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"She's A Monster Too." – Corinna Bechko Talks Aliens / Vampirella

Published Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:00:32 -0500

Byron Brewer caught up with Corinna S. Bechko to talk about the battle between horror icons Vampirella and the Aliens Xenomorphs. Cover art by Gabriel Hardman.

BYRON BREWER: Corinna, we are at the penultimate issue for this wonderful miniseries. Looking back, what innovations in storytelling did you make here that worked out and what would you undo about this mashup if you could?

CORINNA S. BECHKO: I don't know about innovations, exactly, but I was very happy that I was able to tell this story from a couple of points of view. Of course Vampirella is our main character (at least our main character who has dialogue, the Xenomorphs tending to be a rather taciturn bunch) but I felt it was important to have a little distance from her since she's a monster too. So we don't spend any time in her head to find out what she's thinking, but we do get to see what other characters think about her. Some trust her, some fear her, some like her. This would be a very different book if we stayed only with her the whole time.

As to undoing anything, I think it would have been nice if there had been room to see more of what life was like in the past, when the Nosferatu ran their own base, using humans as food animals. The story isn't exactly about that, though, so we will get just a little taste of that in this issue.

BB: OK, Aliens or Vampirella: Which would you as a writer like to follow into a solo series?

CSB: Hmm, that's a tough question! I think that everyone who writes Vampi falls in love with her a little. This story is very action-oriented and there wasn't a lot of downtime to spend with her, so it would be fun to explore more of her adventures. On the other hand, few monsters can rival a Xenomorph for horror and intrigue, so that would be exciting too. Vampirella gets the edge, though, since she can talk, and that makes my job easier.

BB: We may have tread this ground before, but what was your inspiration for this tale of space horror?

CSB: I'm very interested in space exploration, and I truly hope that humanity really can colonize Mars eventually. In reality, I think it will be a lot harder than most people imagine, so all the more reason to write fiction about it!

BB: How big was the use of Lars in this mini for you?

CSB: I think he's a very important character. It's really through him that we understand Vampirella, and he's the human that carries my hopes for what people can be like as we venture into the future. He doesn't always make the right decisions, but he's trying. Without him in place I think Vampirella might have just given up on the other humans at this point in the story.

BB: How did you enjoy artist Javier Garcia-Miranda's interpretation of your script?

CSB: Javier is just terrific! I mean, look at how he's handling the action: it's always clear and exciting, and the Xenomorphs are scary as hell. It's important that we can infer what Vampirella is thinking during the quieter scenes too, since there's no voiceover. I worried about that until I saw his art on the first issue. Since then, I've been able to relax and allow him to just work his magic. In short, I couldn't be happier to be collaborating with Javier.

For more on Aliens / Vampirella, click here.

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