Tag Archives: Edgar Rice Burroughs

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ FIRST TWO PELLUCIDAR STORIES

Balladeer’s Blog

Recent online discussions among film critics dealt with how the Jurassic Park series could be livened up.

Personally, I think it shot its bolt and should be done and left alone. Filmmakers who still want to deal in large numbers of dinosaurs should start adapting the Pellucidar novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs instead. They’re just begging for modern adaptations!

AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1914) – This tale was originally serialized in several issues of All-Story Weekly in 1914, then was assembled in novel form in 1922. American mining heir David Innes and his much older inventor friend Abner Perry test-drive Abner’s diesel-punk subterranean tunnel-drilling vehicle the Iron Mole.   

The pair inadvertently drive the train engine sized vehicle to an Inner Earth realm called Pellucidar in the language of the native inhabitants. Amazed by this find, David and Abner set out on foot to explore some of the rainforest region and realize it is inhabited by thousands of dinosaur species long extinct on the Earth’s surface. Continue reading

36 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

JOHN CARTER VS THE AIR-PIRATES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post takes a look at the early issues of Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1911 literary creation John Carter of Mars.

jcm 1JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #1 (June 1977)

Title: Air-Pirates of Mars, Chapter One

Villains: The Air-Pirates of Mars

Comment: For my fellow geeks for Burroughs’ John Carter novels, let me point out that this entire Marvel series was set during the 9-year gap between John Carter marrying Dejah Thoris and the malfunctioning of the Atmosphere Plant in the final part of the first book, A Princess of Mars.

When John’s wife Dejah gets abducted by the Air-Pirates of Mars, he sets out to find her and free her from their clutches. Unfortunately, he falls into the hands of the adversarial Warhoon tribe of Green Martians. Naturally, Marvel kept all the swords, aircraft and radium pistols from the novels. Continue reading

31 Comments

Filed under Pulp Heroes, Superheroes