Resident Alien is an American comic book series created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.
[2] Dark Horse Publisher Mike Richardson provided editorial input that helped Hogan and Parkhouse find the right tone for the narrative.
[4] Hogan felt the depiction of "aliens as monsters or invaders had become stale"[5] and wanted to bring a "sympathetic attitude to a nonhuman character".
[2] He drew inspiration from Twin Peaks, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and My Favorite Martian,[5] and he specifically requested Parkhouse base the design for the main character upon aliens from DC Comics published in the early 1960s, such as Chameleon Boy.
When it was collected as Resident Alien #0 in April 2012, it was the 268th best selling issue of the month with estimated orders around 4,800 copies.
The first chapter of the second miniseries, subtitled The Suicide Blonde, was serialized in Dark Horse Presents vol 2 #18–20 (November 2012 – January 2013) before being reprinted as issue zero in August 2013.
[4] Parkhouse got the idea for a detective named "Sam Hain" from Neil Gaiman in 1990 during a conversation about the holiday Samhain.
[12] The first chapter was serialized in Dark Horse Presents vol 3 #1–3 (August – October 2014) and reprinted as issue zero on April 29, 2015.
Captain Hah Re, an alien biologist, is shot down by a fighter plane and crashes in the Southwestern United States desert.
Men in black who are investigating his crash site learn of the image and begin to track him by the ATM bills.
Six months later, Hah Re uses advanced technology to win one million dollars from a slot machine in Las Vegas.
Taking the identity "Harry Vanderspeigle", he introduces himself as a retired doctor and buys a remote cabin near Patience, Washington.
Asta is the daughter of a Mohawk shaman and is able to partially see through Harry's disguise, but mistakes him for a visiting spirit instead of an alien.
To help the mayor, whom he has befriended, Harry travels with Asta to the young woman's apartment in Seattle to look for clues.
The men in black do not have a clear picture of Asta, so they contact nearby police to see if she can be identified as part of a counterfeiting investigation.
The artist died several years prior, but she kept the phone line open hoping someone could read his journal and explain his suicide to her.
The Book of Love follows the beloved alien detective Harry on another thrilling ride as he attempts to move on from the events of the previous volume.
[31] In a review of The Suicide Blonde, Unleash the Fanboy wished the galactic origins and new life as a detective were more closely connected, since "neither is developed enough to stand on [its] own".
[33] The story was favorably compared to the television show Murder, She Wrote by Comicosity, which recommended to any reader who enjoyed mysteries.
[29] He was lauded for his work on facial expressions,[32][33][35] and Newsarama drew comparisons to the style of comic artist Dave Gibbons.
[36] Parkhouse's art was described as a classic style with a "timeless design" by Bloody Disgusting, and Comicosity felt it captured the slow moving lifestyle of a small town.
[31] Opinions softened with later miniseries, and Newsarama described The Sam Hain Mystery #0 as "not essential, but a good jumping on point".
[38] The concept was still confusing for Bam Smack Pow, who would have preferred if story points from the prior miniseries had been better summarized.
[4] In March 2015, Dark Horse editor and Vice President of Publishing Randy Stradley confirmed Hollywood was still showing interest in adapting the series.
Sheridan is one of the show's executive producers, along with Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg, Justin Falvey, and Darryl Frank.
[43] The cast also includes Corey Reynolds as Sheriff Mike Thompson and Alice Wetterlund as D'Arcy Bloom.