How and when did you become an Alien fan?

Back in 1979. When I saw an article in Starlog Magazine. Hooked from that point forward. 

great post.... well i was 1 when it came out lol so i guess when i saw and understood it as a monster around 84? been in my nightmares eversince ; )

I was fascinated and horrified by the concept of being trapped in space with the perfect killing machine in pursuit. I was also intrigued by the Alien's motivation. For example, is a cat a killing machine when it kills and eats a bird? We think nothing of that because a cat isn't a predator for us. However, how about an alligator? Now that gets my attention but an alligator isn't evil for trying to eat and survive, is it? So is the Alien evil?

One of my classmates had been to the States on holiday with his family. He brought back the Official Warren ALIEN Magazine, which he gleefully showed off to everyone!

To cut a long story short...I made him an offer, which thankfully, he accepted!

So, from that moment on, I became obsessed with Giger and A L I E N before I had even seen the movie!

I went to see the movie at late night in Sydney  ,it was full house ,in the chestburster scene someone had heart attack,they stop the movie and gave everyone another ticket or refund,couldn't help myself and went to see it again next night,still I believe it was best horror sci fi.

I 15 when I saw Alien and Aliens ( Aliens being my Favorite, More action) I didn't like where they were going with alien3 and alien R

But when Prometheus came out and introduced the engineers I was Fascinated and have been ever since ( cant count how many times I've watched Prometheus lol)

I'm very excited for the next prequel installment and love where they might be taking the story.

@Lone

what was the first report of Alien 2 in that magazine as far as storyline in comparison to Cameron's Aliens? 

Hmm I think I was....12? 13? My cousin and I were home alone scrolling through the listings, and Alien: The Directors Cut was on, and my cousin said we should watch it.  I remember being so bored for the first half hour, and then crap hit the fan, and my eyes were glued to the screen until the end. 

A friend explained the Alien franchise to me a few years ago and then I started watching the movies.

I have been a life long SciFi fanatic. And especially 'stories evolving onboard' are what grab me most. I like the claustrophobic atmosphere of things going wrong, the techy interiors etc like Event Horizon and such, Star Trek.. but just in a much higher degree Alien as before i ever got to really see the films I had gotten aware of Giger back in my art academy days some 20 years back. What keeps me so tightly focussed on this franchise is the canonic aspect, I like the stuff I see to kind of build of a greater idea. And I like the aspect Alien is sort of staying true to itself, the audience. Ridley's dedication to the Alien Universe is what makes me watch this stuff in awe.. And I figure I certainly am not the only one who can watch e.g. Prometheus atleast once every month or two :P  

@Earle: Same here, nobody I know really understands the thing I have with Alien.. Luckily there's this place !

I sometimes feel silly when I say to myself, "How were the Aliens created?" And "Who are the Engineers?" It's as if I'm trying to solve some historical riddle, not a fictional movie. haha. Yet, I am obsessed with the origins and motivations of these beings. I choose to believe that both the Engineers and Aliens were benign and somehow lost their way. I also choose to believe that there's still a good side to both. Maybe there will be an Alien hero (Dare I say with Christ-like qualities), who will persuade the Aliens to be protectors rather than destroyers. Hey, and maybe the Aliens are protectors of their species or another species that we've not seen. That's the real dilemma for me, trying to decide if there's good in the Aliens.    

Around '78 or '79. I was 5. My brother brought home the Alien book from the library. Full color pics. I remember my older sister talking about the chest buster scene. I remember a couple years later, in 2nd grade, my friend telling the class about going to the drive in to see it. It was 1985 before I saw it on Beta max. The unknown, imagery and the isolation scared me. Loved it!

Spring of 1979. And I really became obsessed with the Space Jockey scene and What the hell was that Thing in that seat that looked to be there for thousands of years! Too me the Space Jockey/Engineer is as much an Alien or even more than the Xenomorph!

Saw aliens theatrical 
Cut on VHS 1990 and 
Watched it 10 times 
In one week.

Fan ever since.

 I become a fan when my father bring me the "Alien Trilogy" game for the Playstation 1, and that was awesome, now I am 17 and I love this films

I would say since 1987..... really saw Alien in 1985-6 then Aliens 1987 and been a fan ever since... not totally 100% Fan boy.. as liked other franchises too... some went bit sour.... but i felt Alien had tried to go some place different with Prometheus..

So i am very into Alien franchise now..... i think potential was greater than Predators...  as well prior to AVP... Predator was Top Dog... then Alien and Aliens... Predator 2 and Alien 3... so so... Alien R erm.... Predators so so... Prometheus well screamed Potential

I was very young, it was probably early to mid nineties when my dad gave in after a lot of begging from me to see Alien on VHS.

Bad mistake, the rather quiet and creepy intro set the tone and I remember that I was increasingly scared as the film progressed on the planet LV-426. The dark twisted surface coupled with the rather modest soundtrack and downright nightmarish design really made me feel uncomfortable like nothing else in comparison.

Then, during the facehugger attack in the derelict, I lost my s*** completely and couldn't watch anymore until years later XD I was so scared I remember walking out to the backyard and trying to convince myself that it was only a movie. It took effect several days later. My dad wasn't too happy.

Years passed and Alien Resurrection came along and I, once again, managed to persuade my dad so that I could watch it. Thanks to the rather corny set of characters that sort of "toned down" the overall horror frame, I managed to sit through the whole film but not sleep through the night following the viewing. 

These two experiences in succession brought me into the world of Alien, and I've been a huge fan ever since, regardless of which medium the Xenos would end up in. 

Starlog 1978-79. I was a HUGE Star Wars Obsessed, but as a result I was even MORE a Sci Fi crazed kid. That green egg in Starlog led me to the movie, which my mom reluctantly took me and a couple friends to, even though it was "R", lol. The movie has great memories for me and is my favorite movie of all time.

I fell in love with the Alien franchise when I was five years old believe it or not. My Dad had rented Alien and began watching it after putting me to bed. Being five I of course could not fall asleep so I snuck up to the living room to see what was going on.  I hid behind my Dad's lazy boy chair and watched the whole movie without him knowing.  Then I immediately had nightmares but I was still hooked. A few years later I somehow  convinced my mother to let me buy a Alien Trilogy box set on VHS. You can imagine the reaction of the woman running my daycare when I brought Aliens in to watch with my fellow daycare mates one time.  We got to the first dream sequence, where Ripley imagines she has been impregnated by an Alien and the chestburster starts to come out of her stomach, before the daycare woman quickly removed the tape from the VCR. I can't wait for Covenant and look forward to seeing some xeno action on screen again. 

Snuck downstairs age 6 when parents where watching alien, absolutely terrorfied me for many years but couldn't get them out of my mind became obsessed ever since