Author Archives: TheMainGuy

San Diego ComicCon Edgar Rice Burroughs Panel

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San Diego ComicCon Edgar Rice Burroughs Panel

ComicBookResources just posted an excellent summary of the Edgar Rice Burroughs panel at this year’s San Diego ComicCon.

The panel of experts on all things Burroughs consisted of moderator Scott Tracy Griffin, author of “Tarzan, the Centennial Celebration,” the artist of the “Cave Girl” comic strip Diana Leto, Dynamite Entertainment Senior editor Joe Rybandt and president of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Jim Sullus. Sullus called the company he oversees “a small, family run company ran by the Burroughs heirs, committed to not allow the properties to go stale.” Rounding out the panel was writer of the online Burroughs comic strips “Korak the Killer” and “The Mucker,” Ron Marz, and long time Burroughs World artist Thomas Yates.

Read the full story Here!

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Transforming into a Martian for the John Carter movie

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Transforming into a Martian for the John Carter movie

Ekaterina Botziou posted about her interesting experience starring in the 2012 John Carter movie. She describes the process of transforming into a native Martian by undergoing deep St Tropez tan sprays every two weeks, as well having red swirly tattooed glued onto her. Here is an excerpt of her experience:

The problem with a fake spray tan is that it gets progressively darker as time passes. So some days, I would get to the studios in the morning, as pale as a ghost, and travel back home on the train getting more and more orange with every stop.

I looked like a cross between a member of Hell’s Angels and an orange smurf.

The cast spent almost 4 hours in hair and make-up every morning (bear in mind that our call time was usually 5:30am so the make-up artists had to work wonders), and we were told to ease up on the nightly wash in case the tan came off. Fat chance.

Read the full story on her blog!

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Tarzan retrospective article in Wales Online

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Tarzan

Columnist Dan O’Neil takes a look at the 100 years of Tarzan:

Instead, we celebrate the first true 100th birthday of the first superhero – Tarzan. The “true” hundredth because although the noblest savage of ’em all appeared earlier in an obscure pulp magazine, no-one took much notice until the book Tarzan of the Apes was published in 1914.

It was a sensation, selling a million copies in a year and it signalled the birth of an immortal. Now a century on, yet another Tarzan movie is in the works which means that Tarzan films have been with us almost as long as the 40-odd books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Here was a man who found it hard to separate fact from fiction and for proof, here’s how he described his upbringing to his readers: “I was born in Peking at the time that my father was military advisor to the Empress of China and lived there in the Forbidden City until I was 10 years old.” A tall tale to rank with Tarzan’s upbringing by apes. Burroughs was born in Chicago in 1875, the fourth son of a wealthy businessman.

Read the full article Here!

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The Monster Men an All-New Digital WebComic Launch!

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The Monster Men – the Launch of an Exciting New Adventure – A Web Comic Strip based on a book by the author of Tarzan – Edgar Rice Burroughs! In English and Spanish! see Edgar Rice Burroughs.com/comics for Adventure!

(August 15, 2014 – Tarzana, CA) University Professor Arthur Maxon has been experimenting with the creation of artificial life—and he is afraid of what he created. If life can be created from lifeless chemicals with no assurance that anything other than mindless monsters could be created, the safest place to pursue this gruesome research is far away from upstate New York. A remote island off the coast of Borneo is the perfect place to continue his experiments. So, Maxon departs for the East Indies – taking his beautiful daughter, Virginia, with him. Adventure awaits that neither could have ever imagined!

Read Comics Online See the Sample Strips

Maxon recruits Dr. Carl von Horn to be his fellow scientist and Captain of his yacht, the Ithaca. As the crew prepares for their voyage, a young man, Townsend J. Harper, Jr., becomes smitten by Virginia. Plus, unbeknownst to Maxon and Virginia, Dr. von Horn also hopes to marry Virginia.

On the island, Maxon and von Horn begin their experiments and grow several living creatures in chemical vats. They are humanoid but, mindless and ugly. Maxon hopes Experiment Number Thirteen will result in the perfect human being, and in his fanatic obsession, believes Virginia should wed his ultimate creation. But is this perfectly created human capable of feelings, or is he A Man Without a Soul?

Before that question is answered, Experiment Number One escapes and abducts Virginia. Maxon and von Horn are in pursuit, as is Number Thirteen. During their pursuit, they encounter pirates who believe Maxon has a hidden treasure – a rumor started by the ship’s crew. Evading the pirates temporarily, they stumble upon the now dead Number One, killed by Number Thirteen. And, Virginia begins to look at Number Thirteen, her rescuer, in a different light.

After dealing with pirates, kidnappings, native warriors, and the eleven ungodly horrors of escaped experiments Numbers Two to Twelve, can Maxon be convinced to abandon his obsession with artificial life? Can Virginia be sure of her emotions as she confronts madmen and dubious suitors? Only Sing Lee knows for sure, and he’s not talking…..yet! Read these exciting new comic strips, learn of their fate, and enjoy the adventures that only Edgar Rice Burroughs can create and vividly describe.

Free online comics

As with all the series featured at edgarriceburroughs.com/comics, the first four episodes of “The Monster Men” will be available at no charge. Fans can gain unlimited access to the entire site and all the strips from the beginning for only $1.99 per month or $21.99 per year.

About the Edgar Rice Burroughs Digital Comic Strips Service Regularly updated and expertly curated, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Digital Comic Strips service offers all new web comic adventures based on the classic characters and stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Current offerings include:

THE MONSTER MEN™ by Tom Simmons, Erik Roman, L Jamal Walton and Cristian Docolomansky
JOHN CARTER WARLORD OF MARS™ by Roy Thomas, Pegaso, Salvador López, Carolina Sánchez, Guadalupe Rivera and Olivia Peña
KORAK THE KILLER (TM) by Ron Marz, Rick Leonardi, Neeraj Menon and Troy Peteri
THE MUCKER (TM) by Ron Marz, Lee Moder, Troy Peteri and Neeraj Menon
TARZAN OF THE APES (TM) by Roy Thomas and Tom Grindberg
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN (TM) by Roy Thomas and Tom Grindberg
CARSON OF VENUS (TM) by Martin Powell, Thomas Floyd, and Diana Leto
THE ETERNAL SAVAGE (TM) by Martin Powell and Steven E. Gordon
THE WAR CHIEF(TM) by Martin Powell and Nik Poliwko
THE CAVE GIRL (TM) by Martin Powell and Diana Leto (A Bi-Weekly)
PELLUCIDAR (TM) by Chuck Dixion and Tom Lyle
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (TM) by Martin Powell, Pablo Marcos and Oscar Gonzalez

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The gruesome truths behind Elephant Poaching

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elephant poaching

Huffington Post just put up a great and heartbreaking article about the true effects of elephant poaching:

Elephants are extraordinary animals. They’re super smart and emotional, and their relationships are complex. They’ve been known to show compassion, empathy, altruism, self-awareness and grief. People the world over love elephants; some even worship them.

But these majestic creatures are also one of the planet’s most threatened. African elephants, for instance, are being driven to extinction by poaching, killed en masse for their magnificent tusks. “I could take you tomorrow to a park and show you fresh carcasses. It’s a tidal wave of destruction flooding across the continent,” long-time ranger and conservationist Rory Young told The Huffington Post last month. “Ivory is beautiful. The problem is, we just can’t do this anymore.”

Read the full article Here.

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Real scientists like ERB books

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Real scientists like ERB books

Huffington Post has just put up an interesting article interviewing 15 different real-world scientists about their literary preferences. From cosmology and physics professors at MIT to astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, these men of science shared what their favorite sci-fi and fantasy books are. Among them, Dr. Jane Goodall from the UN Messenger of Peace listed the Tarzan of the Apes classic. It is great to hear the ERB stories inspired such creative and important minds!

Full article at Huffington Post

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Comics Retrospective and Jim Starlin’s Warlock

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Comics Retrospective and Jim Starlin's Warlock

AV Club has just put up a great article looking back the the history of superhero comics in the U.S. It focuses primarily on Jim Starlin’s work on Warlock, but gives a pretty comprehensive idea about the origin of many contemporary archetypes and tropes. The introduction reads:

Superhero comic books descend from the pulps. That is, they are a product of a massive surge in genre fiction produced in the early decades of the 20th century. Look at your favorite superheroes today, and you can still see the traces of this lineage. It’s not as if fantasy, science-fiction, or detective stories hadn’t existed before 1900, but so many of the expectations and conventions that genre fans take for granted today were only created and codified after the turn of the century. Many of the people who got in on the ground floor of the Golden Age of comics had experience with pulp magazines like Amazing Stories and Weird Tales as writers, editors, or devoted fans.

It’s a great piece Tim O’Neil, so we highly recommend it to all fans of our comics and Edgar Rice Burroughs classics. Check it out here.

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Inkpot Awards at 2014 Comic Con

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Inkpot Awards

During this year’s Comic-Con, the Inkpot Awards were given to Chuck Dixon, Kelley Jones, Graham Nolan and Brian Stelfreeze. Congratulations to all the recepients!

The Inkpot Awards are annual awards given to contributors to the world of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, animation and fandom services, as the official website explains.

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