Marvel had control of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' license for a relatively short time following on after DC's memorable run. While DC brought out comics for both Tarzan and Korak, continuing runs from the Gold Key brand, they also gave series to Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, and more. One project they brought forth at DC was John Carter of Mars. None of the DC projects caught fire in terms of sales, though Joe Kubert's take on Tarzan is among the finest ever wrought.
Marvel focused on two of the ERB characters, Tarzan of the Apes and John Carter, Warlord of Mars. Both series ran for nearly three years. While the Kubert Tarzan is what most folks remember about DC's tenure, at Marvel it was John Carter who stole the show. John Buscema was an ideal artist for Tarzan, but alas he was not on the project long enough to establish himself as a core ERB artist. Gil Kane meanwhile brought a polish to John Carter that swept away all previous incarnations.
Aided by inker Dave Cockrum early on and Rudy Nebres later, and partnered with writer Marv Wolfman (who had written the series at DC too), the early issues of John Carter are magnificent. When the John Carter movie hit the screens some years ago, Dark Horse put out a very handsome black and white reprint of the series. I passed on it at the time but regretted almost immediately. It was hard to find after that, but earlier this year I found a really good one in excellent shape and added to the massive pile which constitutes my out-of-control collection. Glad to have it.
Here are the covers from that memorable run.
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I really loved DC's run on the ERB stories and was really disappointed when Weird Worlds changed formats. It encouraged me to read the original books when I was a kid. I remembered there being an entire shelf or two of ERB paperbacks back then and I read all of the ones DC adapted.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Marvel took over the series about the time my source stopped getting comics, so I missed both of their series. Maybe I can track them down somewhere where I don't have to refinance my house. 🙂
The ERB stuff in reprint is oddly expensive, at least given what I think is the relative fame of the creations. The Tarzan stuff from Marvel has never been reprinted to my knowledge, and at DC while the John Carter and Pellucidar stuff has been in trade paper, the Carson of Venus (arguably the most elegant and beautiful of the lot) has never been.
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