Over at the news site Comics for Sinners, you’ll find my review of Independence Day #1, written by Victor Gischler (Wolverine, Sally of the Wasteland), illustrated by Steve Scott (X-Men Forever, Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods) and Rodney Ramos (Birds of Prey, Batman/Superman), and currently available from Titan Comics. A prequel to the upcoming film Independence Day: Resurgence, this five-issue miniseries serves as a bridge, bringing readers up-to-date about events that took place in the two decades between the original movie and its even-bigger-budget sequel. Head over to C4S to learn more.
Speaking of tales of science fiction adventure with Hollywood connections, are you familiar with the sci-fi warrior John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and his beautiful Martian princess, Dejah Thoris? Created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs (who also created Tarzan the Ape-Man), they star in Burroughs’s classic science-fantasy novel A Princess of Mars—one of StarWarp Concepts’ most popular titles in our Illustrated Classics line of books. And the Hollywood connection? A Princess of Mars served as the basis for Disney Studio’s 2012 big-budget adaptation, John Carter—a movie that was tragically mishandled by the Mouse’s marketing department, despite it being a fairly faithful translation from printed page to silver screen.
A Princess of Mars, originally published in 1912, is the first in Burroughs’s “John Carter of Mars” ten-novel series about a post–Civil War era American who suddenly finds himself on the Red Planet, battling to stay alive against all sorts of alien threats. It served as the basis for Disney’s 2012 film adaptation, John Carter, and inspired a century’s worth of SF works, including Flash Gordon, Star Wars, and James Cameron’s Avatar. The special StarWarp Concepts edition—available in both print and digital formats—features six incredible illustrations by SWC artist supreme Eliseu Gouveia (Carmilla, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and a special introduction by Mars-fiction expert John Gosling, author of Waging the War of the Worlds. Here’s the back-cover synopsis:
Captain John Carter thought his days as a fighter were over. The South had lost the Civil War, and as a soldier now without a battle to fight or a cause to believe in, he journeyed west in search of a new life.
But not even Carter could have expected that his new life would begin with his death in the Arizona desert, and his inexplicable arrival on the barren plains of the planet Mars. Or that he would find love in the eyes of the beauteous Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium.
A prisoner of the giant, green-skinned warrior race called the Tharks, Dejah Thoris is meant to be used as a pawn in the ongoing war between the Tharks and her people, the red Martians—unless the gentleman from Virginia takes sword in hand to free her…and thus unite a divided world.
Once more, John Carter has a cause to fight for—and this time, a love to win, as well….
A Princess of Mars is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information.
