Number of issues 28 + 3 annuals | Main character John Carter of Mars | |
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Publication date June 1977 - October 1979 Inker(s) Dave CockrumRudy NebresRicardo Villamonte Letterer(s) Joe RosenJim NovakDiana Albers Similar Weird Worlds, Marvel Premiere, Warlord, Savage Sword of Conan, Marvel Two‑in‑One | ||
John Carter, Warlord of Mars is a comics series published from 1977 by American company Marvel Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman (writer) and Gil Kane (penciller), it was based on the Barsoom series of Edgar Rice Burroughs and featured the eponymous character.
Contents
The entire series (with few exceptions) takes place between the third and fourth paragraphs of chapter 27 of Burroughs' novel A Princess of Mars.
The series ran from 1977 to 1979. In 1978 it won the "Favourite New Title" Eagle Award.
Other comics featuring the character
Dell Comics released three issues of John Carter of Mars under its Four Color Comics banner. The issue numbers are 375, 437, and 488, and were released in 1952-1953. Gold Key Comics would reprint them as three issues in 1964, numbering one through three, but reprinted them out of order. Dark Horse Comics in 2010 reprinted the comics in a hard back archive edition.
John Carter appeared in DC Comics' Tarzan comics #207-209, then Weird Worlds #1-7 and Tarzan Family 62-64 in the early 1970s.
There was also a four-issue mini-series cross-over in 1996 with another of Burroughs' characters, Tarzan, in Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars from Dark Horse Comics.
Starting in October 2010, Dynamite Entertainment has begun publishing a regular series entitled Warlord of Mars. The first two issues served as a prelude story, issues 3-9 adapted A Princess of Mars, and issues 10-12 were an original story with following issues alternating between adaptation and new stories. This series ceased with #35, accompanied by two out-of-numbering issues (#100 and #0), in 2014. Since 2011, a regular Dejah Thoris series and numerous mini-series were also published by IDW.
In 2011, Marvel published two mini-series, John Carter: A Princess of Mars, by Roger Langridge (scripts) and Filipe Andrade (art), and John Carter: World of Mars, by Peter David (scripts) and Luke Ross (art), a prequel to the Disney Movie. In 2012, Marvel published a new miniseries entitled John Carter: Gods of Mars, based on the novel the Gods of Mars, with scripts by Sam Humphries and art by Ramon Perez.
In 2014, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. initiated the publication of webcomic Warlord of Mars by Roy Thomas (script) and Rodolfo Pérez García (art).
Newspaper strip
In 1941, John Coleman Burroughs wrote and illustrated 69 weeks of a syndicated colour Sunday newspaper strip, John Carter of Mars, which debuted in The Chicago Sun on December 7, 1941. This debut coincided with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, resulting in the series being picked up by very few papers. The strip began with a Princess of Mars adaptation but departed from the original with episode 5. John Coleman Burroughs explained that this was done at the request of United Features Syndicate, in order to provide more action in the weekly episodes. Continuing with the Burroughs tradition of family involvement, John's wife, Jane Ralston Burroughs, helped with the backgrounds, inking, and lettering of the strip and even served as model for Dejah Thoris.
Collected editions
Dark Horse Comics have collected the Marvel series as a single black-and-white trade paperback:
They also released a collection of the DC series:
as well as the earlier Dell Comics one:
Marvel Comics has released their entire series as an oversized hardcover omnibus. Unlike the Dark Horse reprint, the omnibus is in full color: