Who knew about HR Giger BEFORE Alien?

Starlogger

Be honest...who did?

I'll honestly say I did not, even though "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP was an album I got into much later than upon its original release.

Of course, now, I think I have every piece of art (in print) that he ever did!

dk

Yep, I saw his work on album art as a kid and never made the connection until way later. I think my first was seeing an album cover from a Blondie album.

Lawrence of Arabia

I didn't know about him lol I've seen Species and probably his art somewhere but I never really knew him until Alien.

dk

This was not really a Blondie album but was the first Giger work I saw without knowing who Giger was.

Starlogger

@dk forgot about that piece. Deborah Harry solo record, right?

dk

Yes it was a solo album.

BigDave

I had no idea who he was as far as his Works until many years after Alien, and well after Aliens.... it was about 1989 when i started to look into and know more about his Works.

But it was harder them days as we never had the Internet, you never had Ebay to go and find what ever you wanted... you wanted that missing Comic as you had issues 3-12 and 15-20 but needed 1+2 and 13+14..  Back before the Internet  became mainstream which was very late 90's and more so in the decade that followed....   Back before this time you had a great difficulty to track down those missing issues.

So for me the only way to find HR Gigers works was indeed articles in Magazines etc

Starlogger

@BigDave ahh, the pre-internet dark ages...tough times, tough times!

Cerulean Blue

I saw Alien in 1980-ish on HBO & was instantly hooked!  The Big Guy in the Chair has been the ultimate sort-of-answered question I can remember?  As far as H.R. Giger, I had no idea about him until well after Aliens, as well.  I know I saw many pieces of his work & had never put it together that he was the creative genius behind Alien!

Ingeniero

Who knew?

Necronom 4

I was 2 when ALIEN was released at the cinema so no way of knowing before hand. Looking back, I first saw the film in, I think, 1985 (I just know that I was around the age of 8 at the time.)

However, the first time I ever saw Giger and his involvement in the film was in a British TV do***entary about horror in about 1988. I think it was on BBC 1.

You know when you go, "ah, that's where that came from."

What can I say. I was an instant fan.

Ingeniero

Necronom 4, I'm a little older than you but still too young to watch Alien in the 1970's so we both watched it for the 1st time around 1985 and yes, I like it too.

Here are some screen shots from the video above:

Necronom 4

Ah yes Blondie. There's another video that He directed for her. Can't remember the name though

Necronom 4

I feel lucky in a way. In those days we didn't have easy access to supplements like special features. We had to make do with what we had (a worn out VHS tape which contained only the film.)

I think not having access to what went on behind the scenes made it that little bit more special. 

Necronom 4

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev1OsfLVgSU

dk

Necronom 4 I know what you mean. I am not knocking what we have today, but back then, we had to rely more on imagination and anticipation because mass media like this simply did not exist back then until around the mid to late 90s.