Just a little humor…!
(Published in The New Yorker some time in November of 1991. Not sure of the artist’s name.)
Month: May 2024
The Age of Advertising: “This Is Where I Belong” – The United States Army Air Force – September 7, 1943
Appearing after Nash-Kelvinator’s 1942 advertisement in The New York Times, which features an inspiring illustration of a B-17 Flying Fortress bombardier in the nose of his aircraft, here’s an ad that’s stylistically similar, but to a different purpose: Though it uses the visual symbol of an aviator – a bomber pilot – on a combat mission, the ad is for the military, rather than a corporation. Rather than validating the patriotism of a corporation, it seeks to persuade men to defend their country. And at that, it does a masterful job.
The advertisement – seeking candidates for pilot, navigator, and bombardier positions in the United States Army Air Force – which appeared in national newspapers in early September of 1943, the example below having been published in The New York Times on September 7.
The ad evokes purpose and achievement, within a context of teamwork. Patriotism is certainly implied, but that’s secondary to both challenge and adventure.
Following the verbal “hook” (a well-written and meaningful hook, at that!) forming the core of the advertisement, information is presented about the practical steps of entering the Army Air Corps for qualification as a Pilot, Bombardier, or Navigator.
The artwork, depicting a B-17 pilot, is by Robert L. Benney, who, during his very lengthy career as a professional artist, served as a civilian correspondent, focusing on military activity at Saipan and the Marianas Islands. Several powerful examples of Benney’s work – which has a very distinctive, clearly recognizable style, in terms of visual texture and the use of light and shadow – can be found at the website of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
The ad is below, followed by a verbatim transcript of its text.
(The image was scanned from a paper photocopy made by a 35mm microfilm viewer, rather than from a digitized image “copied & pasted” from the Internet. The abundance of digitized newspaper images, though a boon for accessing text, is often a step far downward in terms of the quality of the images within such news items. Technological convenience can be a step far, far backwards in terms of preserving the past…)
____________________
THIS IS WHERE I BELONG…
We’re almost there…
Only four minutes to go – and the plane up ahead will drop the first flare.
Only four minutes to go – and Joe will give us our speed, the doors will open and we’ll start our run … and the ship will quiver like a thoroughbred who’s been given her head…
And Bob will center the target and we’ll come in – and the ten seconds or fifteen will seem like a year before we hear him call “Bombs away”…
And then – they’ll go out of the bay, nose over and fall, and begin their march over the land with the stamp of a giant’s tread.
This is where I belong…
Not down there but up here…with my ship and my crew…in a world of our own.
Up here, where the clean, sharp air bites to the bone, I can see things clear. I can see the kids we were, and the team we’ve become and the men we’ll be.
Up here in the night, I remember nights with the books – when numbers and formulas fumbled and blurred and I couldn’t get them into my head.
But I swore that if other men had done it before – I could, and I would. And all at once they came clear and I understood.
And I remember the time when I took over the stick and the ship lost speed and she stalled and spun…and my mouth went dry and my hand shook. And then, my instructor’s voice was quiet in my ear and the fear left me – for good.
And now up here, alone, and all of us closer together than we’ve ever been, I hear once again the words of a pilot I knew: “I can’t tell what it means to fly with a bomber crew,” he said, “that’s like telling a blind man what you mean by the color red.”
As the target comes nearer, and the fighters slide up, and the guns start their chatter, I know this is where I belong…this is what matters…
This is my air.
This is my future.
This is what I was born for…to fly with the Army Air Corps!
If you can qualify – you, too, belong in the Army Air Forces as a Bombardier, Navigator or Pilot! And here’s what you can do about it right now. Go to your nearest Aviation Cadet Examining Board – or see the commanding officer of the Army Air Force College Training Detachment nearest you.
If you are under 18…see your local Civil Air Patrol officers about taking C.A.P. Cadet Training – also see your High School adviser about taking H.S. Victory Corps prescribed courses. Both will afford you valuable pre-aviation training.
If you are 17 but not yet 18…go to your nearest Aviation Cadet Examining Board…take your preliminary examinations to see if you can qualify as a Junior Cadet in the Air Corps Enlisted Reserve. If you qualify, you will receive your Enlisted Reserve insignia but will not be called for training until you are over 18.
If you are 18 but under 27…go to your nearest Aviation Cadet Examining Board…see if you can qualify as an Aviation Cadet. If you are in the Army, you may apply through your commanding officer. When called, you’ll be given 5 months’ training (after a brief conditioning period) in one of America’s finest colleges…you’ll get dual-control flying instruction…then go on to eight months of full flight training during which you will receive a $10,000 life insurance policy paid for by the Government. When you graduate as a Bombardier, Navigator or Pilot – you will receive an extra $250 uniform allowance and your pay will be $246 to $327 per month.
And after the war you will be qualified for leadership in the world’s greatest industry – Aviation!
(Essential workers in War Industry or Agriculture – do not apply.)
U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES
THIS ADVERTISEMENT HAS THE APPROVAL OF THE JOINT ARMY NAVY PERSONNEL BOARD
“NOTHING CAN STOP THE ARMY AIR CORPS”
For information regarding Naval Aviation Cadet training, apply at any Naval Aviation Cadet Selection Board or any Naval Recruiting Station; or, if you are in the Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard, apply through your Commanding Officer.
Audio Time!: The Pulp Origins of Ridley Scott’s “Alien”
The impact of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film “Alien” in the worlds of horror and cinematography has surely been enormous, and, continues. Certainly the movie didn’t appear “out of nowhere”, and – consciously or otherwise, as in works of art of all genres – its creation is the result of numerous influences and cultural antecedents, both literary and cinematic. Among the influences that immediately came to my mind – at least, upon writing this post! – are the films “It! The Terror from Beyond Space” (1958), “Planet of the Vampires” (1965), and A.E. van Vogt’s 1939 Astounding Science Fiction short stories “Black Destroyer” and “Discord in Scarlet” both of which were incorporated into his 1950 fix-up novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle.
My supposition was confirmed through the (inevitably!) very lengthy entry for the film at Wikipedia, which discusses “Alien’s” origins in great detail. Specifically: “Alien‘s roots in earlier works of fiction have been analyzed and acknowledged extensively by critics. The film has been said to have much in common with B movies such as The Thing from Another World (1951). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), Night of the Blood Beast (1958), and Queen of Blood (1966), as well as its fellow 1970s horror films Jaws (1975) and Halloween (1978). Literary connections have also been suggested: Philip French of the Guardian has perceived thematic parallels with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (1939). Many critics have also suggested that the film derives in part from A. E. van Vogt‘s The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950), particularly its stories “The Black Destroyer”, in which a cat-like alien infiltrates the ship and hunts the crew, and “Discord in Scarlet”, in which an alien implants parasitic eggs inside crew members which then hatch and eat their way out. O’Bannon denies that this was a source of his inspiration for Alien‘s story. Van Vogt in fact initiated a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox over the similarities, but Fox settled out of court.
Several critics have suggested that the film was inspired by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava‘s cult classic Planet of the Vampires (1965), in both narrative details and visual design. Rick Sanchez of IGN has noted the “striking resemblance” between the two movies, especially in a celebrated sequence in which the crew discovers a ruin containing the skeletal remains of long-dead giant beings, and in the design and shots of the ship itself. Cinefantastique also noted the remarkable similarities between these scenes and other minor parallels. Robert Monell, on the DVD Maniacs website, observed that much of the conceptual design and some specific imagery in Alien “undoubtedly owes a great debt” to Bava’s film. Despite these similarities, O’Bannon and Scott both claimed in a 1979 interview that they had not seen Planet of the Vampires; decades later, O’Bannon would admit: “I stole the giant skeleton from the Planet of the Vampires.”
But…! Another “key” to the origin of “Alien” can be found at CultureNC’s YouTube channel (“Culture NC est une chaîne qui regroupe des vidéos sur la culture calédonienne” ((“Culture NC is a channel that brings together videos on New Caledonian culture”)) in the video “Alien: Pulp Origins“, of September 5, 2022. Therein, along with mention of “It! The Terror from Beyond Space” and “Planet of the Vampires”, CultureNC touches upon Howard Hawks’ 1951 “The Thing From Another World”, the two aforementioned A.E. van Vogt stories, the anthology Strange Relations by Philip José Farmer, and, the 1953 short story “Junkyard” by Clifford D. Simak. Ultimately, however, CultureNC arrives at an even earlier short story as having either prefigured “Alien”: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” from the May, 1932 issue of Weird Tales.
I find CultureNC’s discussion fascinating, While it’s unknown if Smith’s specific tale truly influenced the creators of “Alien” – that I doubt, given the tale’s time-frame and perhaps relative obscurity – what is remarkable (and correct) is that the story foreshadowed, if not anticipated, plot elements that emerged in the movie forty-seven years after its very Weird publication.
You can view Richard Corben’s adaptation of Smith’s story here. I’ve created PDF of the tale (by way of the Pulp Magazine Archive) which you can access (“yay! – free stuff!”), here.
For all its impact, and in spite of its obvious science-fiction tropes (space travel, cybernetics, suspended animation, and extraterrestrial life (of a gross and very deadly sort)), “Alien” unlike “Blade Runner” is emphatically not science fiction. It’s gothic horror; visual horror, which simply uses the idea (to be true, with marvelous effectiveness) – versus the reality – of “space” as a setting of emotional darkness, fear, and negative infinitude.
But yeah, it’s entertaining movie!
So, without further mouse clicking / scrolling delay, here’s Culture NC’s video:
There are two YouTube (audio) versions of “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”. Here they be:
HorrorBabble’s YouTube channel features ““The Vaults of Yoh Vombis” / A Weird Tale of Mars by Clark Ashton Smith“, from March 22, 2021. The tale is narrated by Ian Gordon, with musci and production by Gordon, and, Jennifer Gill.
Shwan Pleil’s YouTube channel features “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis by Clark Ashton Smith“, narrated by Joe Knezevich, from March 15, 2023.
And otherwise…
Clark Ashton Smith, at…
… Internet Speculative Fiction Database
… The Eldritch Dark (“The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith”)
… Darkworlds Quarterly – The Culture of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
… The Avocado (“A Primer on Clark Ashton Smith”)
… Social Ecologies (“Clark Ashton Smith: Visionary of the Dark Fantastic”)
… Comic Art Fans (one item)
… The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, at …
Great American Short Stories, Edited by Wallace and Mary Stegner – 1957 [Unknown Artist]
Dell’s 1957 imprint of Wallace and Mary Stegner’s Great American Short Stories features cover art that in its simplicity and straightforwardness leaves little to the imagination, and has a style and “air” entirely redolent of iconography of the 18th and 19th centuries: An eagle (a bald eagle, it seems) aggressively and confidently perched atop a flag. The back cover is even simpler; as simple as simple can be: The artless names of the authors whose works are found within the book, sans story titles. That’s all!
Of the stories within this book, I’ve only read two: Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and, Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”; the former in high school, and the latter in college, and these “in” an America that no longer exists. Though I cannot say that I “liked” these works, I understood and appreciated them. In the former, I can see and appreciate a vague foundation for the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but the latter – though memorable – gave no inkling of the power and depth of “Moby Dick”, which I read some decades later and found truly wonderful.
As you can see, I’ve included videos for Poe’s and Melville’s tales, a links to the cinematic version of Bret Harte’s Tennessee’s Partner, and links to two film versions of Conrad Aiken’s “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”: One to Gene Kearney’s 1964 adaptation, and the other to the production that aired on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, on October 20, 1971.
Of these four films I’ve only seen the latter. As an ambivalent and wavering viewer of Night Gallery (which more often that not deeply disappointed me because of the show’s emphasis on horror and fantasy over science fiction, let alone its inability to reach the high expectations I had from Serling’s stellar The Twilight Zone – albeit there were a few absolutely exceptional episodes, like “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar“) I watched “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” on the very night it was broadcast. Assuming that the Night Gallery adaptation was faithful to Aiken’s text, I thought – even then! – the author’s tale was a truly awful story, which – in retrospect – seemed to self-indulgently romanticize social alienation, mental illness, or both. Yet, to be fair to Aiken, given the tragic and traumatic nature of his childhood, perhaps the story’s composition when he was some 45 years of age was simply a sorely needed epistolary catharsis.
Rip Van Winkle
by Washington Irving
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Young Goodman Brown
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Fall of the House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe
“Edgar Allan Poe — The Fall of the House of Usher — Short Story Film”
At pressmin video channel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
“Bartleby The Scrivener (Movie), Herman Melville 1853”
At Craig Campbell video channel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Baker’s Bluejay Yarn
by Mark Twain
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tennessee’s Partner
by Bret Harte
Film Adaptation
“Tennessee’s Partner (1955) John Payne, Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming. Western”, at Daily Motion
At Internet Movie Database
At Wikipedia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Boarded Window
by Ambrose Bierce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Real Thing
by Henry James
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Village Singer
by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Ripley’s Trip
by Hamlin Garland
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Municipal Report
by O’Henry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roman Fever
by Edith Wharton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Open Boat
by Stephen Crane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unlighted Lamps
by Sherwood Anderson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Man Who Saw Through Heaven
by Wilbur Daniel Steele
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silent Snow, Secret Snow
by Conrad Aiken
Film Adaptations
Gene Kearney, 1964
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, October 20, 1971
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He
by Katherine Anne Porter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Catbird Seat
by James Thurber
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Little Wife
by William March
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wash
by William Paulkner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Snake
by John Steinbeck
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To the Mountains
by Paul Horgan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the River and through the Wood
by John O’Hara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Wind and the Snow of Winter
by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Powerhouse
by Eudora Welty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks
by Hortense Calisher
Some Last Points
Wallace E. Stegner, at Wikipedia
Unknown – October, 1939 (Featuring “Sinister Barrier”, by Eric Frank Russell) [Harold Winfield Scott]
First posted on February 12, 2018, I’ve updated this post with a new image of the cover of the October, 1939 (first) issue of Unknown, which shows Harold Winfield Scott’s art to great effect. (Original cover image as at bottom of post.)
All illustrations by Edd Cartier…
Page 9
Page 39
Page 61
Page 71
Page 86
Page 90
Page 93
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Original lead image in post: Cover from “Black Gate – Adventures in Fantasy Literature” – Post by Matthew Wuertz of July 5, 2015.)
February 12, 2018 323
Sinister Barrier, by Eric Frank Russell – 1948 (1939) [Edd Cartier]
In February of 2018, I created a post showing Edd Cartier’s interior art associated with Eric Frank Russell’s Sinister Barrier, which appeared in the first (October, 1939) issue of Unknown, featuring great allegorical cover art by Harold Winfield Scott. Not having a physical copy of the magazine, I did this via a CBR copy accessed via the Pulp Magazine Archive.
A few months ago, I symbolically “revisited” Russell’s story through a visit to the New York Public Library (the one with the two lions – Patience and Fortitude – out front), and was able to examine a near-mint physical – not merely pixel! – copy of Fantasy Press’s 1948 edition of the book. As I did with Jack Williamson’s Darker Than You Think, I copied this edition’s interior art – again by Edd Cartier – by means of a (relatively) antique but entirely effective digital SLR. The resulting images – edited somewhat with Photoshop Elements – are show below. Enjoy. (And, watch out for those gnasty Vitons! Y’never know where they’ll turn up next!)
The Fantasy Press edition features an illustration by A.J. (Andrew Julian) Donnell, which appears in simplified form for every chapter heading.
Oh, as for the novel itself, as a literary work? Long curious about the story, particularly in light of Unknown’s cover art, I read it just a few years ago, in the form of the 1966 Paperback Library edition. (See the “bottom” of this post.) It’ll suffice to say that though the book’s plot is interesting – enough – as the basis for a literary work, it was not the most impactful read, and I do not at all plan to revisit it, unlike the works of authors such as Cordwainer Smith, C.L. Moore, and Philip K. Dick, which never grow repetitive regardless of reading. Certainly the action moved swiftly and the flow of events accelerated through the story. Certainly Russell was a competent enough wordsmith to craft a well-structured story. Certainly he was able to generate a dark and forbidding “feel”; a near-paranoid atmosphere (curiously akin to the open chapters of The Three-Body Problem, where occurs an ominous and perplexing flurry of unexplained suicides of prominent scientists); an initially hopeless “mood” in his book, which suited the challenge of first identifying, then evading, and then fighting, and finally conquering, the Viton menace. But, the absence of any real complexity to his characters, coupled with really weird (truly weird, man!) literary habits (such as substituting the word “optics” for “eyes” – what? why?!) left the story with a feeling a flatness.
Entertaining and diverting – yes; weighty and enthralling enough for another read – no.
Nonetheless, the art’s great!
“An iridescent blue closed upon him and formed a satanic nimbus behind his head.”
(Frontispiece)
“An awful pillar that reached to the very floors of heaven…”
(Page 63)
“Others crept or-slunk through the alleys and the shadows…”
(Page 139)
“A thousand hands seemed to be reaching for him at once.”
(Page 232)
Every chapter commences with an image akin to the front cover, showing Vitons hovering over a helpless, crouching figure. Here’s the header image for Chapter 11.
Published in 1950 by World Editions, Inc., Sinister Barrier was the first of Galaxy’s forty-six Science Fiction Novels. Cover by David Stone.
The first Paperback Library imprint having been May, 1964, here’s the company’s December, 1966 edition of Sinister Barrier. Though the book’s cover artist remains unnamed in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (the cover’s absent of signature or initials), if one plays the “…it looks like…” game, the painting resembles the work of Ed Valigursky. (Just an idea.)
Rear cover. Straightforward prose.
TIME – 21ST CENTURY
PLACE – AMERICA
CRISIS – A WORLD GONE MAD
PRESIDENT’S WARNING –
DESTROY THE VITON MENACE
OR EARTH HAS
ONLY 80 HOURS TO LIVE!
Bill Graham was among the scientists and
government leaders left who heard the
President’s message. He shuddered at the
thought of the last Viton rampage of
kidnapping, ghastly murder and madness.
Hidden somewhere in the vastness of the
Galaxy, the hideous blobs of Viton, that fed
on men’s fears and emotions, planned a
last-ditch attack to destroy the universe.
Only Bill Graham had a one-in-a-million
chance to stop them. But the Vitons were
so deadly that even to think about them
risked instant annihilation.
