Alien Mercenaries Fall Special #1

Back in May of 2009 I created the Alien Mercenaries Photo Comic. I made 33 episodes and spread them between 2 seasons with season 2 never getting a full contingent of episodes. When New York Comic Con 2010 came around Matt Doughty invited a number of us Glyos customizers to have time at his booth at the show to sell our stuff.

As I had no means of making resin castings of my stuff, I opted to do the one thing I had been known for: making photo comics. So, I sat down and planned out a short 16 panel story along with a goofy advertisement for a fake cereal in the back inside cover. 

NYCC 2010 came and I had my comic for sale but it did not fly off the table. See, people who went to the October Toys forums got copies and knew about the Alien Mercenaries, but the average con goer was less inclined to drop $5.00 on a random comic like mine.

I ended up giving a lot of the comics away only to realize I should have held onto them for sale later on, so a number of years ago I uploaded all 16 panels along with the Front, Back and Interior covers to my blog. This was to allow people who bought the 2012 Alien Mercenaries Fall Special Issue #2 to see what the previous issue was all about.

Well after being lost due to photo errors, I created a special spot for it here on the website. Enjoy!

(Note: Comm. Grott is right, I had just shot a 4-Part Epsiode for the 'Comm. Grott & the Prutarran Criminal Catchers' photo comic while in New Hampshire that past August. There did not seem to be a huge amount of interest in the comic so I never made further episodes. To this day, eight years later, I only finished two of the four parts but it is something I wish to finish given the time.

Edit on 7/16/2018: Part 1 of Comm. Grott's comic can be found HERE, with part's 2, 3 & 4 up for viewing right now!)

(Note: The Ani-M.A.U.L.s, which stands for Mutated Animal Ultimate Lifeforms, was never meant to become a photo comic in any capacity. I had just took the name from another project of mine that never made it beyond text on a screen and combined it with some animal heads I had made.)

(Note: The bartender here was a character I created called "Porr'pul" who is a bad ass bounty hunter. I even had a teaser image made up before revealing who he was in Alien Mercenaries Season 2. Check it out:

Unfortunately Season 2 never got finished and he never got his debut. Then when time came around to do the Alien Mercenaries Fall Special I needed a bartender and Porr'pul fit the bill. His thought bubble here saying "It's times like dis dat I miss being a bounty hunter..." is a direct homage to that lost past of his.)

(Note: The joke behind this entire thing was that us artists lived on the compliments and praise of other forum members and artists, aka feedback and kudos. So I had a Playmobil kitchen set and opted to do this goofy ad. Slaurian is a character who is the Last Slaurian in the far future of my stories and I put him in it as an excuse to show him off.)

(Note: I made this back cover to homage the old Masters of the Universe mini comics from back in the day. I always loved looking at those tiny comics and felt this was such a fun idea.

Also not that this entire story takes place outside the continuity of the series in the "Backstage Realm" where the characters are actors on a show called 'Alien Mercenaries'.)