H.R. Giger

Reuters said: Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger who designed the monster and revolutionary sci-fi sets for the film "Alien" has died, his museum said on Tuesday. He was 74.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/13/us-people-giger-idUSKBN0DT0HX20140513

I've never considered myself an artist, but a lot of my "doodles" as a teen were influenced by his work. His Biomechanical always "spoke" to me... If the teachers of today saw that artwork they'd probably have my folks arrested, and me in a padded room.

Thanks for the artwork that became one of my all time favorite Si-Fi series, RIP.

• Lee

He is gone but his crazy structures full of weird alien creatures and their weirder big alien genitals will live on

Also one of my favorite artists growing up and definitely a big influence on my work at the time. I couldn't believe it when my parents actually bought me one of his Necronomicon books as a teenager for my birthday (btw I had cool parents).

Matt B wrote: Also one of my favorite artists growing up and definitely a big influence on my work at the time. I couldn't believe it when my parents actually bought me one of his Necronomicon books as a teenager for my birthday (btw I had cool parents).

Very cool parents indeed. My parents would have me committed

Sad to hear this. I'm a big fan of Giger's work, it's unsettling but magnetic at the same time.

I too drew many alien doodles as "bugs" growing up. That and I loved Shusset's idea that the aliens would take on similar features to whatever their host DNA was. The action figures and comic books really took that idea to the next level.

I had every one of these action figures:

Interesting to note is that despite "creating" the Xenomorph, Giger DID NOT create the Predator. That was Stan Winston. Winston was more or less inspired by Giger's Xenomorph, and Winston's early Predator Concepts reflected that. He was giving the creatures very "anthropomorphic" features. They were considerably more lanky and had jutting mandibles as opposed to the film version as a much more humanoid figure. Apparently Cameron's interaction with Winston and talks of "mandibles" being created for Alien might have played a part in Predator's "mouth inside a mouth".

I think the coolest (and scariest) thing about Giger's alien was that it wasn't cute, it wasnt ridiculous, it wasn't a bad guy. It was just a big, acid filled, double jaw wielding, bug with a spiny sharp tail. There was no way of communicating with it. All it did was kill, so you never felt bad about it dying.

In reply to PHeller:

I was reluctant to admit how much I geek out over this stuff, SWMBO usually just rolls her eyes and sighs if/when I start talking about Scifi stuff, car stuff, computer stuff, etc. So I've learned to pace myself (I guess she's trained me).

I too had all pictured except for front row far left, additionally I had Corporal Hicks, Ripley, some dude that wore a robot Xenomorph suit, and the space ship/shuttle that captured Xenomorphs.

I have all of the silly Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator Graphic Novels, a few of the Graphic Novels that came out between Aliens & Alien III (any one of which would have been a better screen play than Alien III), Collectors Edition DVD set, video games, even some "JDM Yo" 4 inch figurines, etc. etc. etc.

Somewhere in the attic I have this Dogbuster model, I assembled and painted it in Jr. High, was on my book shelf all the way through college. Broke the tip of its tail off in one of many moves.

In reply to PHeller:

Atax was the guy in the Xenomorph suit, and I had the panther too, forgot about it.

All right I think I'm done nerding out about childhood Alien action figures now. Carry on.

Edit, the space ship was the EVAC Fighter. Cheesy commercial circa 1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32SXdn2slbY

Didn't have him but a buddy did.

http://alienfilmspedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kenner_Aliens_Action_Figure_Line