“Here’s the real truth of it. I’d already changed it from A Princess Of Mars to John Carter Of Mars. I don’t like to get fixated on it, but I changed Princess Of Mars… because not a single boy would go.”
That’s John Carter movie director Andrew Stanton, in an interview at the site Bleeding Cool, as to why the title of the upcoming Disney adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s first “Mars” novel suffered a Hollywood princessectomy. He goes on to state that the title was shortened even further because “no girl would go to see John Carter Of Mars.”
Really?
Well, that’s just depressing, but not exactly unexpected. It’s the kind of head-scratching logic that always seems to be prevalent in Movieland. To be fair, Princess wasn’t the original title for John Carter’s first adventure, anyway—as a six-part serialized story that ran in All-Story Magazine back in 1912, it was called Under the Moons of Mars. It became A Princess of Mars when it was published in book form in 1917; the title refers to Dejah Thoris, princess of the Martian city-state of Helium—and John Carter’s love interest.
However, instead of going with a generic movie title that tells you absolutely nothing about the story, the folks at Disney should have focused their energies on making the public aware of the franchise’s history—you would not believe how many online message boards are filled with people who think John Carter is just some pastiche of Avatar and The Phantom Menace! (The recently released trailer, unfortunately, doesn’t help dispel that notion.) If anything, Burroughs’s Mars series influenced them.
You know what, though? We here at The ’Warp aren’t afraid of boys who think that princesses are stupid, or girls who regard trips to Mars as icky—we’re made of stronger stuff. And so is our readership! That’s why we’re publishing our own edition of A Princess of Mars, with no title changes whatsoever!
Just take a look at that cover by photographer Marc Witz and designer Mat Postawa (with a little help from a Mars photo courtesy of NASA). Nice, huh? And that’s not all you’ll find that’s new in this edition. Along with an introduction by John Carter of Mars aficionado John Gosling, there are six fantastic black-and-white illustrations by Eliseu Gouveia, the gifted artist whose art graces our previous classic reprint, Carmilla, as well as the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 introductory comic.
John Carter opens in movie theaters on March 9, 2012. StarWarp Concepts’ edition of A Princess of Mars hits bookstores (and the SWC shop) in February 2012—which also happens to be the book’s 100th Anniversary. Come celebrate this literary milestone with us!
