Christmas Comes Early on Mars
Warlord of Mars #3 hits stores today, with another round of fantastic covers. I love Joe Jusko's depiction of the white apes of Mars – we'll see the apes in this issue. And, as usual,
J. Scott Campbell leaves nothing to be desired. Or to the imagination. See the first five pages, and pencil sketches of the covers, right here.
This is the first issue with interior art by Filipino maestro, Lui Antonio. It's not the first time Lui and I have worked together, and I hope it's not the last. He did a fantastic job bringing the weird, wild technology and architecture of Barsoom to life. We're not gonna see Dejah Thoris, the main female character, just yet – but hang on! Lui's depictions of her in Issue 4 will drop your jaw into your lap.
Speaking of Filipino artists, I just read one of the best comics I've come across in a long time – Elmer, written and drawn by Lui's fellow countryman, Gerry Alanguilan. Elmer's about... talking chickens. Seriously. It's riotously funny but surprisingly poignant at the same time. Very thoughtful. More like a novel than a comic. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Happy non-denominational holiday solstice event period to one and all!
Dejah Thoris Gets Hers
My foray into MMA continues – learned how to "shoot" (charge in for a takedown) last night. Tried to learn, anyway. Also figured out how to block a strike. The hard way. There's no teacher like pain! I literally got the snot beaten out of me. It was gross.
But enough about that! Dynamite just announced a new series I'm writing, an original Warlord of Mars story starring Dejah Thoris. Dejah's the female lead from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars novels. I think it's safe to say she's a little passive in the original novels, so it's great being able to put her in the driver's seat.
The title is Colossus of Mars, and it's set 400 years before John Carter arrives – Martians live forever, unless they're killed. The story's about how Helium, Dejah Thoris's kingdom, came to be the greatest on Mars. It begins with Dejah about to be married off to a powerful warlord's son... but the wedding doesn't go as planned. More than that, I dare not say. You'll just have to read it.
As usual, Dynamite's providing, well, dynamite front covers for the series (not to mention he interior art). Check out the official press release at CBR for all the images, including one by the great Joe Jusko not shown here. I'm especially fond of Arthur Adams's cover, for his depiction of a Martian pistol. I've always imagined Martian firearms looking sort of... "piratey", like high tech arquebuses. Arthur did a great Wild West take on it. I'm sold. Hope you are, too!
Joe Jusko
My tailbone got whacked pretty bad a few days ago during a session of submission grappling. I stumbled across Joe Jusko's front cover for Warlord of Mars #5 whilst dickering around online today, and it took my mind off the pain for a few minutes.
It's a tribute to the Saturday Evening Post, of course, but I really love the modern details – the shoes of the kid in the foreground, the cut of his jeans, even his hair. This cover reminds me that everything I love about American culture is still very much with us. Edgar Rice Burroughs is still with us, and it's such an incredible honor to be able to share his Mars novels with the world in the adaptation I'm doing with Dynamite.
All Joe's covers for Warlord of Mars are absolute treasures. They make me feel like I'm ten years old again, secretly reading beat-up old copies of Heavy Metal. Art like this is why I got into science fiction and fantasy in the first place.
If #5 doesn't sell a million copies and Joe doesn't win two dozen Eisners, I'll be very upset.
I’m Dynamite!
The second issue of my adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars novels hits stores today. It's only $1, same as Issue 1. Things from Another World is selling them both for 80 cents a piece. That's far less than the cost of your favorite premium caffeinated beverage from from Starbucks™, and ZERO CALORIES.
Can you afford not to buy them? At the very worst, you can use the paper as inexpensive kindling, or packaging. But you won't want to. You'll want to build a gigantic, hermetically sealed underground vault and store these issues there for your great grandchildren.
And I'm back for more Queen Sonja – a new five-issue story arc by moi debuts in January. The return of Thulsa Doom! I really love the front cover for the first issue; Fabiano Neves is the artist. You just can't beat Brazil when it comes to heavy metal music, no-holds-barred fighting and comics. Really happy with how this series is shaping up.
Canada to Mars
Turns out there's a difference between diesel and biodiesel fuel. I had to learn the hard way. The wife and I just got back from the French Canadian wilderness – half an hour from home, after a grueling day of driving and helping my mom with her new cable internet, I had the brilliant idea of filling up the car on biodiesel.
Thank God I didn't start the engine, thank God my wife is so patient with me. That's all I can say. We finally got the car back today, followed by a minor orgy of pent-up errands.
Lots more exciting stuff going on, too. First of all, we finally, finally found vegetarian marshmallows (no gelatin). Until today, it had been ten long, long years since I'd tasted the forbidden, fluffy fruit that is marshmallow.
As if that weren't enough, The Sword, the bestest doom metal band in the whole world, released their third studio album, Warp Riders. Haven't given it a full listen yet, but my first impression is it's a lot more studio-ified than the first two. Not necessarily a bad thing.
If you haven't heard The Sword before, I cannot recommend their first album, Age of Winters, highly enough. Their second, Gods of the Earth, is magnificent, but Age of Winters is utterly perfect. Warp Riders is a concept album – normally "concept album" makes me cringe, but in the case of The Sword, it's exactly what I wanted.
And a new series I'm writing, an adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series, is coming out in October. The comics Internet has been all ablaze over this for the past few weeks; here are some articles and interviews with moi:
comicbookresources.com
newsarama.com
more comicbookresources
I'm ashamed to say I'd never read these novels before Dynamite tapped me to write this – but I was really blown away by how fun and readable and epic the stories are. We're really gonna do this adaptation the right way, we're going to mess with the original stories as little as possible. The first two issues will be an original prelude concocted by moi, that's it.
Really looking forward to October.
Arvid Nelson (me!) is a comic book writer, responsible for Rex Mundi and Zero Killer, among other things. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts with my lovely wife. more...Coming Up
- Jun. 20: Warlord of Mars #18
- Jun. 27: Lord of the Jungle #5
- Jul. 11: Warlord of Mars #19
- Jul. 18: Lord of the Jungle #6
- Aug. 15: Warlord of Mars #20
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