There are two qualities about “bedsheet” format issues of Astounding Science Fiction (published as such from January, 1942, through April, 1943) that, apart from size alone, make them so distinctive.
First, the size and appearance of the very title, which utilizes distinctly different fonts for the words “ASTOUNDING” and “Science Fiction”: the former bold, capitalized, and elongated; the latter italicized and “flowing”. This connotes a melding of adventure, boldness, and modernity, with aspirations towards “highbrow” literature.
Second, a bedsheet format allows cover art larger than that featured by (then) standard-size contemporary pulps. Though only three artists (Hubert Rogers, Modest Stein, and William Timmins) created works featured on the covers of these sixteen issues of Astounding, and these illustrations greatly vary in quality and impact, they have a solid association with stories and authors from the magazine’s “Golden Age”.
However – ! – William Timmins’ cover art for the April, 1943 issue of Astounding might be a little bit less memorable for its association with Raymond F. Jones’ tale “Swimming Lesson”, for Jones’ story only appeared once, in this issue; it’s never been anthologized. (? – !) (Paul Fraser’s review of the story can be found at SFMagazines.) But, this issue is brightly distinctive in being the only bedsheet issue of Astounding featuring a cover background in red, as other covers are in shades of gray, blue, basic black, and a really-ugly-mustardy-looking-off-yellow.
A close-up of Timmins’ art…
Like other early 40s issues of Astounding, the April ’43 issue features its own retro (well, retro from the vantage point of 2021!) interior illustrations.
This cool looking flying car by Paul Orban appears in the story “Escape”, by Joseph Gilbert and Fred W. Fischer. The craft is a hybrid of an airplane (fin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer) and railroad engine (wrap-around windshield with single headlight in front), all combined in the overall shape of a vastly-improved, streamlined Buck Rogers style space flyer.
It seems like the cops – angrily waving below – and the hero and heroine – above – are both using the same model vehicle…
Lots of my earlier posts display interior illustrations from Astounding Science Fiction from the 40s and 50s (particularly the year 1950). With this post, I’m revisiting that theme…
…here’s an illustration by Edmund Emshwiller for Raymond F. Jones’ tale “Academy for Pioneers”, which appears on page 114 of this issue. (Is that a GoPro mount on the front of the astronauts’ helmets?!) This story has never been anthologized, while the cover story, “The Missionaries”, was only republished in 1972.
And, the magazine’s rear cover, with an advertisement for the Science-Fiction book club…
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…!
Though he created many wonderful interior illustrations for Astounding Science Fiction, let alone a tremendous body of work in general, I believe that the magazine’s issue of October, 1950 – above – marked Edd Cartier’s only cover for that publication. Fittingly, he created the over twenty illustrations that accompanied “The Hand of Zei”, which was serialized in Astounding from October, 1950, through January, 1951.
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Illustration by Paul Orban, for Norman Menasco’s story “Trigger Tide” (p. 65)
Illustration by Miller, for Raymond F. Jones’ story “Discontinuity” (p. 85)
Illustration by Miller, for Raymond F. Jones’ story “Discontinuity” (p. 103)
Like other early 40s issues of Astounding, the April ’43 issue features its own retro (well, retro from the vantage point of 2021!) interior illustrations. 
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