He got a four-part story to wrap up his series...something Marvel has failed to do for its own characters, on numerous occasions...and I wonder if the sales numbers weren't probably pretty good for this? From 1992,
Alf #50, "Part IV Of Th-Th-That's ALF, Folks! ALF Weidersehn! (That's Melmacian For "Farewell")" "Universal Acceptance" and "And Now, Ladies And Gentlemen. . . One Last Time. . . Heeeeeeeeeeere's ALF" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Dave Manak, inks by Marie Severin.
The lead story concludes a multi-issue arc, with Alf's girlfriend Rhonda and pal Skip returning for him: the Tanners had thought Alf was marrying Rhonda, and would finally leave their house, but he was just performing the ceremony for Rhonda and Skip! He and Rhonda had drifted apart, and he didn't want to leave earth. But, when a crazed government alien hunter, a publicity-seeking politician, and a local news crew converge on the Tanners' house, Alf is forced to flee with his friends...or did he? No. He also manages to wreck their garage again, for good measure. Next, Alf blackmails then-current editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco into publishing his Marvel Universe pages! (The series and Gallagher seemed to take a few shots at both Marvel and DeFalco; partly because it's funny, but there may have been some sour grapes there.)
The last story is a late night show-style goodbye to the series, with Gallagher burning through a bunch of plots they weren't going to get to use. Might as well, those might not have been some he could transplant to another book!
3 comments:
Yeah I wonder why ALF got the proper send-off treatment that so many other true Marvel characters never got. Probably because they weren’t bonafide tv stars 🤷♂️
Nice Washmen gag.
I too am kinda surprised there hasn’t been an ALF reboot series yet, but we’re only about halfway through this decade, so who knows. I know I myself wasn’t really clamoring for one bc the original was good enough. That tv movie sucked btw.
It probably wasn't, but it could've been a courtesy to the creative team, who'd been on the book almost every issue! That's a pretty steady gig.
There’s been speculation that ALF only lasted as long as it did because there was some sort of minimum guaranteed in the licensing agreement. They definitely knew it was coming well before the last storyline (they’d be foreshadowing it for almost a year). The book outlasted almost everything else that started out as Star Comics and both animated series.
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