Alien: Stage III Alien, 2nd Design (side view) (work 370) (1978) by HR Giger references cover of the Pink Panther comic book #16 (November 1973)?

 

leading from

Alien stage III version 2 (work 370 & 371) (1978) 

and 

The Pink Panther Comic Book Trail

 

 

 

 

a) Stage III Alien, 2nd Design (side view) (work 370) (1978) by HR Giger

 

 

b)  cover of the Pink Panther comic book #16 (November 1973)

 

c)  So the snake charmer instrument becomes the tube like tongue, the arm position is roughly carried over, the Pink Panther's nose becomes a dark eye at the form

The Pink Panther's eye becomes an oval form at the side that looks eye like enough and that oval form as we see is roughly carried over from Christiane Kubrick's sculpture seen above

  

 

 

d) The Pink Panther's wavy tail becomes the vertical back tentacle of the alien creature. 

 

His pale pink chest and become the general shape of the front of the arm with its ribbing as if it's an exposed layer much in the manner of the Andrew Jones Claws of Death illustration. 

 

But it's as if Giger warmed to the elongated vertical shape from the cartoon. 

 

With that one could also make a claim that the way the tip of the tale curves towards the back of the Pink Panther's head, that this contributed to the shape of the back of the head of the alien beast.