A Princess of Mars

I'm pretty excited about Pixar's first foray into live action film making with their adaptation of ERB's A Princess of Mars, although I don't think that's the working title. I've been under the assumption that it will either be John Carter of Mars, John Carter, Warlord of Mars, or simply some variation of Warlord of Mars.


I just finished reading A Princess of Mars and while it has it's shortcomings, it's an interesting read on two fronts. It's some of the earliest science-fiction and is wrapped in fantasy elements that enable ERB to work around some of the technical problems a writer of his time would encounter. First and foremost, getting Carter to Mars. Space travel was barely a glimmer in anyone's eye so, instead of getting to outer space by craft, he "dies" and is ethereally transporter to Mars. How his body exists on the red planet is simply accepted. ERB does throw in some "science" in his fiction with undetected spectrums of light and atmosphere factories.



The other area of question is tied to the time it was written, namely Burroughs' attitudes toward colonization and culture are apparent as Carter learns the ways of Barsoom (the native name of Mars). Likewise, the hero's moral and mental superiority is made quite clear a number of times. I don't mean to suggest Burroughs was racist, colonialist, or politically motivated. But the attitudes of the time of a man with his background are apparent in the work.



Back in the late seventies, Marvel published a John Carter series which ran for twenty-eight issues and three annuals. The first storyline,"Air Pirates of Mars",was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Gil Kane. Dave Cockrum inked the first issue and is still one of my favorite single issues of all time. Rudy Nebres would take over the inking shores with issue two and, while a completely different style, served the material quite well. Check out the above cover for a sample.


DC had the rights to the character in the early seventies and published Carter's adventures in Weird Worlds. Behold.



And Dark Horse published a crossover mini in the nineties.



I'm sure there will be a revival of Carter in the comics as the movie approaches. My money is on BOOM! Studios since they're handling Disney's properties. Now if only G.I. Joe will bomb so we can get Stephen Sommers away from Tarzan.