Feb 14
Click for full imageFrank Comments: Another work re-issued with new title and new cover. There was a previous publication of it as “The Radio Man” in 1924.
Published 1950
(Average: 8.08 out of 10)
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Frank Comments: Another work re-issued with new title and new cover. There was a previous publication of it as “The Radio Man” in 1924.
Published 1950
(Average: 8.08 out of 10)Loading...
(9.25 out of 10) (9.18 out of 10) (9.02 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.92 out of 10) (8.89 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10)
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February 14th, 2013 at 10:20 am
Venus seems very …. orange.
February 14th, 2013 at 11:28 am
Wait a minute… that damsel has antennae… and fairy wings. That’s no lady, that’s a fairy godmother! Where’s her magic wand?
I do think that, in the interests of both decency and equality, the hunk’s man-boobs should be space-sheeped.
February 14th, 2013 at 11:36 am
“For heaven’s sake, dear, he just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar!”
February 14th, 2013 at 11:41 am
Loving the fourth-wall-breaking look of disbelief: either she can’t remember signing a contract to be in a book this idiotic or it’s just that he had that dagger on him somehow, despite those brief briefs.
February 14th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
“Welcome to Venus neighbour. I want to …AHHHHHH!”
February 14th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
@Phil: with a skirt like that? Where do you think??? 🙂
Although, look at the foreshortening problem with her right arm. Maybe she can’t reach her wand.
February 14th, 2013 at 1:37 pm
She’s excited because she’s just realized that the lighter gravity on this world means that she can lift and separate without special undergarments!
February 14th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Return of the Radio Beasts! Again with the ants Mr. Farley? I don’t care when this was written. If ants are the best idea for a monster you can come up with (repeatedly) the author should be stripped to his tidy whities and forced to battle giant ants for all eternity in the hell of hack writers. Minus the buxom babe.
February 14th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Four-legged ant man, from hell’s heart I stab at thee!
February 14th, 2013 at 2:16 pm
Those wings are in entirely the wrong place for her? They must belong to Fairy-Johnny-Weissmuller…
February 14th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Return of the Radio Beasts! Again with the ants Mr. Farley? Really? I don’t care when this was written. If ants are the best monster you can come up with (repeatedly) the author should be forced to battle giant bugs in his tidy whities for all eternity in the Hell of the Hack Writer. Minus the buxom gal.
February 14th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
Judging by the skimpy attire, Venus is a heck of a fun place….minus the giant ants….who…walk upright for some unknown reason….
February 14th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Oh boy, looks like yet another alien world where the females of the dominant species look uncannily like attractive earth women.
At least we assume they’re the females…
February 14th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
Curses on my wonky wifi. Another unintended double post. The internet gods mock me again.
February 14th, 2013 at 6:03 pm
This cover needs the SNL killer bees. And some theremin music.
February 14th, 2013 at 8:16 pm
If I were a character on The Big Bang Theory, I’d lecture you about the scientific implausibility of a four-legged ant, or how it would be unable to use its trachea to breathe…
…while ignoring the big picture: the cover MADE YOU LOOK, DIDN’T IT! ;-P
February 14th, 2013 at 9:22 pm
“He dared challenge it’s monster ruler” Oh god how long is that ruler then? Is it all one piece or is it one of those hinged ones? I have a 1 meter ruler, I thought that quite large, but it sure ain’t “Monster”. I’m feeling all inadequate in the ruler dept. right now. Please somebody, how big a ruler do I need for it to be monster?
February 14th, 2013 at 10:21 pm
“Complete and unabridged”. In case you were thinking this was that awful truncated, incomplete version.
February 14th, 2013 at 11:06 pm
We certainly seem to be getting a lot of traction out of Farley’s “Radio Man” series…
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2012/11/the-radio-beasts-2/
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2012/06/the-radio-beasts/
February 15th, 2013 at 7:11 pm
I guess on Venus the ants have teeth instead of mouth-pincers?
Also, I wonder if the lady was ugly when she was a caterpillar…
February 16th, 2013 at 12:01 am
True! Venusian (Cytherean? Venereal?) ants are toothy beasts.
March 17th, 2013 at 8:34 pm
I protest, the cover is incomplete and abridged. What am I saying, it’s censored!
April 30th, 2015 at 1:27 am
You ever have that dream where you’re on Venus, trying to impress the girl by fending off ant men, and then you realize you’re only wearing your tighty whiteys?
April 30th, 2015 at 8:34 am
“The buxom blonde insect-girl threw her arms him, thanking him for rescuing her life… then she bit off his head and mated with the still-twitching body, then laid her eggs in his corpse and waited for her youngs to hatch so they could feed on the Earthling flesh…”
Ain’t sci-fi grand? ;-P
July 7th, 2015 at 5:35 am
This is what ‘Doctor Who: The Web Planet’ might look like if you’re watching it sufficiently high.
Man, I had no idea Ian was so RIPPED!
July 7th, 2015 at 5:47 am
@ Perry Armstrong: Nobody has got high enough to watch ‘The Web Planet’ and lived. I once had a tooth out under anaesthetic and thought that Episode Six dubbed into Spanish was a good idea..
April 21st, 2017 at 12:10 pm
“PHASE V, MOTHERFU – oh, please accept my apologies, that sort of language hasn’t been invented yet.”
April 21st, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Birmingham, Alabama: an 11-years-old Edward O. Wilson sees this cover and experiences stirrings of a new and different kind…
April 21st, 2017 at 3:18 pm
@DSWithBT—Those stirrings are probably caused by Venusian mutant ant pheromones coming right off the cover and transforming their ant bodies, in his young and impressionable mind, to the antennaed babe on radioman’s left.
April 21st, 2017 at 3:19 pm
And then young Wilson ponders: “Hey, why do Venusian ants have only four legs?”
April 21st, 2017 at 3:20 pm
He’s The Radio Man. He’s radioing the sh*t out that monster ant.
April 21st, 2017 at 3:37 pm
This is so typical. Earth man shows up and decides he knows what’s best for a planet he knows nothing about. Sees peril everywhere and calls the ant ruler a monster, despite the fact that he had a pretty good approval rating. Turns out it’s all about the women. Earth needs women.
April 21st, 2017 at 3:53 pm
Change radio to Walkman, photo shop the heads and you instantly have a pricey limited edition GOTG collectible blacklight poster.
April 21st, 2017 at 7:25 pm
The original cover is much more realistic. Horizontal ant with mandibles. Antennae woman in a sensible skirt.
April 21st, 2017 at 9:09 pm
Back in the day a “Radio Man” was important and respected!
Now he’s some pimple-faced geek selling you cell-phones at the mall Radio Shack.
April 21st, 2017 at 9:16 pm
You can read “The Radio Man” free at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52167
April 21st, 2017 at 9:17 pm
…but SHOULD you??? That ‘read it free online’ nonsense is how we got Dick Blade all over the place. 😉
April 21st, 2017 at 11:48 pm
I’d like to see Radio Man vs. Dick Blade.
April 22nd, 2017 at 5:28 pm
I find myself wondering if the surprised look on her face and the fact you can’t see his left hand are in any way related…
April 22nd, 2017 at 6:46 pm
@GSS ex-noob
Considering what Radio man is doing with his blade you probably don’t. Well, not unless you’re really into that sort of thing.
April 24th, 2017 at 9:22 am
It has been said that SF is the genre where you can get away with things… in the case of this book, getting away with some really stupid sh*t.
April 28th, 2017 at 1:45 am
To save everyone time, I’ve used Microsoft Word’s AutoSummarise feature on the e-text:
Happy thought! Ants, six-footed and six feet high. “Doggo, Doggo!” Strange! The unpleasant ant-man departed, and Doggo placed himself on guard in the doorway. “What need have ants of a bed?” The same strange ant-man was standing guard at the door. After breakfast Doggo took his turn as guard. Just then Doggo ushered into the room, with great deference, four ant-men slightly smaller than himself, but more refined looking than he, if one can appreciate such differences among ants. On page one was a picture of an ant-man. An ant-man. This is an ant-man.” “Ant-man. The ant-man. I see the ant-man. The ant-man sees me.” The beautiful Cupian was evidently, like the ant-men, devoid of hearing. Apparently she lived here in the ant city, and so undoubtedly understood the ant language. Radio! Perhaps Doggo could enlighten me. “Doggo,” wrote I, only I called him by his number, 334-2-18, instead of Doggo, “can ant-men and Cupians communicate in any way other than writing?” At the head table stood the president of the ant university, the committee of four ant-men who had examined me so often, the ant professor of electricity, a visiting Cupian professor, Doggo, and myself. Doggo opened the conversation. The driver was a lone ant-man. The beautiful Cupian?”
9
The idea was for Yuri to return to Cupia, as that would make the ant-men less suspicious. I seized Lilla by the hand. “I am a princess.” “The Royal Husbands,” Doggo informed me. Doggo growled. Doggo was deeply touched by grief. “Lilla! Lilla!” Life on Poros was ahead of me, and Poros held the Princess Lilla! Bide your time. Yuri scowled. “It was Prince Yuri,” he replied. “Poblath,” I declared, “Yuri did not rescue the princess. No word from Princess Lilla. No word from King Kew. Spoken like a king!” Doggo had not been invited. Bthuh! “Your princess, it is always your princess! Yuri, undoubtedly. The fact that he was an ant-man confirmed my suspicions of Yuri. One lone ant-man is no match for a woofus. The ant-man stood for a moment astounded, and then wheeled around. “Go away, dead man,” he begged. I did hire the ant-man to assassinate you. The ant-man lost me in the fog. Earth-man!” Could the Princess Lilla love a commoner?” ““Are you men or slaves? The king turned to me. I seized the phones and shouted: “Then forward into ant land, for Cupia, King Kew, and Princess Lilla!” An ant-man exploded. The Princess Lilla has been missing since morning. My princess is dead! Turning angrily. Kerkools were patrolling all the roads, shooting ant-men at sight. The numbers of all dead ant-men were taken and turned in, but Doggo’s number was not among them. Ant-men were forbidden to carry arms or to enter Cupia, and all their airships were confiscated.
June 4th, 2022 at 3:29 am
Of course I’m gonna. With apologies to both Shocking Blue AND Bananarama.
Venus is covered in ants
That guy ain’t wearin’ no pants
And what is Blondie looking at?
Somebody take a guess at that
Wooo! @Frank bought it?
Just took a picture, or has he bought it?
An Earth Man on Venus
Guy in tighty-whities with a kni-ife
An Earth Man on Venus
She a Fairy Princess or his wi-ife?
June 4th, 2022 at 10:58 pm
The Blue Fairy simply can’t look at him or the giant ant, and is begging the reader to get her off this cover and back to Pinocchio.
Tighty-whitey dude is so busy skewering the ant he hasn’t noticed she’s got her hand out there, ready to stiff-arm him away (and possibly into more ants).
June 8th, 2022 at 1:16 am
Yeah, she looks a bit perturbed/embarrassed to be there – “I shaved my legs and did my hair for this cover disaster? C’mon!”
June 8th, 2022 at 4:09 am
Giant ant: are you trying to stab me in the groin? Because that’s so not my groin. In fact, I don’t _have_ a groin.
June 8th, 2022 at 11:16 pm
With deepest apologies to Joni Mitchell:
The way I see it, he said,
I can’t just spray him,
Any ordinary formicide
Wouldn’t get through that thick chitin hide
So I’ll knife him in the place that they call the thorax,
Even though I’m stripped to my underpants,
Gotta take out them ants,
For that butterfly friend of mine
I was an Earthman on Venus,
I felt unfettered and alive,
Though maybe that’s the lack of clothing
And adrenaline from running from the hive
You know I’d go back there tomorrow
Except it’s 500 goddam degrees,
And the sulphuric acid
Gives me bad allergies.
@Emster may have inspired me but I did this all by myself to one of the greatest songs of the 70s. If there is a musical hell, I have earned my place there.
Probably listening to “Livin’ la vida loca “ for all eternity
June 9th, 2022 at 11:51 pm
@JJYoyo: I applaud you, and hope “La Vida Loca” is the worst you get, not descending to further hells soundtracked to “Macarena” or “You Light Up My Life”.
June 10th, 2022 at 1:32 am
@GSSxN: thank you ! With my luck it will be Chris deBurgh’s “The Lady in Red”
June 10th, 2022 at 2:07 am
@JJYoyo: absolutely fantastic! GSS!
More musical hell: Sheena Easton’s “My Baby Takes the Morning Train” and Dexys Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen” (I know, I know, some people like that one).