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.”
This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 4 (Four panels)
(Note: The panels on this page should be sepia-toned, a visual indicator of the age of the photographic and cinematic material they are meant to represent.)
Panel 1: Two Italian men, ENZO SCELLERATINI (“Enzo”) and GUIDO SCELLERATINI (“Guido”) absurdly overdressed for their environment stand in coats, bow-ties, and bowler hats, posed on a beach with an old-fashioned, crank-operated movie camera. (Note: Both men have somewhat silly handlebar mustaches.)
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): In 1905, Italian brothers Enzo and Guido Scelleratini, following up on sailors’ rumors of a strange native cult on the South Seas island of Motofupo, went there with a movie camera in hopes of finding something unusual.
Translation (1): Em 1905, os irmãos italianos Enzo e Guido Scelleratini, com base em rumores de marinheiros sobre um estranho culto nativo na ilha de Motofupo, nos mares do sul, foram para lá com sua câmera, na esperança de encontrar algo inusitado.
Panel 2: A group of attractive young Polynesian-looking women dressed in muumuuu-like garments reaching into a sack together to draw something out.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): In spite of the fact that their rituals were rumored to include human sacrifice, the indigenous people proved friendly and allowed the Scelleratini brothers to film them and one of those very rituals.
Translation (2): Apesar de os rumores indicarem que os rituais envolviam sacrifícios humanos, os indígenas se mostraram amigáveis e permitiram que os irmãos Scelleratini os filmassem em um desses rituais.
Panel 3: Close up of two hands of different young women in the panel. One holds a white stone, another a black stone.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): The first part of the ritual was a selection process to pick specific young women to be given to a “God of the Deeps” in marriage.
Translation (3): A primeira parte do ritual era um processo de seleção, em que mulheres jovens eram escolhidas para serem oferecidas ao “”Deus das Profundezas” em casamento.
Panel 4: One young woman of the Motofupo people (“the Bride”), cradling a stone, a beatific expression.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): According to observers and apparent on the film was that the young women so selected did not seem distressed. They instead seemed pleased and honored.
Translation (4): Segundo os observadores e o que aparentemente se vê no filme, as jovens selecionadas não pareciam estar angustiadas. Na verdade, pareciam estar satisfeitas e honradas.
A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)
“You know how tiring it is for me to keep my left arm strategically positioned in the viewer’s line of sight like this?” Margaret Brundage illustrating Robert E. Howard on the July 1936 cover of Weird Tales. Virgil Finlay’s pencil was also busy, providing a noble profile and a pair of shapely buttocks for C.L. Moore’s story “Lost Paradise.”
This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 3 (Four panels)
Panel 1: ELIZA FANSHAW (“Eliza”) sits in a big wicker chair in a kind of hippie-ish apartment. She’s a bubbly-sexy blond girl. She wears thin cotton tie-dyed shirt that stretches a bit over her breasts (she’s obviously braless) and a floral skirt and sandals. Her posture indicates she’s being interviewed.
Eliza (1): People ask me, “What on earth do you think you’re doing, Eliza?” and “Don’t you know you have your whole life ahead of you?”
Comment (1): The material in quotation marks are things that Eliza has been hearing about her plans and which she is quoting back to the interviewer. The expression “what on earth” is a figurative expression meant to express incredulity or surprise. It shouldn’t be translated literally – substitute an equivalent expression if one exists in the target language.
Translation (1): Eliza (1): As pessoas me perguntam: “Que diabos você pensa que está fazendo, Eliza?” e “Você não sabe que tem a vida inteira pela frente?”
Eliza (2): And I see their point but, the thing is, about me…
Translation (2): Eliza (2): E eu entendo seu ponto de vista, mas o fato é que, em relação a mim…
SUBTITLE (3): Eliza Fanshaw, prospective subject.
Translation (3): SUBTITLE (3): Eliza Fanshaw, possível voluntária.
Panel 2: Close-up on Eliza’s smiling face, which should emphasize that she has a cute little snub nose.
Eliza (4): …is that I think that the most amazing thing about being alive…
Translation (4): Eliza (4): …é que eu acho que a coisa mais incrível quanto a estar viva…
Elize (5): … is sex!
Translation (5): …é o sexo!
Panel 3: View of Eliza (in very soft focus, to the point that we can scarcely identify her as Eliza) naked, seen from behind on top of a guy).
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (6): I’m not supposed to say things like this, but ever since I was fifteen, I have been seeking out sexual adventure.
Comment (6): “Ever since I was fifteen” is short for “ever since I was fifteen years old.”
Translation (6): CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (6): Eu não deveria dizer coisas assim, mas desde que eu tinha quinze anos, tenho buscado aventuras sexuais.
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (7): I’ve even acted in some experimental adult films, just to see what it would be like.
Comment (7): “Adult films” here is a semi-euphemism for pornographic films, or at least films with explicit sexual content.
Translation (7): CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (7): Até atuei em alguns filmes para adultos, só para ver como seria.
Panel 4: Eliza, back in the same pose as in Panel 1.
Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (8): And what was it like?
Translation (8): Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (8): E como é que foi?
Eliza (9): It was awesome!
Translation (9): Eliza (9): Foi sensacional!
Eliza (10): But I don’t think anything could compare with those movies I saw in Anthro.
Comment (10): “Anthro.” This is a colloquial way for Eliza to say that she saw the movies in a college-level class in Anthropology.
Translation (10): Eliza (10): Mas acho que nada se compara aos filmes que eu vi no curso de Antro.
A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)
Hugh Rankin gives us an Egyptian princess in a filmy gown and some other weird stuff for the the April 1930 cover of Weird Tales. He did a fair amount of interior illustration duty as well that seems equally strange, such as the one below for David H. Keller’s story “Creation Unforgiveable.” Two female figures, one being menaced by what looks like an ape man and another by a…Centrosaurus maybe?
This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 2 (Splash page)
Singple panel: Helicopter view of the RV Seagoon, plowing through turquoise sea against the backdrop of a brilliant tropical sunrise. The RV Seagoon is a good-sized vessel, with an extended midsection that appears to contain some sort of giant tank. There is also a crane of sorts on deck.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): What is it that Professor Eustace Turpentine is proposing that so disturbs Captain Drummingdale?
Translation (1): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): O que o Professor Eustace Turpentine está propondo que incomoda tanto o Capitão Drummingdale?
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Only one of the strangest and most significant scientific adventures yet recorded.
Translation (2): Apenas uma das aventuras mais estranhas e significativas jamais registradas.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): And we document it here for you for the first time!
Translation (3): E estamos documentando tudo aqui para você, pela primeira vez!
A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)
The October 1932 issue of Weird Tales didn’t disclose too much in the way of interesting interior illustration, but Margaret Brundage’s early cover is both a nice example of an endangered woman and presages much that is to come from easel.
This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.