This is confusing. So this fellow comes along, melts away and…? Sounds like a disaster all right for the clean-up crew, but apart from that, well. Maybe the title should be “The incredible melting man: he is a janitorial nightmare”.
@Outis: Well, not to spoil the film, OK, I’ll spoil the film, it’s rubbish, but the IMM eats people to replenish his flesh, though in the end the condition overtakes him and he is indeed shovelled up by a janitor.
So there you go: you too could be a Hollywood screenwriter, Outis!
The Incredible Melting Man
He is a Human Slime Bomb…
… and is that a ting! I can see on his neck? His melting flesh has a ting!?
I have to speak in defence of the artist on this one – Joe Petagno designed Snaggletooth, the… um… the thing on most of Motorhead’s album covers, so any pictorial sins he might have committed elsewhere should all be forgiven.
Is his spaceman costume also melting, or did he just pull part of it off to melt more comfortably? Tight lycra isn’t very pleasant when you’re all sweaty, after all.
So is this the book of the movie or was it the movie of the book? The guy in the movie wasn’t a time bomb: as already noted by THX 1139, he went out with more a whimper than a bang. Perhaps they added the subtitle to make him seem more “menace” than “pathetic.” The cover certainly seems to be trying to make you think “Oh noes! He’ll set _everything_ on fire with his fiery, ting-y drippings!”
Those fireproof clothes weren’t quite as durable as the incredible melting man had hoped, although others would say they were more durable than the average.
@THX 1139: thanks for the outline, that makes some kind of sense. But if so, the big point is hardly the melting, but the rampant cannibalism…
Also, it seems that to be a Hollywood screenwriter you have to show some love to those unsung heroes, the janitors. Toxic Avenger, anyone?
@B. Chiclitz: Mr. Clean vs. the Melting Man? Sounds better than the movie we got.
The cover could also be interpreted as the astronaut being melted, and everything else being set on fire, by that hell planet in the background. (Hellstar RogerCorman?)
Was his left arm originally much longer than his right, or is that part of the melting action?
Also, as an Arizona resident, this cover only really represents our weather here in the Valley of the Sun for about four months a year. The rest of the time you are just lightly basted.
“You’ve never seen anything til you’ve seen the Sun through the rings of Saturn,” exclaims Alex Rebar. Apparently, somehow this causes him to start melting and eating people, such as a nurse in the tightest fitting nurse’s outfit ever, a nerdy fisherman, a horny old couple who simply can’t keep their hands off each other in a car. To save the day comes Doctor Ted Nelson!
which opines “The only thing setting this apart from the nuclear nightmares of the past is Rick Baker’s superlative effects work and the gratuitous nudity. (Oh, and a cameo from Jonathan Demme.) Everything else is loaded right off the back of a 1958 military supply truck.”
Perhaps I am a bit dim but…. If he is a human time bomb, don’t bombs usually go boom rather than melt? If he’s a walking nuclear reactor, well, meltdowns just don’t look like that.
And it may be over 3 years late but…
@GSSxN: GSS! The future is indeed open wide, like his thoracic cavity. Hmmm, hmm hmmm, hmmm Humm humhum.
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May 9th, 2019 at 10:14 am
Sequel: Puddle of Flesh!
May 9th, 2019 at 10:15 am
I hope this book contains the film’s immortal line: “Oh my God – it’s his ear!”
May 9th, 2019 at 11:33 am
This is confusing. So this fellow comes along, melts away and…? Sounds like a disaster all right for the clean-up crew, but apart from that, well. Maybe the title should be “The incredible melting man: he is a janitorial nightmare”.
May 9th, 2019 at 11:46 am
He…is wearing his Depends on the outside.
May 9th, 2019 at 12:16 pm
@Outis: Well, not to spoil the film, OK, I’ll spoil the film, it’s rubbish, but the IMM eats people to replenish his flesh, though in the end the condition overtakes him and he is indeed shovelled up by a janitor.
So there you go: you too could be a Hollywood screenwriter, Outis!
May 9th, 2019 at 12:55 pm
The Incredible Melding Man
He is a Pinochle Player
May 9th, 2019 at 1:35 pm
The Incredible Melting Man
He is a Human Slime Bomb…
… and is that a ting! I can see on his neck? His melting flesh has a ting!?
I have to speak in defence of the artist on this one – Joe Petagno designed Snaggletooth, the… um… the thing on most of Motorhead’s album covers, so any pictorial sins he might have committed elsewhere should all be forgiven.
May 9th, 2019 at 1:36 pm
🎶I just want you to watch me dissolve, slowly🎶
May 9th, 2019 at 1:38 pm
I guess there’s no point in shouting “Behind you!” to someone who’s already half melted away.
May 9th, 2019 at 3:19 pm
@BC – “Your better days are … BEHIND YOU!”
May 9th, 2019 at 3:55 pm
He looks like kind of a drip.
Is his spaceman costume also melting, or did he just pull part of it off to melt more comfortably? Tight lycra isn’t very pleasant when you’re all sweaty, after all.
So is this the book of the movie or was it the movie of the book? The guy in the movie wasn’t a time bomb: as already noted by THX 1139, he went out with more a whimper than a bang. Perhaps they added the subtitle to make him seem more “menace” than “pathetic.” The cover certainly seems to be trying to make you think “Oh noes! He’ll set _everything_ on fire with his fiery, ting-y drippings!”
May 9th, 2019 at 4:24 pm
Best use of the “I’m melting” tag to date.
May 9th, 2019 at 4:47 pm
Those fireproof clothes weren’t quite as durable as the incredible melting man had hoped, although others would say they were more durable than the average.
May 9th, 2019 at 6:53 pm
@THX 1139: thanks for the outline, that makes some kind of sense. But if so, the big point is hardly the melting, but the rampant cannibalism…
Also, it seems that to be a Hollywood screenwriter you have to show some love to those unsung heroes, the janitors. Toxic Avenger, anyone?
May 9th, 2019 at 8:22 pm
@Outis—Don’t forget to pay homage to the presiding divinity, the white-browed God of Janitors himself!
May 10th, 2019 at 3:43 am
@B. Chiclitz: Mr. Clean vs. the Melting Man? Sounds better than the movie we got.
The cover could also be interpreted as the astronaut being melted, and everything else being set on fire, by that hell planet in the background. (Hellstar RogerCorman?)
May 10th, 2019 at 6:06 am
Was his left arm originally much longer than his right, or is that part of the melting action?
Also, as an Arizona resident, this cover only really represents our weather here in the Valley of the Sun for about four months a year. The rest of the time you are just lightly basted.
May 10th, 2019 at 12:07 pm
@Ryan – Sorry. Next time I’ll make sure my jokes are geographically perfect.
May 13th, 2019 at 3:45 pm
Somebody set us up the human time bomb!
May 15th, 2019 at 5:10 am
I’ll stop the world and melt with me…
IMDB sez:
“You’ve never seen anything til you’ve seen the Sun through the rings of Saturn,” exclaims Alex Rebar. Apparently, somehow this causes him to start melting and eating people, such as a nurse in the tightest fitting nurse’s outfit ever, a nerdy fisherman, a horny old couple who simply can’t keep their hands off each other in a car. To save the day comes Doctor Ted Nelson!
And here’s a full review:
https://dailydead.com/drive-in-dust-offs-the-incredible-melting-man-1977/
which opines “The only thing setting this apart from the nuclear nightmares of the past is Rick Baker’s superlative effects work and the gratuitous nudity. (Oh, and a cameo from Jonathan Demme.) Everything else is loaded right off the back of a 1958 military supply truck.”
May 15th, 2019 at 6:46 am
GSS ex-noob: loaded off, or fell off?
May 15th, 2019 at 11:23 pm
@Bruce: both?
October 21st, 2022 at 2:00 am
Perhaps I am a bit dim but…. If he is a human time bomb, don’t bombs usually go boom rather than melt? If he’s a walking nuclear reactor, well, meltdowns just don’t look like that.
And it may be over 3 years late but…
@GSSxN: GSS! The future is indeed open wide, like his thoracic cavity. Hmmm, hmm hmmm, hmmm Humm humhum.