YouTube Wednesday: The John Carter Movies that Never Were...

You might have heard about a new John Carter of Mars movie...

...bud did you know about the movie versions that went as far as having test reels produced?

In 1931, legendary animator Bob Clampett worked with John Coleman Burroughs (Edgar Rice's son) to create the following piece...

No movie studio was interested in backing the project.
Most told Clampett that their audiences has no interest in "realistic" animation!
(The Fleischer Brothers proved them wrong with Superman in 1941...)

In 2004, Kerry Conran pitched a John Carter movie done in almost total CGI...

...like the movie he just completed, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!
If Sky Captain had done better business at the box office, Kerry undoubtedly would have been given the green light.
But, it didn't, and he wasn't.

The film that finally was produced after years of delays, rewrites, and changes in writers, directors, and cast, opens March 9th...

Looks good, and I'm hopeful it'll begin a franchise...

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Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "Wasteland on a Weirdling World"

The John Carter movie is only a week away (March 9th)...

Art by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott

Meanwhile, we're continuing the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present, from Creatures on the Loose #18 (1972), the third chapter of the short-lived, never-reprinted, comic adaptation...

To be continued HERE!

Ross Andru, right before beginning his stint on Doc Savage, came on for a single issue, replacing Gil Kane, who continued to do covers.
Gerry Conway and science fiction writer George Alec Effinger take over the scripting from Roy Thomas, who plotted the story and remains as editor.

One of the major problems this series faced was only having 10 pages every two months to tell the story.
And, because it was a bi-monthly, the writers felt compelled to recap not only the previous issue, but the entire story, which ate into the page count for a given issue's tale!

Had Marvel given the series a 15-page or full-book page count to work with (or 10 pages in a monthly title), the series might have gained more of an audience.
As it is, we're already midway thru the too-brief color comics run.

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Design of the Week--Warrior of Barsoom

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...with a new big-budget movie based on the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs book A Princess of Mars opening in less than two weeks, now's the time to pick up a collectible t-shirt, tote bag, mini-button, or other wearable featuring kool vintage art by Burroughs mainstay Jesse Marsh to have on hand when you go to a screening, or the opening day, of John Carter (If you're reading this blog, you know you'll be in line, like me!)
Go "secret chic" with a throw blanket to lay on the cold movie theatre floor while you wait in line at the midnight show or a tote bag to carry your "forbidden" food and drink into the theatre featuring Dejah Thoris, John Carter, their Thoat, and a deadly Thark, and see how many true fans recognize it!

Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "River of the Dead"

The John Carter movie is only a week away (March 9th)...

Art by Gil Kane and unknown inker

Meanwhile, we're continuing the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present the second, never-reprinted chapter of the short-lived comic adaptation from Creatures on the Loose #17 (1972)...

To be continued...HERE!

You'll note that Sam Grainger has replaced Bill Everett as the inker.

Unfortunately, Everett's health was declining and he had to cut back on the volume of work he was doing, preferring to devote what time he had to working on his greatest creation, Prince Namor: the Sub-Mariner.

He passed away a little over a year later.

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Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "Warrior of Mars"

With all the hubub about the new John Carter of Barsoom movie...

Art by Gil Kane and unknown inker

...let's look at the first Earthman on Mars, whose adventures predated Edgar Rice Burroughs' tales by half a decade.

With the success of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, comics went pulp-mad, looking for other properties that were doing well in paperback reprints to adapt into the four-color format.

DC latched onto The Shadow, The Avenger, and Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser well as the entire Edgar Rice Burroughs library including Tarzan, Carson of Venus, and John Carter.

Marvel grabbed Doc Savage, added Kull (also a Robert E Howard character), and looked for another barbarian/swashbuckling hero.

They ended up adding two, Gullivar Jones and Lin Carter's Thongor, neither of whom ran more than eight issues.
Gullivar Jones had the advantage of only one novel to adapt, then the door was open to totally-new adventures.

Art by Frank Frazetta

This was Part 1.
We'll be presenting the remaining chapters in the weeks up to the opening of John Carter., beginning HERE.

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Cover Preview: WARLORD OF MARS: Fall of Barsoom #5

Whether doing Western, Film Noir, or Space Opera-themed art, Francesco Francavilla consistently astounds and amazes with his ability to capture the "essence" of the subject!
For proof, just look up!
And he's one of those rare combination penciler/inker/colorists! (Do you realize how few of them there are?)

Check out the Barsoomian artifacts at the

Collectibles Corner

Cover Preview: WARLORD OF MARS: Fall of Barsoom #4

Whether doing Western, Film Noir, or Space Opera-themed art, Francesco Francavilla consistently astounds and amazes with his ability to capture the "essence" of the subject!
For proof, just look up!
And he's one of those rare combination penciler/inker/colorists! (Do you realize how few of them there are?)

Check out the Barsoomian artifacts at the

Collectibles Corner

Design of the Week--John Carter of Mars

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...100 years ago*, a visionary writer penned a series of tales that would be the template for one of the most popular genres of fiction today...the space opera!
The first pulp adventure series created by Edgar Rice Burroughs (predating Tarzan by several months). the six-part serial "Under the Moons of Mars" detailed how soldier-of-fortune John Carter, mortally-wounded by Indians while prospecting for gold in 1870s Arizona, somehow projects his consciousness to Mars, where it is reincarnated in a body identical to his Earthbound form.

In Mars' lesser gravity, Carter's normal-human strength is, literally, superhuman!
He can lift over a ton, and can leap over a quarter of a mile!
And, yes, he can breathe, because the Barsoomians (as Martians call themselves) operate atmosphere-generating facilities bringing the oxygen content of the air to near-Earth levels.
He rescues and falls in love with the beautiful princess of the city/state Helium, Dejah Thoris, and joins with her in battling tyrannical enemies in a world filled with hidden cities, exotic creatures, and advanced technology (sometimes disguised as "magic").
It's the prototypical "high adventure" series, and it's concepts and tropes can be found in most later sf/fantasy from Flash Gordon to Captain Future to Star Wars.
Later, the six parts were combined with additional material into a novel, A Princess of Mars, that launched a multi-book series known as "The Barsoom Tales" or "Warlord of Mars".

Probably because of heavy special-effects requirements, there were no film or tv adaptations of John Carter stories until 2009, when a direct-to-video version of A Princess of Mars was released.
(Legendary animator Bob Clampett attempted to produce an animated version in 1936, going so far as to produce an illustrated bible and test footage. But no studio wanted to bankroll the project, believing "realistic" animation wouldn't sell. Several years later, the Fleischer Studio produced the classic Superman cartoons, proving them totally-wrong.)
Now, production is under way on a cgi-enhanced feature film (like Avatar, Sin City, and Sky Captain) called John Carter of Mars based on that first novel, A Princess of Mars, with noted author Michael Chabon doing the screenplay.

Available on kool kollectibles including iPhone and iPad cases, t-shirts, mugs, etc.
Plus, we'd suggest any of our collectibles combined with one of the books or dvds below as a gift set would make a great lead-in/intro to a pop-culture/high adventure fan to prep them for the new movie due early next year!

*Though The All-Story magazine the first chapter of "Under the Moons of Mars" appeared in is cover-dated February, 1912, the magazine was actually on sale in November-December 1911. 
Cover-dating fiction magazines (including pulps and comic books) 3-4 months ahead of the actual release date was standard practice until the 1990s.