Another cover illustration for Startling Stories (July 1947) by Earle Bergey, for George O. Smith’s story “The Kingdom of the Blind.” There is additional art by an uncredited artist on the interior for the same story.
This issue of Startling Stories is available to be read and downloaded 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 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): El presidente Reagan sin duda hizo lo que quiso con esos matones del control de tráfico aéreo y su sindicato, ¿no?
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): Esperemos que pronto se haga cargo de esos negritos y sudacas.
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): Sal de aquí, hijo. Esta es una conversación entre adultos.
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…
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Startling Stories had a good long run between 1939 and 1955 and rarely skimped on the sexy on its covers (perhaps that’s why it had a good long run!). This cover was done by Earle Bergey. There’s a fair amount of interior art, for example this by Paul Orban.
This issue is available to read or 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 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): Imágenes tomadas por Barron Jr., hijo de Barron Sr.
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): ¡Fuera de aquí, degenerado!
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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I assume that her ray-gun’s atomic batteries must have run down because surely our heroine is smart enough to know that firing the ray gun normally makes more sense than using it as a club. This desperate situation was illustrated by Allen Anderson for the January 1952 issue of Planet Stories. The interior has yet another damsel in peril, done by A.M. Williams in illustration of a story “The Vanderkirk” by Margaret St. Clair
This issue is available to read or download at the Internet Archive.
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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 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): En 1981, Barron Petrobux Sr. era un magnate del petróleo y los bienes raíces de Texas, además de una figura importante en la política estatal y nacional del partido republicano. Tenía una esposa muy bella y famosa, Peony, una hija, Phoebe, y un hijo preadolescente apasionadamente interesado en hacer películas, 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): Petrobux también era el orgulloso propietario de uno de los yates privados más grandes del mundo en aquella 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): Las hermosas aguas y playas alrededor de Motofupo habían sido declaradas zona restringida por la Marina de los Estados Unidos, pero se hicieron excepciones a las restricciones para un hombre de la influencia política de Petrobux.
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Some of the sexiest space construction getups ever from the brush of Frank Kelly Freas for the September 1953 issue of Planet Stories. It’s hard to find good versions of this cover. The one at the ISFDB is brighter and in better shape, but smaller, as usual.
The interior has artwork by yet another great, Wally Wood, illustrating Hayden Howard’s story “The Un-Reconstructed Woman.” The naked wild woman seems to have occupied a large place in Wood’s consciousness.
This issue is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.