As a kid, one of the first science-fiction authors I got into was Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first works by him I read was his series about Mars, or “Barsoom” as it’s called by its inhabitants.
The series is usually known as John Carter of Mars, and is one of the first of the “sword and planet” or “planetary romance” genre, and considered the prototype for the genre.
The series consists of the following books:
- “A Princess of Mars”
- “The Gods of Mars”
- “The Warlord of Mars”
- “Thuvia, Maid of Mars”
- “The Chessmen of Mars”
- “The Master Mind of Mars”
- “A Fighting Man of Mars”
- “Swords of Mars”
- “Synthetic Men of Mars”
- “Llana of Gathol”
- “John Carter of Mars”
The volumes I got were put out by Ballantine Books and had covers by Gino D’Achille.
John Carter was the main protagonist in only some of these. Virginian Capt. John Carter (who hints he doesn’t know when he was born, so is he somehow immortal?) finds himself mysteriously transported from post Civil War Arizona to Mars. The first three novels comprise a basic trilogy, as John Carter meets Princess Dejah Thoris, gets into various perils, finds and loses her, then marries her, returns to Earth, is able to return to Mars, finds new threats, and overcomes them.
Their son, Carthoris, is the star of the next novel, “Thuvia, Maid of Mars”; his sister Tara in “The Chessmen of Mars,” and her daughter Llana, in “Llana of Gathol.”
Ulysses Paxton, an Earthman who was apparently killed in WWI, is transported to Mars in “Mastermind of Mars.” “A Fighting Man” and “Synthetic Men” focus on a pair of native Martians, and the rest on John Carter’s later adventures, though sadly the last “novel” (really a pair of shorter works, the first really written by Burroughs’ son), leaves things unfinished.
Barsoom
Barsoom, what the natives call Mars, is a big part of the series. We find a world that is apparently dying, as resources, like water, are hard to find, and a giant Atmosphere Factory must produce oxygen for the inhabitants. The “canals” are real, dug when the large Martian oceans were drying up.
On this world we find several different races. The main race is the Red Martians (red-skinned humans who lay eggs), who are organized into various city-states. Dejah Thoris is a princess of Helium, made up of two neighboring cities: Greater and Lesser Helium. They are menaced by the roving, violent Green Martians, who have four arms, large red eyes and tusks coming from their mouths. John does befriend one, Tars Tarkas, who is an important ally, along with his daughter, Sola.
During Carter’s adventures, they (re-)discover other races, long thought dead. These include the Yellow, Black, and White Martian races, as well as a few others. These races were more powerful and prevalent in the distant past when the Martian Oceans existed, but as they dried up, the three races intermarried and produced the hardier Red Martians and faded away. The origin of the Green Martians is unclear.
The series was a lot of fun. While swordplay was prevalent, there was also technology like the radium guns and flying ships.
Comic books
The Barsoom books have been adapted several times into comic books, sometimes with original stories. Several of them have been collected in recent times in book form.
Dell Comics’ The Funnies ran an adaption of the first couple of Barsoom books done by John Coleman Burroughs.
Dell later did three issues of their Four Color series adapting the first three novels, with artwork by Jesse Marsh who was doing Tarzan. These were reprinted a couple of times and more recently collected into a hardback archive by Dark Horse Comics.
DC Comics, when they had the license for Tarzan, adapted John Carter. This appeared as a backup in their Tarzan title, then showcased in Weird Worlds, before being a series in Tarzan Family. I read this as a kid. It has since been collected by Dark Horse Comics.
Marvel Comics got the license next, and did a series with original stories for about three years, including three annuals. I read this as it came out. This has been collected a couple of times recently, finally in a color hardback edition by Marvel. I read the DC and Marvel comics around the time I was reading the novels, and these influenced how I saw the characters.
In 2010, Dynamite Comics started doing a John Carter series, with spin-offs due to the earlier books now being public domain. Some didn’t care for the cheese-cake artwork used for Thoris and others. I thought some of the violence was a little over the top, but have enjoyed them.
When the movie came out Marvel got the license to do “official” John Carter comics. I honestly did not bother with their series. The first issues didn’t impress me artwise.
More recently, Dynamite has now gotten the license to do “official” John Carter comics.
Movie
There has been work for many years (decades) to do a John Carter movie. You can learn more about this online. Finally in 2012, Disney put out an adaption of “A Princess of Mars.” Before they did, Asylum, notorious for “mockbuster” knockoffs, did an adaption using Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris. The less said the better.
I had a lot of problems with Disney’s movie, as they made a lot of (to me) unnecessary changes to the storyline and characters. They increased John Carter’s jumping abilities too much, making him almost fly. The Red Martians should be red skinned, not have silly tattoos. The White Apes were too big, almost the size of King Kong. Zodanga was not a moving city. And bringing in the Therns (the White Martians) as the main bad guys and giving them the ability to teleport to Earth was wrong. They show up later and don’t have any sort of transport network.
Sadly, it bombed at the box office, killing off any chance of sequels, as it was planned to be the first of a trilogy.
The movie rights are back with the Burroughs estate, so who knows?
If you’ve never read the Barsoom series, you should. These books inspired a whole boatload of others over the years. It’s always good to check out the originals.
