H.R. Giger, or Hans Ruedi Giger, was a Swiss artist born today, February 5, 1940 in Chur, Switzerland. While early in life he studies architecture and industrial design, he later delved into an art style of airbrushed images that blended human with machines. His style became known as “biomechanical.” In 1969, at the age of 29, his paintings gained notiriety when H.H. Kunz, one of the owners of Switzerland’s first poster company began copying and distributing the artist’s work as posters. Specifically from his art collection titled “Biomechanoid.”
He quickly was viewed as a sci-fi artist that created nightmarish visions of the world, or what the world could be. However, it was Giger who cited Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dalí as the influences to his style and designs.
Unfortunately H.R. Giger died on May 12, 2014 after complications as a result of a fall. While the artist has passed, his art and style continues to influence the world of movies, music, and especially comic books. Here are just a couple of the franchises and favorite comic books influenced or a direct result of the works of H.R. Giger.
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Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune (1965) – Dune: The Official Comic Book (1984) The first Dune story was going to be made in 1965, and created by Alejandro Jodorowsky. He turns to 25 year old Giger to help capture the art and style of this gritty and high-concept sci-fi story to life. It’s during this film that Giger began to work with Jean Giraud. While the film fell through, there are still elements, and designs of Giger that continued on into David Lynch’s adaptation of the story by Frank Herbert. The story has been adapted into many comics, and the official comic book was quite the adaptation! This series was a three book series that totaled 196 pages, and story was adapted by Ralph Macchio with art from Bill Sienkiewicz. The series still definitely has the same inspirations that Giger left within the series. |
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Necronomicon (1977) – Doom #1 (1996) This book was the first compendium of works by Giger that was majorly published. While Giger had already worked on the illfated Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune (1965), the compendium of images was given to Ridley Scott when he was working on the pre-production for Alien. This book specifically is responsible for the success of Giger in modern media. This book also went on to be the inspiration for the design and themes of the 1993 video game Doom from ID Games. In 1996 ID Games released ID Comics and their print for a Doom comic based off the series. It’s full of fighting demons, and one-liners. However, it lacks due to only being 16 pages, and the artwork of Tom Grindberg is a little too bright. |
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Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) – Heavy Metal Presents Alien (1979) After the work in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune (1965) fell through, a lot of the styles and designs were incorporated into the designs of Alien. Specifically Giger and Jean Giraud work went into the look of the Alien, The Derelict ship, and the Space Jockeys. As a direct result of his work in designing sci-fi structures, the Alien’s design, and their forebearers, his distinct work is now completely intertwined within the world of the Alien. That’s why if you want to delve into a comic, this surprisingly amazing adaptation of the original film is perfect. Archie Goodwin tells the story very akin to Ridley Scott’s story, and Walt Simonson pays homage to Giger with large spashpages in their style. |
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Species (1995) – Species #1 (1995) Giger once again jumped into the world of aliens, with this sexualized film by Dennis Feldman. Giger designed the alien aspects of the main figure, Sil, which included practical models from Giger and Steve Johnson’s XFX. In the writing stages, Giger felt like some of the aspects were to similar to his prior work in Alien, and made substantial design changes, and writing notes for the story to help shift the story away from his prior works. The movie spawned a theatrical sequel and two made for tv movies. The work also spawned a four part comic book series, actually written by Dennis Feldman, with art from Jon Foster and Brian Kane. |
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What’s your favorite H.R. Giger inspired franchise and comic book?
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