“Alien – The Inkjava Collection” by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal, John Frizzell

For today’s custom covers series I once again ventured back into my all-time favourite film universe: the dark and gritty realms of the Alien franchise. Although a slightly altered version of it… It’s not like I haven’t already spent enough hours of my life with these creatures, but I just can’t help it. The Xenomorph still amazes me in all of its various life forms. This whole fictional world exerts a strange fascination on me and I’m certainly not the only one, given the staggering wealth of fan-artwork that can be found on the web. One of those devoted fans is…

“The Alien Adventures” by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal, John Frizzell

I just need to use this post to talk about a very special series dear to my heart. I’m talking about a series that every young lad can remember watching every school day morning, waiting anxiously for each new, exciting episode. I am, of course, talking about the children’s classic, Alien. Alien was a stable in the early 80’s to late 90’s children’s animated block for ABC. Who could forget the action-packed yet surprisingly family-friendly adventures of our ass-kicking protagonist, Ridley, her on-again-off-again love interest Lt. Licks, her annoying little sister Mute, and the mysterious but reliable cyborg Castle as…

Lost Covers, Vol. 4

Man, has it really been this long already? Last week HQCovers has officially turned five. By now it has learned to write its own name and has become extremely picky when it comes to dress up in the morning. Also, its extended warranty has now expired, so your chance to file a complaint is officially over ;-) I deliberately didn’t parade this anniversary, because this blog is essentially the digital extension of my own self and thus doesn’t like to stand in the spotlight. Instead I once again let the art speak for itself. I’m actually publishing Vol. 4 of this ongoing thing,…

“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” by Elliot Goldenthal

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within turns 15 this year, and it hasn’t aged that well to be honest. The visuals were groundbreaking back then, but don’t get anyone excited about nowadays. The score on the other hand is still one of Goldenthal’s best. And that is saying something, because Elliot Goldenthal himself is still one of the very best of his game, even though his film score output has slowed down significantly. So, on the occasion of this anniversary my dear audio-engineering friend SonicAdventure decided to brush off the dust and polish up this forgotten diamond. And I was graced with helping out on…

“Alien³” by Elliot Goldenthal

Alien³ by Elliot Goldenthal might be my favourite Alien score out of them all. It’s just so dark and menacing, it’s a real beast, unleashed by its composer. I think out of all the Alien films, this is the one that benefits the most from its soundtrack. Right from the opening logos (“20th Century Fox Fanfare“) we know we’re in trouble. And by the end (“Adagio“) the whole production difficulties are forgiven and forgotten, blown into space by Goldenthal’s Opus Magnum. My cover series starts out fairly subtle with a carefully altered remake of the original artwork (#1). I re-created the…