JOHN CARTER OF MARS

Cover for Edgar Rice Burroughs

Sep 02, 2024

On the back of a saddled Martian bird, John Carter flies above a barren red landscape with the horizon tilted at a steep angle. His arms are spread wide as he grips reins in one hand and a rapier in the other. Dejah Thoris has a worried expression as she holds him around his waist. The bird twists with its eyes and beak pointing in a different direction than rider, giving a disorienting change in motion. Behind flies Tars Tarkas on his own winged mount. An elegant city with high reaching spires and onion-shaped peaks sits in the distance framed by a huge moon. Another smaller moon hangs bright in the gray blue sky. — JOHN CARTER OF MARS (1979), Acrylic - 22" x 28"

I’ve had a special fondness for The Martian Tales by Edgar Rice Burroughs even since I first read them in my early teens. This was the last of 11 covers, so it seemed fitting to have John Carter and Dejah Thoris ride off into the sunset.

All kidding aside, I wanted to wrap up the series with a painting that evoked the romantic notion of the deathless hero and the woman of his dreams winging off to further adventures against the backdrop of the full majesty of their planet.

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