Alien Worlds was a science fiction anthology comic book published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. The title was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell.

Alien Worlds was published on a bi-monthly schedule by Pacific Comics from December 1982 to April 1984 (eight issues, including an offshoot Three Dimensional Alien Worlds published in July 1984). After Pacific went bankrupt, two final issues were published by Eclipse Comics in November 1984 and January 1985. In 1986, Blackthorne Publishing published their own one-shot Alien Worlds, with reprints of stories taken from earlier issues. In May 1988, Eclipse issued a standalone, unnumbered edition of the title as part of its Graphic Album Series, featuring all new stories and art.

Nearly all of the stories in Alien Worlds were written by Jones, with only a few exceptions (notably Jan Strnad's "Stoney End" in Issue # 8 and Frank Brunner's "The Reading!" in Issue # 9). Jones had developed a skill for the short genre tale, often with a twist ending, during his years with Warren Publishing while writing for their Creepy and Eerie titles. He was heavily influenced by the horror and science fiction movies of the 1950s, adding graphic violence and sexuality to the mix, complete with copious female nudity; several issues sported a “Recommended For Mature Readers” warning on the cover. However, for the most part Alien Worlds avoided the more intensely gruesome subject matter of Jones' other Pacific comic, Twisted Tales, which was being published at the same time.

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.

Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.