Author Archives: Dr. Faustus

Aprenda português XVIII: A Isca 017

Racistas ricos do Texas se divertem em um cruzeiro pelos mares do sul.

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PAGE 17 (Four panels)

(Note: More Super 8 camera “footage.”)

Panel 1: Barron Sr. and a WEALTHY FRIEND (another corpulent middle-aged man), both wearing sunglasses, tacky Hawaiian shirts and Bermuda shorts, sitting on deck chairs sipping drinks.

Wealthy Friend (1): President Reagan sure did a number on those air traffic control thugs and their union, eh?

Translation (1): Wealthy Friend (1): O presidente Reagan certamente deu uma dura nesses bandidos do controle de tráfego aéreo e no sindicato deles, não é?

Barron Sr. (2): Here’s hoping he takes on the coons and the spics next.

Comment (2): “Coons” is a highly derogatory term for African-Americans, “spics” a highly derogatory term for Latino Americans. The use of them in dialog here is to show Petrobux as a nasty racist – something hardly unusual for a man of his social position and geographic origin. Translate them with discretion.

Translation (2): Aqui, a esperança de que ele pegasse os negros e os cucarachas na sequência.

Panel 2: Wealthy friend is sitting up peering over his sunglasses, while Barron Sr. is waving Barron Jr. and his camera away with a gesture of his hand (indicate with motion lines).

Barron Sr (3): Move along, son. This is grown-up talk.

Translation (3): Anda logo, filho. Isto é papo para gente grande.

Panel 3: Phoebe is in her bikini, leaning slightly backwards with her hands on the rail, looking forward, enjoying the sun and sea. She is also wearing sunglasses and her body glistens a bit from her having put on sunscreen.

Panel 4: Same as before, but now Phoebe is looking into Barron Jr.’s camera with an admonitory expression.

Phoebe (4): Barron…

Translation (4): Barron…

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

“I’ll show you, feeble old man…”

…with my patented gender-swapping de-aging ray! Ha!

A cover by Norman Saunders for the November 1950 cover of Marvel Science Stories.

Well, that’s one possible interpretation of what’s going on here. The lush style here can only mean a cover by the great Norman Saunders for this November 1950 cover of Marvel Science Stories.

Vincent Napoli was busy with interior art on this one, giving us this tempting time-temptress.

Vincent Napoli interior illustration for Gardner Fox's story "Temptress of the Time Flow," in the November 1950 Marvel Science Stories.
“In one swift motion, Trenton twisted Thag downward.”

This issue of Marvel Science Stories is available to be read and downloaded at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XVII: A Isca 016

Racistas ricos do Texas se divertem em um cruzeiro pelos mares do sul.

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PAGE 16 (Four panels)

Note: There should be some sort of framing around the panels on this and some succeeding pages to indicate that they’re “footage” taken with Barron Jr.’s Super 8 camera.

Panel 1: Barron Jr.’s hand pushing open a cabin door somewhere below decks on the Yellow Rose.

SUBTITLE (1): Camera footage taken by Barron Jr., son of Barron Sr.

Translation (1): Filmagem feita por Barron Jr., filho do Sr. Barron

Panel 2: We see past the door into the interior of a cabin. Phoebe, evidently surprised while changing into a bikini, is holding her as-yet-unfastened bikini top over her breasts with one arm, while charging forward and reaching for the door with her other. She wears an appropriately angry expression.

Panel 2: We see past the door into the interior of a cabin. Phoebe, evidently surprised while changing into a bikini, is holding her as-yet-unfastened bikini top over her breasts with one arm, while charging forward and reaching for the door with her other. She wears an appropriately angry expression.

Phoebe (2): Get out of here, you little pervert!

Translation (2): Saia daí, seu depravado!

Panel 3: View of a gangway, leading up to the deck.

Panel 4: View off the deck of the Yellow Rose. We can see the rail on the side of the deck, beyond that the ocean, and beyond that in the distance the trees and hills of the Island of Motofupo.

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A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Aprenda português XVI: A Isca 015

Barron Petrobux tinha uma bela esposa e um filha, e mais dinheiro do que poderia desejar.

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PAGE 15 (Two panels)

Panel 1: A family picture of the Petrobuxs, Texas oil billionaires, taken around 1980. At the center are BARRON PETROBUX SR. (“Barron Sr.”), and his wife PEONY. Barron Sr. is a corpulent man in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, string tie with a diamond slider. Peony is a woman dressed in overly expensive clothes for the period, clearly once very beautiful and now someone who spends time fighting oncoming middle age and it shows. Flanking them are the Petrobux daughter Phoebe, a beautiful and well-developed girl of about 16 in this photograph, smiling brilliantly, and BARRON JR., a somewhat sullen-looking boy about ten years old in this picture who is holding his most-prized possession, a high-end Super 8 movie camera (camcorders not being commercially available before 1984). Barron Jr. should have a Distinctive Feature that will enable us to identify him as the same person at later ages than he is in this photograph. What it is can be up to the artist, but should be reasonably recognizable: a scar, a cowlick that won’t go away, a droopy eyelid, something like that. There should be labels indicating the names of the four people in the photograph.

CAPTION – PSUEDO-NARRATION (1): In 1981, Barron Petrobux Sr. was a Texas oil and real-estate billionaire and an important figure in state and national Republican party politics. He had a famously beautiful wife, Peony and daughter, Phoebe, and a young son passionately interested in making movies, Barron Jr.

Translation (1): CAPTION – PSUEDO-NARRATION (1): Em 1981, Barron Petrobux era um bilionário da indústria petroleira do Texas e uma figura importante na política estadual e nacional pelo Partido Republicano. Ele tinha uma linda esposa, Peony, e uma filha, Phoebe, além de um filho apaixonado por cinema e filmagens, Barron Jr.

Panel 2: A view of the Yellow Rose, the Petrobux family yacht, a big, expensive, tastelessly well-appointed vessel, traveling through the sea.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Petrobux was also the proud owner of one of the largest private yachts in the world at the time.

Translation (2): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Petrobux também era o orgulhoso proprietário de um dos maiores iates privativos do mundo na época.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): The beautiful waters and beaches around Motofupo had been declared a restricted zone by the U.S. Navy, but exceptions to the restrictions would be made for a man of Petrobux’s political influence.

Translation (3): CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): As lindas águas e praias do litoral de Motofupo foram declaradas zonas restritas pela marinha dos EUA, mas abriam-se exceções à ordem para homens com a influência política de Petrobux.

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A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Aprenda português XV: A Isca 014

O desaparecimento de belas enfermeiras foi mantido em segredo pela marinha.

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PAGE 14 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Hazel in interview pose, now slumped backwards.

Hazel (1): And she wasn’t the only one. Two more of us also disappeared in almost exactly the same way.

Translation (1): E ela não foi a única. Outras duas enfermeiras também desapareceram, exatamente da mesma maneira.

Panel 2: A fat folder containing official reports, sealed and with a large stenciled word CLASSIFIED stamped across it.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): The Navy ordered us not to talk about it. They said it would be bad for morale.

Translation (2): A Marinha nos instruiu a não comentarmos os fatos. Disseram que seria ruim para o moral.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (3): People asked fewer questions about orders back then, you know.

Translation (3): As pessoas raramente questionavam esse tipo de ordem na época, você sabe.

Panel 3: A panel showing the Bride’s dive in the water, as if taken from the Scelleratini film of 1905, a split second after the scene on Page 5, Panel 4 above, such that the Bride has broken the surface of the water, and has submerged down to her waist.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): I tried not to think of it much myself, but in the late 1970s, I think, I saw a film clip of film made by some Italian people of the same place from long, long ago. I think it was on PBS late at night.

Comment (4): “PBS” stands for “Public Broadcasting System,” an American television network funded by a combination of government, corporate, and listener contributions. It has a focus on education and high-culture television and is not sponsored by advertisers like most of the rest of American broadcast television.

Translation (4): CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): Eu tentei não pensar muito sobre isto, mas no final dos anos 1970, eu acho, vi um videoclipe feito por uns italianos no mesmo local, há muito, muito tempo. Acho que foi na PBS, de madrugada.

Panel 4: A panel showing a front page of the Dallas Morning News for Tuesday, October 6, 1981. A large part of the front page would be a posed formal picture of PHOEBE PETROBUX (a very pretty and probably blond teenager, who we’ll see more of below) under the headline TEXAS TEEN STILL MISSING IN SOUTH PACIFIC. (Possible filler headlines, taken from real world history for that day that could be included for verisimilitude, could be RAOUL WALLERBERG MADE HONORARY U.S. CITIZEN and REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION).

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): And then we all read that terrible story about the poor girl from Texas.

Translation (5): Depois todos lemos a terrível história daquela pobre garota do Texas.

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