John Carter of Mars – June 8 2012

John Carter of Mars – June 8

You might remember Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights (TV series), or better as Remy LeBeau/Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. What’s interesting is that Edgar Rice Burroughs, played by Daryl Sabara, actually wrote himself in his own books as a surrogate nephew to John Carter.

John Carter

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the Barsoom series of John Carter from 1912 – 1964. Captain John Carter is an Earthman, was a Virginian who fought in the American Civil war as a Confederate soldier. After the Civil War, Carter moved to the SW United States to work as a prospector. In 1866 he and his prospector partner strike wealth; but the partner is killed by Indians and Carter takes refuge in a cave where he is overcome by smoke produced by an Indian woman. Carter wakes up to find himself on Mars. While on Mars, Carter was believed to be dead by those who knew him on Earth, but he re-emerges in New York 10 years later in 1876, settling on the Hudson River.
John Carter appeared to die in 1886, leaving instructions for a Burroughs, who refers to him as an ‘uncle’ of the family, to entomb him in a crypt, and leaving Burroughs with the manuscript of A Princess of Mars with instructions not to publish it for another 21 years. He has no memory before the age of 30 and seems never to age. If you haven’t read the books, you can start with A Princess of Mars or you might be interested in the recent John Carter comic book, Warlord of Mars