This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 47 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Eliza, in her typical shirt and skirt getup, being interviewed in a cabin aboard the ship.
Eliza (1): Will I really go through with it? Of course I’m going through with it!
Translation (1): Ci riuscirò davvero? Certo andrò fino in fondo!
Panel 2: Eliza in another part of the ship, lifting a glass of water to her lips, presumably to help her down the capsule which Hiram, who is standing off to the side and leering slightly, has just given to her.
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (2): This is the ride of a lifetime. I’m not giving up that chance.
Translation (2): Questa è la corsa di una vita. Non rinuncio a questa possibilità.
Panel 3: Eliza getting an injection from Professor Turpentine.
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (3): I get to be the first woman to tell the world what this experience feels like.
Translation (3): Sarò la prima donna a dire al mondo cosa si prova in questa esperienza.
Panel 4: Eliza and Claudia walking down a narrow ship’s corridor. Claudia is explaining something to Eliza.
Claudia (4): Use your inner voice when you’re under, just like we practiced in the tank. The recording drones will be with you, but not too near.
Translation (4): Usa la tua voce interiore quando sei sotto, proprio come durante l’allenamento nel serbatoio. I droni di registrazione saranno con te, ma non troppo vicini.
Eliza (5): Got it.
Translation (5): Ho capito.
Esca (Italiano/Versione a pagina lunga)
Esca (Italiano/Versione con slider)
Another Virgil Finlay illustration for another canny acquisition by the editors of the October 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Their tagline gives a pretty good sense of what is going on. “When a stranger visited Peterville on an atomic holiday, every blessed molecule in the place went amiably insane.” The author of the story is William F. Temple (1914-1989), whom some of you might remember as the author of the woman-duplication story The Four-Sided Triangle, which was made into a 1953 movie by Hammer Studios which I reviewed way back in the early days of Erotic Mad Science. (I also blogged a French-language post for the movie here.)
Don’t worry about our nymph, by the way. In the world of the story she was always a statue, it’s just previously she was draped and now she has suddenly and mysteriously become undraped. And so now our scandalized townspeople are preparing to drape her in the flag, which I personally find very funny.
This issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories 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.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 46 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Turpentine has lifted away his right hand and is now looking down at the back of his left, where the coin is now resting.
Panel 2: Eliza and Daphne sitting next to one another, both wide-eyed in anticipation.
Panel 3: Extreme close-up of the coin resting on the back of Turpentine’s hand. It is Lady Liberty-side up.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE SPEAKING (1): It’s Lady Liberty.
Translation (1): È Lady Liberty.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE SPEAKING (2): It’s Eliza.
Translation (2): È Eliza.
Panel 4: Daphne and Eliza leaning over, giving each other a hug.
Daphne (3): Congratulations!
Translation (3): Complimenti!
Eliza (4): Thank you!
Translation (4): Grazie!
Esca (Italiano/Versione a pagina lunga)
Esca (Italiano/Versione con slider)
Another of the sharp acquisitions made by the editors of the October 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonders Stories was the story “Yesterday’s Doors” by Arthur J. Burks (1898-1974), who was something of a legend in pulp writing, a “million words a year man,” (although one pulp scholar estimates that his output was closer to two million words in many years)*. In addition to all his writing, he found time to serve as an officer in the United States Marine Corps in both world wars, retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Virgil Finlay, as he often was, contributed the story art.
This issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.
*See Robert Kenneth Jones, The Shudder Pulps: A History of the Weird Menace Magazines of the 1930s. (West Linn, OR: FAX Collector’s Editions, 1975), p. 83.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
I have made this page available in high resolution. Click to display or right-click to download.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 45 (Four panels)
Panel 1: Extreme close-up: view of the front of a 1907 Saint Gaudens double eagle held between Turpentine’s thumb and forefinger. (views of the front and reverse of this famous coin can be found at) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_eagle#/media/File:NNC-US-1907-G$20-Saint_Gaudens_(Roman,_high_relief).jpg (Accessed March 6, 2017)
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (1): If Lady Liberty comes up, then Eliza will be our first subject.
Translation (1): Se esce Lady Liberty, allora Eliza sarà il nostro primo soggetto.
Panel 2: Extreme close-up: view of the back of the same coin shown between Turpentine’s thumb and forefinger.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (2): If the eagle comes up, then Daphne will go first, and Eliza will be her backup.
Translation (2): Se esce l’aquila, Daphne andrà per prima, ed Eliza sarà il suo sostegno.
Panel 3: Turpentine, having flipped the coin, which can be seen in mid-air just past its arc, in mid turn as it spins (indicate with motion lines.
Panel 4: Turpentine, having caught the coin in his right hand and brought it down on the back of his left (also indicate with motion lines, and an action word, designated below:!)
ACTION WORD (Turpentine’s catching coin) (3): Catch!
Translation (3): Prendi!
Esca (Italiano/Versione a pagina lunga)
Esca (Italiano/Versione con slider)
The editors of Thrilling wonder Stories must have really been cooking with gas in the months running up to October 1948, because they had quite a line of authorial talent. One of their authors was John D. MacDonald (1916-1986). MacDonald would go on to become one of the most successful and distinguished writers of detective fiction of all time, but in 1948 has was struggling to make it in the pulps. One of the stories he sold was “That Mess Last Year,” which might be described as a witty and literate version of The Amazing Colossal Man. Out-of-control government science blows a man up to many times normal size, and it’s bad. Virgil Finlay contributed the story illustration.
This issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories 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.
If you want or need to, you can catch up on the entire story to date by either going to the first page and navigating through page-by-page using the arrows at the top, or you can read the story ten pages at a time by opening the Learning from Elders category on this site.