Original, Ripley-less Alien script bursting forth as Dark Horse comic miniseries

Following its comic book interpretation of William Gibson's unused script for Alien 3, Dark Horse is plunging back into the franchise's treasure trove of "what ifs" with a limited comic series based on Dan O'Bannon's initial vision for the first Alien film in 1979.

It's actually a topic explored in this exclusive clip we got from the recent documentary, Memory: The Origins of Alien. At one point, the project, co-conceived from an original story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, was actually titled "Starbeast."

Adapted by writer Cristiano Seixas and artist Guilherme Balbi (Predators, Superboy), the five-part comic book storyline will follow the beats of O'Bannon's sci-fi screenplay (you can read it here) before it was reworked by producers David Giler and Walter Hill (you can read that one here).

Credit: Dark Horse Comics

So, what exactly are the differences between O'Bannon's version and the one eventually directed by Ridley Scott?

Well, for one thing, the starship in the original draft was called the "Snark," not the Nostromo. There's also no character named Ripley. Things start to feel a little more familiar, however, when the crew intercepts an alien transmission that takes them to a desolate planet inhabited not by the Space Jockey's crescent-shaped ship, but "a pyramidic structure of unknown origin," according to the press release.

That's where the official synopsis pretty much ends with specifics, so your guess on what comes next is as good as ours. The xenomorph and its life cycle may look completely different in this alternate reality that could form an entire imprint of parallel Alien anthology tales at Dark Horse.

Check out two interior pages from the first installment below:

Credit: Dark Horse Comics

Credit: Dark Horse Comics

Issue #1 of Alien: The Original Screenplay kicks off Wednesday, April 22. Four days later, 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney) will celebrate "Alien Day" with fans all around the world.