Who Goes There?

“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 as nothing is going to get any better from here.

Written by John W. Campbell and published under the pen name Don A. Stuart in the August 1938 issue of Astounding Science Fiction; the story is about a group of scientists at an Antarctic outpost who discover a magnetic anomaly and investigate. They discover a spaceship, buried in the ice for millennia as well as an unfortunate passenger that crawled free and froze. The scientists bring the body back for examination and then the true horror begins.

Deluxe Portfolio WIP

This is a mockup of the final direction for the portfolio. It opens up to a triptych of Antarctica and holds the Deluxe leather and book cloth edition. Comes with 3-5 additional letterpress prints.

The Thing Under the Tarp

A small crew of scientists is the only one who can save mankind from the Thing they have woken up. Cold, isolated, and beset upon by a monster they truly cannot understand, they struggle to remain human.

Portfolio Triptych

Inside the portfolio is a large print of Antarctica that will be illustrated by hand with notes and drawings from RJ McReady, the main character of the story and played by Kurt Russell in the movie.

Explosion

The Secondary Magnetic Expedition finds a spaceship buried in the ice for millennia, they try to thaw it out and accidentally set it ablaze. It explodes with a ferocity only matched by the southern pole itself.

Blood Test

A favorite scene of mine is where scientists must determine who is human and who is not. The shapeshifting alien creature explodes from a test tube when it’s poked with a piece of hot wire.

Desolation

The Crazy Wall

“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."

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 a blessed event. And on that particular instance, I stumbled upon The Thing and have been hooked ever since. The movie terrified me! 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.