science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...
. The comic debuted with FantaCo in 1981, and in 1985 was taken over by Eclipse.
Publication history
The original FantaCo ''Alien Encounters'' was a 36-page 1981
one-shot
One shot may refer to:
Film and television
* One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so
* ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake
* ''One Shot'', a ...
black-and-white comic containing short, self-contained stories by
Steve Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette (; born March 14, 1955) is an American comic book artist and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He worked with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC Comics series ''Swamp Thing'' in the 1980s.
Biograph ...
,
Steve Stiles
Stephen Willis Stiles (July 16, 1943 – January 11, 2020) was an American cartoonist and writer, coming out of the science fiction fanzine tradition. He won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist.
Early life and education
Steven Willis Stil ...
,
Fred Hembeck
Fred Hembeck (born January 30, 1953) is an American cartoonist best known for his parodies of characters from major American comic book publishers. His work has frequently been published by the firms whose characters he spoofs. His characters are ...
,
Mike Zeck
Michael J. Zeck (born September 6, 1949) is an Americans, American comics artist. He is best known for his work for Marvel Comics on such series as ''Captain America (comic book), Captain America'', ''Secret Wars, Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars'' ...
and
Howard Cruse
Howard Cruse (May 2, 1944 – November 26, 2019) was an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics. First coming to attention in the 1970s, during the underground comix movement with ''Barefootz'', he ...
, among others. After
Pacific Comics
Pacific Comics was a comic book Distribution (marketing), distributor and Comic book publisher, publisher active from 1971 to 1984. The company began as a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill Schanes, Bill and Steve Schan ...
went bankrupt in 1984, their titles were taken over by Eclipse Comics, including Bruce Jones' '' Alien Worlds'', a similar science fiction-themed anthology. They decided to replace ''Alien Worlds'' with a new title that would feature a wider range of creators, and purchased the rights to the ''Alien Encounters'' title from FantaCo, with
Ken Steacy
Ken Steacy (born January 8, 1955) is a Canadians, Canadian comics artist and writer best known for his work on the NOW Comics comic book series of ''Astro Boy (NOW Comics), Astro Boy'' and of the Comico: The Comic Company, Comico comic series of ' ...
designing the new series' logo.
Eclipse's version was a similarly sized