“The place stank. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice-buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish-oil stench of melted seal blubber. An overtone of liniment combated the musty smell of sweat-and-snow-drenched furs. The acrid odor of burned cooking-fat, and the animal, not-unpleasant smell of dogs, diluted by time, hung in the air."
This opening paragraph of Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell is one of my all-time favorites. Those first three words hit you with a slap and you wrinkle up your nose in response. As you finish the paragraph, you first begin to express disgust and by the end, your mouth is twisted into a horrible rictus. Welcome to the story, my friends. Buckle up because things aren’t going to get any better from here.
My first introduction to Who Goes There? was stumbling upon John Carpenter’s The Thing on my grandparent’s cable television when I was a kid. I would visit them in the summer and occasionally, rarely, in fact, had the chance to be left home alone to watch whatever I wanted. Without cable at home, this was pure bliss in and era of only three broadcast stations. On that particular day, I stumbled upon The Thing and have been hooked ever since. The movie terrified me to such an extent, I opened the front door and stood outside in the sun to get away from those onscreen horrors! I watch it at least a few times a year because it hits the nostalgia button for me, for one, but also it takes place in the cold bleak solitude of Antarctica, which I would love to experience.
As I was thinking of book projects, I began to look into Who Goes There? as an opportunity to pay homage to a story that’s been such a delight to me for forty-odd years. It took me three years to find the copyright holder, but I finally did and it became a reality in spring of 2020.
At the beginning of a project, I like to start what I call a crazy wall. It’s a reference to the walls you see in detective movies where all the different pieces of the mystery are on display and often connected by string. I’ve always loved them, so my wall of inspiration is called my crazy wall. I’ve put up early sketches, some final prints, and pages of the book I’ve printed. It’s a fun way to keep things from being hidden away in a sketchbook and I like to look at it.