Hello Toffee!

The fantasy and sci-fi magazine Imaginative Tales had a run from 1954 to 1958, and while it was often fairly cheesecakey (“Devastating H-Bomb redhead ‘Toffee'” was an imagined character living inside the head of a fictional protagonist) it would go on to feature original fiction by Robert Bloch, Philip K. Dick, Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Toffee was illustrated by pulp great Harold McCauley, who also drew some racy sketches for the back pages:

This issue is available to be read and downloaded at the Internet Archive.

Aprender español VIII: Carnada 007

La película del sacrificio de la joven escandaliza a toda Europa y la prohíben.

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PAGE 7 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Enzo in a suit, standing at the front door of an Italian cinema, proudly gesturing with his cane at a promotional placard which reads “Venite a vedere una bellissima ragazza dei tropici venir mangiata viva in un orribile rituale pagano!“

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers had hoped, on their return to Italy, to make a small fortune exhibiting their remarkable footage to the public.

Translation (1): Los hermanos Scelleratini esperaban que, a su regreso a Italia, pudieran ganarse una pequeña fortuna presentando su extraordinaria película al público.

Panel 2: KING VICTOR EMMANUEL III sitting at an ornate desk in his royal study, signing a piece of paper.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Unfortunately for them, their film was banned by an edict signed by King Victor Emmanuel III himself. The Lord Chancellor in England and the Chief Prefect of Police in France took similar actions.

Translation (2): Desafortunadamente para ellos, su película fue prohibida por un decreto firmado por el rey Víctor Manuel III. El Lord Canciller de Inglaterra y el Jefe de policía en Francia tomaron medidas similares.

Translation (3): Los dos hermanos Scelleratini murieron en la pobreza.

Panel 3: BENITO MUSSOLINI, sitting in his private cinema, watching something. Mussolini’s face is illuminated by reflected light from the screen. He looks disgusted and outraged.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): In 1927, Italy’s Fascist Grand Council would declare the film a menace to public morality and order all copies of it destroyed.

Translation (4): En 1927, el Gran Consejo Fascista de Italia declaró la película una amenaza para la moral pública y dispuso la destrucción de todas las copias.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (5): What the Scelleratini brothers documented would pass out of memory…

Translation (5): Lo que documentaron los hermanos Scelleratini quedaría en el olvido…

Panel 4: Exterior view of the Cineteca di Bologna (drawn or incorporated as a “comicked up” photograph).

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (6): But at least one print of the film escaped the destruction order, and in 1977, a researcher found that print in the archives of the Cineteca di Bologna, where it had been misfiled, possibly on purpose.

Translation (6); Pero al menos una copia de la película se salvó de orden de destrucción y, en 1977, un investigador la encontró en los archivos de la Cineteca di Bologna, donde la habían archivado incorrectamente, quizás a propósito.

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New Grindbin appearance: Torso

An imagined poster for _Torso_ (1973) done Lucy Fidelis.

Presentation art for Torso by Lucy Fidelis.

I am pleased as punch to be able to announce another Grindbin podcast appearance. For this one I actually went out to Los Angles to do an in-person recording with Mike Wood and Chris Mann on Sergio Martino’s I corpi persentano tracce violenza carnale, released in English as Torso (1973). A most curious movie, said to be Martino’s favorite in his long and productive career. A prototype of the slasher film, it still has deep roots in giallo. You can access the podcast via this link or simply subscribe to the podcast by searching for “Grindbin” on your podcast app of choice. As with some of my other past appearances on Grinbin, I am also publishing my notes for episode. I hope you can tune in and enjoy.

Ahh! She’s hideous!

The title of the magazine apparently isn’t Future Science Fiction (isn’t science fiction almost always about the future…or is it perhaps science fiction that will be published in the future?) bur rather a merger of two magazines, Future and Science Fiction which together had a decent run from 1939 to 1960. The cover illustration by Ed Emshwiller inverts the general principal that a female human is the most attractive thing to all sentient beings. (That makes good evolutionary sense. If you’re a member of a sexually reproducing species, shouldn’t you be attracted to entities showing characteristics of your own species?)

Interior art is a little thin, but this full-page illustration by Paul Orban (1896-1974) for Jay Leache’s story “The Pity of the Wood” isn’t bad.

Paul Orban illustration in Future Science Fiction, February 1959.

This issue is available to be read and downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Aprender español VII: Carnada 006

¡La hermosa jovencita indígena se entrega en sacrificio a un monstruo marino!

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PAGE 6 (Four panels)

(Note: These panels should be in sepia)

Panel 1: View of the Bride in the water, swimming upright but entirely below the surface (we can just see her as blurry outlines).

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers’ film technology might have been primitive, but it captured something remarkable.

Translation (1): Por más primitiva que fuera la tecnología cinematográfica de los hermanos Scelleratini, logró capturar algo extraordinario.

Panel 2: View of the Bride, still in the water, with a few tentacles reaching out from the depths to touch her.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): It was something like an alien encounter…

Translation (2): Fue algo así como un encuentro con un extraterrestre…

Panel 3: The Bride now enmeshed in a roiling mass of tentacles.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): …or even a mating.

Translation (3): … o incluso un apareamiento.

Panel 4; The surface of the waters. The Bride is no longer visible. A few bubbles are breaking through the surface.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): It was an encounter from which one of the parties would never return.

Translation (4): Fue un encuentro del que una de las partes no regresaría jamás.

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Women creators

As long as we’re doing some role reversals here…

A lady scientist (mad I hope!) graces the October 1943 cover of Fantastic Adventures. She was painted by Robert Gibson Jones (1889-1969). The story which I believe it is illustrating, Frank Patton’s “Jewels of the Toad,” has an interior illustration by Virgil Finaly, which is typically exquisite.

Women creating seems to have been a theme for this issue. Florence Magarian was called upon to do an illustration for Don Wilcox’s “World of Paper Dolls,” about a girl who makes people. (The image below is my composite across two pages).

Mrs. Magarian also illustrated William P. McGiven’s “Tink fights the Gremlins,” a story that has (apparently) painting fairies.

This issue is available for reading and download at the Internet Archive.

Be warned, however, that this issue contains a story titled “Mystery of the Creeping Underwear.” No joke.

Aprender español VI: Carnada 005

Una bella mujer desnuda salta a las profundidades misteriosas.

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PAGE 5 (Four panels)

(Note: Still in sepia)

Panel 1: A long Polynesian outrigger canoe, being rowed through the surf by muscular young men. Standing implausibly in the middle of the canoe is Enzo, his movie camera rigged on a tripod somehow, cranking away and filming some scene he can see from the canoe.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers were even invited along to film the “wedding.”

Translation (1): Los indígenas incluso invitaron a los hermanos Scelleratini a filmar la “boda”.

Panel 2: View of another outrigger canoe, also rowed by strong young men. The Bride sits in the bow of the canoe, gazing out to sea.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): The people rowed out to a spot of ocean known to be over a deep oceanic trench.

Translation (2): Los habitantes remaron hasta a un lugar del océano conocido por estar sobre una profunda fosa oceánica.

Panel 3: The Bride now stands in the bow of the canoe. She has removed her muumuu and is naked, holding her muumuu over her head so that it trails behind her in the wind. She is wearing a beatific expression.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Those involved seemed to regard the entire proceeding as a blessed occasion.

Translation (3): Las personas involucradas parecían considerar todo ese proceso una ocasión bendecida.

Panel 4: The Bride in mid-dive off the bow of the canoe into the ocean.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): The “bride” seemed to be acting of her own free will.

Translation (4): La “novia” parecía actuar por su propia voluntad.

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