Wondering why Marvel would announce a new line of adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter novels even though Dynamite Entertainment launched their own Warlord of Mars franchise last year? Or how it’s even possible that Dynamite’s Nick Barrucci can say that their books won’t be affected by the news? Two words: Public domain. Oh, and one more: Synergy.
What’s not mentioned in the Marvel PR about the launch is that, despite a partnership with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate and comments about the new series being “official canon” is that John Carter of Mars isn’t owned or controlled by either the ERB estate or Marvel. The character first appeared in 1912 as a serialized story in All-Story Magazine, before being collected as A Princess of Mars five years later – but according to American copyright law, anything published prior to 1923 is public domain these days. So, why is Marvel publishing a public domain character? It must mean that they really, really like the character, right?
Well, possibly. But it’s more likely that it’s being done as tie-in to and promotion of the Disney John Carter movie that’s coming out next year (It’s Tron: Legacy all over again – I can’t wait for the John Carter tie-in variant covers next March!) After all, Carter’s been public domain for years without Marvel touching him (Well, touching him again; there was a 28 issue series from Marvel in the 1970s), so it’s more than likely that next year’s Disney movie is behind this decision rather than a sudden desire to “bring [the] novels to comics for a new generation,” as Marvel EiC Axel Alonso puts it in today’s press release. After all, the new generation has had a chance to meet Carter, Dejah Thoris and the rest of Barsoom in the Dynamite comics since last year.
June 7th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
What’s interesting about this is that for a long time ERB Inc refused to admit that A Princess of Mars was public domain and anyone could do a comic book based on it. They even claimed that they had trademarks which would prevent that. The threat of that forced IDW to drop their announced series of John Carter several years ago, but clearly they could revive it now if they wanted to. What isn’t mentioned is that Dark Horse has extensive ERB comic book rights which at one time included John Carter, and which I had been told they were sitting on until the forthcoming movie would make a new comic more commercially appealing. I guess not.
June 8th, 2011 at 4:52 am
Dark Horse did recently release a trade paperback reprinting all of the 1970′s Marvel “John Carter” series, so I assume they may have their own plans for the character as well.
June 8th, 2011 at 6:13 am
That the Dynamite series is crap and is damaging to the Disney movie may make Marvel’s series damage control rather than purely a promotional vehicle.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Self Made Hero are also releasing an adaptation written by Ian Edginton with art by INJ Culbard:
http://www.selfmadehero.com/title.php?isbn=9781906838416
http://strangeplanetstories.blogspot.com/2011/05/princess-of-mars-cover-art.html
December 13th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Sit back and watch complete films totally free