More frozen cavemen to join the others we have looked at in Strangest Northerns. As Pulp fiction, comic books and movies offer up all kinds of frozen mammoths, giant lizards as well as cavemen, it should be no surprise what these three comics have to offer.
“The Ice Horror” (Chamber of Chills #9, June 1952) was written by an unknown author.
George, Hugh and Marion are exploring the Lawrence Mountains of Antarctica when they find caves filled with fantastic idols and pictures.
They also find a frozen creature… Hugh believes it is still alive.
They cut it out of the ice and take it back to civilization. Hugh plans to revive the creature…
George wants to stop, while Marion accuses him of being mad. Hugh knocks George down with the creature’s club and ties Marion up. Soon the monster awakens from its icy grave. It thanks Hugh by strangling him. The monster is coming for George and Marion but the air shreds the centuries old body into dust.
A Southern rather than a Northern. The influence of H. P. Lovecraft is here though probably only by way of John W. Campbell and Hollywood. The Thing From Another World appeared on screens in 1951. Encino Man had a few more decades to wait.
“Prehistoric Beast” (Web of Evil #13, April 1954) was written by an unknown author.
Edward Manard was the curator of the National Museum but he has been fired. While flying over the North Atlantic, his airplane’s motor catches on fire and they plane goes down. Manard is the only survivor due to looking out for himself. He sits on an iceberg and wasits for rescue. There he finds a frozen friend.
Four hours later a rescue ship arrives. Manard pays off the captain to get his new find onto the ship.
Unfortunately the refrigeration unit breaks down and the caveman is thawed out. He comes to life and kills a few sailors.
The sailors fight back. Manard discovers whatever happens to the caveman, happens to him. The two are linked by some strange connection. The caveman kills the sailors and flees into the sea.
Things get worse for Manard. The beast roams the docks of Boston. When an army jeep runs into the monster, Manard feels it too.
Manard hires a ship to follow the creature from New York then Boston and finally Maine. The caveman is trying to get back to his iceberg. When he succeeds in freezing himself, Manard tries to keep himself warm by stoking the ship’s engines. He fails and ends up a frozen corpse too.
“The Man Who Melted” (Astonishing #36, December 1954) was written by an unknown author. The story begins after the frozen caveman has been brought to the National Museum. Three men argue over whether the caveman could be alive inside the ice. Should they thaw him out?
Bolton, the man in charge, absolutely refuses to thaw out the specimen. A fire breaks out in the room that holds the caveman. Thawing is inevitable…
The scientists follow the escaped caveman outside. He has killed a man. They pursue the Neanderthal then become the pursued.
Bolton ends up in his own ice cube. The caveman proves to be one of a group of alien visitors looking for specimens of their own. Bye-bye, Bolton. A nice “different” ending. Carl Burgos’s cover would get recycled when the story was reprinted in Chamber of Chills #10 (May 1974).
These stories are surprisingly sophisticated for the early horror comics. The idea of a life-link between the two characters makes this very usual frozen caveman story more interesting. It follows the usual plot that Edgar Rice Burroughs created in Argosy, February 27, 1937 for “The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw”. We will get to see it again with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in Horror Express (1974).
Until next time, when more frozen cavemen pop up out of the ice…
