Hello January friends. I watched the first episode of the new season of True Detective last week, and it has rekindled my always-smouldering passion for all things spooky and snowy, as I’ve written about here before. I asked in that post for scary-snow-set stories, and a few folks recommended The Thing, which I finally watched last year.
I think it was probably a film that would have had a bigger effect on me had I seen it at a more formative age - it is pretty dated. Kurt Russell (HOT ENOUGH TO MELT THE ICE CAPS, HE’S A CLIMATE HAZARD) plays chess on a big crap computer, they watch VHS tapes, and they all smoke indoors. I didn’t think it was hugely scary, though it was definitely gross. Anyway, most of you have probably seen The Thing, perhaps at a more impressionable age, and you really don’t need my opinion on it… BUT I give The Thing a rating of -11 Celsius!
I just went and had a look at the Welcome to Oddleigh comics I tried to make about a polar research station. I find there are three stories I started in 2019 - one was Frankenstein-y (the doctor is Dr Penguinstein), and one is called Cool as Ice, based on this gem:
My sister was a big V.Ice fan and had this poster in her room as a child, but even she admitted the film was dog-merde - it’s a sort of redo of The Wild One, and if you can make any sense of that tag line, you’re doing better than me. Ice DOESN’T melt stone, what kind of messed up rock, paper, scissors is that? Also, I looked up Vanilla’s IMDB to see if this was his first and last motion picture role, but in fact he’s done loads, so that was just me being snotty. Word to your mother!
I quite like the idea of animated snowmen motorbiking around the place, causing mayhem. Maybe it’s what Raymond Briggs’s Snowman would’ve gotten up to if he hadn’t tragically melted after only one night.
Anyone watching/going to watch True Detective? Anyone up for seeing another reboot of The Wild One with cold troublesome snowmen instead of hot troublesome fleshmen??
I can’t stop thinking about the name Dr. Penguinstein.
Great comic! I love the cozy athmosphere of oddeley. What is the snowman-gang up to?
I watched The Thing for the first time a year back. Must admit the suspense was killing me (though there was not much action then, was it?)…