There’s a lot going on in this cover to the November 1943 issue of Amazing Stories, painted by prolific Chicago-based pulp artist Robert Gibson Jones (1889-1969), but possibly the stronger motivation is this interior illustration — amazingly uncredited — for Helmar Lewis’s story “The Aura of Death,” about a mad scientist who implants a woman’s soul in to a dog, or something. As an illustration it’s about as exemplary of the concept of “erotic mad science” as anything not involving a naked girl in a tube.
Panel 1: Enzo in a suit, standing at the front door of an Italian cinema, proudly gesturing with his cane at a promotional placard which reads “Venite a vedere una bellissima ragazza dei tropici venir mangiata viva in un orribile rituale pagano!”
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers had hoped, on their return to Italy, to make a small fortune exhibiting their remarkable footage to the public.
Translation (1): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): Os irmãos Scelleratini tinham a esperança, ao retornarem à Itália, de ganhar uma pequena fortuna exigindo sua produção cinematográfica ao público.
Panel 2: KING VICTOR EMMANUEL III sitting at an ornate desk in his royal study, signing a piece of paper.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Unfortunately for them, their film was banned by an edict signed by King Victor Emmanuel III himself. The Lord Chancellor in England and the Chief Prefect of Police in France took similar actions.
Translation (2): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Infelizmente para eles, o filme foi proibido em um decreto assinado pelo próprio Rei Victor Emmanuel III. A pastora da justiça da Inglaterra e o Chefe do Departamento de Polícia na França adotaram medidas semelhantes. .
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Both Scelleratini brothers would die in poverty.
Translation (3): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Os irmãos Scelleratini morreriam ambos na pobreza.
Panel 3: BENITO MUSSOLINI, sitting in his private cinema, watching something. Mussolini’s face is illuminated by reflected light from the screen. He looks disgusted and outraged.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): In 1927, Italy’s Fascist Grand Council would declare the film a menace to public morality and order all copies of it destroyed.
Translation (4): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): Em 1927, o Grande Conselho Fascista da Itália declarou o filme uma ameaça a moralidade pública e ordenou a destruição de todas as cópias.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (5): What the Scelleratini brothers documented would pass out of memory…
Translation (5): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (5): O que os irmãos Scelleratini documentaram seria esquecido da memória…
Panel 4: Exterior view of the Cineteca di Bologna (drawn or incorporated as a “comicked up” photograph).
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (6): But at least one print of the film escaped the destruction order, and in 1977, a researcher found that print in the archives of the Cineteca di Bologna, where it had been misfiled, possibly on purpose.
Translation (6); CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (6): Mas pelo menos uma cópia do filme escapou da ordem de destruição e, em 1977, um pesquisador encontrou essa cópia nos arquivos da Cineteca di Bologna, onde havia sido classificada incorretamente, possivelmente de propósito.
This woman with the wolves (and clothed only with her hair) on the September 1927 issue of Weird Tales is the work of C.C. Senf. Evidently it was a theme that the editors liked, because they would commission Margaret Brundage to do something very similar for the March 1933 cover.
And to perhaps no one’s surprise, Seabury Quinn has stories in both issues.
Both the September 1927 and the March 1933 issues of Weird Tales are available to be read at and downloaded from the Internet Archive.
A Margarget Brundage cover for the June 1933 issue of Weird Tales, visiting some familiar themes. Illustrating an interior story, “Golden Blood” by Jack Williamson, is work by James Allen St. John (1873-1957), famous as an illustrator of the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and regarded by many as “the Godfather of American Fantasy Art.”
“The woman’s body was yellow as the snake, and had something of the serpent’s sinuous grace.”
Panel 1: A long Polynesian outrigger canoe, being rowed through the surf by muscular young men. Standing implausibly in the middle of the canoe is Enzo, his movie camera rigged on a tripod somehow, cranking away and filming some scene he can see from the canoe.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers were even invited along to film the “wedding.”
Translation (1): Os irmãos Scelleratini foram até convidados para o “casamento” enquanto filmavam.
Panel 2: View of another outrigger canoe, also rowed by strong young men. The Bride sits in the bow of the canoe, gazing out to sea.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): The people rowed out to a spot of ocean known to be over a deep oceanic trench.
Translation (2) As pessoas se enfileiravam em um ponto do oceano conhecido pelas profundas fossas marítimas.
Panel 3: The Bride now stands in the bow of the canoe. She has removed her muumuu and is naked, holding her muumuu over her head so that it trails behind her in the wind. She is wearing a beatific expression.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Those involved seemed to regard the entire proceeding as a blessed occasion.
Translation (3): Os participantes pareciam encarar todo o processo como uma ocasião abençoada.
Panel 4: The Bride in mid-dive off the bow of the canoe into the ocean.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): The “bride” seemed to be acting of her own free will.
Translation (4): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): A “noiva” parecia estar agindo de livre e espontânea vontade.
Whatever instructions Margaret Brundage got for the monster on the cover of the August 1937 issue of Weird Tales must have been pleasingly vague. Virgil Finlay is busy on the interior providing a bit of bonus cheesecake, this time illustrating Frank Owen’s story “The Mandarin’s Ear.”
