The new comics series Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom will take a look at a tale of Burroughs’ Mars a thousand centuries before the arrival of John Carter.
Burroughs wrote a whole series of books about the dorothy-esque travels of Civil War veteran John Carter in the wastelands of Mars, where war and environmental change had driven almost all society down into the red dust, and the entirety of the Martian civilization was a few warring tribes, fighting over the last drops of water and other scarce resources.
Dynamite Entertainment has already released Warlord of Mars and Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris as retellings of some of his novels, but this new project is more ambitious, as it seeks to expand on the history of Mars, as hinted at in the stories.
When Mankind on Earth was still just a few newly-evolved tribes in Africa, Mars was a thriving world with a deep culture, and a complex political semblance. Fall of Barsoom will tell part of that story.
“I love Barsoom, it’s Burroughs first, best creation in my opinion and to delve into its past and tell a story of Mars before John Carter would be good on its own,” says writer Robert Napton.
“But I get the icing on the cake of doing it with cover artist Joe Jusko, the foremost Burroughs artist of our day, and an amazing interior artist with Roberto Castro. What could be better?”
“I’m very proud to work with Dynamite on this new title in the Warlord of Mars universe with the remarkable writer Robert Napton,” says artist Roberto Castro. “Working on the prequel is like a dream, which features a story about the last days of a powerful civilization on the road to destruction.”
Book One of Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom, The Tide of Battle will be out in July.
