Barsoom

Burroughs began writing the Barsoom books in the second half of 1911 and produced one volume a year between 1911 and 1914; seven more were produced between 1921 and 1941. The first Barsoom tale was serialized in The All-Story magazine as Under the Moons of Mars (1911), and then published in hardcover as the complete novel A Princess of Mars (1917). The final Barsoom tale was a novella, Skeleton Men of Jupiter, published in Amazing Stories in February 1943. The novel editions of A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and Llana of Gathol contain newly written forewords describing Edgar Rice Burroughs' interactions with John Carter, who is described as Burroughs' great-uncle. Collectively, this series of novels has been referred to as the Martian Series. Etymology Burroughs frequently invented words of the languages spoken by the people in his novels, and used these extensively in the narrative. In Thuvia, Maid of Mars he included a glossary of Barsoomian words used in the first four novels. The word "Barsoom", the native Martian word for Mars, is composed of the Martian name for planet, "soom", and the Martian word for eight, "bar". This reflects counting Mars as the eighth body in the inner solar system, by counting not just planets, but the Sun and the satellites of Earth and of Mars. Character focus A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the Barsoom series, with its sequels The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, form a trilogy centered upon protagonist John Carter and damsel in distress Dejah Thoris. John Carter's and Dejah Thoris's son Carthoris is also introduced as a minor character in The Gods of Mars, as is Thuvia. Three other books focus on their descendants: Carthoris, in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, his sister, Tara of Helium, in The Chessmen of Mars, and Tara's daughter, Llana of Gathol, in Llana of Gathol. Ulysses Paxton, another Earth man transported to Mars, is the focus of The Master Mind of Mars, and the rest of the books focus on John Carter's later adventures (Swords of Mars and John Carter of Mars), or on native Martian characters (A Fighting Man of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars). and John Carter of Mars is composed of two novellas. Most are first-person narratives. John Carter narrates A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Swords of Mars, the four novellas in Llana of Gathol, and "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" in John Carter of Mars. Ulysses Paxton narrates one, The Master Mind of Mars. Martian guardsman Vor Daj narrates Synthetic Men of Mars, and Martian navy officer Tan Hadron narrates A Fighting Man of Mars. Two other novels, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars, are written in the third person, as is "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" in John Carter of Mars. Introductions Beginning with A Princess of Mars, Burroughs established a practice which continued in the four sequels of introducing the novel as if a factual account passed on to him personally, wherein John Carter appears as an avuncular figure known to his family for years. Planetary romance stories are similar to sword and sorcery tales, but include scientific aspects. They mostly take place on the surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities, and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of dynastic or religious social structures. Spacecraft appear in the stories, but are not central to the story. Burroughs' Barsoom stories are considered seminal planetary romances. While examples existed prior to the publication of his works, they are the principal influence on the many works of this type that followed. Most Barsoom novels follow a familiar plot structure wherein a hero is forced to a far-off location in search of a woman kidnapped by an odious but powerful villain. Female characters are likely to be virtuous and fight off amorous advances and other dangers until able to connect with the hero; Typically the novels include descriptions of aspects of the Martian world such as the architecture, and the presence of desolate landscapes punctuated by abandoned cities, technological achievements, advanced medicine, cultural elements such as religious practices and eating habits, breeding practices, and methods of population control. Many lost cities and civilizations and journeys into forgotten underworlds appear across the series, and the environment beyond the cities is populated by a variety of ferocious beasts, many roughly equivalent with Earth creatures and most bearing multiple sets of limbs. There are numerous examples of striking coincidences and dei ex machina usually to the benefit of the protagonists. Mad scientists also appear, Ras Thavas from The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars being the principal example, although another plays a prominent role in A Fighting Man of Mars. Instances of the use of superstition by religious cults to control and manipulate others are also common. A Princess of Mars was possibly the first fiction of the 20th century to feature a constructed language; although Barsoomian was not particularly developed, it did add verisimilitude to the narrative. Villains Most villains in the Barsoom series are implacably evil or are rulers or despots of major empires or of hidden fiefdoms. They are usually hated by their subjects and possess a voracious sexual appetite, usually directed towards the heroine. The pattern is established by Tharkian Jeddak Tal Hajus in the first novel, A Princess of Mars. Further examples include Salensus Oll of The Warlord of Mars, Nutus of Dusar in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, and Ul Vas, Jeddak of the Tarids in Swords of Mars. ==Principal characters==

Earthmen • John Carter: Captain John Carter is an Earthman who originated in Virginia. He fought in the American Civil war on the Confederate side. After the war he moved to the southwest US to work as a prospector. In 1866 he and his prospector partner struck it rich, but the partner was killed by American Indians, and Carter took refuge in a cave, where he was overcome by smoke that was some kind of cave gas, and while looking up at Mars in the sky, he is then teleported to Mars. He effectively disappeared for ten years [while on Mars], and was believed dead, but re-emerged in New York in 1876, settling on the Hudson. He appeared to die in 1886, leaving instructions for Burroughs, who refers to him as an 'uncle', to entomb him in a crypt, and leaving Burroughs with the manuscript of A Princess of Mars with instructions not to publish it for another 21 years. He has no memory before the age of 30 and seems never to age. He is adept with command, horsemanship, swords, and all weapons. He is tall, with black hair and steel-gray eyes. He is honorable, courageous, and eternally optimistic, even in the face of certain death. On Mars, he encounters both formidable alien creatures and various warring Martian races, wins the hand of Martian princess Dejah Thoris, and rises to the position of Warlord of Mars. Carter is the protagonist of the first three novels, which together comprise the initial trilogy. Carter also headlines the eighth, tenth, and eleventh books, as well as being a major secondary character in the fourth and ninth novels. • Ulysses Paxton: The central character in The Master Mind of Mars. Paxton is a soldier in the First World War who is transported to Barsoom after he is mortally wounded, and subsequently becomes an assistant to Barsoomian scientist Ras Thavas. Martians • Dejah Thoris: A Princess of Helium; courageous, chaste, and resourceful despite frequent abduction by villains. The daughter of Mors Kajak, Jed (prince or king) of Lesser Helium and granddaughter of Tardos Mors, Jeddak (king or emperor) of Helium, she is highly aristocratic and fiercely proud of her heritage. She is introduced early in the first Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars, and is the love interest of John Carter. She is a central character in the first three novels, and her capture by various enemies, and subsequent pursuit by John Carter, is a constant motivating force in these tales. She is a minor character in The Chessmen of Mars and John Carter of Mars. • Tars Tarkas: A Green Martian warrior unusually compassionate among his people, who befriends John Carter and fights many battles at his side. Carter helps him become Jeddak of his society and negotiates an alliance between them and the city-state of Helium, which results in the destruction of their enemies, the city of Zodanga, at the end of A Princess of Mars; but Tars Tarkas retains much of his earlier personality. • Thuvia of Ptarth: A Princess of Ptarth, who first appears in The Gods of Mars, as a slave girl, rescued by John Carter from the nefarious Therns, and later imprisoned with Carter's wife Dejah Thoris, in a prison which can only be opened once per year and remains by her side until the conclusion of The Warlord of Mars. Like many of Burroughs' Martian heroines, she is tough, courageous, and proud, and identifies strongly with her aristocratic position in Martian society. Also typically, she is abducted by evildoers who wish to use her for political gain in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, her rescue providing primary motivation for the plot of that novel. She is a central character in Thuvia, Maid of Mars and love interest of John Carter and Dejah Thoris' son Carthoris. • Ras Thavas: A mad scientist who develops both brain-transplant techniques and a form of cloning; a principal character in both The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars. • Tan Hadron: A young Red Martian navy officer and the central character of A Fighting Man of Mars. • Vor Daj: A soldier in John Carter's guard. Principal character in Synthetic Men of Mars, who spends much of the novel with his brain transplanted into a hideous but powerful synthetic body. • Gahan of Gathol: A prince of Gathol; love interest for Tara of Helium and father of Llana of Gathol; a principal character in The Chessmen of Mars. Martian descendants of John Carter and Dejah Thoris • Carthoris: Son of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, who inherits his father's superior strength. A minor character in The Gods of Mars. A principal character in Thuvia, Maid of Mars and love interest of Thuvia. • Tara of Helium: Impetuous daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, who runs away and gets involved in various perilous situations as a principal character in The Chessmen of Mars. Love interest of Gahan of Gathol and mother of Llana of Gathol. • Llana of Gathol: Granddaughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris and daughter of Tara of Helium and Gahan of Gathol; a principal character in the stories collected in Llana of Gathol. ==Environment==

While Burroughs' Barsoom tales never aspired to anything other than escapism, his vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell, that saw the planet as a formerly Earthlike world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age. Living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources, the inhabitants of Barsoom have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive. The Martian year comprises 687 Martian days, each of which is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. (Burroughs presumably derived this from the figures published by Lowell, but erroneously substituted the number of 24-hour Earth days in the Martian year, rather than the number of 24.6-hour Martian days, which is only 669.) The days are hot (again known to be false) and the nights are cold, and there appears to be little variation in climate across the planet except at the poles. Burroughs explained his ideas about the Martian environment in an article "A Dispatch on Mars" published in the London Daily Express in 1926. He assumed that Mars was formerly identical to the Earth; therefore a similar evolutionary development of fauna would have taken place. He referenced winds, snows, and marshes supposedly observed by astronomers, as evidence of an atmosphere, and that the wastes of the planet had been irrigated (probably referencing Lowell's "canals"), which suggested that an advanced civilization existed on the planet. ==Races and culture==

All Barsoomian races resemble Homo sapiens in most respects, except for being oviparous They are, like all the humanoid races of Mars, oviparous, i.e., their newborn hatch from eggs. The Red Martians are highly civilized, respect the idea of private property, adhere to a code of honor and have a strong sense of fairness. Their culture is governed by law and is technologically advanced. They are capable of love and have families. foreseeing the need for hardy stock to cope with the emerging harsher environment. They became decadent and 'overcivilized'. At the beginning of the series they are believed to be extinct, but three remaining populations - the Orovars, Therns and Lotharians – are still living in secret and are discovered as the books progress. ==Technology==

When Burroughs wrote the first volume of the Barsoom series, aviation and radio technology was in its infancy and radioactivity was a fledgling science. Despite this, the series includes a range of technological developments including radium munitions, battles between fleets of aircraft, devices similar to faxes and televisions, genetic manipulation, elements of terraforming and other ideas. One notable device mentioned is the "directional compass"; this may be believed to be the precursor to the now-common "global positioning system", or GPS for short. Fliers The Red Martians have flying machines, both civilian transports and fleets of heavily armed war craft. These stay aloft through some form of anti-gravity, which Burroughs explains as relating to the rays of the Sun. Clothing The Martians wear no clothing other than jewelry and leather harnesses, which are designed to hold everything from the weaponry of a warrior to pouches containing toiletries and other useful items; the only instances where Barsoomians habitually wear clothing is for need of warmth, such as for travel in the northern polar regions described in The Warlord of Mars. This preference for near-nudity provides a stimulating subject for illustrators of the stories, though art for many mass-market editions of the books feature Carter and native Barsoomians wearing loincloths and other minimal coverings, or use strategically placed shadows and such to cover genitalia and female breasts. ==Fauna==

It appears that most of Burrough's Martian creatures are roughly equivalent to those found on Earth, though most seem to have multiple legs (usually a total of six limbs, but sometimes as many as ten) and all are egg-laying. "Insects", "reptiles" and "birds" • Sith: A giant, venomous hornet-like insect endemic to the Kaolian Forest. • Ulsio: A kind of Barsoomian "rat", described as a dog-sized burrower. • White Ape: Huge and ferocious, semi-intelligent gorilla-like creatures with an extra set of arms, which first appear in A Princess of Mars. Other • Rykors are headless but otherwise human-like creatures bred by the Kaldanes, appearing only in The Chessmen of Mars. • Plant Men: Monsters found in the Valley Dor. They are between in height when upright, with hairless bodies similar in form to humans, excepting broad flat feet which are in length and a tail, which tapers from a round profile to a flat blade shape at the tip. They also have short, sinuous arms similar to elephant trunks, ending with taloned hands with mouths set in the palms. After "the defiling blood of life has been drawn" from a human by the Plant Men, the flesh may be eaten by the Holy Therns, another Barsoomian race. • Orluk: An Arctic predator with a black and yellow striped coat, whose legs are not described. ==Themes==

American frontier Barsoom might be seen as a kind of Martian Wild West. John Carter is himself an adventuring frontiersman. When he arrives on Barsoom he first compares it to the landscape of Arizona which he has left behind. He discovers a savage, frontier world where the civilized Red Martians are kept invigorated as a race by repelling the constant attacks of the Green Martians, a possible equivalent of Wild West ideals. Indeed, the Green Martians are a barbaric, nomadic, tribal culture with many parallels to stereotypes of American Indians. The desire to return to the frontier became common in the early 20th century America. As the United States become more urbanized, the world of the 19th century frontier America became romanticized as a lost world of freedom and noble qualities. The Kaldanes, though highly intelligent, are ugly, ineffectual creatures when not interfaced with a Rykor body. Tara of Helium compares them to effete intellectuals from her home city, with a self-important sense of superiority; and Gahan of Gathol muses that it might be better to find a balance between the intellect and bodily passions. Paradox of "Superiority" Some of Barsoom's people, especially the Therns and First-Born, hold themselves as "superior" to the "lesser order" people on Barsoom. A paradox is established in that the Therns and First-Born, though they hold themselves in such high esteem, nonetheless are dependent on these lesser orders for their sustenance, labor, and goods. The Therns and First-Born are "non-productive" people and do not produce anything or invent, as such labor is seen as beneath them. This is punctuated by the fact that the Therns and First-Born are obliged to create strongholds in the south polar regions, to insulate themselves from the remainder of the planet dominated primarily by red and green Martians. A particular ironic twist is introduced by the fact that the white Therns think that they control and manipulate the entire planet, when they are in turn unknowingly exploited by the black First-Born. ==Antecedents and influences on Burroughs==

Scientific inspiration Burroughs' concept of a dying Mars and the Martian canals follows the theories of Lowell and his predecessor Giovanni Schiaparelli. In 1878, Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli observed geological features on Mars which he called canali (Italian: "channels"). This was mistranslated into the English as "canals" which, being artificial watercourses, fueled the belief that there was some sort of intelligent extraterrestrial life on the planet. This further influenced American astronomer Percival Lowell. In 1895 Lowell published a book titled Mars which speculated about an arid, dying landscape, whose inhabitants had been forced to build canals thousands of miles long to bring water from the polar caps (now known to be mostly frozen carbon dioxide or "dry ice") to irrigate the remaining arable land. Other examples are ''Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet'' (1889), which took place on Mars; Gustavus W. Popes's Journey to Mars (1894); and Ellsworth Douglas's ''Pharaoh's Broker'', in which the protagonist encounters an Egyptian civilization on Mars which, while parallel to that of the Earth, has evolved somehow independently. ==Burroughs' influence==

Public figures Notable fans of the Barsoom series include Carl Sagan, Terry Wilcutt, Jane Goodall, Michael Crichton, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ronald Reagan. Author Edmund Morris wrote in his biography Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan that A Princess of Mars was Reagan's favorite childhood novel. Scientist Carl Sagan read the books as a young boy, and they continued to affect his imagination into his adult years. Sagan remembered Barsoom as a "world of ruined cities, planet-girdling canals, immense pumping stations – a feudal technological society". For two decades, a map of the planet as imagined by Burroughs, hung in the hallway outside Sagan's office in Cornell University. Early science-fiction writers Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke were both inspired by the Barsoom books in their youth, with them serving as an inspiration for Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950), in which he used the concept of a dying Mars. Writer Robert A. Heinlein also wrote fiction inspired by Burroughs' Barsoom series, and for many others the Barsoom series helped to establish Mars as an adventurous, enticing destination for the imagination. Games The Warriors of Mars rules for miniature warfare by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume were controversial, and a legal dispute with the owners of the rights to the Barsoom series led to withdrawal of this title from the market. Novels and short stories '', November 1955, art by J. Allen St. John Numerous novels and series by others were inspired by Burroughs' Mars books: the Radio Planet trilogy of Ralph Milne Farley; the Mars and Venus novels of Otis Adelbert Kline; Almuric by Robert E. Howard; Warrior of Llarn and Thief of Llarn by Gardner Fox; the Michael Kane trilogy of Michael Moorcock; The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Through the Gates of the Silver Key by H. P. Lovecraft, the Gor series of John Norman; the Callisto series and Green Star series of Lin Carter; The Goddess of Ganymede and Pursuit on Ganymede by Mike Resnick; and the Dray Prescot series of Alan Burt Akers (Kenneth Bulmer). In addition, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Alan Dean Foster show Burroughs' influence in their development of alien cultures and worlds. In 1955, under the pseudonym John Bloodstone, writer Stuart J. Byrne wrote the novel Tarzan on Mars, with Tarzan going to Barsoom called Tarzan on Mars via an editorial called "Tarzan Never Dies", by editor Ray Palmer, in Other Worlds Science Stories magazine. The novel could not be published because Palmer was unable to get authorization from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Robert A. Heinlein's novels Glory Road and The Number of the Beast, and Alan Moore's graphic novels of Allan and the Sundered Veil and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II directly reference Barsoom. L. Sprague de Camp's story "Sir Harold of Zodanga" recasts and rationalizes Barsoom as a parallel world visited by his dimension-hopping hero Harold Shea. In 1989 Larry Niven and Steven Barnes published "The Barsoom Project", the second in the "Dream Park" series, where a Martian terraforming and colonization project is named after the Barsoom books. The 2008 novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.F. writer S. M. Stirling is an alternate telling of the Princess of Mars story. "Mars: The Home Front", a short story by George Alec Effinger, published in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, is a crossover between the Barsoom series and H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. In the first chapters of Gore Vidal's novel Washington, D.C., the character Peter Sanford – sixteen at the outset of the plot – indulges in vivid and detailed fantasies of being John Carter, and adds explicit erotic scenes not appearing in the original Burroughs books. In Karl Schroeder's novel Lockstep, set over 14,000 years in the future, Mars has been terraformed and is renamed Barsoom. Poetry The Dead City of Korad was published in 1964 and marks the beginning of the science fiction genre in Cuba. Film and television • Avatar: In interviews, James Cameron has invoked Burroughs as one of the primary inspirations behind his 2009 space adventure. ==Adaptations==

Comic strips John Carter of Mars (1941–1943) With the Tarzan comic strip a popular success, newspapers began a comic strip adaptation of A Princess of Mars drawn by Edgar Rice Burroughs' son, John Coleman Burroughs. Never as popular as Tarzan, the strip ran in only four Sunday newspapers, from December 7, 1941, to March 28, 1943, for a total of 73 installments. The Martian (1958–1959) Fifteen years later, the British tabloid paper Sunday Sun ran a newspaper strip also based on the first Barsoom novel titled The Martian. This adaptation was written by D. R. Morton and drawn by Robert Forest, the strip ran as a weekly serial from October 25, 1958, to May 23, 1959, for a total of 31 installments. Tarzan (1994–1995) From October 16, 1994, to August 13, 1995, writer Don Kraar and artist Gray Morrow set an arc first in Pellucidar and then on Barsoom featuring Tarzan, David Innes, and John Carter in a crossover adventure through their respective worlds. This storyline was the last Sunday strip installment to feature Carter, Barsoom and the worlds outside of Tarzan. Comic books • The Funnies (Dell Comics): This comics anthology included a John Carter of Mars serial drawn by John Coleman Burroughs, which ran for 23 installments through issues #30–56 (April 1939 – June 1941) respectively; a story was apparently intended for issue 57 (July 1941) but was never published. • John Carter of Mars (Dell Comics): Dell published three comic issues in 1952, adapting the first three Barsoom books, drawn by Jesse Marsh, who was the Dell Tarzan artist at the time. They were Four Color issues #375, 437, and 488 respectively. They were later reprinted by the successor of Dell, Gold Key Comics as John Carter of Mars #1–3. • ABC Magazine, Czechoslovakia: The first four Barsoom novels were printed as two comic book series (51 pages altogether) from 1970 to 1972 (Written by Vlastislav Toman, with painters Jiří Veškrna and Milan Ressel.) They were reprinted in 2001 in the comic book Velká Kniha Komiksů I. • John Carter in Tarzan of the Apes (DC Comics): John Carter of Mars was published as a backup feature through issues #207–209 (April—June 1972) in the Tarzan series, after which it was moved to Weird Worlds, sharing main feature status alongside an adaptation of Burroughs' Pellucidar stories in issues #1–7 (September 1972 – October 1973); it again became a backup feature in Tarzan Family #62–64 (April – August 1976). A non-John Carter Barsoom story, titled "Amazon of Barsoom", appeared two issues earlier in Tarzan Family #60 (December 1975). • John Carter, Warlord of Mars (Marvel Comics): This series began in 1977 and lasted for 28 issues (and saw three annuals published). • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DC Comics): John Carter made a notable cameo in the second volume of the series written by Alan Moore. Along with other literary Martian characters (including Gullivar Jones and the séroni), he leads a campaign against the Martians from The War of the Worlds. • Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars (Dark Horse Comics): Running from January to June 1996, this limited series was the first standalone comic book crossover with Tarzan. • Warlord of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Starting in October 2010, Dynamite began publishing an ongoing series entitled Warlord of Mars. The first two issues served as a prelude story, issues 3–9 adapted A Princess of Mars, and issues 10–12 were an original story. • Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris (Dynamite Entertainment): Starting in March 2011, it is set 400 years before A Princess of Mars and focuses on Dejah Thoris, her first suitor, and her role in the rise to power of the Kingdom of Helium. • Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from July 27, 2011, to January 25, 2012, it is set 100,000 years before A Princess of Mars and focuses on the attempt of two Orovars to save Mars as the seas dry up and the atmosphere becomes thin. • John Carter: A Princess of Mars (Marvel Comics): Running from September 14, 2011, to January 18, 2012 • John Carter: World of Mars (Marvel Comics): Running from October 12, 2011, to January 18, 2012, this limited series serves as a prequel to the 2012 Disney film. • Warriors of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from February 1, 2012, to October 24, 2012, this limited series deals with John Carter's encounter with Lt. Gullivar Jones, another earthman whose journey to the Red planet predated his own. • John Carter: The Gods of Mars (Marvel Comics); Running from March 21, 2012, to July 25, 2012 • Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from April 4, 2012, to July 25, 2015, Dejah Thoris and her party are stranded on the way to an archeological dig at an ancient battle site at the 'face' of Mars. They take shelter in a dead, ancient city infested with killer white apes. • A Princess of Mars — A Graphic Novel (Sterling Publishing): Published from May 28, 2012, this faithful adaptation is a part of Sterling's "Illustrated Classics" series which produces graphic novel adaptations of classic literature and was written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by I. N. J. Culbard, with a total of 136 pages. ( / ) • Dejah Thoris and the Green Men of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from February 20, 2013, to March 26, 2014 • Lords of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from August 7, 2013, to January 8, 2014, this limited series was the second standalone comic book crossover with Tarzan, after Dark Horse's Warlords of Mars. • Dejah of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from May 28, 2014, to September 3, 2014 • Swords of Sorrow (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from May 6, 2015, to October 14, 2015, this limited series was a crossover event storyline uniting the pre-existing fictional heroines Dynamite had the rights to at the time, including Vampirella, Barbarella, Red Sonja, Kato, Jungle Girl, Lady Zorro, Eva, Miss Fury, Esmeralda Aguilar, Miss Masque and Irene Alder, of which Dejah Thoris was one of many. • Swords of Sorrow: Dejah Thoris & Irene Adler (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from June 17, 2015, to August 5, 2015, a tie-in to the crossover event comic Swords of Sorrow. • John Carter: Warlord of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from November 5, 2014, to December 23, 2015 • John Carter: The End (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from February 8, 2017, to July 14, 2017 • The Greatest Adventure (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from April 19, 2017, to February 7, 2018, this limited series was a crossover story uniting John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tarzan, David Innes, Carson Napier and Jason Gridley in a wild chase through many locations from Africa, Caspak, Pellucidar, Barsoom and Amtor as the heroes journey to obtain the "Eye of Judgment", an ancient gemstone possessed by the villain Rokoff to power a doomsday device, capable of destroying everything in the universe. • Vampirella/Dejah Thoris (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from September 26, 2018, to February 13, 2019, a crossover with Vampirella. • Barbarella/Dejah Thoris (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from January 9, 2019, to June 19, 2019, a crossover with Barbarella. • Carson of Venus/Warlord of Mars (American Mythology Productions): Published from June 2019, a standalone crossover with Carson Napier of the Amtor series. • Warlords of Mars Attacks (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from June 19, 2019, to October 30, 2019, a crossover with Mars Attacks. • Dejah Thoris vs. John Carter of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from July 21, 2021, to December 22, 2021 • John Carter of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Running from April 20, 2022, to August 31, 2022 • Dejah Thoris: Fairy Tales (Dynamite Entertainment): Published from August 24, 2022 Film Princess of Mars was a 2009 direct-to-video film produced by The Asylum and starring Antonio Sabato Jr. as John Carter and Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris. This adaptation starts with John Carter as a wounded present-day sniper in Afghanistan who is teleported to another world as part of a government experiment. John Carter, released on March 9, 2012, was a big-budget but critically mixed and financially unsuccessful live-action film by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Taylor Kitsch as John Carter and Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris. ==See also==