Jack Kirby And The Face on Mars

leading from

The Face on Mars 

and
Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was known for drawing a comic book story for "Race for the Moon" #2 about adventurers discovering an ancient face on Mars back in 1958 confusingly long before a photograph was taken by the Viking probe in 1976 showing something that has continued to be described by many people as a Face on Mars.

Alien : HR Giger's translucent Alien painted up

leading from

Alien Studio environments: 

 The Art Department, Shepperton Studios

and

 Alien: Creating the Alien

and

Alien: Giger's carrying alien bodyparts from A to B

 

a) A translucent painted alien somewhere!

Curiously Giger's painted up translucent alien was standing behind him in photos of him going to work on an egg, while in the Art Department Room.

People have been very hung up on the images of the attempts at a translucent suit, and there is even a NECA action figure based upon this known as the concept alien.

It is important to know about the attempts to make it and indeed its failure, and there is an example of such a suit to be found online in a state of decay.

But this suit was an attempt to create a foundation for his concept alien,

We find out that he went ahead and has a clear resin cast of the beast made, he took the parts to his studio and painted them up. 

They could not have been worn as a costume though.

The images that we see are how far he got with his attempts at painting up a translucent alien

 

 

 

 

b)  HR Giger: Saturday, August 19, 1978. Colored the alien egg black. Finally received Alien III from the plaster shop to paint. To my great surprise, I found paint that you can use on PVC. Wonderful day (Alien Diaries)

 

 

 

c) Polaroid of polyester alien painted up (source: Alien Diaries)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

d) In the Art Department, standing in he background, we see Giger's Alien

 

 

 

e.i) Well known photo of  Giger going to work on an egg from the photograph published in  Imagimovies  v01n03 (Spring 1994)

 

 

e.ii) The beast by itself

 

 

 

 

 

 

f) Same photo as above of Giger going to work on an egg with but with the colours looking a bit more realistic rather than filled with dynamic purples

 

 My source: https://twitter.com/avpgalaxy/status/1509547132965036043

 

 

f.ii)  The alien beast by itself

 

 

HR Giger's Space Trip I (1978) references Star Wars poster (1977)?

leading from

H R Giger's Art
and  
Darth Vader

a) 26th May 2011
I saw this Star Wars poster posted this morning on Facebook, and suddenly realised that it would have been an ideal poster for HR Giger to biomechanise, then I checked to see if there was something that Giger had done like it but couldn't find anything, but lo and behold in the evening, I found the painting, Space Trip I by H R Giger). 

b) Comparing features
It can be barely noticed but the way that Darth Vader's eye lens seems weirdly shaped like an 8. And so the pathways shaped by the trails of the x wing fighters becomes merged with the side of Vader's helmet and turned into a biomechanic structure. The grid of the death star has been stretched sideways across the painting, and the ribbing on the bridge of the nose Darth Vader's helmet has been extended.Perhaps the general shape of Luke Skywalker's arm on the right has been turned into the curve on the right. Princess Leia's cloak has been changed into curved tubes flowing to the left

HR Giger's Space Trip I (1978)

HR Giger's Space Trip I (1978)

Giger's Alien Monster III references the painting from "The Creeping Flesh"?

leading from

Giger's Alien Monster III
and
The Creeping Flesh
and
Max Von Moos

 

painting from "The Creeping Flesh" and Giger's "Alien Monster III"

 

The painting from 'The Creeping Flesh"

a) On 21st May 2016, I took a look at the film The Creeping Flesh (1973) made at Shepperton studios, since it featured a huge monstrous non-human but humanoid skeleton. The beginning scene showed a strange painting appeared to be inspired by Surrealism, that would be shown as a forewarning of what would be experienced later in the film. The character Emmanuel Hildern would break off a finger of the skeleton once he noticed it had grown flesh after being subjected to water. The girl in the white dress dancing at the bottom of the painting would represent his daughter who would go crazy in the film after being experimented on with material from the creature's own body cells. A shadowy figure at the bottom of the painting might represent the creature dressed in a black robe.

I suddenly had an idea that Giger would have seen this and wanted to use it as reference for one of his paintings.

b) The hand with a central digit missing becomes the large six digited hand

Detail of the hand from  "The Creeping Flesh" painting and detail of
the large hand and snake like head in HR Giger's Alien Monster III

c) The vertical hand becomes the supports or machinery on the side of the 

Detail of the hand from  "The Creeping Flesh" painting
and detail from HR Giger's Alien Monster III

d) The fetal forms float in the air and become these demons in sausage skins.

Floating fetal forms from The Creeping Flesh painting and
the clay sausage demons from Giger's Alien Monster III

e) Giger's Alien Monster III, that appears to reference Max Von Moos' Devil's Kitchen, the album cover for Tomita's album The Bermuda Triangle and the painting from The Creeping Flesh.

Max Von Moos' Devil's Kitchen and the painting from The Creeping Flesh

Max Von Moos' Devil's Kitchen, the painting from The Creeping Flesh and Alien Monster III

Giger's Alien Monster III, 1978

Alien: Giger's Alien Life Cycle Tableau painting references Radio Times May 16th 1968 FA Cup Final cover illustration

leading from
Radio Times images  
and
Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphics

a) Radio Times May 16th 1968 appears to have been another contributing factor to HR Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphics painting from 1978.

Radio Times May 16th 1968 Source: Radio Times Collectors

Original Life Cyle Tableau, 1978 (work 384)

b) If so, someone who had been collecting Radio Times would have shown him the cover, and so this would help to think about breaking the image down into segments with different things going on.

Flag and facehugger

c) Perhaps a flag at the bottom left of the Radio Times cover, that intersects with a spectator's head turns into the dead face hugger.

trophy cup and facehugger tale by egg

d) The prize cup handle turns into the facehugger tale and the ball to the left "F A CUP FINAL" turns into the space jockey's head.

Middle segments of both pictures

e) Perhaps the slant on the left side of the crowd of people and the man reaching out for the ball helps the development of the idea of the triangle.

Binoculars and division in biomechanoid goddess body.

f) The binoculars helps the development of the division in the female figure's body.

Image of motorbiker used as referenced because of the circular shapes within the T structure?

g) The motorbiker would also be referenced in the general structure of the painting as well, because of the circular forms and T structures.

Alien: Meeting wth Sigourney in Hollywood

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Alien: Sigourney Weaver cast as Ripley
and
Alien: Japanese restaurant perhaps in 55th street.

Then she flew out to Hollywood to meet Alan Ladd Jr, and Gareth Wigan at Twentieth Century Fox, but  she lost her baggage on the plane and went to meet them in her untidy clothes. 

They had a typical chatty Hollywood meeting where everyone is supposed to pretend that they're there for social reasons and no one mentions the film.

Ridley had told Laddy that she was what he wanted but Laddy responded with his usual caution "well hmmm, she’s okay but I’m not sure, you’re going to have to test her.''

Ridley responded ''Uh Laddy, l'm three weeks from principal photography.'' 

Laddy replied "I don't care, you've got to test, I'm not sure"

Next:

Alien: Sigourney's Screen Test 

Source Quotes

1. Ridley Scott: And (Laddie) said `well hmmm, she’s ok but I’m not sure, you’re going to have to test her’. And "I thought my god, we’re shooting in 2 weeks. I’m going to fly them in here in 2 or 3 weeks". So I had to test her. And the test was spot on.
   Interviewer: Ivor says that his memory is of you choosing Sigourney on first look…Ridley Scott: it was academic. It became academic. I knew…I knew…I could do a test which I could cut into the movie basically. So we made a very sophisticated test, I didn’t put a mix on it, and so Laddie watched it and went oh, ok, and that was it. But then she was on. You know.  (report from the interiew for Alien Evolution)
2. Danny Peary: When were you told that you had the part? 
   Sigourney Weaver: I flew out to Hollywood to meet Alan Ladd, Jr, and Gareth Wiggin at Twentieth. I lost my bags on the plane and went in my rotten clothes. We had a typical chatty Hollywood meeting where you're all supposed to pretend you're there for social reasons and no one mentions the film.Screen Flights / Screen Fantasies, An Interview With Sigourney Weaver by Danny Peary, p159)

Early Alien storyboard (1978) by Ridley Scott of a Nostromo explorer examining the space jockey references "Demons tormenting St. Anthony" (1520) Niklaus Manuel Deutsch ?

leading from  

Demons tormenting St. Anthony (1520) by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch

and

Ridleygrams

a) Early Alien storyboard of a Nostromo explorer examining the space jockey 

 b) Demons tormenting St. Anthony  (1520)  by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch

 c) This area is transformed into the explorer in the astronaut suit

d) The pale hand of St Anthony becomes the basis for face with the area around it transformed into a space helmet, while the claw of the demon's foot here becomes the left shoulder.

e) The highlights of the clawed toes becomes the gun

f) The cloud and perhaps the club as well are transformed into air turning into vapour expelled from the helmet

g) The area with this head is turned into a mass of tubing that's part of a machine

h) Ears of the hog face demon is transformed into a light coloured V shaped area, while the head of St Anthony is transformed into an oblong shape, if the comparisons could be made at all. 

There might be a way to interpret the brown lines in this part of the storyboard and how it relates to features of the demon but it wouldn't be reliable, although it might look as if the claw of the demon on St Anthony's head has become the thick part of the brown on the far left of the segment below.

i)  Lower part of the lower left demon becomes the space jockey's head

HR Giger's Alien Monster III references Tomita's Bermuda Triangle record album cover (1978)

leading from 
Giger's Alien Monster III
and
Isao Tomita 

a) 13th May 2016, I realised that Giger had taken shapes and forms from Tomita's Bermuda Triangle record album cover for his Alien monster III. On the back an aircraft pilot is seen to embrace a mermaid and a group of demons dancer around them. The mermaid's hair becomes the bend in the long neck of the serpentine alien creature in Giger's painting.

Giger's Alien Monster III, 1978

b) Her fish tail becomes the serpent tail of the alien creature, but both ends become two curves of a curling tail. The amoung of little demon figures multiply but become amorphous creatures in sausage skins. However the bubbles also inspires the multiple creatures, intersecting with the idea of the organic tubes from Max Von Moos "Devil's Kitchen" and the floating foetel forms from the "Creeping Flesh" movie painting

Back and front cover of Tomita's Bermuda Triangle

c) The scarf worn by the airpilot becomes an unidentifiable piece of curved machine extending from the plinth, perhaps its shape is also inspired by the lover heart in the illustration, and it's multiplied around so there are six altogether, four facing the viewer of the picture, perhaps loosely inspired by the military aircraft flying through the pictures. The triangle space in the ceiling of the giant chamber, letting in light which appears to be a gap in the sea as seen on the front cover of the album becomes a circular form letting in light, perhaps inspired by the glowing circle above the devil's horns on the front cover

Bermuda Triangle back cover

Bermuda Triangle front cover