Alien Invasions! The History of Aliens in Pop Culture

"For the first time ever, discover how aliens have invaded pop culture in its guises, from books, magazines, and comics to film, TV, and beyond. With chapters by some of the planet Earth's leading experts on the subject, Alien Invasions! is the definitive history of extraterrestrial invaders, spanning over one hundred years and featuring more than two hundred images." -- "Written by a team of internationally renowned experts on the subject, Alien Invasions! explores how aliens--and the ways we perceive them--have evolved over the years across a wide range of media, from books and magazines to film and television. Within these richly illustrated pages, you'll meet aliens with eyes on stalks; the tentacled aliens of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds; Frank R. Paul's barrel-chested Martians of the 1930s; the blob-like B-movie creatures of the 1950s; H.R. Giger's nightmarish creation for Ridley Scott's Alien; Steven Spielberg's friendly visitor in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial; and many, many more. Each of the book's chapters tackles its subject from a different vantage point, beginning with the earliest fictional examples by Wells and others, before looking at the pulp-magazine explosion of the 1920s and the 1930s; the UFO phenomenon of the 1950s, in print and on screen; comic-book aliens, from Buck Rogers to the present day; the B-movie boom in the 1950s, heralded by The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still; invaders from within, in the form of Body-Snatchers and Triffids; aliens' interactions with Earth women; small-screen aliens, from Star Trek to Falling Skies; and the blockbuster invasions, from Close Encounters to Arrival. Along the way, you'll encounter ray guns, seedpods, mind control, and body transference, not to mention a whole galaxy of friendly visitors and fearsome invaders. Never before have so many aliens assembled in one place." --… (more)