Edgar Rice Burroughs Continued from Page 14


drawn as a speck of iron to a loadstone, darkness and cold engulf him. Thus, Captain John Carter of Virginia,


his corporeal body held in stasis in an Arizona cave, is transported the 62,280,390.9 miles to the planet Mars. Barsoom (as the natives call it), is an arid world peopled by various races locked in a continual battle for diminishing resources. Humanoids come in various colors, shapes, and sizes on Barsoom. Dejah Thoris, a princess of the city-state of Helium and her people have a red cast to their skin, as do the Red Martians from Ptarth and Zodanga, but appear human in all other ways (although the females lay eggs). The Red Martians were the result of a breeding program by the Yellow, White, and Black Martians, designed to produce a hardier race


to weather the coming drought. Tars Tarkas, is a member of a nomadic tribe of Green Martians. Standing fifteen feet tall with four arms, they are the most war-like of the races. Other denizens of Barsoom include the ten-legged Calot, a large lizard-dog and the eight-legged Thoat, analogous to the horse. John Carter and his descendants appeared in eleven novels and stories written by Burroughs from 1912 to 1943. The character starred in a comic strip written and drawn by Burroughs son, John Coleman Burroughs. The initial appearance of the strip occurred on Sunday, December 1941, coinciding with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The strip lasted for seventy- two weeks, ending in March 1943. John Carter’s comic book adaptations include Dell Comics’ Four Color Comics issues #375, #437, and #488 between 1952


and 1953 as John Carter of Mars. From 1972 to 1973, John Carter appeared as a feature in DC Comics’ Tarzan and Weird World comics. Marvel took their crack at the transplanted interplanetary traveler with their series, John Carter, Warlord of Mars which ran from 1977 to 1979. Carter cropped up in the Tarzan Sunday comic strip from 1994-1995. He was in a Dark Horse Comics four-issue miniseries in 1996, again in the 2010 Warlord of Mars series published by Dynamite Entertainment, and the 2011 spinoff series, Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris. It has been reported that the publisher, Self Made Hero, has Princess of Mars in the works as a graphic novel.


Given that Disneys’ John Carter film


only grossed $179,300,000 and the budget was an estimated $250,000,000, it is unlikely that Captain Carter will


return to the silver screen. On the other hand, Burroughs character has survived for a century and keeps coming back for more.


Shane Shellenbarger lives in Arizona with his wife, Laurie, and their library of 15,000 plus books.


For more info go to: “A Princess of Mars” http://freeread. com.au/ebooks00/fr100027.txt “The Gods of Mars” http://freeread. com.au/ebooks00/fr100044.txt “The Warlord of Mars” http://freeread. com.au/ebooks00/fr100045.txt E.R.Burroughs biography http://www. tarzan.org/official_biography_part1. html


Direct-to-video “Princess of Mars” http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Gnazfqdle_o


LepreCon38’s Highlights of Events - Photos By Tatiana www.photosbytatiana.com CoN


Volume 22 Issue 3


ConNotations


15


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