Monthly Archives: May 2012

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty-Two

Ouch!

Aloysius gets pricked by the tentacles of his machine.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty-Two written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

What’s going on here reminds me of an image not from mad science but from real science, to wit:

Yes, that right. It’s scientist who stuck a catheter into his own heart. For science. (The image is from El Blog de Cardiología.) The scientist was Dr. Werner Forssmamn, and there is an article at Cracked.com, aptly titled “The 6 Most Badasss Stunts Ever Pulled in the Name of Science” which explains what happened.

Without any supervision, advice, or regard for that concept you call “survival,” he cut a hole in his arm and pushed a catheter all the way up the limb and jammed it into his still-living heart.

A female nurse had volunteered for the procedure, and while he wouldn’t risk anyone else (perhaps shouting “Dammit, it’s too dangerous!”), he needed her to hand him the necessary surgical tools. So he laid her on the surgical table, gave her a painkiller, then performed the procedure on himself while she wasn’t looking. That’s right, this guy shoved two feet of cable into his own cardiac system as a sleight-of-hand trick, thereby permanently upstaging David Copperfield 27 years before he was even born.

He then walked–WALKED, mind you–with a tube hanging out of his fucking heart like some kind of price tag to the X-Ray room and presumably said “Hey guys, check out what I just did.”

He got a Nobel Prize, eventually. But I’m wondering about that nurse who volunteered for the procedure. She seems to me like a real-world Kitty Carroll if there ever was such.

Sigh.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty-One

Aloysius prepares to enter his machine

Aloysius strips to his boxers and prepares to enter his machine.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty-One written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

Although Aloysius’s machine is much smaller, in its potential man-eating dangerousness it somehow makes me think of the giant machines of the Lower City in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, that locus classicus of mad science.

Image found here, in a cool essay about Brigitte Helm and Metropolis. Check out some of its amazing animated gifs.

In the meantime, take care, Aloysius!

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty

Great Cthulhu, this crazy technology actually works!

Maureen zaps herself with the mad science technology, turns invisible!

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Twenty written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

What better way to celebrate Maureen’s mad science achievement than with an evocative still from the original cinematic Invisible Woman?

Pretty good effects for 1941. This particular still found at The Oscar Completist.

Drake’s Way added to blogroll

It is with great pleasure that I can announce the addition of the tumblr Drake’s Way to the Erotic Mad Science blogroll. Drake Caperton is running a truly eclectic and oft-updated collection of stunning vintage nudes, erotic art, pulp covers, cartoons, and wondrous-weird cultural ephemera. At least one of the cartoons fits into themes explored before here, and I offer it as a taste of what Drake’s Way has to offer.

Found here, specifically. Dr. Faustus sez, check the whole thing out.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Nineteen

Naturally, there’s a madlab behind the locked door. Persistence rewarded! (I wonder what that tube is meant to contain.)

Maureen finds a madlab behind a locked door in the physics building.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Nineteen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

The mad science laboratory itself has a long history in the form of renditions of alchemist’s laboratories. Here’s another example, identified as the Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae:

Found at Wikipedia.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Eighteen

There is no security which can’t be broken.

Maureen cracks the security to a lab.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Eighteen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

Maureen’s tireless curiosity has a Pandora-like feel to it.

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), Pandora (1898)

Waterhouse was a pre-Raphaelite painter whose work has found a home here before at Erotic Mad Science.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Seventeen

Maureen snaps Aloysius out of it.

Maureen snaps at, then consoles, Aloysius

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Seventeen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

The theme of a woman consoling a man is a common one in classical painting. Here is an appealing example of one that I found recently.

Francis Stephne Cary (1808-1880), Consolation (1842)

Cary wasn’t known to me before, but he’s been of a kind of significance as a teacher of artists whose work has featured at Erotic Mad Science, including both John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

This version of the image found here, with thanks to British Paintings for additional biographical detail on Cary.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Sixteen

Aloysius gets deep into his tinkering

Aloysius starts tinkering with all sorts of junk.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Sixteen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

The theme of the intellectual explorer who disappears into the insane clutter of his laboratory, neglecting the world outside in an obsessive quest has deep roots in the genre of alchemist paintings. An example, found at WikiPaintings:

David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), The Alchemist

Keep seeking, Aloysius!

Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Fifteen

It may shock and disgust Aloysius, but I’m under the impression that readers of Erotic Mad Science are likely to enjoy such a thing, so Moira’s video record is in color.

Moira gets all tentacle sexed, while Aloysius watches in disgust.

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Fifteen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

And for those of you who don’t like this sort of thing, here is a basket of kittens.

There. Now everybody’s happy.

Progress in Research: Chapter Three. Page Fourteen

Aloysius follows his own trail of clues. “That psychology professor who…” was, on reflection, probably crummy writing on my part. Live and learn.

Aloysius finds out about nanotechnology and...

(Click on the image for larger size. Creative Commons License
Progress in Research: Chapter Three, Page Fourteen written and commissioned by Dr. Faustus of EroticMadScience.com and drawn by Lon Ryden is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.)

And we all know what sort of imagery “south seas natives” bring to mind, don’t we?

A movie poster for Tiara Tahiti (1962) which pretty well sums up what most people will think at the phrase “south seas natives.” It’s part of a great big cool collection of the same at the appropriately-named site South Seas Cinema.