Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse‘s Resident Alien saga for US publisher Dark Horse resumes on 14th August with The Suicide Blonde #0, on sale in all good comic shps on both sides of the Atlantic and as a digital edition.
Former Crisis and Revolver editor Hogan’s numerous credits include Tom Strong and Sandman, as well as numerous 2000AD stories. Steve Parkhouse’s credits include Doctor Who, the Bojeffries Saga, Big Dave and The Journal of Luke Kirby (among others) for 2000AD.
Stranded on Earth, the alien living undercover as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle continues his practice in the small US town of Patience. Assisted by Native American nurse Asta — the only person who suspects that he’s from another planet — Harry finds himself enmeshed in another murder mystery.
“We’ll be seeing more of Harry’s back-story and the fact that the government is aware of his presence on Earth — they’re trying to track him down,” Hogan revealed to Comic Book Resources. “As for the crime case angle, this time it concerns a girl who’s committed suicide, except Harry’s convinced she was murdered. The problem for Harry is if it is murder, the main suspect is someone he knows and cares about — he has to get involved to prove their innocence.”
Described as “a pitch-perfect narrative from two of my favourite creators.” by Alan Moore, US readers can pre-order Resident Alien: The Suicide Blonde #0 Now @ TFAW.com – and Peter will be signing copies of the comic at Orbital Comics, London, on Saturday 17th August (full details here).
“This all began because Steve wanted to do a story about aliens, and Resident Alien is what I came up with,” says Hogan of the series origins. “I thought the concept of aliens being monsters and invaders had become stale, so I tried doing something different. Having him be basically a nice guy who’s been shipwrecked here and is trying to make the best of it makes for an interesting view of humanity. The key point is that to Harry, it’s us who are the aliens — and it’s that aspect which seems to have touched a nerve with readers. Obviously, I’m very pleased people like Harry so much.”
The cover of Resident Alien: The Suicide Blonde #1, on sale in September.
“An alien detective seemed like a fun idea – a way of commenting on human foibles from an outsider’s point of view,” Peter recentkly said of the origins of the character on the Forbidden Planet International blog. “So I wrote a proposal and some script, and Steve did a half dozen pages of art, we shopped it around and Dark Horse snapped it up. Mike Richardson told us he wanted to run it in the reborn Dark Horse Presents, gave us some great editorial advice upfront and then just let us get on with it. Couldn’t have asked for a better place to hang our hats.
“We did our best to repay Mike’s faith in us, and the world seemed to like the first series of our alien friend’s adventures a lot. So we started work on the second series. At the end of the first story arc Harry had lured a serial killer out into the open where he could be arrested, and got himself shot in the process.
“He’d also met someone who may be able to see through his disguise, though only time will tell where that’s going to lead. Since Asta is extremely popular with readers, I’ll just reassure them that she’s going to be a vital part of this story from now on. Anyway, we left Harry recovering from his gunshot wound, but very much more involved in the world than when we first met him.”
Hogan says that he and Pakhouse have already planned out a thrid series, so there’s more to come from Harry and the series cast.
“Obviously, there’s also a limit to how much murder we can get away with in one small town before it starts to look ludicrously implausible,” guards Hogan to CBR, “but there are always other kinds of mystery that might rear their heads, and there’s a whole wide world outside of Patience. Harry being a curious kind of guy might decide to go off and explore it.”
• The first volume of Resident Alien is available now as a collection
• Peter Hogan Signing at Orbital Comics – Details
• Read the Peter Hogan interview about Resident Alien on Comic Book Resources
• Read an interview with Peter Hogan about the first Resident Alien series on the FPI blog
• More info: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/20-619/Resident-Alien-The-Suicide-Blonde-0
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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