Impariamo l’italiano XXVI: Esca 027

Per catturare il mostro marino, ci vogliono delle esche.

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PAGE 27 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Turpentine and Claudia stand in front of the vague underwater image of the creature, illuminated with a lightbox as if it were an X-Ray. Both are wearing white coats. Turpentine is pointing to the large siphon-like structure.

Turpentine (1): So, I suppose this structure is actually a specialized feeding orifice.

Translation (1): Quindi, suppongo che questa struttura sia in realtà un orificio specializzato per l’alimentazione.

Claudia (2): When you’ve eliminated all the other possibilities, what remains, however implausible…

Translation (2): Quando hai eliminato tutte le altre possibilità, quello che rimane, per quanto poco plausibile…

Panel 2: Turpentine back in his office, being interviewed.

Turpentine (3): Combining what we know from the native folklore and observed behavior and morphology, we seem compelled to conclude that every nineteen years, this creature comes near the surface and wants to eat young women.

Translation (3): Combinando ciò che apprendiamo dal folclore dei nativi e dal comportamento e dalla morfologia osservati, sembra che siamo obbligati a concludere che ogni diciannove anni questa creatura si avvicina alla superficie e vuole mangiare giovani donne.

Panel 3: A closer-in view of the mass of tentacles in the underwater image.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): It enmeshes them in tentacles, stimulates them, and eats them. We have no idea why.

Translation (4): Le avvolge nei tentacoli, le stimola e le mangia. Non abbiamo idea del perché.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (5): Our methods to capture or closely study it have hitherto all failed.

Translation (5): I nostri metodi per catturarlo o studiarlo da vicino finora sono falliti.

Panel 4: Turpentine in his office, being interviewed.

Turpentine (6): We have been pushed to the conclusion that if you want to hook a fish, you have to have…bait.

Translation (6): Siamo arrivati alla conclusione che se vuoi agganciare un pesce, devi avere… un’esca.

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Valley of the clingy gowns

A priestess figure in a clingy diaphanous gown painted by Lawrence Sterne Stevens.

Larenence Sterne Stevens chopped a lot of wood for the August 1949 edition of Famous Fantastic Mysteries both painting this cover and contributing the interior illustrations for E.C. Vivian’s (1882-1947) story “The Valley of the Silent Men.” (There is additional art in the number contributed by Hannes Bok.) The clingy gown motif makes an interior appearance:

Interior art for an E.C. Vivian story, woman in a long clingy gown drawn by Lawrence Sterne Stevens.
“Empress of the world, were beauty given full rule, she smiled, her eyes challenging –“

Of course at times when the sacred fire burns brightly perhaps no gown at all is apropros…

Priestess ritual illustrated by Lawrence Stern Stevens.

This edition of Famous Fantastic Mysteries is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Learning from Elders: Chapter 8, Page 22

Dracula-like Uncle Luigi wanted his niece so badly.

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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.

Impariamo l’italiano XXV: Esca 026

La tecnologia prosegue la lotta contro il mostro tentacolare.

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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): Questa creatura, qualunque cosa sia, è altamente intelligente. Può facilmente eludere i normali metodi di acquisizione. Genera anche campi elettromagnetici e subsonici che interferiscono con le comunicazioni sottomarine. E arriva a tagliare anche i cavi di controllo.

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

Translation (2): Professor Eustace Trementina, Istituto di Innsmouth per la ricerca marina.

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): Ma di recente, l’intelligenza artificiale è avanzata al punto da poter produrre efficaci droni sottomarini autonomi.

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): La creatura lascia i droni da soli per qualche motivo. Questi droni possono anche penetrare nelle profonde trincee dove la creatura ama nascondersi.

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): Grazie a queste piccole macchine intelligenti, ora abbiamo un’idea della morfologia grossolana della creatura.

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Bimetal brassiere

A blond woman in a weird silver and gold brassiere painted by Lawrence Sterne Stevens for the cover of Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1949.

This woman and her weird brassiere were painted by Lawrence Sterne Stevens for the April 1949 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries, apparently in illustration of Edison Marshall’s (1894-1967) story “Dian of the Lost Land.” Ever-present Virgil Finlay presented his own idea of the same character in interior art.

A hot woman gestures at the moon in this Virgil Finlay illustration.
“I am the daughter of the Sun and the Moon. When either the Sun or the Moon is in the sky, no one may disobey me.”

This issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries is available to read or download at the Internet Archive.

Impariamo l’italiano XXIV: Esca 025

Forse la scienza può fare qualcosa per il mostro tentacolare.

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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): La Marina cercò nelle acque intorno alla macchia della scomparsa di Phoebe Petrobux ma non riuscì a trovare nulla.

Panel 2: Barron Sr., looking proundly 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 in lutto destinò gran parte della sua ricchezza alla creazione di una fondazione che studiasse e tentasse di catturare qualunque creatura aveva portato via sua figlia.

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): Dopo un intervallo di diciannove anni, nel 2000, una squadra di scienziati provò a ritrovare la creatura quando ci si aspettava di risorgesse.

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): I risultati della ricerca degli scienziati risultarono frustranti e non portarono ad alcuna conclusione.

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Angel Island

But first, a cover painting that is unfortunately timely.

A sexy woman draped over a scarlet planet earth, illustrating Jack London's story "The Scarlet Plague" and executed by Lawrence Sterne Stevens.

The cover painting is by Lawrence Sterne Stevens, who also contributed a number of illustrations of appealing angels to accompany feminist author and activist Inez Haynes Gillmore’s (1873-1970) story “Angel Island.”

Angels frolic in the moonlight in an illustration created by Lawrence Stern Stevens for Inez Haynes Gilmore's story "Angel Island."
An angel approached by a stranger.
“Suddenly the men got sound of her…the noise of her splashing covering their approach.”
An angel in a treetop.
“She lay there as she had fallen, caught in the topmost boughs of a high tree.”

This issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Impariamo l’italiano XXIII: Esca 024

Il Capitano MacMurdie spiega un errore commesso dalla Marina.

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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): Beh, è stato un grave errore, ecco di cosa si è trattato.

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): Capitano Carson MacMurdie, marinaio USA, in pensione.

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): Ci fu un’indagine sulla scomparsa di quelle infermiere nel 1943, ma la conclusione fu troppo strana e inquietante per farla circolare. Quindi il rapporto fu classificato top secret e l’area fu semplicemente chiusa.

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): Trentotto anni dopo, tutti avevano dimenticato il motivo per cui l’area era stata chiusa, e il rapporto era sepolto nelle profondità di qualche archivio della Marina. Chiunque fosse collegato all’indagine era morto o era andato via. Nessuno si prese la briga di riprendere i registri e controllare.

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): Così quando il signore Ricco e Potente si presentò e disse che voleva fare un giro in yacht in quelle acque, la Marina rispose “Sì, signore” e gli diede un permesso.

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

Translation (6): Peccato per la povera ragazza…

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