(Oki Doke... Well, I guess I ruffled a few feathers with this post... So I made a few small edits to smooth the ruffles. And in no way meant to imply any wrong doing on anyone's part {that is why I explained the "Work for Hire" clause...}. Ah well. :)So I'm having breakfast this morning (Friday Oct 26) and I open the USA Today and go right to the entertainment section... (Front page...Bleh!... Lets get to the real news!!). I pull out the section and unfold it and there jumping out at me is a photo of an Alien-ish creature. But wait... there's something different about it. I scan over to the headline and the article is about the new Aliens v. Predator film coming out this December. Cool. So I start to read the article, but my eye keeps going back to the photo. Why does this Predalien creature look so familiar? This is the first official posts of the creature...
Then my mind goes back... to the mid 1990's. I was hired by 20th Century Fox/Dark Horse Productions to develop some Predalien creature designs for the (then viable) first incarnation of Aliens v Predator. I did a number of designs, including the one shown here. Well much to my surprise here I am looking at my designs, in the flesh, so to speak! I have posted here my original designs and the photos showing the quite distinct similarity! (Click the art and it should enlarge... maybe...)
I have no hard feelings about this. As a freelance illustrator I am aware of contractual obligations and the "work for hire" clause that is in most of these. (For those who don't know, the "work for hire" clause means basically that the work done for any particular company is completely owned by them. I sign over all rights to them on completion of the work. So they can do anything they want with it without paying me any more above the original cost of the work). So I had produced these designs for Fox and then they scrapped the production. The art went into the vaults. And I thought they would never see the light of day...
Well it appears someone might have done some digging because the similarity is striking. It would have been nice to be acknowledged for the work. I doubt I will get any credit. But I wanted to post this to show my fans and the world that sometimes lost work isn’t lost after all and good designs will always work, no matter how old they are!!
