Aliens: Fire and Stone is part of Dark Horse Comics' Alien / Predator relaunch and follows a new set of characters during the Xenomorph outbreak at Hadley's Hope. With Aliens: Fire and Stone #1 having recently been released, Chris Roberson took part in our latest Q&A feature, telling us all about his time on the new mini-series:

What was your first experience with the Alien franchise? Was it renting the first Alien or seeing Aliens on the big screen?

I was born in 1970, and saw the first Alien movie on cable at far too young an age. But I was just the right age for Aliens when it was in theaters!

For those that are unaware, the Alien / Predator comic book universe is being relaunched with Aliens: Fire and Stone #1 being the first new issue. Can you tell me how you got involved in this project?

It was very simple: Scott Allie called me and asked me if I’d be interested. I didn’t hesitate for a second!

Everyone on the various Alien / Predator / Prometheus series are working together to build this larger world. With it being very different that the usual comic book series development process, did you enjoy the collaboration?

Oh, absolutely. It helped that all of us were friends already, so really it was more like hanging out with people I liked and having fun than what you would call “work.” And it felt almost like getting together and playing a tabletop RPG, coming up with characters, drawing maps, working out adventures. It was lots of fun.

What kind of research did you do when coming up with the story? Did you stick mostly to the movies or will you be pulling things from the book and comic books that were previously released?

I watched and rewatched the first two movies on a constant loop for a few months. I’ve enjoyed a lot of the books and comics and games over the years, but we wanted to go back to the original source for inspiration here.

I really like how this first issue deals with the LV-426 colony, adding a new level of depth to the events of Aliens. How important was it for you to link this to Aliens and will we see any more ties to the movies in future issues?

I thought it really helped to ground the story by starting it where and when we did. Ironically, Christopher Golden was working on a prose novel for Titan that takes place on Hadley’s Hope during the alien attack, so we were able to coordinate our efforts back and forth, so that there are little references to his novel in our comic and vice versa.

At the end of issue 1, the survivors are stranded and the odds don't seem in their favor. Can you give our readers a tease of what they can expect to see from upcoming issues?

Everything will be fine and no one gets hurt. Just kidding! They’re marooned in a strange jungle with xenomorphs. Things are not going to go well…

With Aliens: Fire and Stone set as a 4-issue mini-series, are you interested in returning to tell more stories in the Alien / Predator / Prometheus universe?

Oh, sure! This has been a blast to work on, and I’d always be game for doing more!

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Aliens: Fire and Stone #1

Writer: Chris Roberson
Artist: Patric Reynolds

"During a vicious xenomorph outbreak, terraforming engineer Derrick Russell leads a desperate group of survivors onto a rickety mining vessel. They hope to escape the creatures overrunning their colony—but they’ll face horrors both in space and on the strange planet they crash on. Ties in with the Prometheus and Aliens films!"