“Bubbles” by inksGirls. Republished with permission from the artist.
One more by inksGirls, and a image on a theme which I find rather appealing myself. (And don’t forget the sequel. And the spinoff animation!) The original image can be found at inksGirls’s pixiv site.
You can follow inksGirls on twitter at @inksGirls and also DeviantArt as inksGirls. And if you like the art enough, please support inksGirls on Patreon, as I do.
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.
As with her earlier appearance I’ve made Margot available in high resolution. Click on the image to display or right-click to download.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
PAGE 33 (Two panels)
Panel 1: Probably smaller inset above. Eliza and Daphne meeting in an office somewhere, shaking hands somewhat tentatively.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (1): Eventually, we were down to two candidates, one to serve in the principal attempt and the second as an alternate.
Translation (1): Alla fine, eravamo scesi a due candidate, una da utilizzare nel tentativo principale e la seconda come sostituta.
Eliza (2): Uh, hi!
Translation (2): Uh, ciao!
Daphne (3): How do you do.
Comment (3): The English phrase “how do you do” is often conflated with “how are you?” but this is incorrect. “How do you do” is not an inquiry after someone’s health or metnal state the way “how are you?” might be. Rather, it is a form of greeting used by someone of formal manners or high social status when introduced to someone for the first time. One responds to “how do you do” with “how do you do.” It should be translated accordingly.
Translation (3): Salve.
Panel 2: Eliza and Daphne sitting at a table in a richly-appointed conference room of a major law firm. Across from them sit some serious-looking lawyers. Eliza is signing something.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): We had them sign agreements of various kinds: consents to the procedure, agreements to prominent mention in all publications related to the project, and also contracts with compensation of a sort: a charity of each’s choosing would get a contribution of $1,000,000 upon each’s completion of her…contribution.
Translation (4): Gli abbiamo fatto firmare accordi di vario genere: consensi alla procedura, accordi ad essere menzionate in modo preminente in tutte le pubblicazioni relative al progetto e anche contratti con un tipo di compenso: un ente di beneficenza per ciascuna prescelta otterrebbe un contributo di $ 1,000,000 dopo il completamento del suo… contributo.
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A brief bit of inksGirls storytelling using an image sequence, the shrinking trope, and a touch of mad science. For post compactness I’ve arranged them in a slider. The original images can be found at inksGirls’s pixiv site.
You can follow inksGirls on twitter at @inksGirls and also DeviantArt as inksGirls. And if you like the art enough, please support inksGirls on Patreon as I do.
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 32 (Single panel page – do in color)
Single panel: A girl swimming partly upright underwater in a giant (at least 6 meters high and 4 meters in diameter) cylindrical glass tank. She is wearing a utilitarian one-piece swimsuit, to which various “tentacle” attachments have been made at various places, including at the breasts and between her legs. Her face is covered with an attachment rather like the “mask” that covered Phoebe Petrobux’s face in her last appearance above the surface. Beneath the swimming girl’s feet there is a large tube similar to the feeding siphon the creature is believed to have. Off to the right of the panel a white-coated scientist is operating a control panel with a variety of levers and dials. To the left, another scientist watches monitors and keeps notes.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (1): Those women who got through the initial rounds of the process went through a simulation test.
Translation (1): Quelle donne che hanno superato i round iniziali del processo hanno superato un test di simulazione.
CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (2): We don’t want subjects who will panic and struggle under field conditions.
Translation (2): Non vogliamo soggetti che si faranno prendere dal panico e che lotteranno in condizioni naturali.
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In hopes of spreading a bit of additional happiness in these difficult times I’ll be running a few images by a new artist discovery from over the weekend, inksGirls, who has a definite feel for shrinking, mad science (or magic) and transformations. The image above is Bottled, an example of the tube girl meme, which you can find on the artist’s DeviantArt site. You can also follow inksGirls on twitter at @inksGirls and also pixiv as inksGirls. And if you like the art enough, please support inksGirls on Patreon as I do.
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 31 (Four panels)
Panel 1: HARVEY ELIGOS (“Eligos”), an elegant-looking man with a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard and an expensive suit, sits across a polished wooden conference table in a conference room of a high-priced law firm. He is being interviewed. He looks and in control of his situation.
Unseen interviewer (1): We don’t understand about “non-suicidality.” Isn’t this a sort of suicide mission by definition?
Translation (1): Non capiamo di “non suicidalità”. Non è una specie di missione suicida per definizione?
Eligos (2): No.
Translation (2): No.
SUBTITLE (3): Harvey Eligos, J.D., Ph.D., legal psychologist and consultant.
Comment (3): I’m adding a comment because the meaning of Eligos’s postitial letters might not be obvious in all contexts. “J.D.” stands for juris doctor and represents the terminal degree awarded by most America law schools after a three-year course of study, In most American states, it is a prerequisite for taking a bar examination thus for being licensed to practice law. “Ph.D.” is short for philosophiae doctor and is a terminal degree awarded in American universities for completion of a program of advanced graduate study in an academic field and is generally regarded a prerequisite for a permanent appointment teaching in a university.
Translation (3): Harvey Eligos, J.D., Ph.D., psicologo legale e consulente.
Panel 2: Harvey, still in control, continuing his response to the interviewer.
Eligos (4): To be suicidal means wanting to end one’s life, and that’s what the testing on this project was meant to screen out.
Translation (4): Essere suicidi vuol dire voler terminare la propria vita, ed è quello che i test su questo progetto hanno voluto escludere.
Eligos (5): Accepting the end of one’s life as a side-effect of achieving a higher goal, that’s not suicide.
Translation (5): Accettare la fine della propria vita come un effetto collaterale del raggiungimento di un obiettivo più alto, non è un suicidio.
Unseen interviewer (6): We still don’t understand.
Translation (6): Continuiamo a non capire.
Panel 3: View of a dead United States Marine (WWII era), lying face down in the mud, his rifle and various battle detritus strew about his corpse.
CAPTION – ELIGOS NARRATING (7): Suppose a Marine throws himself on a live grenade, sacrificing his own life to save those of his fellow Marines. Would we call that a suicide? Of course not. He nobly sacrificed his life to achieve a higher goal.
Comment (7): “A Marine,” that is a member of the United States Marine Corps, a land-combat branch of the United States Navy.
Translation (7): Supponiamo che un Marine si lanci su una granata dal vivo, sacrificando la propria vita per salvare quella dei suoi compagni Marines. Lo chiameremmo un suicida? Ovviamente no. Ha nobilmente sacrificato la sua vita per raggiungere un obiettivo più alto.
Panel 4: Close-up on Eligos’s face.
Eligos (8): These researchers were looking for subjects interested in the higher goal of advancing science, among other things.
Translation (8): Questi ricercatori erano alla ricerca di soggetti interessati al più alto obiettivo di far progredire la scienza, tra le altre cose.
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I do, however, have the pleasure of presenting a superior version of Monroe Eisenberg’s cover which I originally posted back in 2017. Looking under the cover, we find a rather nasty proto-A.S.F.R. story “Models for the Pain Sculptor” by “Russell Gray” (Bruno Fishcer). Here is my composite of introductory text and uncredited illustrations.
I’m not sure why the yellowing of the cheap pulp paper has proceeded at different rates on (supposedly) facing pages.
This issue of Horror Stories is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.
