Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds
The cover of Alien Worlds #6, art by Frank Brunner
Publication information
Publisher	Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics
Schedule	Bimonthly
Format	Anthology
Publication date	December 1982 - January 1985
Number of issues	10
Creative team
Creator(s)	Bruce Jones

Alien Worlds is an American science fiction anthology comic that was published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. It was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell.

Alien Worlds was published on a bi-monthly schedule by Pacific Comics from December 1982 to April 1984 (eight issues, including an offshoot Three Dimensional Alien Worlds published in July 1984). After Pacific went bankrupt, two final issues were published by Eclipse Comics in November 1984 and January 1985. In 1986, Blackthorne Publishing published their own one-shot Alien Worlds, with reprints of stories taken from earlier issues. In May 1988, Eclipse issued a standalone, unnumbered edition of the title as part of its Graphic Album Series, featuring all new stories and art.

Nearly all of the stories in Alien Worlds were written by Jones, with only a few exceptions (notably Jan Strnad's "Stoney End" in Issue # 8 and Frank Brunner's "The Reading!" in Issue # 9). Jones had developed a skill for the short genre tale, often with a twist ending, during his years with Warren Publishing while writing for their Creepy and Eerie titles. He was heavily influenced by the horror and science fiction movies of the 1950s, adding graphic violence and sexuality to the mix, complete with copious female nudity; several issues sported a “Recommended For Mature Readers” warning on the cover. However, for the most part Alien Worlds avoided the more intensely gruesome subject matter of Jones' other Pacific comic, Twisted Tales, which was being published at the same time.