BLUE SKIN ALIENS

Pop culture is crowded with humanoid aliens ressembling normal humans. Reasons for this is often cost (in the case of films and TV series), belivability (the fact that an alien would look like a normal human would be scientifically highly unlikely, but animatronics, prosthetics and make up can often be even more unbelievable) and association with the character (it's easier to associate with Han Solo, a Corellian, than it is with Greedo). In recent years, to make easy-to-associate-with aliens look "scientifically" more believable, the path chosen by designers was that often refered to as "nose job" consisting mainly in of minor prosthetic changes done by adding some latex to modify some facial features and make the extra-terrestrial character unmistakingably alien. From the eighties and on, Star Trek series have used this technique extensively to bring diversity in their aliens of the week. The method had its root in the original series with Mr. Spock's trademark pointed ears made him famous. At the time, though, the use of heavy facial prosthetics was less common and most humanoid aliens used unearhtly color tones to distingish themselves, wether green like the Orions, half with half black (or the reverse) like the Cheronians, blue like the andorians (while the latter also used prosthetics antennea which made them in the not-completely human category). To make the aliens more aliens, cold colors were always a favorite. Little Green Men has somewhat become a stereotypcial portrayal of extraterrestrials, with blue being the next chromatic contender. Among the most known blue skin human aliens, let's note:

• The Kree (created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the Marvel Universe)
• The Gamilons (created by Leiji Matsumoto for the Space Cruiser Yamato animated series, and generally associated with what fans call the Leijiverse)
• The Bolar (with a lighter skin complection), still from the Yamato universe.
• The Izarians from the Magnerobo Gakeen animated show
• The Drules from the Voltron american animated series adapted from the Golion series (where the alien presented species is called Garla) and the Dairugger XV series (where the species is the Galbeston)
• The Vineans (from Roger Leloup's Yoko Tsuno series)