A prequel to the prequel to the remake, got that?
Let’s travel back. Back even before The Thing prequel (opening October 14) to the time of Vikings. What if they had an encounter with an extraterrestrial that’s able to assimilate human beings?
That’s what Dark Horse Comics’ “The Thing: The Northman Nightmare” concerns. This digital-only comic hits tomorrow and it’s written by Steve Niles (“30 Days of Night”). L.A. Times’ Hero Complex landed a preview of the book and a chat with Niles.
The writer explains, “Essentially what I wrote was: What if it happened in other periods of history? The thing I had to really tackle was what would be a perfect setting, and historically, one of my favorite things to read about are Vikings, âcause they were lunatics. They were very smart lunatics, and they basically discovered Greenland, and so I combined the discovery of Greenland with a âThingâ story, and I think it came out really great. The art from Patrick [Reynolds] is just stunning. And I hate to say stuff like this, but this was one of those stories; I got the idea, and I loved it so fast that I think they got a pitch from me within the hour. I knew what I wanted to do, and I was scripting immediately. These projects, they come along so rarely, where youâre just working for love of the property or the project.”
Follow the aforementioned link for more with Niles.
This isn’t the first time Dark Horse has explore The Thing universe. In the ’90s, it published a follow-up to John Carpenter’s film. Read all about that in our retrospective right here.
Source: Hero Complex
