035: That Time ALF Had a Comic Book

In my holiday post about ALF’s Special Christmas, I mentioned that there was a long-running ALF comic book by Marvel in the 80s. With zero planning, I decided to revisit this comic and do a quick post about it. That seems to be the way I do things lately, but oh well. Also it turned out to be a much less quick post than originally intended, so double oh well on that.

Similarly to my Freddy comic book Short Hop, I will not be going in depth on the characters and plot of the ALF series, so if you want to know more about that, check out the holiday post. In brief, ALF is a mouthy, abrasive alien who crashed on the Tanner family’s garage and moved in with them, hiding from others (when he felt like it— ALF was terrible at hiding) and generally making their lives hell. I loved the television show as a kid, but once I rewatched it as an adult, I found myself less enthused, realizing the character was too obnoxious to be very likable and the writing and jokes were lackluster. (Although I do admit the puppet design and puppetry were pretty good.) Rereading this comic makes me wonder if most of my fond memories of ALF came from the comic page rather than the TV screen.

To the point. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

ALF’s comic book was launched in 1988 and ran until 1992, spanning 50 issues, three annuals, and three special issues. (I find it pretty amusing that the comic book outlasted the television series, which was unceremoniously cancelled in 1990.) It started off under Marvel’s kid-oriented Star Comic imprint, but after that ended they moved it to Marvel. For a licensed tie-in, quite a bit of work and creativity went into this comic. Surprisingly, they kept the same creative team for the entire run, something fairly rare in comic books. They added a second penciller who also wrote a couple of backup stories, but that was near the end of the run. The stories consisted of regular adventures with the Tanners, Melmac flashbacks, “what if” scenarios, and parody stories.

I don’t really have the time or space to go through all 56 issues, so in this post I’m going to focus on Issue 1, Issue 8, and Issues 47-50. I feel like this gives us a good cross section of the run. (Plus #8 was the first issue I got, so it always stuck out in my mind.) I’ll also touch on the series as a whole in broad strokes as I go along. Note that this was originally intended to be a Short Hop and I only planned on reading the issues I’m covering in depth. As I got back into the comic, however, I found myself really enjoying it, so I kept reading. I ended up going back through the entire series, finding I had much more to talk about than what could fit in a Short Hop. So here we go!

Dated references: the comic! (Credit: Marvel Comics)

Issue 1 begins with a break down for newcomers to ALF. It introduces the Tanner fam and the circumstances of ALF coming to live with them. The first story in the issue is all about ALF’s ship accidentally getting dragged to the city dump since Willie left it too close to the garbage cans and the garbage men thought it was junk. Oops. ALF invades the dump in an attempt to get his ship back.

ALF is still good at hiding. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Of course, in true ALF fashion, he reveals himself to the first human he comes across. Thankfully the security guard thinks he’s a giant rat. He later sees ALF fly off in his ship but pretends he didn’t so no one would think he’s crazy. Two points with this: One, I find it pretty amusing that the ALF comic breaks the number one rule of ALF not being seen by other people at the very first chance it got. Second, The art was interesting at the beginning… You could tell in the first issue that the artist was using reference photos of the ALF puppet. The art does improve as the series goes on, but I found it pretty funny in the start.

The family and a very on-model ALF. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Look at that— obviously working off a photo. Anyway, that’s not my point. The artist gets more comfortable and branches off into his own style later. But one thing that never changes is the difference in character designs. The Tanners look different from most of the other humans in the comic. Compare these faces to the security guard above. The Tanners look relatively normal while the non-Tanners are cartoony. Even the Ochmoneks are goofy looking. Trevor has a big bulbous nose like the guard. I’m not tearing it down… just an observation. Artistic choice, I suppose. It’s a bit jarring, but you get used to it. Really, they strike a decent balance with depicting real-life people and making them recognizable without hitting the uncanny valley.

Hey now. Don’t diss Disco. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Moving on, ALF gets his ship to move just enough to get away from the security guard and his shotgun. But then he crashes (again) into the Tanner’s garage. (This was a running gag on the comic and the show. ALF destroyed that garage roof so many times. I lost track as I read.)

There are two more stories in this issue. The second story involves a ski weekend and a bully who wrecked Brian’s snowman. ALF reveals himself to this kid too, pretending to be a vengeful snow spirit to convince him to rebuild the snowman and leave Brian alone. (So that’s twice he revealed himself in just the first issue.) The third story is the start of a running feature on the comic, the Melmac flashback! ALF regales the (usually reluctant) family with a tale of his home planet. (You have to wonder how many of these stories are real and how many he’s making up on the spot. He seems to be related to an awful lost of historical figures and much of Melmacian pop culture parodies our own.) In this story a weird fog monster named El Foggo tries to take over the planet. The comic clearly takes great joy in the Melmac flashbacks, using them to free themselves from the constraints of the regular Tanner stories. I think they did a Melmac flashback once in the show, but that was limited to one room and a handful of other Melmacians. We didn’t get to see much of the planet until the cartoon.

Which segues me right into a note about the Melmac flashbacks and continuity in general. The comic loosely holds continuity with both the TV series and the cartoons. On rare occasions things from the TV series are referenced… such as Kate’s pregnancy, the birth of Eric Tanner, and Lucky’s death. A little ways into the series ALF moves from the laundry room to the attic like he did on TV. Strangely enough, the only human character who is aware of ALF outside the main family to appear in the comic is Kate’s mother Dorothy. ALF’s shrink Dr. Larry, his friend Jody, Lucky II, and Jake Ochmonek never appear in the comic for some reason. Dorothy’s boyfriend Whizzer shows up in one issue, but mostly they avoid references to the TV show. There are a couple of jokes late in the series about the TV show being cancelled... including a questionable cover where ALF is eating a fried peacock in reference to NBC.

The two Rhonda designs. (Credit: Alien Productions, Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

And the cartoon? The Melmac flashbacks make use of the cartoon’s designs for ALF’s family, their pets, Sergeant Staff, and the redesigned Rhonda from the cartoon. Interesting side note: As seen above, Rhonda looked vastly different between the series and the comic/cartoon. In the TV show she looks like ALF with an upturned nose. The cartoon and TV series deviate in many ways, so they likely do not share continuity. For instance, in the cartoon ALF and Rhonda had been dating for years, but in the show he mentions he asked her out for the first time the day Melmac exploded.

So although the comic book shares some continuity with both the TV show and the cartoons, it’s really its own universe. (Especially once we reach the end. More on that later.)

I talked in the last post about the importance to the concept of not letting ALF be seen. He doesn’t do so great at that in the comic, being seen at the first opportunity (and almost shot multiple times). He also revealed himself to the bully in the second story. And that was just the first issue! I complained in the holiday special about how many people saw ALF, but that was really nothing compared to the rest of the comic series. ALF pretended to be a costumed sports mascot on three separate occasions, appearing in front of stadiums of fans and on television. He appeared on a home video program presumably shown across America. He pretended to be a ventriloquist dummy for Brian’s school talent show… pretended to be a talking doll in a crowded mall… when he ran away from home he gambled in a casino and joined a travelling freak show. So, as you can see, the comic book had even less respect for the number one rule of ALF.

Still, the first issue plays with the format by showing many things the TV series couldn’t. ALF running, his ship flying, sledding down the stairs in a laundry basket. There’s a lot more action in the comic, which makes sense. In the TV show he mostly stayed in the living room, the kitchen, and the garage. (And later, the attic.) But in the comic he’s all over the house.

Hehe, sex jokes in a kids comic. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Issue 8, like I mentioned before, was the first issue I picked up, seeing it in a grocery store while shopping with my mom. And in my opinion, this is where the comic really started hitting its stride. ALF, upset that the next door neighbors the Ochmoneks have nicer stuff than the Tanners, shows Willie and Kate a simulated scenario on his ship’s WOTIF machine. (Which is a nice nod to Marvel’s long-running series What If? that takes hypothetical situations and shows what would have happened.) This is a sequel story to Issue 3 where ALF showed Willie what would have happened if the roles were reversed and Willie crashed on Melmac.

In this simulation, ALF lands with the Ochmoneks and they still name him ALF. But instead of “Alien Life Form” it stands for “Adorable Little Fuzzball.”. (Remember this, because it actually sort of comes back later.)

You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty clever. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Actually this scenario plays out pretty normally at first. They decide to keep ALF’s presence a secret, he gets on their nerves, and breaks a lot of stuff. But then the Ochmoneks realize that they could get a lot of money selling the rights to ALF’s story to books, TV, and film. Their loyalty vanishes instantly.

Why does he have… oh, never mind. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

ALF quickly realizes he’s in danger and drugs the couple, escaping in his newly repaired spaceship. However, ALF decides he’d miss Earth too much and decides to crash on the Tanner’s garage, like normal. (Because he saw they had a cat.) The story ends with a joking hint that maybe this actually happened… only ALF would know for sure.

The second story in this issue is another Melmac flashback, this one showing young Gordon Shumway as a kid. In this story, Gordon’s mom opens a restaurant to sell her popular dish Seafood Slimeball Surprise.

Ew. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

The family runs afoul of a gangster called the Codfather, and then sells the recipe for a fortune. End of story. It’s pretty simple. But young ALF is always cute. He was in his terrible twos— age 2 to 22. Melmacians age differently. At the end of the comic, ALF turned 234.

ALF as a human. Pretty much what you’d expect. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

The series continues in much this same vein. ALF gets into adventures, causes trouble, has Melmac flashbacks that serve as parodies of Earth things such as the X-Men, the Marx Brothers, Conan the Barbarian, Citizen Kane and so on. In one notable story (pictured above) ALF uses the WOTIF machine to show the Tanners what life will be like 30 years later. In 2020. It, of course, got all of that year wrong because how could anyone have known? In this issue there were way fewer masks and way more flying cars. ALF also had a Holo-Humanizer— a hologram generator that let him pretend to be “Uncle Gordon” and attend the family reunion, meeting Brian’s wife and Lynn’s husband and kids. It eventually failed, revealing him as an alien, but the whole family liked him, so they promised to keep his secret and welcome him into the extended family.

Since there is a big gap between Issue 8 and Issue 47, I may as well talk about the series as a whole here. There were many running jokes and quirks in the series. There was the “snorb” which is the Melmacian version of a kiss— the act of pressing your nose against someone else’s. It seems wet and the recipient of the snorb is usually pretty disgusted by the whole thing.

A common plot device involved ALF producing some Melmacian product from his spaceship. Sometimes these products are helpful— like the antigravity belt— sometimes harmful— like the Melmiracle Gro, which caused a Melmacian tree to rapidly grow and threatened to destroy Earth’s environment. It gets so that the Tanners make a rule that no Melmacian product can be used on Earth, which is understandable. These Melmacian artifacts make for some good stories, but if you think about it, after a while it gets to be pretty ridiculous, the sheer number of things ALF brought with him. (Why did he have his collection of action figures?) No wonder he crashed… he was loaded down with junk! He even had a freaking time machine in his ship.

A very common running gag is the act of adding the prefix “mel” to things (as in Melmac). Melevision, Melevator, MelMcDonalds… you get the point. In one issue ALF refers to this as his “native tongue”, which got a laugh out of me. He also gets Earth phrases wrong all the time. 10-4 becomes 10-5. cowabunga is chowabunga, etc. There were lots of food jokes with reference to cat eating (since Melmacians eat cats.) so piece of cake or easy as pie would have a qualifier of tabby cake or siamese pie, or something similar. ALF is always eating gross things— octopus omelet, slug soufflé, earthworm brownies, styrofoam… pretty much anything that he could eat. He even ate rocks in one issue, stating that they were stale.

10-Q continually shows up in place of “thank you” and any time a hopping sound effect is used it shows up on the page as “I-HOP”. Numbers were always exaggerated… for example, Melminimum wage was 43,268 9/32 Wernicks an hour. (The number thing was pretty ridiculous.) ALF would frequently speak in Klingon, Romulan, and Ferengi, with subtitles. All of the word play and running phrasing jokes gave the comic its own sort of language and style.

Like Deadpool and Gwenpool, ALF delights in breaking the fourth wall. He refers to the writer and editor, mentions one story had two pencillers, talks about how they have to watch the content because it’s a Star comic. He references page numbers and earlier stories and panels, none of which the Tanners seem to notice. (Just more Melmacian strangeness to their eyes, likely.) These sort of gags could easily become tiresome, but they’re executed well and used sparingly.

They bend over backwards for their puns. The Doctor is a slimelord and his ship is the Tardis Gras. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Rusty Haller, Marie Severin)

In the later issues they leaned much more heavily into the parody aspects of the Melmac flashbacks covering old movies, books, TV shows, other comics, and more. As I mentioned earlier there is no way these actually happened… the level of correlation between Earth events and Melmacian events is insane. ALF had to have been making most of it up to entertain himself and the Tanners.

Pictured here: Psych Major and Dark Kleenex. Also ALF’s alter-ego as The Fantastic Fur. And a snorb. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Rusty Haller, Marie Severin)

But he really did meet the X-Melmen… after two Melmac flashbacks they showed up in person in a later issue, having also escaped the destruction of Melmac. Their arch enemy Magmeato (starting to see what I meant about the puns?) is planning on taking over the Earth so they recruited ALF, who had helped them twice before. ALF had a secret superhero persona as The Fantastic Fur when he puts on his antigravity belt and Kate’s tablecloth as a cloak. (Which showed up in some previous issues.)

Although the stories are self-contained, the number of callbacks and recurring characters and Melmacian items makes it feel like one continuous story. One example, in Issue 33 they created an ALF costume for Brian to wear (to get ALF out of a TV appearance he stumbled into on the home video show I mentioned earlier). Rather than just being a one-time thing, the suit came back twice, once as a set up for a Melmac flashback, and the second time as a diversion to keep bountree hunters (who were literal trees) off ALF’s trail so they could set a trap for them. (It was destroyed in this issue, so never returned.) This series was excellent with continuity.

The hints of the end start to come on Issue #42 when ALF’s fellow Melmacians Rhonda and Skip return.

Rhonda hints at the end. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

See, way back in Annual #1, ALF’s former girlfriend Rhonda came to visit and briefly stayed with the Tanners. She revealed that her and Skip, ALF’s old buddy, had found a planet they decided to make into New Melmac. They wanted ALF to join them. Unwilling to leave his foster family so soon, ALF decided to stay on Earth. He plucked one of his nose hairs and gave it to Rhonda, who said she could make a clone of him so he could be on both planets at once. As you may expect, this did not go so well.

Years later, in Issue 42, Skip visited Earth and revealed that the ALF clones had taken over New Melmac and imprisoned Rhonda. The nose hair that was used to create the clone had split ends, which resulted in an uncountable number of clones, each based on one different personality trait of the original. ALF staged a daring rescue and got to her just in time. New Melmac suffered the same fate as the original Melmac and exploded, wiping out all the flawed ALF clones. (Yes, dozens upon dozens of ALF clones died in this children’s comic. Try not to think about it.) Rhonda and Skip set off to look for another planet, but not before Rhonda hinted they would see each other again in Issue 50.

Poor alien. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

And finally we come to Issues 47-50, the final story arc. By this point the creative team was ready to fully reveal that the comic was being cancelled due to low sales and they made no secret about their disappointment with this news. (I still think it’s pretty cool of Marvel to give them an additional 8 issues to wrap up the story. It must have sold well enough to last four years, just not well enough to continue.) The cover of Issue 47 announced the impending cancellation to readers, implying this was not the creative team’s choice and was out of their hands. I feel like this may have been the reason for the controversial cover of Issue 48 (see below). Seriously, parents were not pleased with this and this issue goes for a lot of money. ($200 - $400 by a cursory investigation. And it’s just been sitting around in my comic bin. Sheesh.)

The infamous safety seal cover. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Anyway, this storyline is called “Th-Th-Th-That’s ALF, Folks!” Remembering Rhonda’s foreshadowing and wanting to be prepared for anything, ALF has been working on his ship. Unfortunately it cannot achieve orbit without a rare mineral that doesn’t exist on Earth. Cue convenient plot contrivance— Willie got a postcard from his cousin showing Meteor Crater, which just so happens to contain the mineral ALF needs. (This is a real place in Arizona, by the way.)

Now I want to see a WOTIF with ALF living with Klingon versions of the Tanners. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

ALF wants to go get the “Oldhamite” he needs for his ship but the Tanners think it’s too dangerous. Brian reveals that when he was trading Bouillabaseball (the Melmacian version of baseball played with raw fish) cards with Skip on Issue 42, Skip traded him his prototype Holo-Humanizer for a Don Melmattingly rookie card.

I love that this is the only human form ALF can take. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

This act is significant because every time ALF ran away or was missing, Brian would cry unconsolably. This shows that he’s actually growing up and can put ALF’s wishes past his own. On many occasions in the series ALF has fallen into a depression and suffered from loneliness and nostalgia for his missing planet and people. He clearly loves the Tanners and his life on Earth, but he needs to be around his fellow Melmacians. Even Brian is starting to realize this.

Holo-Humanizer in hand, as soon as the Tanners leave the house, ALF fires up his Melaporter, the Quasar Queen. (This appeared in two previous issues. It was a handy but temperamental AI-driven teleportation device on his ship.) ALF heads straight to Meteor Crater. Under cover of night ALF mines some minerals but is caught by the night watchman. ALF manages to teleport (err, melaport) away with the minerals and the night watchman, who he quickly sends back. (Yet another human traumatized forever by an encounter with ALF.)

Unfortunately things can’t be so easy for the alien. After converting the minerals to liquid fuel, ALF has a nightmare (about Brer Klingon) and takes a Time Capsule— a pill that temporarily blocks your memories. Unknown to him, next door at the Ochmonek’s house, Mr. Bittner, the disgraced former head of the Alien Task Force is spying on ALF. He’s got a grudge against the alien because he apparently got fired after one of ALF’s previous adventures. It involved Brian accidentally ejecting ALF out of his ship where he crashed the ATF’s secret base and stole their secret submarine. In this issue we learn that after this Mr. Bittner apparently got demoted and dedicated all his time to finding and punishing ALF.

ALF and Kate find all the bugs Bittner somehow planted in their house and refuse to allow him inside. They decide they have to pack up all ALF’s stuff and move him to Dorothy’s house before he’s discovered. The next day Bittner comes back with a search warrant and searches the Tanner’s house. ALF forgot his bottle of Time Capsules, which leads to him being found by Bittner. Kate slips the man a Time Capsule, giving them a couple of days to think of a plan.

ALF’s soliloquy. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

ALF makes a hard choice, knowing that Bittner will be back and he’ll ruin the Tanner’s lives by exposing their secret. So he calls New Melmac using Willie’s ham radio (with subspace booster) intending to propose to Rhonda. Skip answers instead, revealing that Rhonda is exploring a new planet.

In Part 3, Rhonda gets a solo adventure. She has to help a planet of geometric shapes defeat an evil dictator. After that, Skip relays ALF’s message… well, sort of.

Rhonda and Skip. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Meanwhile, Bittner is taken into custody by the police who think he’s a vagrant. He gets his memory back. Rhonda and Skip tell ALF the news and Lynn overhears, thinking ALF is getting married and moving out. The rest of the family finds out and understands ALF’s reasoning is to protect them. After recovering his ship from its hiding place at Dorothy’s house, they throw a goodbye party for their favorite alien.

Aww. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

The family all give ALF going away presents. He has a present of his own for them.

Hehe. ALF dog. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

ALF gives them a stray dog, which Brian names ALF, which stands for Adorable Little Furball. (A callback to way back in Issue 8, although there it stood for Adorable Little Fuzzball.) Rhonda and Skip land and while everyone prepares for the wedding, Bittner has gotten out of jail. He is rallying the ATF troops and getting the support of the Senator. (Who actually owned the sub ALF stole.) He’s also contacted the tabloids. Thing look bleak for our hero.

The truth is revealed… ALF is marrying Rhonda only in a manner of speaking— he’s performing the ceremony. Due to Rhonda’s traumatic experience with the ALF clones on New Melmac, and all her years of travelling with Skip, she’s drifted apart from ALF and fallen for his best friend. ALF is surprisingly cool with it and is supporting his friend’s decision.

Rushed goodbye. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

The bad guys all arrive during the wedding and the Melmacians have to flee. The ships are obscured by the exhaust clouds and although Bittner dives at ALF, he grabs the wrong ALF, discrediting himself to everyone who’s come with him.

The great melscape. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

Because of the apparent misunderstanding, the Senator promises the ATF and the tabloids won’t bother the Tanners again. Bittner is demoted even further and is being shipped off to Antarctica. The Tanners are sad but coming to terms with the fact ALF is gone. But the issue isn’t over yet… the Tanners get one more surprise.

For those who don’t know… Tom Patchett and Paul Fusco are the creators of ALF. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

At the last minute ALF reprogrammed the Holo-Humanizer to scan dog-ALF and let himself get caught by Bittner, sending the dog away with his friends. He called Rhonda to cut his ship loose and it once again crashes into the Tanner’s garage. ALF is here to stay!

In the final backup story, ALF breaks down the fourth wall completely and brings the very confused Tanners onto a talk show to show them WOTIF simulations of issues that will never be printed due to the cancellation. (Leading me to believe Gallagher really did have 50 more issues of material like ALF joked in a previous issue.)

And we fade to black… ink. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

And with that, ALF’s comic adventures came to an end. I realized shortly into the final storyline that I’d never gotten around to reading the last four issues. At first it was because I couldn’t bring myself to let it be over, but then it was because I forgot and the issues were buried in my comic bin. So having new issues to read was a pleasant surprise for me at the end of my journey back through every issue.

I was genuinely surprised at the ending. I recall flipping through Issue 49 years ago, so I knew about the wedding, and the dog. I knew ALF was leaving and I guess over the years I remembered it ending with him off having interstellar adventures with his friends. I’m glad they made the choice they did, having ALF change his mind and stay, working things out so that the ATF will be off their backs going forward. (I felt the goodbye was too rushed anyway, which would have been sad.) Although they didn’t get back to the whole thing about the Ochmoneks knowing about ALF. They’re pretty gullible, so the Tanners probably wouldn’t have much trouble talking them out of what they think they know. (And even if they didn’t fall for it, there’s always the Milk of Amnesia.)

I mentioned earlier that the big deviation between the comic and the TV show was the ending. This is what really proves the two properties exist in their own story dimensions. In the last episode of ALF, he was about to leave with Skip and Rhonda but the Alien Task Force got to him first, scaring the other aliens into flying off, leaving ALF behind to be captured. If you count the TV movie Project ALF in continuity— which like it or not, it was meant to be— the Tanners were shipped off to Alaska in Witness Protection, ALF escaped from the ATF after years of captivity, and eventually became the Ambassador of Earth, revealing himself to the entire planet. (And presumably making it so the Tanners could come out of hiding? Hmm.)

Conversely, the comic book took a much more fan-friendly approach. It allowed the status quo to be resumed, leaving ALF with the Tanners and safe from harm. He had the chance to leave with his friends and chose to not do so, remaining with his adoptive family. And really the last storyline had some good twists. The obvious fake out with the wedding, the set up with ALF being replaced by the dog and leaving as an unselfish act, only to turn it around last minute. It could have been a cheap cop-out, but I feel like it was executed well and made for a satisfying ending. The final story with the flash forwards to issues that will never exist was bittersweet, but a nice celebration of the series. The reader can fill in the blanks and imagine any future for ALF and the Tanners that they want, since he continued living with them. The WOTIF scenario about 2020 could be accurate, with ALF meeting the next generation of Tanners.

I love that ALF is a Marvel nerd, but buff ALF is kinda scary. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)

One huge difference between the comic and the show is that in the comic ALF is much nicer. He’s far more considerate and less obnoxious, showing repeatedly that he cares for the Tanners and understands their feelings. He’s more thoughtful and likable. He learns from his mistakes, apologizes, and acts as a true member of the family unit. This is the kind of character growth the TV show would have really benefited from. ALF is a much more kind-hearted and complex character here.

Overall, this was a very cute, enjoyable series that remained true to the premise while still exploring new territory and making the source material its own. It’s one of those rare licensed works that doesn’t rely on a full knowledge of its inspiration to be accessible. The series highlighted the positives of the character and the premise while downplaying the negatives. ALF’s selfishness, crudeness, and lack of social awareness were reduced, bringing into focus his more positive aspects: humor, caring, wit, and meta satire. The comic took the premise of the TV show that was sometimes poorly executed in that format and made it more positive and fun. ALF always had a heart, but it was much more difficult to see on the show due to his biting sarcasm, rude putdowns, and incessant catchphrases.

I really don’t have much negative to say about the comic series. Sometimes the jokes didn’t hit, some of the Melmac flashbacks were very odd choices (R. Crumb in a kid’s comic? The Honeymooners?) sometimes the coloring was off, and Rusty Haller’s art (in my opinion) was not the best… the backup penciller’s art seemed rushed and not up to par with Manak’s work. But that said, the negatives don’t tear it down in my eyes. The comic was, for four years, completely and unashamedly what it was and I think it deserves recognition for redeeming a character that deserved so much better than a substandard sitcom that was cancelled on a dark cliffhanger.

I really had a blast revisiting the ALF comic book. I was a little worried to do so, thinking another part of my childhood would prove to not be as good as I remembered, but thankfully that wasn’t the case… I was actually able to appreciate it more as a grown up. This comic was not what you would have expected, whether you love or hate ALF. Rather than being a typical thrown-together licensed tie-in money-grab, the ALF title was actually quite creative and entertaining. You could tell the creative team gave it their all and were genuinely disappointed when it ended. But it outlasted not only the TV show it was based on, but also the comic line it was produced under… so the longevity is something the team can be proud of, at least.

Going into this, I intended to only read the issues I mentioned in detail, but once I started reading I kept going, and enjoyed the process way more than I thought I would. Generally I find licensed comic books to be a tad lazy, relying heavily on the source material, recycling jokes and references, and showing little creativity or originality. The ALF comic was different. It showed a real respect and love for the source material while still having the initiative and courage to forge new ground and become its own entity. The comic series established its own continuity that could either work in tandem with the television series and cartoons, or work outside of their rules, as evidenced by having its own ending that strayed from the depressing ending of the TV show.

The ALF comic series was fun, light-hearted, and consistent over the course of its four year run. Hopefully someday Marvel sees fit to reprint these issues, or at the very least put them up on Marvel Unlimited so more people can have the chance to read them. It was an entertaining and unique comic and everyone should have the opportunity to experience it if they choose to. The ALF comic deserves more recognition than just being a little-known trivia fact. It deserves more than just being a “Hey, remember when ALF had a comic book?”

Thank you for reading my in-depth exploration of the obscure ALF comic series. I hope you enjoyed this trip back to the late 80s and early 90s, revisiting my childhood and a superior version of a character that many have forgotten over the decades. Until next mel-time, I say 10-Q to you, don’t take any wooden Wernicks, and a big, wet snorb to each and every one of you!

Goodbye from our favorite Melmacian. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Michael Gallagher. Art: Dave Manak, Marie Severin)