John Carter - A Princess of Mars

John Carter – A Princess of Mars

In 2012 Disney released the movie, John Carter to a movie crowd totally unfamiliar with the character. Some western fans thought it was supposed to be a western, and walked out when they discovered it was science fiction. The reason was poor publicity. Sadly, the movie was marked down as a flop, even though fans thought it was very well done.

Disney’s John Carter

The western fans might be surprised to learn that science fiction is really only a western on another world. Replace six-shooters with ray guns, and horses with rocket ships, and Indians with red or green, four-armed alien warriors. The basic plot is still the same.

Asylum’s Princess of Mars

In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs created two iconic heroes that would last through one century and into the next. His first novel was A PRINCESS OF MARS, featuring John Carter as the iconic hero. Following that, he created TARZAN OF THE APES, one of the most beloved fictional characters ever to be published in pulp magazines.

DELL Funnies Issue

A PRINCESS OF MARS was responsible for creating several long-lasting genres; mighty swordsmen and otherworld romances – or science fiction, as the genre would eventually be called. Although Burroughs marketed Tarzan, he actually did very little with John Carter. Tarzan was everywhere: radio, comic books, comic strips, movie, chapter plays (serials), and eventually television. There were 24 original Tarzan novels by Burroughs, but only 12 novels featuring John Carter.

DELL John Carter Issue

John Carter has had several comic book appearances, but nothing compared to Tarzan’s comic book life.  Carter appeared in a few issues of Funnies from DELL from 1939 to ‘41, then appeared in three issues under his own title, also from DELL in 1952 to ’53. The series is currently being published by DYNAMITE Comics.

Dynamite’s Warlord of Mars

So it isn’t surprising that moviegoers were not familiar with the character in 2012. Actually, in 2009 Asylum released a movie titled PRINCESS OF MARS, which was a low budget, poorly acted, direct to video, film that few moviegoers were aware of. When Disney released JOHN CARTER in 2012, it didn’t meet expectations at Disney Studios. Neither movies followed Burroughs original novel 100 percent, though fans gave Disney’s JOHN CARTER high marks for a good movie version of their iconic hero.