Have you heard about John Carter of Mars? He is a character in a series of pulp adventure novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs starting almost 100 years ago. John Carter was the first pulp adventure hero created by Burroughs, who soon afterward introduced the world to a character named Tarzan. The rest, as they say so often, was history. But history gradually forgot about John Carter while Tarzan rose to prominence through radio, comics, films, and television (in addition to the Burroughs books).
It hardly seems fair that the character who launched Edgar Rice Burroughs’ successful literary career has earned so little recognition. But all that is about to change. You see, John Carter of Mars is being made into a movie — three movies, in fact, or four if you count a direct-to-DvD release coming out later this year. But most people are concerned with the three-movie project announced by the Disney Studios in conjunction with Pixar Animation. Web sites have been abuzz with news and rumors all year. In fact, if you don’t have a John Carter of Mars Web site soon, it may soon be too late for you.
It’s already becoming difficult to find truly informative Web sites — the kind usually developed by hard core fans — because so many commercial “news” sites and blogs have invaded the space. John Carter of Mars news articles have attempted to keep up with all the developments but frankly it seems that as soon as an article is written it becomes obsolete.
And to top it all off, John Carter of Mars stores are already beginning to appear on the Internet. Fans of the books can still download the texts for free from longtime cyber archive Project Gutenberg but if you want to hold a genuine paperback or hardback book in your hands, you’ll have to find them through the various John Carter merchandising sites.
