Alien Loves Predator

File:Alien Loves Predator - in front of subway doors.jpg

Abe (left) and Preston (right), of Alien Loves Predator

Summary

Alien Loves Predator (ALP to fans) is a web comic written by Bernie Hou. It spoofs the Alien Vs. Predator franchise. Reversing the adversarial relationship depicted in Alien vs. Predator, ALP presents an Alien (named Abe) and a Predator (named Preston) as friends and roommates in current-day New York City.

The first issue [1] of ALP was released in 2004. New episodes were released every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Recently, the author changed the release dates to just Monday and possibly Thursday (although there have been no Thursday strips yet).

Characters

Abe

Abe the Alien is normally the impulsive member of the duo. He is socially inept, rarely thinks anything through, and is far more concerned with his libido than with the reality of the world around him.

Preston

Preston the Predator usually plays the straight man in the comedic duo. He is normally rational and a calming influence. Oddly for a member of a race bred to hunt and kill, Preston is nearsighted. [2]

Jesus

In the world of ALP, Jesus Christ is a pitcher for baseball's New York Yankees. Needless to say, he is the best player in the game. Unlike most American League pitchers, a designated hitter is not used to bat for Jesus. [3]

In issue #85, Jesus moved into Abe and Preston's apartment as their roommate. Recently, he has been suspended from baseball and he has now left the duo though he has said he will return someday. [4]

Corinna

Corinna was Preston's love interest. Preston met this bespectacled lovely at the optometrist in issue #106. Corinna is a medium, and her "vision" problem is actually not an unclearness of eyesight, but an unclearness of psychic visions. For instance, in one installation [5] she wonders of Preston, "He's either going to ask me for my number, or axe me while I slumber." After telling Preston she was a Mets fan at the end of their first date, their relationship came to an end. Later, Preston questions if he rejected her too fast. [6] In one of the more recent comics, she made a reappearance.[7] After challenging Abe to a Tarot card game[8], she started to move in. [9]. However, Preston has just returned from his hospital operation and is disgusted to find Corinna moving in. Abe tries to help them solve their differences with a strange roleplay game with no success[10]. It is likely more conflict will happen now that Corinna has moved in.

Boris and Zeev

Boris and Zeev are Abe's even worse-behaved younger brothers. They debuted in issue #46, and were last seen in issue #50. They were color-coded red and blue respectively by their mother. Zeev is colored blue because he is well-behaved, while Boris is red because he is not. They have not been shown in any recent comics.

Abe's Mother

Abe's mother, naturally, is an Alien Queen. No name has been given her in the strip as of yet. She is very disappointed in Abe (she wanted a girl) and hates him, though she supports him with money. She appeared in issues #43, #44 #145. She is now in a relationship with Abe's friend (who is posing as Russell Crowe), leaving Abe disgusted.

Style

The artwork of ALP is composed by juxtaposing photos of real-life action figures into backgrounds also primarily generated from photos. This style has alternately been called photocollage, photocomics or fumetti. A reviewer has stated that ALP "sets the bar for this art style." [11]

ALP's humor is often based on absurdism and non sequiturs. After all, although the New York City of the strip seems virtually identical to the one we know in real life, none of the humans ever comment on the fact that an Alien and a Predator live among them. Abe and Preston speak English and treat each other just as human friends do, and in fact, the mythology of the Alien and Predator franchises is rarely even mentioned.

However, along with the surrealist humor of seeing alien races act just like people, the strip simultaneously presents an observational brand of humor. Abe and Preston are often depicted going through the same frustrations that real-life modern-day New Yorkers encounter as they try to do such things as rent apartments, eat out at restaurants and ride the subway. One prominent writer has compared ALP to Seinfeld in this respect. [12]

The forum

The ALP forum is rather small, numbering little more than a thousand members. Less than a couple of hundred of those can be considered regular posters. Bernie Hou runs contests and events in the forums (see below). The forum covers a wide range of subject matters, but generally acts more like an online lounge than anything else. Hou is the forum administrator.

Contests

Bernie Hou often hosts contests in his forums. These range a diversity of subjects and methods, and small prizes are sometimes awarded to their winners.

• The Eliza Contest: Members are asked to provide discussions between them and the therapeutic program ELIZA (Inspired by an episode [13] in which a poster of Eliza Dushku talks like the ELIZA computer program. The contest had generated more than 100 entries in its first twenty four hours. JackSpicer won the contests narrowly over Rikimaru, with a rendition depicting ELIZA as the patient a real therapist is trying to help [14].

• Guess Their Names: Members were allowed to post their guess for the names of Bernie Hou's new children. There were no winners.

• ALP Art Contest: Members submitted their own fan comics based around a set dialogue made by Bernie Hou. The winner was a member aliased Summer.

• ALP Haiku Contest: Members were to submit any haiku of their creation. The winner was one of the forum regulars Holly with:

I will volunteer

as Abe's girlfriend for the week

and Preston can watch.

• ALP Dialogue Contest: A reverse of the ALP Art Contest, members would submit dialogue for a preset comic. The winner was Lando, and Bernie released the comic as an official addition to the archives.

External links

• The Official Site
• ALP Forums
• ALP review at Kung Fu Rodeo
• ALP review at Sequential Tart