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I don't remember most of it but I know this,

  • At the beginning there were live photos of a man finding the "book" and a note stating he found it somewhere.
  • All of the speech in the graphic novel was in an alien language. Absolutely none of it was English.
  • The aliens were very cute in style and had an "Invader Zim" style to them.

  • Here is where it gets weird. There were scenes that involved aliens murdering others and there was one scene where a mad scientist type alien took hooks and opened one of the alien's eyelids as a form of torture.

  • I have not seen or heard of this book since I was in Elementary school, which means it was probably from 2002-2007.

  • I do remember there was one main alien throughout the book as well and they would meet other aliens that would end up dying or leaving for one reason or another.

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  • Off to a good start, but if you haven't already, take a look at this guide and see if you can edit in any more details
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 20:19
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    Are you sure it was an alien (i.e. made up) language, and not just a foreign one you didn't recognize? Was there any written English?
    – PlutoThePlanet
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 21:37
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    I am very sure it was made up. It had characters that were obviously supposed to be a made up language. I remember some of them swirled around- kind of like the @ symbol. And there was only English on the beginning letter to the book.
    – Jadedkidme
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 21:50

1 Answer 1

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This is A.L.I.E.E.E.N.: Archives of Lost Issues and Earthly Editions of Extraterrestrial Novelties by Lewis Trondheim.

Book Cover - A.L.I.E.E.E.N.

The latest offering from the prolific French cartooning sensation winkingly purports to be an extraterrestrial comic book found by the cartoonist while on vacation in the Catskills. Trondheim fills the stories with "alien" dialogue, which naturally can be read without the help of any words, filled as they are with Trondheim's trademark silent comedy. Creatures stroll through psychedelic landscapes and have adventures in miniature. They are eaten, operated on and transformed, all in just a few short pages. Like a Pokémon story gone horribly, and hilariously, wrong, these cute little aliens are always being tortured or haplessly having their eyes poked out; one even floods an entire city with an endless stream of extra-dimensional poop. The artwork represents a departure for Trondheim, as its alien "source" results in its appearing to be old: pages are yellowed, and subtle but gorgeous dot-screens fill in the lines. Adult comics aficionados who appreciate Trondheim's work will find this book quite enjoyable. Older children should also be amused by the violent but delightful whimsy found within.

Someone turned the first issue into a Youtube video:

I found it by searching for graphic novel alien language murder torture (I just know I'm getting on some of those watchlists...)

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    If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking on the checkmark by the voting buttons.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 22:07
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    Woohoo useful title edit led to an answer! I should start throwing them into google more often...
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Jul 19, 2018 at 5:27
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    @Edlothiad Indeed. I wish more people understood that a question title should be approached in a similar way to a Google search: if "need help with a graphic novel" won't help with googling, it probably won't help here either. Question titles are not placeholders to be filled with whatever, they are actually a valuable part of the question!
    – Andres F.
    Commented Oct 20 at 21:23

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