Aliens Among Us! (Pop Culture League)

I have long been fascinated by the concept of alien invaders. Not necessarily in the full scale invasion sense of Independence Day or War of the Worlds. But in the more insidious sense. Aliens living among us, secretly plotting to take control. Creatures that want to rule us, or destroy us, or steal our resources. Maybe, they're secretly benevolent beings, just trying to find a way home.

These kind of stories always fascinate me. Whether its Starman or V, I love the concept of the secret alien that mixes among us.

Heck, I edited an entire anthology of stories in that vein. I even gave it the most simple title I could about the conceit: Aliens Among Us.

I greatly enjoyed assembling the book and stories for Aliens Among Us, as it brought creatures from space to a variety of genres of fiction, with stories inspired by 70s exploitation cinema and westerns among others. I originally planned my own story for the book, but decided as great tale after great tale trickled in to let the works of authors like David Boop, Melvin Hadley and Margaret Karmazin speak for themselves.

While the book definitely has some design sensibilities from a person with five less years of experience than I do now, the contents of the anthology remain some of my favorites of anything I have assembled in a Metahuman Press collection.

But I still have more than one story of aliens among us bouncing around the house of ideas I call my brain. Perhaps someday I will bring a second volume of the series to the world, and this time, my own ideas could slowly work their way into the fabrics of human society.

This post is a challenge from the Pop Culture League, a collection of fascinating posts revolving around one unifying topic every week. Check out some of the other features this week such as Alexis' Universe's rundown of some alien invasion action figures, Mr. Smith's breakdown of the two usual results of alien first contact in fiction, or 20 Years Before the Year 2000 as it looks at the Men in Black franchise. Plus a whole bunch of other great posts at this week's challenge.