John FREAKIN' Carter of Mars!

So the other day I was out and about and thinking to myself:

“Self: You really need to get those John Carter of Mars books back that you so loved as a teenager.”

I have some of the Marvel comics based on the novels but I wanted my books back. I just thought it would be a good time to read them over again. Off I went to the local used bookstore and by some act of God I found all 11 volumes, the reprints with the awesome cover art by Mike Whelan. I think that of all the artists he summed it up the best in terms of how I visualized Mars and the entire race of creatures there.

If you REALLY want to get into some good John Carter of Mars info, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom

I paid 96 cents a piece for each book and just like that I had restored my collection just as it was circa 1985.

So I get home and start surfing the web and what do I see? Sure enough, the movie version of the books is set and X Men: Origins star Taylor Kitsch is playing John Carter himself. I was almost dumbfounded and had to read it twice, but finally my all time science fiction favorite is being brought to the big screen. They will never be able to do the books justice, but to see Mars as Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote it brought to the big screen with today’s technology will be awesome. The only thing that scares me is that it will be a damn Disney movie which tells me it may involved talking brooms or some dumbass wise cracking sidekick. Here’s to hoping it turns out like National Treasure and not Enchanted.

“The screenplay for the sci-fi action-adventure, based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic series of fantasy/sci-fi novels, was written by Stanton and Mark Andrews with a polish by Michael Chabon. The film is based on the first serial to feature John Carter, 1912’s A Princess of Mars. Carter is an American Civil War veteran who is transported to Mars, here called Barsoom”

HUZZAH!