliens characters?

CSB: Yeah, Xenomorphs don't have much of a sense of humor. Or if they do, it's something that we wouldn't recognize. So that means all of the humor has to come from the humans or Vampi herself. I love her wry sense of the absurd, and her way of never quite putting people at ease. Hopefully all these things come across, even when she's fighting acid-spewing aliens.


Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Dan WicklineAbout Dan Wickline

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.
website
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.