The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) · 1:56am Sep 10th, 2015
I finally decided to add an actual honest to goodness icon to my page and here he is. Folks I give you the Klaus Nomi pony. Now I know that some of you do not know who Klaus Nomi was. But fear not, for you are not alone, the artist didn't know who he was either. Therefore I figure some background is necessary.
Klaus Nomi was originally born Klaus Sperber. He was a countertenor who performed a lot of classical opera covers and as well as pop music covers using synthesizers. He was a song writer, pastry chef and was a backup singer for David Bowie. He had a very unusual look that along with his performances helped him stand out. In the early 80s he would release a couple of albums (Klaus Nomi (1981) and Simple Man (1982)) before eventually dying from a variety of diseases related to AIDS in 1983.
While I was at Dragoncon this past Labor Day weekend I found myself at the table of Andy Price, who if you don't know is one of the artists who works on the My Little Pony comic for IDW. (https://twitter.com/AndyPriceArt and http://andypriceart.deviantart.com/). He was not aware of Mr. Nomi either and so via the power of a cel phone I introduced him to Mr. Nomi. Suffice it to say he got a chuckle out of it and began work on the commission. I think he had fun doing the sketch and even wrote down his name for future reference. All in all it was a fun convention and if any of you have any interest in Nomi well, here's a sample:
You know Vincent Price often played characters with hidden faces and multiple agendas. In The Abominable Dr. Phibes his motivations are pretty clear. See the good doctor is out for revenge against those surgeons who failed to save his wife's life after they were involved in a catastrophic car accident. Secretly the doctor goes about attempting to murder every doctor or nurse involved in the surgery in pseudo biblical ways.
Of course like with any good horror movie the police are called in but, are about as effective at stopping Phibes and his assistant Vulnavia as downing as twelve pack of Old Milwaukee is for continuing sobriety. One of their funnier attempts at failing to stop a murder would, well let's just say Twilight Sparkle gets in on the blood letting. It's a fun movie to watch with friends (especially if you like to see where some of the roots for the Saw movies come from).
The Stats:
11 dead bodies
Blood draining
Brussel Sprout Boiling
Impaling
Plane Crashing
Police Bumbling
Head Crushing
Eaten Alive
Off Screen Bee Death
Embalming
Bat Fu
Ice Fu
Rat Fu
Bronze Unicorn Fu
Acid Fu
Locust Fu
Bizarre Dancing Fu
Shout outs:
Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes for saying a whole lot but never moving his lips.
Joseph Cotton as Dr. Versalius for responding to Phibes' accusation that he murdered Phibes' wife with, " Your wife, no, Phibes, but *you* I *will* kill!"
Peter Jeffrey as the often late to the party Inspector Trout for the line, " Oh, don't take him out like that. At least cover his face... what's left of it."
and
The movie "The Abominable Dr. Phibes," for having the tagline, "Love means never having to say you're ugly."
Check it out.
Gotta love another review for a howler of a movie. Dat trailer.
What a great icon!
I know Nomi was trying to be at once both over-the-top and at least somewhat serious, but I could never quite get past his over-the-top-ness. Still, few these days have any clue he existed at all, so points to you for that!
3382017
Yeah, I watching The Abominable Dr. Phibes with some guys and we were basically cutting it up. When the scene with the unicorn happened the dude sitting behind me said, "Message for you sir," and we all had a good laugh.
Thanks, I think it's a pretty neat icon too!
I think that Klaus Nomi existed in probably the only pocket in time he could have and had any sort of success doing what he did. I'm not saying I'd run out and get all of his music but, from what I've heard he was a super nice guy and he had talent (even if he was weirdly theatric and over the top with it).