alfr 03 Joining of the halves
alfr 03 What’s Gone Before
Kitchen Sink July 1987
Written by Anthony F. Smith and Eric Vincent. Illustrated by Eric Vincent. B&W. Cover price $2.00.
Pencils Inks Eric Vincent • Colors Ray Fehrenbach
Alien Fire is still in an embryonic Stage, but it’s shaping up as a memorable achievement in science fiction storytelling in comics. Artist Eric Vincent, whose work has appeared in a variety of alter- native comics, has toiled for the past several years without much recognition. And Anthony F. Smith, who collaborates with Vincent in writing Alien Fire, has had an active hand in a number of pub- lishing ventures, including Paper Cuts. Working together, they have created a complex, futuristic epic that is both absorbing and intelligent. I base these comments on the first two issues, and I eagerly await subsequent installments.
I predict Alien Fire will garner Vincent and Smith a following. Kitchen Sink again warrants praise for supporting a new title that aims to bring a new intelligence and level of sophistication to science fic- tion in comics.
Chester Brown is interviewed in The Comics Journal #135, page 92:
GRAMMEL: boking through your issues, at one point you said this was a good time to support the black-and- whites, and you mentioned Alien Fire. Did it scare you that a book that good could die ? I don ‘t know about you, but I thought Alien Fire was very, very impressive. BROWN: Yeah, I agree. [Pause] Yeah, it was scary, because Alien Fire wasn’t the only comic book that was doing poorly at the time. Everything was. All the black- and-whites were suffering. And, yeah, it was very worrying. I had said, ‘ ‘so what?” to most Ofthe Com- ics that had ended because Of the glut, but I was amazed that Alien Fire didn ‘t continue. ‘found the second issue to be one of the most moving comics I’ve ever read.
Alien Fire • 1. What’s Gone Before • 2. The Joining of Halves • Alien Fire • Alien Fire House ads