Changed format to use thumbnails
Views captured from various pulp collections, click on the thumbnails for more details. The copyright to these works remains with the original publisher.
NOTE BY LEEM, 2014: This page was originally posted in the age of dial-up, which meant small images. I've replaced as many as I could find with bigger and better versions -- in some cases much bigger -- and replaced several black and white versions with color. Enjoy.
Architecture, Robots, Costumes, and Ships
Some of the fantastic architecture of the 50's future city that could be part of Xog's castle. Note the Art Deco influences and the extensive use of concrete and marble.
These columns look palatial too - kind of like Coruscant in a way. Refer to the figures in the lower right for a sense of scale (e.g. BIG)
A robot views itself in a mirror. I don't know if the egghead scientist is a relation to Xort or not! Lots of chrome and shiny materials.
More retro-kitsch costumes. Check out the bubble helmets, flared-wrist gloves, pleated skirt, and high-heeled boots -- just the getup to explore new worlds in!
Further (im)practical kit. The helmets look cool though, and check out the ship in the background. Can you say 'Starship Troopers'??
This could almost be a scene from "TI", if you think of the villain as Xog and the hero as Lepton (or Groot). Question: Is the babe (Athena) cowering in fear or has she been frozen in that pose?
Ships! Of all kinds! Streamlining is still in use, along with V2-like fins. Take a look at those guns, and the airplane-derived bracing on the lower vessel. Also note the movie camera mounted in the bubble (must have left their ccD gear at home).
Another ship, in the atmosphere. Do you think those windows might be getting *hot* right about now??
These are pretty close to the way Lepton's ships should look, perhaps with several more exhaust plumes.
This ship looks like 'da bomb', passing in front of the Bimbo Nebula....
Perils - The Quick Freeze
From 'Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die', an Italian flick with some really well-realized freezing operations. This is the sort of setup Xort could be using on Flexia at the end.
Closeup of the babe-sicle in one of the chambers. Note the 'frozen' pose and the sexy costume. Her hair looks like it is suspended by the fluid which is now solidified (also visible in the image to the left).
3/4 view of a beauty embedded in a solid slab of ice, who is looking rather surprized and concerned at how this could be happening to her -- an expression she will hold for quite some time to come.
Of course there is always time to stroll on down to the Cryobiology Lab for a 'quick cool shower' like these bikini-clad ladies about to be flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Glass enclosures are popular to store frozen victims and showcase them at the same time. Some interesting techology too, with wire-wrapped containment fields and an upholstery-like lighted ceiling!
More bell-jars, this time incorporating miniaturization as well. It is not clear whether the injection is a preservative or an paralyzing drug -- those two in the jars could already be immobilized.
Perils - Timestop or Mannequinization
Effects of a 'Suspended Animation Device' on a group of unsuspecting subjects. It helps that their poses and stiff expressions indicate awkwardly arrested motion.
Another static pose; the lovely young lady is ready to uncork some really dazzling martial arts moves, but the person with the time control pressed 'pause' first. Now she is a still life.
These ladies were caught by a timestop alarm -- or perhaps something in the spectrally colored lights has transformed them instantly into rigid mannequins.
Perhaps one of the effects of the 'Petrified Forest' is cumulative immobility, as the young but tardy lass shown here has just discovered. Her costume is so tight it looks painted on!
Anytime one of the characters enters a setting that could be interpreted as a display window, they should be cautious lest they end up not being able to lift a finger, as this stiffly posed lady has just discovered (hint - she should have checked her pendant for hidden mechanisms).
Another display setting, another frozen femme. This time perhaps she was affected by a mysterious fog, now vanished. Note her costume is very appropriate for this adventure, especially the high boots and the corset-styled bustier. What was she looking at when she became rigidly frozen in place?
Delivery of an wax-coated statue to a museum. Note the stiff pose and slightly shiny reflections from her skin. Imagine several of these figures populating the Gallery of Heroes just before Athena and Groot decide to join their display!
Plastic coating is another way to create a mannequin-like figure, as this elegantly made up but utterly stiff young model has discovered. An unlabeled can she mistook for hair spray proved to have a much more permanent hold on her entire body.
Perils - Transformation into Stone, Gold, or...
Presto! Only one touch of the Medusatron's ray is required to turn anyone into a garden ornament! These ladies have become unwitting works of art.
Plaster or Clay coatings can also be applied to change any naked figure into a much more permanent sculpture. If it sets up fast enough, the model may be caught and stiffened in mid-step...
Technology can also be used to realize the complete petrification of living flesh, or vice-versa, as these well meaning scientists have just discovered. Magic may be quicker, but never discount the visual appeal of blinking lights, vacuum tubes, and a good Jacobs Ladder at your command.
Often the adventurers can comprehend the peril only after it is too late, as this pair have found. Standing among a group of crystal statues, they have just discovered they cannot move and their feet are rooted in place. Slowly the crystals engulf their bodies until only the energy of their calcifed hearts remains as a flickering glow in the center of the statues they have become.
Gold coatings have also been popular with villains, as this young lady trapped by 'The Spider' has just discovered. Her gilding is only partway complete, but she is transfixed as a battle rages around her. Other victims lay nearby ready for shipment.
Application of the golden encasement via sprayer proves to be a more efficient method, allowing an increased production rate of exquisite life-sized trophies as can be seen in the background. Only the final polishing steps need be done by hand...
Dipping the subject in a pool of liquid metal is even faster, but requires clean-room precautions. This process is found to be best suited for reclining figures and yields a more abstract appearance to the completed work.
Tom Swift had nothing on this mad scientist and his 'Super Transmutatron' which he is about to activate to transform two more victims into fantastic silver statues.
(Click HERE for detail of the sitting lady)Some manner of deviousness has changed this lovely young warrior into a negelected work of art! Was it some arcane effect of the waters from the fountain she is frozen next to, or something from the ground or in the air? Whatever the cause, the result is obvious as she stands rigidly in place while time passes around her petrified body. She seems unprepared for her stony fate; what thoughts might be frozen into her mind?
The legend of Galatea and Pygmalion is well known in Greek mythology. Less well known is that the magically charmed artist also posessed the power to reverse the transformation, changing flesh and blood into cold stone at his whim. Some of his figure models found this out the 'hard way'!
