Liquid Man

We’ve done a lot of liquid girls here at Erotic Mad Science, so why not some liquid man? Especially if there’s some imperiled dame tied up in the background? This cover of the September 1941 issue is by Robert Fuqua. Interior art could be a bit thin in some issues of Fantastic Adventures, but this illustration to John Broome’s story “The Pulsating Planet” is pretty dynamic:

This is work (probably) by Albert Magarian (unk.-1991), the husband of the unfortunate Florence Magarian whom we met a few posts back. My “probably” in attribution is because husband and wife were very close collaborators, so this work might reflect contributions by Florence as well. (And I must reflect that Albert lived on for 31 years after Florence died in a mental institution. I…)

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

Aprender español V: Carnada 004

Los hermanos Scelleratini viajan a los mares del sur para filmar un rito pagano obsceno.

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PAGE 4 (Four panels)

(Note: The panels on this page should be sepia-toned, a visual indicator of the age of the photographic and cinematic material they are meant to represent.)

Panel 1: Two Italian men, ENZO SCELLERATINI (“Enzo”) and GUIDO SCELLERATINI (“Guido”) absurdly overdressed for their environment stand in coats, bow-ties, and bowler hats, posed on a beach with an old-fashioned, crank-operated movie camera. (Note: Both men have somewhat silly handlebar mustaches.)

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): In 1905, Italian brothers Enzo and Guido Scelleratini, following up on sailors’ rumors of a strange native cult on the South Seas island of Motofupo, went there with a movie camera in hopes of finding something unusual.

Translation (1): En 1905, los hermanos italianos Enzo y Guido Scelleratini, siguiendo los rumores de los marineros sobre un extraño culto indígena de la isla de Motofupo, en los mares del sur, fueron hasta allí con una cámara de cine con la esperanza de encontrar algo raro.

Panel 2: A group of attractive young Polynesian-looking women dressed in muumuuu-like garments reaching into a sack together to draw something out.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): In spite of the fact that their rituals were rumored to include human sacrifice, the indigenous people proved friendly and allowed the Scelleratini brothers to film them and one of those very rituals.

Translation (2): Aunque se rumoreaba que sus rituales incluían sacrificios humanos, los habitantes indígenas demostraron ser amigables y permitieron que los hermanos Scelleratini los filmaran a ellos y a uno de esos rituales.

Panel 3: Close up of two hands of different young women in the panel. One holds a white stone, another a black stone.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): The first part of the ritual was a selection process to pick specific young women to be given to a “God of the Deeps” in marriage.

Translation (3): La primera parte del ritual fue un proceso de selección de ciertas jóvenes mujeres para darlas en matrimonio a un “dios de las profundidades”.

Panel 4: One young woman of the Motofupo people (“the Bride”), cradling a stone, a beatific expression.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): According to observers and apparent on the film was that the young women so selected did not seem distressed. They instead seemed pleased and honored.

Translation (4): Según los observadores y lo que se puede ver en la película, las jóvenes elegidas no parecían estar afligidas. Al contrario, parecían sentirse contentas y honradas.

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Carnada (Español/Versión deslizante)

Girls versus ray guns

In November 1952, Science Fiction Publications, Inc. started a short-lived magazine called Science Fiction Adventures, commissioning H.R. Van Dongen (1920-2010) to do a “girl stalked by ray-gun” theme.

Well, not bad, but not enough to keep the magazine going for more than nine issues (until May 1954).

Then when Royal Publications tried launching another magazine with the same title in 1956, they decided to push the girl-versus-ray-gun thing, and this time hired Ed Emshwiller to go all-out and really light up those nipples this time.

In spite of also having a short story (“Hadj”) by Harlan Ellison in the first issue, this one didn’t last all that long either, eleven issues folding after June 1958.

The first issues of both the first version and the second version of Science Fiction Adventures are available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprender español IV: Carnada 003

Hay algo que le encanta a Eliza Fanshaw por encima de todo: ¡el sexo!

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PAGE 3 (Four panels)

Panel 1: ELIZA FANSHAW (“Eliza”) sits in a big wicker chair in a kind of hippie-ish apartment. She’s a bubbly-sexy blond girl. She wears thin cotton tie-dyed shirt that stretches a bit over her breasts (she’s obviously braless) and a floral skirt and sandals. Her posture indicates she’s being interviewed.

Eliza (1): People ask me, “What on earth do you think you’re doing, Eliza?” and “Don’t you know you have your whole life ahead of you?”

Comment (1): The material in quotation marks are things that Eliza has been hearing about her plans and which she is quoting back to the interviewer. The expression “what on earth” is a figurative expression meant to express incredulity or surprise. It shouldn’t be translated literally – substitute an equivalent expression if one exists in the target language.

Translation (1): La gente me pregunta: “¿Qué demonios crees que estás haciendo, Eliza?” y “¿No sabes que tienes toda la vida por delante?”

Eliza (2): And I see their point but, the thing is, about me…

Translation (2): Y entiendo su punto de vista pero, lo cierto es que yo…

SUBTITLE (3): Eliza Fanshaw, prospective subject.

Translation (3): Eliza Fanshaw, sujeto potencial de estudio.

Panel 2: Close-up on Eliza’s smiling face, which should emphasize that she has a cute little snub nose.

Eliza (4): …is that I think thing that the most amazing about being alive…

Translation (4): … creo que lo más maravilloso de la vida…

Eliza (5): … is sex!

Translation (5): … ¡es el sexo!

Panel 3: View of Eliza (in very soft focus, to the point that we can scarcely identify her as Eliza) naked, seen from behind on top of a guy).

CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (6): I’m not supposed to say things like this, but ever since I was fifteen, I have been seeking out sexual adventure.

Comment (6): “Ever since I was fifteen” is short for “ever since I was fifteen years old.”

Translation (6): Se supone que no debo decir cosas así, pero desde que tená quince años, he estado buscando aventuras sexuales.

CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (7): I’ve even acted in some experimental adult films, just to see what it would be like.

Comment (7): “Adult films” here is a semi-euphemism for pornographic films, or at least films with explicit sexual content.

Translation (7): Incluso he actuado en algunas películas experimentales para adultos, sólo para probar cómo sería.

Panel 4: Eliza, back in the same pose as in Panel 1.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (8): And what was it like?

Translation (8): ¿Y qué tal, cómo fue?

Eliza (9): It was awesome!

Translation (9): ¡Fue maravilloso!

Eliza (10): But I don’t think anything could compare with those movies I saw in Anthro.

Comment (10): “Anthro.” This is a colloquial way for Eliza to say that she saw the movies in a college-level class in Anthropology.

Translation (10): Pero creo que no hay nada que pueda compararse con esas películas que vi en un curso de antropología de nivel universitario.

  Carnada (Español/Versión de página larga)
Carnada (Español/Versión deslizante)

Produced in the ring

The cover illustration to the April 1943 edition of Fantastic Adventures is classic erotic mad science and was executed by the great Malcolm Smith (1910-1960), who some readers here might remember as the creator of one of the best early tube-girl images.

This issue has its share of decent interior art images, such as this one, sadly uncredited, to Harold Lawley’s story “Daughters of Darkness.”

But a favorite is this one by Florence Magarian (1912-1960), illustrating E.K. Jarvis’s novelette “The Curse of Many Hands.”

It’s decent supernatural femme peril, but what really struck me was the short biographical paragraph offered to Mrs. Magarian at the ISFDB.

Florence Lillian See graduated Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles and attended the Otis Art Institute, where she met and married Albert Ararat Magarian on May 25, 1937, in Los Angeles. During the 1940s the Magarians worked as interior artists for magazines published by Ziff-Davis Productions in Chicago. Constant fear of losing her husband to service in World War II and the demanding workload of their career caused Florence to suffer a nervous breakdown. She spent the rest of her life in and out of the mental institution at Alton, Illinois, where she passed away in 1960.

Many artists have sad life stories, but this one struck me as unusually poignant.

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

Aprender español III: Carnada 002

El RV Seagoon se mueve en mares inciertos en una misión extraña.

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PAGE 2 (Splash page)

Single panel: Helicopter view of the RV Seagoon, plowing through turquoise sea against the backdrop of a brilliant tropical sunrise. The RV Seagoon is a good-sized vessel, with an extended midsection that appears to contain some sort of giant tank. There is also a crane of sorts on deck.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): What is it that Professor Eustace Turpentine is proposing that so disturbs Captain Drummingdale?

Translation (1): ¿Qué es lo que propone el profesor Eustace Turpentine que tanto le molesta al capitán Drummingdale?

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Only one of the strangest and most significant scientific adventures yet recorded.

Translation (2): Nada más que una de las aventuras científicas más extrañas y significativas registradas hasta la fecha.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): And we document it here for you for the first time!

Translation (3): ¡Y la documentaremos aquí para ti por primera vez!

  Carnada (Español/Versión de página larga)
Carnada (Español/Versión deslizante)

New York has an insect problem

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It is the rule in pulp: no one and nothing is more interesting to a bizarre creature than a comely female human, and this cover by of the February 1940 Fantastic Adventures by Robert Fuqua (1905-1959) exemplifies the rule. I think it is probably illustrating Bertrand L. Shurtleff’s story “New York Fights the Termanites,”, although an interior an interior illustration by Julian S. Krupa (1913-1989) suggests a different conception of the beasties.

It looks like a pretty normal rush-hour on the 6 train to me.

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