Monthly Archives: December 2019

Big Satanic Cat

A weird-looking giant cat assaults a woman on the January 1940 cover of Weird Tales, as painted by Virgil finlay.

Rarely if ever would I want to pass up a Weird Tales cover painted by Virgil Finlay, and this one for the January 1940 issue strikes me as particularly dynamic.

This issue also has a lot of interior art by an artist named Harry Ferman (1906-1973), who seems to have spent much of his life as a newspaper artist in Wichita, Kansas (you can read a short account of his life here) but who seems to have had a burst of pulp-magazine creativity between 1939 and 1942. His interior illustration to Earle Peirce, Jr.’s “Portrait of a Bride” shows him capable of evoking images of ethereal beauty.

Harry Ferman interior illustration to Earle Perice Jr.'s "Portrait of a Bride."
At first I saw only a vague outline of a woman’s body, with the moon shining through it.”

While his interior illustration to Mary Elizabeth Counselman’s “Twister” is one of the creepier images I’ve seen in Weird Tales.

Harry Ferman illustration to Mary Elizabeth Counselman's stor ""Twoster"e
“Shadows moved here and there — dim human faces looked out at them.”

This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XXV: A Isca 026

A tecnologia progride na luta contra o monstro dos tentáculos.

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PAGE 26 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Professor Turpentine, sitting in a cramped academic office. Behind him are shelves stacked with books and papers. He’s wearing a rumpled tweed jacket and being interviewed behind his desk.

Turpentine (1): This creature, whatever it is, is highly intelligent. It can evade ordinary capture methods with ease. It also generates electromagnetic and subsonic fields that interfere with underwater communications. And it even cuts control cables.

Translation (1): Essa criatura, seja lá o que for, é extremamente inteligente. É capaz de se esquivar facilmente de qualquer método de captura ordinário. Ela também gera campos eletromagnéticos e subsônicos que interferem nas comunicações subaquáticas. Ela consegue até mesmo cortar os cabos de controle.

SUBTITLE (2): Professor Eustace Turpentine, Innsmouth Institute for Marine Research.

Translation (2): Professor Eustace Turpentine, Instituto Innsmouth de Pesquisa Marítima.

Panel 2: CLAUDIA HONEYWOOD (“Claudia”) holds in her hands a submersible drone – and underwater swimming robot about the size of a toaster, in her hands, holding it forth for the camera to take a picture of. Claudia is a very attractive woman, but she downplays her attractiveness, being here in a set of coveralls, her long brown hear drawn back in a bun, and here wearing heavy safety glasses. (When Claudia is not wearing these glasses she wears other glasses that make her look a bit dorky, or at least as dorky as a beautiful person can be.)

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (3): But recently, artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where we can make effective autonomous underwater drones.

Translation (3): Recentemente, entretanto, a inteligência artificial atingiu um ponto em que podemos enviar drones subaquáticos autônomos muito eficazes.

Panel 3: Claudia on board ship in another cramped control room, this time also looking at a monitor. Claudia is now dressed in a white coat and is wearing glasses with heavy dark frames.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): The creature leaves the drones alone for some reason. These drones can also penetrate the deep trenches where the creature likes to lurk.

Translation (4): Por algum motivo, os drones não incomodam a criatura. Esses drones também podem se infiltrar nas fossas profundas em que a criatura gosta de se esconder.

Panel 4: A murky image of the creature, a sort of giant squidlike thing with one large siphon (big enough for someone to fit down) and a large number of tentacles of all sorts and shapes.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (5): Thanks to these clever little machines, we now have a good sense of the gross morphology of the creature.

Translation (5): Graças a essas pequenas máquinas inteligentes, agora podemos ter uma boa ideia da morfologia bruta da criatura.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Thrall…what?

Planet Stories Spring 1946 cover by

A strange rescue effected on this cover of Planet Stories (Spring 1946) by Harry Lemon Parkhurst (1876-1962). I have no vey clear idea what “thrallmery” means. The word does not appear in either Wiktionary or the Oxford English Dictionary. Henry Kuttner’s story “What Hath Me” has some rather surreal interior art by an artist identified only as “Hollingsworth.”

Interior art illustrating Harry Kuttner's story "What Hath Me" by an artist identified only as "Hollingsworth."

This issue of Planet Stories is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XXIV: A Isca 025

Talvez a ciência possa fazer alguma coisa em relação ao monstro dos tentáculos.

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PAGE 25 (Four panels)

Panel 1: A U.S. Navy corvette cruising by Motofupo.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Navy searched the waters around the spot of Phoebe Petrobux’s disappearance but could find nothing.

Translation (1): A marinha fez uma busca nas águas em torno do ponto em que Phoebe Petrobux desapareceu, mas não encontrou nada.

Panel 2: Barron Sr., looking profoundly aged, is sitting at his ornate desk in his office. He is holding a pen and looking down at a document in the middle of his desk, holding a pen in one hand and about to sign. Over one shoulder a HIGH-PRICED LAWYER is pointing to where on the document he should sign. Barron Jr., now about fourteen years-old, looks on over his father’s other shoulder. We should be able to see Barron Jr.’s Distinguishing Feature.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): A bereaved Barron Petrobux set aside a large part of his wealth to create a foundation to study and attempt to capture whatever creature had taken away his daughter.

Translation (2): Barron Petrobux, em seu luto, abriu mão de boa parte da sua fortuna para criar uma fundação para estudar e tentar capturar a criatura, o que quer que fosse, que levou sua filha embora.

Panel 3: A group of scientists pushing a large unmanned submersible off the back of a small research ship in the waters around Motofupo.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): At the next nineteen year-interval, in 2000, a team of scientists attempted to find the creature when it was expected to rise again.

Translation (3): Dezenove anos mais tarde, em 2000, uma equipe de cientistas tentou localizar a criatura no momento em que se esperava que emergisse outra vez.

Panel 4: Two scientists in white coats staring at a screen in a control panel, inside a cramped research vessel cabin. One is seated, the other looking over the should of the other, taking notes. The seated one is throwing up his hands in frustration.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): The results of the scientists’ research were inconclusive and frustrating.

Translation (4): Os resultados da pesquisa dos cientistas não foram conclusivos, mas sim muito frustrantes.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Hot Lust Queen

Avon Science Fiction Reader #2: Sacrifice to the Lust Queen of the Flame Rite.

The series ran for only two issues, it doesn’t have any interior art, the painting itself (somewhat incredibly for a cover) have a known artist, and the art is only middling by pulp standards.

But who could possibly resist a title like “Sacrifice to the Lust Queen of the Flame Rite?”

This issue of Avon Science Fiction Reader is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XXIII: A Isca 024

O Capitão MacMurdie explica o equívoco da marinha.

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PAGE 24 (Four panels)

Panel 1: CARSON MACMURDIE (“MacMurdie”) an elderly but dignified-looking man (a retired U.S. Navy officer) in an interview pose.

MacMurdie (1): Well, it was a fuckup, that’s what it was.

Comment (1): A “fuckup” is a coarse and colloquial way of adescribing “a big, consequential mistake.”

Translation (1): Bem, foi uma cagada, isto sim.

SUBTITLE – IDENTIFIER (2): Capt. Carson MacMurdie, USN, Ret.

Comment (2): “Capt.” is an abbreviation for “Captain,” in this case a relatively senior rank in the United States Navy, often a commander of a large vessel. “USN” is an abbreviation for “United States Navy” and “Ret.” indicates that he is retired.

Translation (2): Cap. Carson MacMurdie, USN, Ret.

Panel 2: A photograph of two U.S. Navy officers in Second World War-era uniforms surveying a table of maps, documents, photographs.

CAPTION – MACMURDIE NARRATING (3): There was an investigation into the disappearance of those nurses in 1943, but its conclusion was too weird and disturbing to be circulated. So the report was classified top secret and the area simply closed off.

Translation (3): CAPTION – MACMURDIE NARRATING (3): Houve uma investigação sobre o desaparecimento das enfermeiras em 1943, mas a conclusão também foi estranha e muito perturbadora para ser publicada. Então, o relatório foi considerado de máximo sigilo e a área foi simplesmente interditada.

Panel 3: External view of a large warehouse.

CAPTION – MACMURDIE NARRATING (4): By thirty-eight years later, everyone had forgotten why the area was closed, and the report was buried deep in some Navy archive. Anyone connected with the investigation had died or moved on. Nobody bothered to go back to the records and check.

Translation (4): Trinta e oito anos mais tarde, todos já havia esquecido por que a área tinha sido interditada, e o relatório foi enterrado nas profundezas de algum arquivo da marinha. Todas as pessoas ligadas às investigações já haviam morrido ou se mudado para longe. Ninguém se incomodou em reabrir os registros e verificá-los.

Panel 4: MacMurdie in interview pose again.

MacMurdie (5): So when Mr. Rich and Powerful showed up and said he wanted to yacht in those waters, the Navy just replied “Yes, sir” and gave him a permit.

Translation (5): Então, quando o Sr. Rico e Poderoso apareceu e disse que queria um iate naquelas águas, a marinha simplesmente disse “sim, senhor” e autorizou o acesso.

MacMurdie (6): Too bad about the poor girl…

Translation (6): Pior para a pobre moça…

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Jungle girl versus gorilla slaver

An Earle Bergey cover for Thrilling Wonder Stories, Summer 1946. A jungle girl with a club looks on as a gorilla dirves a column of human male slaves.

Earle Bergey did this cover of Thrilling Wonder Stories for Summer 1946, albeit with a bit of gender-reversal in the classic trope. In the interior art, there is this bit of rather Erotic Mad Science done in illustration of Polton Cross’s short story “Twilight Planet.” I regret that I have been unable to discover the identity of the artist.

“‘Telsor!’ the girl called. But the young man was too preoccupied to notice her.”

And it looks like our irresponsible young scientist here has just irradiated the living daylights out of this poor girl. Nice work, Telsor.

This issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories is available to read and download from the Internet Archive.