The Alien literary franchise consists of multiple novels and short stories based on the eponymous film franchise, which began in 1979 with the release of Alien. In the 20th century, all Alien-related novels published were adaptations of pre-existing material. From 1979 up to 1997, Warner Books published novelizations of the first four films in the year of release; 1979, 1986, 1992, and 1997, respectively. With the exception of Alien Resurrection, all film novelizations were written by Alan Dean Foster. Throughout the 1990s, Bantam Books published nine novelizations of Alien comic books published by Dark Horse Comics.