Alien Loves Predator

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Alien Loves Predator (ALP to fans) is a webcomic 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 schedule to Mondays only after his wife gave birth to twins. More recently, the author changed the release schedule to Tuesdays and Fridays in honour of the 200th episode.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Abe

Short for Abraham, 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 and how to get a date than with the reality of the world around him. Abe's dating skill brings the comic some of its most memorable and funniest moments. His family includes his mother, an Alien Queen and two younger brothers, Boris and Zeev.

[edit] 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], and now wears glasses.

[edit] 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 and unlike most American League pitchers, no designated hitter bats for Jesus [3]. For a time he lived with Preston and Abe as a summer subletter [4].

[edit] Corinna

Corinna is a medium with blurry second vision. Preston met her at the optometrist [5], which led to a date. However, after she admitted to being a Mets fan their relationship came to an end. She later applied for the sublet left open by Jesus [6], and much to Preston's chagrin, Abe let her move in [7]. She is currently [8] dating Bill Clinton, who had popped up earlier [9] in the middle of a debate over who gets to "hit it" with Corinna. She is also known to adore children, even the shockingly perverted Zeev and Boris.

[edit] Abe's Mother and Theo

An Alien Queen in dangling earrings, Abe's mother wanted a daughter, but ended up having Abe, making him a disappointment for her. Nevertheless, she still supports him with living expenses. She appeared in issues #43, #44 #145. When she threatened to cut him off, Abe convinced his friend Theo to pose as Russell Crowe and go out on a date with her. Much to Abe's surprise and disgust, however, the date went too well and now his mother and Theo are an item.

[edit] Boris and Zeev

Boris and Zeev are Abe's even worse-behaved younger brothers. They debuted in issue #46. They were color-coded red and blue respectively by their mother: Zeev is colored blue because she thinks he is well-behaved, while Boris is red because he is not. Well-behaved or not, Zeev's recent antics have involved putting Preston in jail (#186) and tricking Abe into granting power of attorney (#187).

[edit] Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton is the former president of the United States. He made his first appearance in the comic when he barged into a taxi Abe and Preston were getting (Eliciting the response, "Holy shit, it's Bill Clinton!). Since then, he has had a short relationship with Corinna and help get Preston out of jail.

[edit] 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." [10]

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, the humans are not concerned by 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. [11]

[edit] The forum

The ALP forum is rather small, numbering little more than two 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 forum administrator. Members Dean, Blaster, and Munan function as moderators.

[edit] 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 [12] 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 [13].

• 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.

[edit] External links

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

Alien, Predator and Alien vs. Predator