John Carter (character)
| John Carter | |
|---|---|
| Barsoom character | |
 John Carter and Dejah Thoris from the cover of the first edition of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, McClurg, 1917 |
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| First appearance | A Princess of Mars |
| Created by | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Portrayed by | Taylor Kitsch |
| Information | |
| Aliases | John Carter of Mars |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Adventurer, hunter, trapper, soldier |
| Nationality | American |
John Carter is a fictional character, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who appears in Burroughs's Barsoom novels. Although he is actually a Virginian from Earth and only a visitor to Mars, he is sometimes known as "John Carter of Mars," in reference to the setting in which his major deeds are recorded. His character is enduring, having appeared in various media since his 1912 debut in a magazine serial. The 2012 Disney-made feature film John Carter marks the centenary of the character's first appearance.
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[edit] Appearances
John Carter was the lead character in the first novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, set on a fictionalized version of Mars known as Barsoom. Written between July and September 28, 1911, the novel was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912. It later appeared as a complete novel only after the success of Burroughs' Tarzan series. For its October 1917 hardcover publication by A.C. McClurg & Company, the novel was retitled A Princess of Mars.
Carter reappeared in subsequent volumes of the series, most prominently in the second (The Gods of Mars, 1918), the third (The Warlord of Mars, 1919), the eighth (Swords of Mars, 1936), the tenth (Llana of Gathol, 1948), and the eleventh and final installment (John Carter of Mars, published posthumously in 1964). John Carter is also a major secondary character in the fourth volume (Thuvia, Maid of Mars, 1920), and the ninth (Synthetic Men of Mars, 1940).
[edit] Description
Carter stands 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and has close-cropped black hair and steel-grey eyes. Burroughs describes him as immortal. In the opening pages of A Princess of Mars, it is revealed that Carter can remember no childhood, having always been a man of about thirty years old. Many generations have known him as "Uncle Jack," but he always lived to see them grow old and die, while he remained young.
His character and courtesy exemplify the ideals of the antebellum South. A Virginian, he served as a captain in the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. After the war Carter struck it rich by finding gold in Arizona. While hiding from Apaches in a cave, he appears to die; leaving his inanimate body behind, he is mysteriously transported by a form of astral projection to the planet Mars, where he finds himself re-embodied in a form identical to his earthly one. Accustomed to the greater gravity of Earth, he is much stronger and more agile than the natives of Mars due to its lesser gravity.
[edit] Character biography
On Mars, which its natives call Barsoom, Carter encounters both formidable alien creatures resembling the beasts of ancient myth and various humanoids. He finds his true calling in life as a warlord who strives to save the planet's inhabitants. He wins the hand of a Martian princess, Dejah Thoris of Helium, but after several years of marriage he sacrifices himself to save Barsoom from the loss of its atmosphere. Awakening again after this second death he finds he has been miraculously transported back to Earth, into his original body. Carter then collects the wealth that resulted from his discovery of a rich vein of gold ore right before his original passage to Barsoom. Unable to return to Mars, he spends several more years in a small cottage on the Hudson River in New York State, where he once more appears to die on March 4, 1886.
Again, Carter's apparent demise is not a true death; rather, he is restored to Barsoom, where after more adventures he rises to the position of Warlord of Mars. He returns to Earth on a number of occasions afterward to relate his adventures to his nephew ("Burroughs"), revealing that he has mastered the process of astral travel between the two worlds. During his adventures on Mars his earthly body reposes in a special tomb that can only be opened from the inside.
John Carter and Dejah Thoris become the parents of a son, Carthoris, and daughter, Tara. Carthoris plays a secondary role in The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, and is the protagonist of Thuvia, Maid of Mars. Tara is the heroine of The Chessmen of Mars (1922), and the mother of Carter's granddaughter Llana, heroine of Llana of Gathol.
For a complete list of characters see the end of Thuvia, Maid of Mars A GLOSSARY OF NAMES AND TERMS USED IN THE MARTIAN BOOKS located here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/72/72-h/72-h.htm
[edit] In other media
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[edit] Comics
John Carter has appeared many times in short-lived comic strips and comic books, as well as in various Big Little Books of the 1930s and 1940s. The most notable John Carter comic strip to appear in Edgar Rice Burroughs' lifetime was written and illustrated by Burroughs' son John Coleman Burroughs. This strip debuted on Sunday, December 7, 1941--the very day of the infamous Pearl Harbor Attack. This well-done strip lasted only 72 weeks, ending in March 1943. Dell Comics released three issues of John Carter of Mars under its Four Color Comics banner. The issue numbers are 375, 437, and 488 and were released in 1952-1953. Carter has appeared in various subsequent graphic adaptations of the Martian stories, notably the "John Carter of Mars" feature that ran in DC Comics' Tarzan and Weird Worlds comics from 1972 to 1973, and in Marvel Comics' John Carter, Warlord of Mars from 1977 to 1979. He also appeared, along with Tarzan, in a 1994-1995 storyline of the Tarzan Sunday comic strip,[1] and in Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars, a 1996 four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.[2][3] In 2010, Dynamite Entertainment published an ongoing series entitled "Warlord of Mars", written by Arvid Nelson. In 2011, "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris" #1 debuted, also written by Nelson. Self Made Hero are also adapting A Princess of Mars into a graphic novel, adapted by Ian Edginton with art by INJ Culbard.[4]
Carter's physical appearances in the comics varied greatly from decade to decade. He was a frequent character in sketches and paintings by Frank Frazetta (February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010).
[edit] Other novels and television programs
Carter is also found in other novels and stories. He makes two appearances in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The first is in the story Allan and the Sundered Veil, which appears in the end of volume one. In this story, Moore claims that H. P. Lovecraft's Randolph Carter is a descendant of John Carter. Carter also appears in the beginning of volume two, helping the Barsoomians fight against the Martians from The War of the Worlds. The same scenario also appeared in the Burroughs entry in the War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches anthology. In addition, one of the protagonists of Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast is Captain Zebediah John Carter. The similarity in names is noted within the novel, since all of the major characters are fans of vintage science fiction. In Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross, Barsoom and Carter City are names of settlements on Mars.
Carter has also been referenced in television shows. In Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i, the protagonist, James Links, is always called "John Carter" by the WIRED officer, Baan Dorfloun. James Links is an Earth-born human who fell in love and had children with a Mars-born woman. In Episode 15 of the anime series To Love-Ru, a prince named Carter, from the planet Burroughs, arrives on Earth to conduct a hunt in a hidden alien game preserve in Guyana. In the Babylon 5 episode A Spider in the Web, John Carter is mentioned as the pilot of the first colony ship to Mars.
[edit] Films
Bob Clampett, the animator, wanted to produce a full length cartoon of John Carter in the 1930s and talked with Burroughs about it.[5]
John Carter was played by Antonio Sabàto, Jr. in the 2009 movie Princess of Mars, which also starred Traci Lords as Princess Dejah Thoris.
In the forthcoming 2012 film adaptation of the series, John Carter, Carter is played by Taylor Kitsch,[6] with the role of Dejah Thoris to be played by Lynn Collins.
[edit] References
- ^ Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan From 1994 & 1995, Sunday Pages with John Carter Of Mars from ERBzine 2121
- ^ Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars at the Comic Book DB
- ^ A Princes of Mars, Self made Hero
- ^ Lost Cartoons: The Animated "John Carter of Mars" was a planned 1930s cartoon movie of John Carter that never happened. Jim Hill Media
- ^ Kit, Borys (2009-06-12). "Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins blast off to Mars". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i45a4bf33efc179178ca1aefbace6b9ce. Retrieved 2009-06-12.[dead link]
