John Carter of Mars by Alan Davis

I just discovered that Marvel released a John Carter of Mars Omnibus featuring all the comics they published in the 1970s.

Here is cover and as you could expect, Davis does a superb job capturing Carter, Tars Tarkas, and Barsoom.  Notice that Dejah Thoris here doesn't match the version in the Marvel Comics tales. 

Here is the pencil version of this artwork.  I am not quite sure but I believe that Davis drew this a while back even before the current JC mania in advance of the movie.  Alan writes on his website that "ERB's Mars books have been a favourite for many years and I have often thought about how I might handle the stories. This was one attempt to come up with a slightly different look from the usual comic book versions of the characters."

For more Marvel Comics with John Carter, check out my article on Giant-Size Marvel titled Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum on John Carter Warlord of Mars.  Nuff Said!

Neal Adams and John Carter of Mars

I am eagerly awaiting the John Carter movie coming out next month.  I read the first three novels last year and liked them a lot; the first novel in particular was quite amazing for having been written in 1911.  I read the Marvel Comics adaptions in the 1970s and liked those, too.  I always wondered what an artist like Neal Adams would do with the John Carter material.  There following illustrations give us all a clue as to what that would have been like.

These illustrations come from Heritage Magazine from the 1970s.  Was this a preview of a longer story planned for a future issue?  Or a graphic album for a publisher?  Not sure at all!  But the first illustration shows the crash of a spacecraft on Mars.  I read that this fellow is Flash Gordon--didn't get that right away but it makes sense.

Second illustration shows Flash getting saved from a sneaky Red Martian.  His savior is none other than John Carter of Mars!  But wait, what is in that container that Flash is standing over?

It turns out the none other than Tarzan of the Apes is somewhat comatose inside that container!  What an awesome team-up adventure this would have been, if Neal Adams had drawn that at the height of his artistic ability!

Questions: do any super-fans out there know why Neal Adams had created these illustrations and what his ultimate plan was?  Have John Carter of Mars and Tarzan ever met in any work of fiction?  (I know that Philip Jose Farmer had his Tarzan and Doc Savage analogs meet in A Feast Unknown.)  Please let me know!  Nuff Said.