A new film produced by the people behind TUNDRA Comics will be premiering at Kenai Cinemas this weekend.
Chad Carpenter, who created TUNDRA Comics over 25 years ago, describes “Sudsy Slim Rides Again” as “a spaghetti Northwestern comedy, action and heist film.”
“It’s what you’d expect from TUNDRA — someone like me,” Carpenter said. “It’s ridiculous, silly and fun.”
The movie follows the tale of the a small Alaska town called Scratcher Pass, where its boom days as the world’s largest asbestos mining operation have faded. Tourism keeps the fictional town alive and the area’s biggest attraction is the 100-year-old corpse of Sudsy Slim the conman. The corpse goes missing after two inmates escape prison, sending the town into panic. Agent Dudley Sherman of the Alaska Bureau of Criminal Detection is dragged in Scratcher Pass to investigate.
Carpenter said the movie was filmed primarily in the Matanuska Susitna Valley’s Hatcher Pass and stars Alaskans.
It’s Carpenter’s second movie. His first, “MOOSE The Movie,” will also be showing for a limited time at Kenai Cinemas this weekend.
Carpenter said he got into movie-making while he was looking for a new, more social, creative outlet. After drawing TUNDRA Comics for over two decades, Carpenter said he didn’t want to burn out on cartooning.
“I wanted to keep doing (cartooning) but I was really getting kind of tired,” Carpenter said. “I needed a different creative outlet to re-energize. I just wanted to make movies and surround myself with like-minded people who wanted to be creative. As a cartoonist it’s very solitary. When you’re making a movie you need a lot of other people. It’s fun to be surrounded by other creative people.”
The movie has been shown in theaters around the state and in the Lower 48, but this weekend will be the first showing on the central peninsula.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Carpenter said. “A lot of people from Kenai have been requesting we come down here.”
The movie will be showing for a full week starting Friday, Oct. 18 at the Kenai Cinemas, 215 S. Willow Street in Kenai.
Carpenter will be handing out door prizes for Friday’s first two evening showings, at 6:10 p.m. and 9:10 p.m., Friday Oct. 18, and again at all of the Saturday, Oct. 19 showings, which are at 12:20 p.m., 3:10 p.m., 6:10 p.m. and 9:10 p.m.
The 3:10 showings will be a special presentation of Carpenter’s first film, “MOOSE The Movie.”
Each movie is just under two hours.
TUNDRA cartoons began appearing in the Anchorage Daily News in 1991, but can now be seen in over 650 newspapers around the world.
Sudsy Slim Rides Again movie (Photo courtesy of Chad Carpenter)
