The Strangest Northerns: Frozen in Fear!

If you missed the last one…

The strange Northern often features something from the past frozen in ice to be released on unsuspecting people. The frozen creature almost always goes on a rampage. Wouldn’t you if you were woken up in some strange future time?

The Pulps gave us the first in Weird Tales back in 1923. It could be a dinosaur, or a caveman, a mammoth or a whole ship full of Vikings. The comics used this one plenty of times beginning in the Golden Age and running well into the Bronze of the 1970s. We won’t go that far today but here are terrors of the past freeze dried for your enjoyment.

As always with old comics, most of the authors are not known. They are indicated where possible. Many of these comics can be found at sites like Comic Book +.

“The King of the Dinosaurs” (Captain America #29, August 1943) was written by Ray Cummings. This one was a surprise for me– Ray Cummings! The King of the Pulps would be a better title. Like other early SF writers, he may have found it hard to sell his material to the Pulps of the 1940s and decided to try comics. This story is actually a strange Southern, with the dino coming from Antarctica. It is revived, goes on a rampage, kills the villain then falls off a cliff.

“The City of Ice” (Four Color #130, December 1946) begins with Andy and Charlie the Chicken in the desert searching for lost gold. They dig into a mound and find a frozen city below filled with caveman and a sabertooth tiger. After lots of running around they escape by floating down a river on a log. They don’t get any of the gold.

“Dara of the Vikings” (Strange Worlds #2, April 1951) has two lost soldiers arrive at a strange island where they meet Dara. Her people are Vikings of old. Cyngar has taken over but a battle with dynamite fixes that. This one comes closest to The Island At the Top of the World (1974).

“The Thing That Grew!” (Witches Tales #6, November 1951) has a mad scientist find a frozen dino, revive it. It, of course, goes on a rampage until it throws the earth into the sun. The scientist wakes from a dream but finds footprints. Wow, they don’t write’em that anymore! And in four pages!

“Monster From the Ages” (Out of the Night #3, June-July 1952) was probably written by Richard Hughes. A tablet in the Arctic leads to a burial chamber filled with frozen Vikings. They wake up and attack. They are bullet proof. Rick kills them by slamming a plane into them.

“The Monster Strikes!” (Adventures Into the Unknown #33, July 1952) has cavemen revived. They explain about being attacked by a dinosaur in the far past. The cavemen escape. They are chased to the Museum of Natural History, where they find a skeleton of a dinosaur. After a short stand off, police gun the cavemen down.

“Tomb of Ice” (Frankenstein #24, April-May 1953) begins with Olaf Guston talking to the spirit of his ancient ancestor, Eric the Red. The sailor acts crazy, especially after the crew discover a frozen Viking ship full of ancient warriors. Olaf ends up shooting Eric dead then joins his kin back in the ice, frozen for all time.

“The Lost World Below” (Strange Mysteries #20, November 1954) The Blake Brothers accidentally go on a space voyage that takes them to a planetoid then inside its core where they find a frozen Viking woman. They thaw her. She jumps out of their ship before they return to Earth. Confusing and pointless. It is probably a good thing no remembers who produced this one.

“Frozen Terrors” (Unusual Tales #25, December 1960) was written by Joe Gill. Blasting in the Arctic revives dinosaurs then strange lumpy men. These prove to be aliens who watch from their flying saucer. They don’t like the cold so they leave forever. Joe Gill would write a few strange Northerns at this time.

“The Land of the Frozen Giants” (Konga #8, September 1962) was written by Joe Gill. Konga ends up in the Arctic but falls through the ice into a forgotten world. There he fights with dinosaurs until he gets fed up and leaves. He walks all the way home. The pairing of giant ape and dinos goes back to King Kong (1933), of course. Peter Jackson certainly liked the ape versus dino part too.

“Frozen Fear” (Eerie #16, August 1967) was written by Archie Goodwin. Arctic explorers find Ragnar, a frozen Viking in the ice. Professor Storm, who should stick to his studies, tries to get fresh with Mrs. Neal. Ragnar’s zombie corpse stops him then eventually kills him. Storm was Ragnar’s last living descendant.

Conclusion

Quite a selection here in the frozen food section. (I was so glad I got one mammoth in there.) The revived thing from the past is a strong Gothic icon. The Gothic thrives on the idea of the past destroying the present or future. What could be more obvious than something actually from the past doing that? The science of Cryonics might argue that none of these creatures could survive such a long refrigeration, but hey, when did facts get in the way of a good story?

This year’s True Detective: Night Country certainly played with similar Gothic tropes. In the end, it never quite gets as silly as frozen dinosaurs but it was a great modern take on many of these same ideas. It was nice to see someone find a way to keep this tradition going.