Apprendre le français LXXXV: Appât Page 96

Une offre bizarre est inévitablement effectuée.

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PAGE 96 (Two panels)

Panel 1: Chiba and three other Japanese aquarium girls (GIRL #1, GIRL #2, and GIRL #3) are sitting around a table eating lunch. Chiba is reading a letter.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): A few days later, Chiba receives a special-delivery letter.

Translation (1): Quelques jours plus tard, Chiba reçoit une lettre qui lui est remise en main propre.

Chiba (2): 手紙には、とても裕福な寄付者が、観客1人の一度限りのとても特別なショーのお返しとして、海事センターに新館を提供すると書かれています。

Girl #1 (3): チバ、本当にはいと返事するつもりですか?

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (4): The letter says that a very wealthy donor will give the Marine Center a new wing in return for a very special, one-time-only show with an audience of one.

Translation (4): La lettre indique qu’un donateur très riche construira un nouveau bâtiment dans le centre en échange d’un spectacle très spécial, avec un public composé d’une seule personne.

SUBTITLE – GIRL #1 (5): Chiba, are you really going to say yes?

Translation (5): Chiba, allez-vous vraiment accepter ?

Panel 2: Chiba, holding the letter to her breast and her eyes closed, looking very happy.

Chiba (6): はい。

Girl #2 (7): あなたには、本当にワクワクさせられま!

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (8): Yes.

Translation (8): Oui.

SUBTITLE – GIRL #2 (9): We are so excited for you!

Translation (9): Nous sommes si heureux pour vous !

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Hot Women’s Planetary Defense Corps

Fantastic Adventures published between 1939 and 1953 and rarely stinted on the sexy in its covers, as this cover by Walter Popp (1920-2002) shows, albeit perhaps a bit more subtly than many similar covers in its genre.

Interior art by Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990) illustrating Rog Phillips’s story “The Man who Lived Twice” contributes a definite Erotic Mad Science feel.

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

Hat tip to Pulp Covers for bringing this issue to my attention.

Apprendre le français LXXXIV: Appât Page 95

Quelle curieuse forme de compassion !

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PAGE 95 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Still being interviewed, Chiba is smiling, reaching out with her right index finger to touch the tip of a tentacle that is protruding above the surface of the water.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (1): 本気で言っているとは思えません!

Chiba (2): どうしてですか?

SUBTITLE – INTERVIEWER (3): You can’t be serious!

Translation (3): Vous plaisantez, non ?!

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (4): Why not?

Translation (4): Pourquoi pas ?

Panel 2: Chiba is standing up, pulling her tank-top off so that her arms and the inside of the top are lifted up over her head. She is braless underneath.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (5): だって…

Chiba (6): 本当に単純なことです。

SUBTITLE – INTERVIEWER (7) : But…

Translation (7): Mais…

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (8): It is really very simple.

Translation (8): C’est vraiment très simple.

Panel 3: Chiba dropping her shorts. In the panel they are still around her ankles but she is now otherwise naked.

Chiba (9): 思いやりの心に従って行動できないのなら、我々は生きるに値しません。

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (10): If we cannot act on compassion, then we do not deserve to live.

Translation (10): Si la compassion ne guide pas nos actes, nous ne méritons pas de vivre.

Panel 4: A column of water on the surface of the tank where Chiba has dived in.

SFX – CHIBA JUMPING IN (11): Splash !

Translation (11): SPLASH !

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Early comics tube-girl appearance

Otherwise little-known superhero “the Purple Mask” is apparently about to save our heroine from being fired as an artillery shell by a bunch of Nazis. Why are they doing this? Perhaps firing women as artillery shells is just how comic-book Nazis relax after a hard day’s oppressing the subject peoples of Europe, although personally I think it would be a more interesting story if they had a mad scientist on their side who had figured out some way of using pretty women as effective munitions. In any event, this is a cover done by Alex Schomburg (1905-1998). Daring Mystery Comics was a short-lived (8 issues) series put out by Timely Comics between 1940-1942. Hat-tip to the podcast Comics in the Golden Age, whose twitter feed @ComicsintheGA brought my attention to this cover.

Apprendre le français LXXXIII: Appât Page 94

Chiba se sent désolée pour la pauvre créature affamée.

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PAGE 94 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Close-up of Chiba’s bare legs dangling in the tank.

CAPTION – CHIBA NARRATING (1): 何ヶ月もずっと彼の近くにいると、彼の気持ちがわかってくるのです。

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATION (2): Having been close to him for all these months, I feel that I can feel what he feels.

Translation (2): Étant proche de la créature depuis des mois, j’ai l’impression de pouvoir ressentir ce qu’elle ressent.

Panel 2: Chiba’s legs in the tank again. A tentacle has come up and is playing among her toes.

CAPTION – CHIBA NARRATING (4): 彼は悲しい、とてもお腹が空いたと思っています。私のことを食い尽くしたいと思っているのです。

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATION (5): And what he feels is sad and very hungry. He wants to eat me so very badly.

Translation (5): Et elle ressent de la tristesse et de la faim. Elle a un besoin pressant de me manger.

Panel 3: Same as Panel 2, except that now the tentacle has wrapped around her ankle.

CAPTION – CHIBA NARRATING (6): 彼には本当に申し訳なく思っています。

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATION (7): I feel so sorry for him.

Translation (7): J’en suis tellement désolée.

Panel 4: Same as Panel 3, except that here the tentacle was wrapped around a little way up Chiba’s leg.

CAPTION – CHIBA NARRATING (8): 彼に自分を食べさせてやりたい、もし許されるなら、彼に食べてもらいたいと思います。

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATION (9): I would let him eat me, if they would let me let him eat me.

Translation (9): Je voudrais qu’elle me mange, s’ils l’autorisaient.

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Deadly shudder pulp two-fer

I summoned Doctor Death by Ralson Shields.

It’s unfortunate racial tropes ahoy in this interior illustration taken from the February 1937 edition of Dime Mystery Magazine (honestly, I just don’t think we’re any poorer for not having the word “Negress” in common use). A beautiful and helpless woman is up for some procedure. The illustration is (I think) by Monroe Eisenberg (1914-1999). It’s his style, although Amos Sewell also contributed interior art to this issue and his style can be close.

What with all the material in the comics about women becoming (or un-becoming) art it seemed worthwhile to throw in another illustration from that theme:

His Avenging Muse by Emerson Graves.

That’s a nice use of implied nudity, among other things.

The cover was another painting by Tom Lovell, and it certainly suggests dirty work afoot.

Dime Mystery Magazine, February 1937.

This issue of Dime Mystery Magazine is available to be read at or downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Apprendre le français LXXXII: Appât Page 93

Le monstre a été baillonné, de sorte qu'il ne puisse plus dévorer de femmes.

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PAGE 93 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Another interview segment. Here Chiba sits on the lip of the tank. She has changed from her white swimsuit to a tank-top and shorts. She is dangling her bare feet in the tank’s water.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (1): 食べられないかと、怖くなりませんか?

Chiba (2): いいえ、その対策はされています。

SUBTITLE – INTERVIEWER (3): You’re not afraid of being eaten?

Translation (3): Vous n’avez pas peur d’être mangée ?

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (4): No, they’ve taken care of that.

Translation (4): Non, ils ont pris soin de cela.

Panel 2: An underwater robot, with grabbers, two holding on to the Creature’s feeding siphon and another pair holding some sort of giant cuff-ring.

CAPTION – CHIBA NARRATING (5): 何ヶ月もずっと彼の近くにいると、彼の気持ちがわかってくるのです。

CAPTION – CHIBA TRANSLATION (6): They put some sort of collar on his feeding siphon. No more girls for him.

Translation (6): Ils ont mis une sorte de collier sur le siphon qui lui sert à s’alimenter. La créature ne dévore plus de femmes.

Panel 3: Chiba being interviewed.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (7): それは安心ですね。

Chiba (8): 実際には、悲しい気持ちになります。

SUBTITLE – INTERVIEWER (9): That must make you feel relieved.

Translation (9): Vous devez vous sentir soulagée.

SUBTITLE – CHIBA (10): Actually, it makes me feel sad.

Translation (10): En fait, cela m’attriste.

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