The Little People (1967)

[ensmallen]

"The Girl Who Loved Death" is a good story. Private detective Nick Saturday's landlord asks him to look for his girlfriend, Helen Burdette, who seems to have disappeared. Nick finally finds her. In a refrigerator. And she's only two feet tall (and nude). But then Nick gets knocked out. When he wakes up, he's trapped in a sanitarium. He finds out that people (I think mostly women) get taken to this sanitarium, then they disappear. I'm not giving away any more.

I also posted the entire story on Giantess City, along with the entire pulp story "It's A Small World" by Robert Bloch, the cover story for the March 1944 issue of Amazing Stories, also 35 pages (plus the front cover), the cover and the two interior illustrations for "Fury From Lilliput" by Murray Leinster, the cover story for the August 1949 issue of(Thrilling Wonder Stories, the two interior illustrations for "Tink Fights the Gremlins" by William P. McGivern (Fantastic Adventures, October 1943), and the one page of SW content from the EC Comics story "Miscalculation!". But I'm not going back there. It was bad when I left there for good in May 2012, so it's probably even worse now. Sally R. left in disgust in 2008, KoPilot left in disgust in 2010, and Jitensha left in disgust in 2011.

I've seen all of those stories in here somewhere, trouble's a lot of them are in single-topic threads that get posted and rarely see any further activity. Compendium threads do better, how about checking these out and telling us what else we've been missing out on:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=262
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3514
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2092

[Godforgives,Idon't]

The first thread is all comics. The second thread seems to mostly be more recent books and magazines. The third thread is also all comics. I also checked the "Pulp SW Thread". I only found one story that I've read, "Tink Takes A Fling" by William P. McGivern (Fantastic Adventures, June 1942), plus a few interior illustrations and a lot of covers.

Go to the "Seriously?" thread in the Introductions sub-forum and click on the link that Elana made. (The link that I made doesn't work.) It's a thread titled "Tiny little people novels!" on a message board that I'm a member of, Vault of Evil. (Though I haven't't posted there in years.) I listed some shrinking-themed pulp stories, plus I linked to the cover art. (Though "Drummers of Daugavo" by Dwight V. Swain is SM, and you all already know about "Bottle Baby" by Henry Slesar.) In "Return To Lilliput" by William Brengle, the Lilliputians can now shrink invaders down to their size...and their "guinea pig" is a woman. (Though the cover image and the splash page illustration show her as a "giantess" with the Lilliputians, before she's shrunk.) It looks like I didn't give a plot summary for the WWII-themed story "Laboratory of the Mighty Mites" by Gilbert Rae Sonbergh. There's a new government job that involves working on bombsights that pays very well. The workers are knocked out, I think with gas, and wake up nude. They put on their work clothes and work on the bombsights. At the end of the day, they're knocked out again, wake up nude again, put on their regular clothes, and go home. Of course, when they're knocked out, they get shrunk and restored to normal size. (Tiny people are needed to do the precision work on the bombsights.) Apparently repeatedly being shrunk and restored to normal size eventually is fatal. That's why the job pays so well. One of the workers finds out the truth, and stages a revolt.(I actually bought this pulp for the second half of the previous issue's cover story, "Priestess of the Floating Skull", which turned out to be a "letdown".)

More pulp stories:

"The Little People" by Eando Binder (Fantastic Adventures, March 1940): Pretty much a standard "people get shrunk, captured, and tormented, until they escape" story, except that these people are already tiny. The front cover image is mostly accurate, except that the SW should be a brunette, not a blonde. The follow-up story, "Wanderer of Little Land" (Fantastic Adventures, June 1941) is actually a better story, but the SW content is minimal. (Though it does include the line "He held his wife and gazed into her azure eyes.".)

"Tink Fights the Gremlins" by William P. McGivern (Fantastic Adventures, October 1943): Not that well-written, but it was nice to see a brave, heroic SW. (In one of the interior illustrations, she's helping to fight a lion. The artist goofed; there are two SW's and a SM fighting the lion, when it should be two SM's and one SW.)

Science Island by Eando Binder (Startling Stories, January 1939): A "land of the giants" story that includes KoPilot's favorite, giant robots. But we don't find this out until the near the end of the story. ("We're little pygmies now!" "No you're not. You've always been your normal size. Everything here is big.")

"Freddie Funk's Flippant Fairies" (Fantastic Adventures, September 1948): This pulp was taken away from me and put in the storage facility before I could unpack it. So this story, which was part of a series, may or may not have SW content.

[Godforgives,Idon't]

"The Life Machine" (Amazing Stories, December 1944): A scientist is trying to invent a machine that can duplicate matter, but it isn't working right. The duplicate is always missing something. A man murders his girlfriend, then uses the duplicating machine to dispose of her body, since whatever is going to be duplicated is disintegrated first, thus no body to implicate him. But that night, he gets "haunted" by tiny ghosts of the woman that he murdered, who drive him to his death. Mainly of interest for the splash page illustration of the tiny female ghosts swirling around the man. ("No! No! This is not real! This cannot be! She is dead! I saw her die!")

There's also the pulp adaptation of Dr. Cyclops by Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1940). I scanned the front cover and the splash page illustration for Minimizer's board, but not the entire story. (I saw a scan of the splash page illustration on this message board. But it can't be my scan, because the only way that I could afford this issue was to get one that was water-damaged.)

[Little Sally]

There's also the pulp adaptation of Dr. Cyclops by Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1940). I scanned the front cover and the splash page illustration for Minimizer's board, but not the entire story. (I saw a scan of the splash page illustration on this message board. But it can't be my scan, because the only way that I could afford this issue was to get one that was water-damaged.)

Was it like the movie poster artwork? The one with the beam of light coming from one of Dr Cyclop's eyes (focussing on the tiny woman)?

I did a spoof version of that one.

[Godforgives,Idon't]

No, it's completely different. The front cover and the splash page illustration are in the "Pulp SW Thread" here, conveniently on the first page.

The first time that I went to the local used book store Tampa Antiquarian Book Company in 1989, one of the things that I saw there was a hardcover novelization of Dr. Cyclops from 1940. I can't remember what the price was. But the dust jacket had been cut into pieces and glued to the book. So I passed on it. But it's probably valuable now, even in that condition.

One of the things that I scanned for Minimizer's board was a 1940 Minicam Photography magazine with a Dr. Cyclops cover story that I won on eBay. The cover was of Janice Logan pinned under a "giant" boot, in color. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the articles mentioned on the cover was "How To Build An Enlarger". I also scanned the story in the magazine. The "giant" boot was made of papier mache. But it still had to be suspended from a crane. I think that photo was done especially for that magazine, not by Paramount Pictures. But it's "lost" now. Minimizer's board is gone, my desktop computer with everything in the scanner's memory is at a DUMP somewhere, and the magazine is in a storage facility, where I'll probably never see it again. (Unless my sister (the one who hasn't died of cancer...yet) has been getting rid of my stuff behind my back. She has the only key to the storage facility, and she has the only opener for the gate at the storage facility.)

[Little Sally]

No, it's completely different. The front cover and the splash page illustration are in the "Pulp SW Thread" here, conveniently on the first page.

The first time that I went to the local used book store Tampa Antiquarian Book Company in 1989, one of the things that I saw there was a hardcover novelization of Dr. Cyclops from 1940. I can't remember what the price was. But the dust jacket had been cut into pieces and glued to the book. So I passed on it. But it's probably valuable now, even in that condition.

Good stuff, thanks. I went to the first page of the "Pulp SW Thread" and found them (and you can also post like this when you've joined)

Love the descriptive text on the last one!

[Godforgives,Idon't]

But I no longer have a desktop computer with a mouse now, just my Mom's Chromebook. When I posted images on message boards back then, I had to right-click on the image, write down the URL on a piece of paper, then type the URL on the message board. My mom's Chromebook doesn't have a mouse period, let alone one that can right-click.

The book cover that you posted is a later paperback edition. The original hardcover used the image from the movie poster that you described, but tinted green. I found a couple of copies of the original hardcover (with astronomical prices, like $625.86 (for a former library book) and $1500 (!) for a better copy, but still with a worn dust jacket) on Abebooks. I'll try to link to one of them after I can make working links.

I also found that issue of Minicam Photography[/i on eBay. It's the April 1940 issue. The price is $25 (plus tax), with free shipping, if anyone here wants to add it to their collection. (The one that I bought was part of a "package deal" with another issue. I don't think that it cost that much.)

[Little Sally]

But I no longer have a desktop computer with a mouse now, just my Mom's Chromebook. When I posted images on message boards back then, I had to right-click on the image, write down the URL on a piece of paper, then type the URL on the message board. My mom's Chromebook doesn't have a mouse period, let alone one that can right-click.

That's a bummer not having your desktop anymore. I'd be lost without a mouse and my trusty desktop (and widescreen monitor), which I consider essential for what I do. Maybe one day when your circumstances change for the better, you can pick up a good refurbished one that won't cost the earth. But in any event you're managing with what you have, so all is not lost

The book cover that you posted is a later paperback edition. The original hardcover used the image from the movie poster that you described, but tinted green. I found a couple of copies of the original hardcover (with astronomical prices, like $625.86 (for a former library book) and $1500 (!) for a better copy, but still with a worn dust jacket) on Abebooks. I'll try to link to one of them after I can make working links.

That'd be interesting to see, thanks. It's amazing how much art was generated by the Dr Cyclops movie, which must have really captured the imagination back then. But the prices you quoted. Wow! Yes the movie poster was the one I had a play with (smaller image of it below)

[Godforgives,Idon't]

But the reason that my sister (the one who hasn't died of cancer..yet) took my desktop computer to the DUMP was because she didn't want me to have a computer. If by chance I did get another desktop computer, she'd probably take it to the DUMP too. (Unless she follows in her sister's footsteps and dies of cancer too, which is what I'm crossing my fingers for.) And if she finds out that I'm using my mom's Chromebook, she'll probably take it to the DUMP. (And my mom will just let her get her way. She ALWAYS GETS HER WAY.)

[Schadenfreude]

http://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/D ... 0041435/bd

I honestly can't remember the price of the one that I saw in that used book stores in 1989. But it couldn't have been more than $25. (Though the dust jacket had been butchered.)

[Schadenfreude]

Go to the "Seriously?" thread in the Introductions sub-forum and click on the link that Elana made. (The link that I made doesn't work.) It's a thread titled "Tiny little people novels!" on a message board that I'm a member of, Vault of Evil. (Though I haven't't posted there in years.) I listed some shrinking-themed pulp stories, plus I linked to the cover art. (Though "Drummers of Daugavo" by Dwight V. Swain is SM, and you all already know about "Bottle Baby" by Henry Slesar.) In "Return To Lilliput" by William Brengle, the Lilliputians can now shrink invaders down to their size...and their "guinea pig" is a woman. (Though the cover image and the splash page illustration show her as a "giantess" with the Lilliputians, before she's shrunk.) It looks like I didn't give a plot summary for the WWII-themed story "Laboratory of the Mighty Mites" by Gilbert Rae Sonbergh. There's a new government job that involves working on bombsights that pays very well. The workers are knocked out, I think with gas, and wake up nude. They put on their work clothes and work on the bombsights. At the end of the day, they're knocked out again, wake up nude again, put on their regular clothes, and go home. Of course, when they're knocked out, they get shrunk and restored to normal size. (Tiny people are needed to do the precision work on the bombsights.) Apparently repeatedly being shrunk and restored to normal size eventually is fatal. That's why the job pays so well. One of the workers finds out the truth, and stages a revolt.(I actually bought this pulp for the second half of the previous issue's cover story, "Priestess of the Floating Skull", which turned out to be a "letdown".)

http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread ... ple-novels

More pulp stories:

"The Little People" by Eando Binder (Fantastic Adventures, March 1940): Pretty much a standard "people get shrunk, captured, and tormented, until they escape" story, except that these people are already tiny. The front cover image is mostly accurate, except that the SW should be a brunette, not a blonde. The follow-up story, "Wanderer of Little Land" (Fantastic Adventures, June 1941) is actually a better story, but the SW content is minimal. (Though it does include the line "He held his wife and gazed into her azure eyes.".)

"Tink Fights the Gremlins" by William P. McGivern (Fantastic Adventures, October 1943): Not that well-written, but it was nice to see a brave, heroic SW. (In one of the interior illustrations, she's helping to fight a lion. The artist goofed; there are two SW's and a SM fighting the lion, when it should be two SM's and one SW.)

Science Island by Eando Binder (Startling Stories, January 1939): A "land of the giants" story that includes KoPilot's favorite, giant robots. But we don't find this out until the near the end of the story. ("We're little pygmies now!" "No you're not. You've always been your normal size. Everything here is big.")

"Freddie Funk's Flippant Fairies" (Fantastic Adventures, September 1948): This pulp was taken away from me and put in the storage facility before I could unpack it. So this story, which was part of a series, may or may not have SW content.