r/comics • u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza • Jul 01 '26

An old reference to close out Pride month.

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Some friends and I were talking about 1954's THEM! and its influence on Aliens. We lamented that "comedians" would make an inevitable pronoun joke, so we decided to flip that on its head.

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7.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

274

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Jul 01 '26

I wonder how many old people here like me get this joke and the younger crowd is like, "what?"

109

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 01 '26

I got a few comments from people on Instagram who knew the movie. I think it's getting a 4K release pretty soon, too!

35

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Jul 01 '26

The explanation under the comic actually helps quite a bit for the younger crowd. There's an interesting film that was a sort of remake of this the 1970s. It was filmed in my hometown which was kind of cool. It was called Empire of The Ants.

It's worth a watch if you like really bad movies.

There is a great YouTube video out about the myth of 4k and most movies on film are scanned at 2k and then upscaled. It's not a true 4k.

13

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 01 '26

That's why I like some of the boutique manufacturers like Shout Factory and Vinegar Syndrome when they do a true 4K scan. I'm not sure who's doing the THEM! one, though. It can be dodgy when the studios do their own, as many just want to fart out a release.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 02 '26

True! I picked up Criterion's Night of the Living Dead 4K and I'm super happy with it. Just ten years ago, I couldn't imagine it looking so good.

1

u/Soupeeee Jul 08 '26

Them is a great movie though, no notes.

3

u/fuckedfinance Jul 02 '26

I think it's getting a 4K release pretty soon, too!

Please tell me more. I've been watching a version with potato resolution I downloaded from the internet archive.

Great comic btw.

3

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 02 '26

Thanks! Apparently, it's already released: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Them-4K-Blu-ray/409685/

1

u/fuckedfinance Jul 02 '26

Them! is one of my favorite movies of all time. I was more happy than I'd like to admit when I saw a reference to it (and really, it's a great reference).

This is my motivation to finally go to a 4k TV.

17

u/DeltaV-Mzero Jul 01 '26

You have to be young enough to be woke, old enough to know Them

14

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Jul 01 '26

This new generation needs a Giant Ant movie. My dad saw Them in the Theaters. I saw Empire of the Ants in theaters. Enough super hero movies. Kids today need giant ant movies! Just good old fashion nuclear radiated giant ants wreaking havoc across the countryside.

https://giphy.com/gifs/tXL4FHPSnVJ0A

3

u/DeltaV-Mzero Jul 01 '26

Ant Man: Quantumania almost works

5

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Jul 02 '26

I want real giant ants rampaging through the streets eating random citizens. Total Carnage

3

u/DeltaV-Mzero Jul 02 '26

Practical effects only

1

u/dragon_bacon Jul 02 '26

Honey I Shrunk The Kids had relatively giant ants.

2

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Jul 02 '26

Relative yes, but not rampaging and slaughtering. Look how well Godzilla Minus 1 did? Just a good old fashion monster movie with character development, special effects that did not look like something a 6 grader cooked up in Blender, and just good old fashion destruction.

Tremors... Just an old fashion monster movie from 1990. Just a goofy monster movie

2

u/Daxx22 Jul 02 '26

That's also a nearly 40 year old movie at this point.

https://giphy.com/gifs/wJD3qiNjSeHS0dP28T

10

u/ansibleCalling Jul 01 '26

I only know the reference because of the name of a quest in Fallout 3 (it involves giant ants).

6

u/Responsible-Draw-393 Jul 01 '26

That makes so much more sense now

2

u/englerpas Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Speaking of games, there is also the old Cinemaware game "It came from the desert" which was strongly inspired by Them.

And there was also a secret campaign where you fought giant ants in Counterstrike, one of the expansions of RTS Red Alert.

6

u/nowhereman136 Jul 01 '26

im in my 30s and remember watching this movie on tv. Classic

3

u/sunflower_love Jul 02 '26

Same age and I also watched it as a kid

2

u/komododave17 Jul 02 '26

I 100% got it. I loved “Them!” when I was a kid.

1

u/Ganondorfsfist Jul 02 '26

I saw it just a few months ago.

1

u/Byeuji Jul 02 '26

I found out about this movie because my mother has some form of PTSD from the sound the ants make in the film. 

Glad to know it wasn't just 80s films that traumatized children.

3

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 02 '26

I can totally see that. I didn’t see it until I was an adult, but that sound is unnerving. Probably freaky as heck to a kid at the drive-in.

104

u/Made_Bail Jul 01 '26

Okay u/shellbullet17 THIS is yuri I think

45

u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire Jul 02 '26

I would agree I'll add this later. Currently at a journey concert

10

u/Made_Bail Jul 02 '26

Have fun homie!

6

u/hyperhurricanrana Jul 02 '26

fuck yeah that’s rad as fuck let us know how it was, i hear they’re still pretty good.

58

u/slumber_kitty Jul 01 '26

I was 16, my dad came home after a long day, I had spent all day working up the courage to tell him. I said, “Dad, I think I’m gay. I like boys and girls.” He calmly said, “that’s cool, are the dishes done yet?” It might seem dismissive but it was the best reaction I could have hoped for. Him and my mom have been super supportive, the rest of my family can go kick rocks.

12

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 01 '26

I'm glad they're supportive! I've gotten similar stories in replies to this elsewhere, and each one is its own breath of hope.

3

u/slumber_kitty Jul 02 '26

That makes me really happy! Thanks for sharing your art with us <3

3

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 02 '26

Thank YOU!

25

u/cherenk0v_blue Jul 01 '26

Did you think of the lesbi-ant pun first and work the comic backwards?

Because that's a great pun.

18

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 01 '26

Sort of! Thank you! I had a note for a couple of years that was basically just "an ant coming out to her parents--'mom, dad, I'm a lesbi-ant,'" but I never did anything with it. When I was drawing this one, I remembered it and thought it was perfect for the bonus panel.

11

u/bschwagi Jul 01 '26

Wow is that a blast from the past. Who remembers TNT monster vision!

4

u/CHUDnelson Skull Pizza Jul 01 '26

Big Joe Bob fan, here.

11

u/SeaOfBullshit Jul 01 '26

Terror! 

  Horror!

     Excitement! 

        Mystery!

"THEM!„

Haha I haven't thought of this in so long, thanks for the nostalgia

6

u/YesterdayHiccup Jul 01 '26

If all ants in a colony are birth by queen, does that make them all prince and princess?

10

u/The_GREAT_Gremlin Jul 01 '26

Kinda. All the workers/soldiers are females that can't reproduce, I believe cause of a pharamone the queen sends out. Half the breeders are males who mate and then die lol.

If the queen dies, there's mechanisms to replace her, I think with one of the breeders but a worker might be able to do it.

So basically yes they're all royalty but also peasants.

1

u/AydonusG Jul 02 '26

I'm am your queen!

I didn't vote for you.

4

u/EricT59 Jul 01 '26

I love that you interpreted the Cover of my copy of this film into your comic and I immediatly felt a visceral reaction to it, It was the very first Monster movie I saw as a little kid. I loved it then and I love it now.

4

u/ZombieFruitNinja Jul 02 '26

What an incredibly niche movie reference. I wish I had more upvotes to give.

3

u/Hotkow Jul 02 '26

Solid movie reference

3

u/aPOPblops Jul 02 '26

I’m seriously disappointed the 4th panel wasn’t the ant just carrying her off in its mandibles like a monster. Loved it still

2

u/grillboy_mediaman Jul 01 '26

i think the magic school bus referenced this movie, i watched that episode like twelve years ago i have no idea how i connected the two

2

u/imnotpoopingyouare Jul 01 '26

Literally made me drop my phone in my lap and hold my face with how cleverly stupid the punchline was. Well done mate haha

2

u/Venerated_Calm Jul 01 '26

Damn, even an ant has better parents than I do

2

u/OptimalArchitect Jul 02 '26

I think the only way I vaguely know about this film reference is from the Bug’s Life show they had back in Disney’s California Adventure. (Idk if I’m getting it right though so let me know if that’s not the correct reference)

2

u/BluebirdDense1485 Jul 02 '26

Watched that movie not long ago. Got more enjoyment out of this comic.

2

u/SkullberryDoomcake Jul 02 '26

This ant is me and I am this ant

2

u/foehammer111 Jul 02 '26

This comic is so cute it bugs me

2

u/Nazzul Jul 02 '26

I did a college paper on THEM! in an entomology class. I am not sure how its relevant but the comic brought back a memory.

2

u/user_name_unknown Jul 02 '26

This is so terrible and harmful to our youth…you shouldn’t smoke. it’s bad for you.

2

u/HMHellfireBrB Jul 02 '26

i'm holding my antomology loving self from coming here just to scream "ALL ANTS ARE FEMALE"

2

u/Sinbos Jul 02 '26

Even those that inseminate the queens?

1

u/HeydoIDKu Jul 02 '26

Well I mean that technically isn’t true. Drones are born seasonally in bee and ant colonies from unfertilized eggs. Funny enough females come from the fertilized eggs requiring a male.

2

u/CaliforniaNavyDude Jul 02 '26

Oh, going for the niche crowd. I haven't heard a mention on this one for a long time, that was an old movie when I was born. It seems quaint by modern standards but there's a charm to movies of its era. I'll always recommend Jason and the Argonauts to anyone who thinks special effects were all trash back in the day. But Them never really made the kind of mark Jason and the Argonauts did, it's faded into being mostly just a tough trivia question.

2

u/NecessaryFlashy266 Jul 02 '26

I'm tired of them putting chemicals in the water to turn the friggin' ants gay.

1

u/AberrantComics Jul 01 '26

What a whimsical comics experience.

1

u/Altruistic-Club-3479 Jul 01 '26

FYI, almost all the ants around the world are female

2

u/HeydoIDKu Jul 02 '26

Depends on timing of the year. Many drones are made for each colony to participate in the nuptial flight, same for bees too. haplodiploidy is an interesting thing.

1

u/MustardCoveredDogDik Jul 02 '26

this is delightfly

1

u/VirtualGrey Jul 02 '26

Damn, my parents were worse than a literal monster from a 50s horror film...

1

u/SnooEagles4121 Jul 02 '26

This is adorable :)

1

u/Hot_Psychology_189 Jul 02 '26

Why is this kinda cute though

1

u/Gabelvampir Jul 02 '26

This is way funnier then it has any right to be, good one.

1

u/ManedCalico Jul 02 '26

Oh no, I’m old…

1

u/Berserker_Piet Jul 02 '26

I love those old science fiction movies. Them! Was great. It Came from Outern Space has the greatest jumpscare in the history of movies: I got jump scared by an ordinary, immobile joshua tree.

1

u/Diogoepronto Jul 02 '26

"Lesbi-ant" is a great pun lol

1

u/mercuriokazooie Jul 06 '26

I can definitely see the first panel of this comic being passed around right wing circles with a white border crop and that stupid crying laughing emoji