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.
This was Part 1.
We'll be presenting the remaining chapters in the weeks up to the opening of John Carter., beginning HERE.
Gullivar Jones had the advantage of only one novel to adapt, then the door was open to totally-new adventures.
 |
| Art by Frank Frazetta |
We'll be presenting the remaining chapters in the weeks up to the opening of John Carter., beginning HERE.
Support Small Business!
