The First Interociter: Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1949, Featuring “Sea Kings of Mars,” by Leigh Brackett [Earle K. Bergey]

Amidst blogging, I’ve spent the last several weeks working on a certain “project”, fruitlessly searching for a Cathmium tube with an Indium Complex of +4, Bead Condensers (Model # AB-619*), and Intensifier Disks.  So far, no luck.  Needing a respite from my quest – which I naively assumed has been unknown to the outside world – I sought diversion in the pages of a certain pulp magazine which features Leigh Brackett’s story “Sea Kings of Mars”: Thrilling Wonder Stories, of June, 1949. 

*Supercedes Models AA, and, all Models prior to AB 617, as these are only compatible with Cathmium Tubes having an Indium Complex of +3 and lower. 

Perusing the magazine, I was at once aghast…startled…to find the illustration below: 

So, being that I’m not at all alone in my “project” (drat!) I finally confess that I’ve been building (ahem * trying to build * ahem) an Interocitor.  But…!

…really!  I’d first assumed that this double-page illustration was created by Virgil Finlay, given its detail and intricate, fine line-work.  But, not so, for it lacks Finlay’s distinctive logo, which typically appeared in the lower right or left corners: The artist is unknown. 

Artistic aspects aside, until actually reading Raymond Jones’ tale, I hadn’t known that this story is actually the first of a trilogy in Thrilling Wonder Stories (the second and third being “The Shroud of Secrecy” (December, 1949) and “The Greater Conflict” (February, 1950)) that combined became the 1952 novel entitled This Island Earth, which then became the basis for the 1955 science fiction film by that name.  As such, “The Alien Machine” (I’ve not yet read the second and third stories) is only the basis of the first, purely earthbound, part of the movie.

As for the film “This Island Earth“, well (so this dates me…) I saw the film, in whole or in part, several times during the 60s and 70s: on “Dialing For Dollars” broadcast on late afternoon weekdays by my local television station; on late (very late) night television; on weekend afternoons.  Then, I wasn’t interested in appreciating nor admiring nor critiquing it.  I simply enjoyed it; no more, no less.  It was fun. 

(Well, even then, though, I kind’a really liked the part where, y’know, the hero and heroine are taken to that planet far out in space and the sky’s all purple and blue and there’s these explosions going off above them and there’s this ugly big-headed-big-brained goggle-eyed monster chasing them, and…  Yeah, for a kid, it was fun.)

But unsurprisingly, the description of Raymond Jones’ novel at Wikipedia reveals that the full story is more substantive, complex, and ambiguous than the movie.  (What else is new?)  In this, the plot does not revolve around an alien civilization obtaining the assistance and knowledge of human scientists – through persuasion or kidnapping – in order to defend themselves in a war between their own world, an another alien race.  Rather, Earth serves as a backdrop or near-incidental place of conflict between the two alien civilizations (the Guarrans and the Llannans), with the Llannans eventually becoming defenders of earth against their Guarran foes.  

As for the interocitor?  In some ways, it’s the coolest part of the film.  Some of the parallels between that device, as depicted in the June, 1949, issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories, and the interocitor as created for the the movie, are more than coincidental:  The flat (as opposed to deep cathode ray tube) view screen; those thick, clunky cables; the huge coils and vacuum tubes.  Doubtless this illustration influenced the film to some extent, though the flat view screen in the movie is triangular in shape.

Anyway, you can learn much more about the interocitor in this article by G.F. Willmetts, at SFCrowsNet.  You can also find a nice discussion of the film, with insightful talk-back comments, at ThePulp.Net.

Now where’d I put that intensifier disk…?

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The 1955 trailer for “This Island Earth”, showcasing Jeff Morrow and Faith Domergue, at Trailer Chan’s YouTube channel:

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At Jack Fuller’s YouTube channel, you can view “This Island Earth” in all it’s 50s color glory…

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Here’s SciFiSteve1954’s imagineering of the interior of Exeter’s spacecraft.  Appropriate title:  “3D tour of Exeter’s Ship from the movie This Island Earth”.  Though I’m not certain, I’m wondering if SciFiSteve1954 is (was?!) the alter-ego of pop-culture / film / science-fiction critic and commentator Dicktor Van Doomcock…! 

References

Raymond F. Jones, at Wikipedia

Raymond F. Jones, at FindAGrave

This Island Earth (Novel), at Wikipedia

Exploring This Island Earth, at ThePulp.Net

The Interocitor…  For fun, profit, superluminal communication, and occasional destruction! – Buy one today, at your favorite YoYoDyne store!

The Interocitor, an article by G.F. Willmetts, at SFCrowsNet

This Island Earth Interocitor and Exeter Resin Model Kit, at Monsters in Motion

Interocitor, at Wikipedia

Interocitor Mark IV, at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems

Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, at YoYoBBMAS.com

Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems Tri Wing Bomber (Model 6524), at YoYoBBMAS.com (“Laugh while you can, monkey boy!“)

If – December, 1966 (Featuring “Relic of Empire”, by Larry Niven) [Jack Gaughan] – “Doing what I had to do…”

Well, I thought I’d seen this one before…

Not the cover, though I noticed that, while perusing issues of Worlds of If at Archive.org.

Rather, Dan Adkins’ illustration for Neal Barret, Jr.’s story “Starpath”.  It shows a space-suited soldier running across a barren alien landscape, with a nondescript alien spacecraft in the background.  The most compelling aspect of the composition is not its setting, but rather, the posture and position of the soldier:  He’s depicted in mid-run, right foot on the ground and left foot raised, body bent, head raised and looking ahead, carrying a rifle (note the strap) in his right hand.  Then, I remembered:  The original soldier wasn’t a spacemen.  Much more earthbound, he was a United States Marine in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War…

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Jack Gaughan’s cover illustrating Larry Niven’s “A Relic of Empire”.  The story was republished by Ballantine in a 1978 anthology of Niven’s stories, which featured cover art by Rick Sternbach.


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Here’s the image that caught my eye, and, my attention:  Dan Adkins’ illustration for “Starpath”, by Neal Barrett, Jr. (pp. 58-59)  (I created this image by using Photoshop Elements to combine two images.  Pretty straightforward.)

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Below, Adkins’ likely – probable – almost certain inspiration: Note the parallels between the photo and art, in terms of the Marine’s posture, the position of canteen and rifle, and, the barren landscape (notice how the terrain is rising to the right?).  Born in 1937, Adkins would have been twelve years old during 1945; probably aware even then, and doubtless with an artist’s perceptive eye after, of the striking nature of the photo.

But, who was this man?  It turns out that information about him is readily available.  He was PFC Paul Edward Ison.  While serving as a Private First Class in the First Marine Division, he was photographed while running through Japanese fire at “Death Valley”, Okinawa on May 10, 1945.  Born in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1916, he died in Fort Myers, Florida, in 2001.  Further information about him can be found at Wikipedia.

As for the image itself, the caption of the photograph (the image can be found at Wikipedia) states “Through “Death Valley” – Moving on the double, a Marine dashes to a forward point of cover through a hail of Jap machine gun fire.  The Marines sustained more than 125 casualties in eight hours while crossing this draw and dubbed in “Death Valley.””  From the Photograph Collection (COLL/3948), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections OFFICIAL USMC.”

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And, a very nicely done colorization of the photo, posted at reddit by ColorizedHollywood.  

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“DOING WHAT I HAD TO DO”

Here’s Mr. Ison’s tombstone (from FindAGrave), by Helen Farrell. 

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Utterly different in style and technique than Dan Adkins, this issue of If provided a venue for the unique and striking work of Virgil Finlay.  Though a digest-size magazine unfortunately did not provide a format for best possible display of Finlay’s creativity, for his work (and income!) it provided a format, nonetheless: Here, an eye floats – serenely? – in a box, in the waters of a stream.    

Illustration by Virgil Finlay, for “Call Me Dumbo”, by Bob Shaw (p. 97)

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And, two examples of the work of Dwight Morrow, for Algis Budrys’ “Be Merry”.  Slightly on the Wally Woodish side, but distinct in their own way.  

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