New John Carter stories for 100th Anniversary of A Princess of Mars

Wow, 100 years old. I loved the John Carter stories as a kid. [Link]

The classic John Carter of Mars saga is having its 100th anniversary in February 2012, and he's getting a new movie in March. Celebrate John Carter's birthday with a whole new book of Barsoom stories.

A new anthology, featuring all new stories of John Carter, Tars Tarkas and Dejah Thoris, will come out in time for the centenary of Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous work. It's being edited by anthology editor extraordinaire John Joseph Adams, who co-hosts the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast here on io9, and contributors include Austin Grossman, Peter S. Beagle and Catherynne M. Valente.

We have a movie coming out in 2012 as well, Pixar's first live action film. [Link]

John Carter of Mars not the only Burroughs adaptation coming

Princess of Mars. A low budget version of John Carter coming. [Link]

Can't wait another couple years for the Andrew Stanton-Michael ChabonJohn Carter Of Marsmovie? You don't have to. Asylum, maker of so many bargain-basement epics, is putting out Princess Of Mars now. The trailer reveals Traci Lords' Deja Thoris.

The Mercury Men

A new sci-fi serial on the web. [Link]

here’s something I stumbled over which is also Really Interesting, not to mention Really Spiffy. It’s the trailer for an online retro movie serial called The Mercury Men.

Enjoy the trailer, and then pop over to the web site. Subscribe. Have some popcorn. Enjoy.

Batman/Doc Savage

Cool. I'll be getting this. [Link]

If you’ve been enjoying Brian Azzarello’s work on Batman in Wednesday Comics, then this will probably make you happy … Azzarello is teaming with artist Phil Noto for a Batman/Doc Savage special. Per DC’s the Source blog, the special “sets the stage for an entire new world for the Doc, along with a slew of characters that will pop up later, including the Blackhawks and Rima, the Jungle Girl.” The special is due in November, with J.G. Jones providing the cover

There is a new monthly set to follow, set in a world where The Spirit exists as well.

Doc Savage has had a few comics series, but they never seem to stay long. I hope this one will last.

Crazily Awesome

V8 motorcycle with a steering wheel and training wheels for slow speed from 1913. [Link]

A 3,200-lb. motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still, the Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo was the daft experiment of James Scripps-Booth, an heir of the Scripps publishing fortune and a self-taught — or untaught — auto engineer. The Bi-Autogo was essentially a two-wheeled vehicle, carrying its considerable heft on 37-in. wooden wheels. At slow speeds, the driver could lower small wheels on outriggers to stabilize the vehicle so it wouldn't plop over.

It SO needs to be in a pulp action film.

John Carter of Mars director

Interviewed. I'm really looking forward to this. [Link]

WALL-E director Andrew Stanton told SCI FI Wire that he is working on a new draft of his proposed John Carter of Mars movie and is aiming for a realistic feel to the live-action movie, his first.

"[I'm] deep into it," Stanton said in an exclusive interview at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award ceremony in Century City, Calif., on Monday, where he accepted the award for best picture of 2008 for WALL-E. "I'm on my next draft of it. We're in preproduction art-wise, and we're starting to talk to actors. So it's full bore."

Stanton confirmed that Carter, based on the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, will be live-action. "Yeah, I think that's the only way," he said. "I mean, there are so many creatures and characters that half of it's going to be CG whether you want it to be [or not], just to realize some of these images that are in the book. But it will feel real. The whole thing will feel very, very believable."

Following is an edited version of the rest of our interview with Stanton. John Carter of Mars is slated for release sometime in 2012.

Early superhero

Just put a mask on this guy and have him fight crime. [Link]

Minion Want Ad

For Sean [Link]

[Hmm … I see that Jeff is looking for minions but the picture of the want-ad isn't big enough to read and gosh darn it, I've always wanted to know how such minions are recruited. I'll have to ask Jeff next time I see him … ]

Here you go:

Minions Wanted

☠ Do you enjoy the "Graveyard Shift"?
☠ Do you enjoy getting your hands dirty?
☠ Are you not a "People Person"?
☠ Can you follow orders blindly?
☠ Do you have what it takes to be a minion?

Minions are very important to the Mad Scientific Process. Many would "Kill" to have such a prestigious job opportunity. If your brain is at least 1300 cubic centimeters in volume and you have questionable morals and you have your CCM (Certified Craven Minion), you may be qualified to be a Mad Scientist's Minion.

Great Sci-fi pulp art

Dark Roasted Blend has an article on pulp sci-fi illustrators. I love this stuff. [Link]

At the time, the artists working for the pulps weren’t considered anything but cheap creatives providing cheap entertainment for cheap minds. But now we know what they were: visions of wonder, amazing vistas of the imagination, daring dreams of possibility, magnificent views of What Could Be -- but most of all we look back at what they did and recognize it for being truly magnificent art.

Agents of Atlas Ongoing

This is great news! The miniseries was awesome, bring back comic characters from the fifties into the modern era. And now, it will be an ongoing series. I have been dropping titles I continue to read only out of inertia, but this is being added. [Link]

One of the best items to come out of the “Mondo Marvel” panel is the announcement that the quirky and wonderful Agents of Atlas — comprised of characters from the 1950s Atlas era — will get an ongoing series beginning early next year. The team, which debuted in a 2006 miniseries, last appeared in Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?

John Carter of Mars to be made by Pixar

Pretty cool. I loved those books when I was a kid. [Link]

Pixar is indeed working on a movie version of John Carter of Mars, with a script written by Wall-E's director Andrew Stanton, who also worked on Finding Nemo. The confirmation came from Stanton himself, talking to fans after a convention appearance in Toronto last week.

From Wikipedia:

Barsoom series

Main article: Barsoom

• A Princess of Mars (1912) (Project Gutenberg Entry: [1]) (LibriVox.org MP3 recording [2])
• The Gods of Mars (1914) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[3]) (LibriVox.org MP3 recording [4])
• The Warlord of Mars (1918) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[5]) (AudioBooksForFree.com MP3 recording [6])
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[7]) (AudioBooksForFree.com MP3 recording [8])
• The Chessmen of Mars (1922) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[9])
• The Master Mind of Mars (1928) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[10])
• A Fighting Man of Mars (1931) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[11])
• Swords of Mars (1936) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[12])
• Synthetic Men of Mars (1940) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[13])
• Llana of Gathol (1948) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[14])
• John Carter of Mars (1964)
  • "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" (1940) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[15])
  • "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" (1942) (Project Gutenberg Entry:[16])

How John Carter of Mars almost made it to the silver screen in the 30's

This would have been cool to see if it had been completed. [Link]

Edgar Rice Burroughs was well known by the masses as the creator of Tarzan, but to science fiction fans, he will be remembered as the man who gave life to John Carter of Mars. Carter's literary exploits were by no mans Literature-with-a-capital-L, but they are lovingly remembered by many fans as the books that hooked them on science fiction.

With such a hot property, one might expect it to have been adapted to film. Well, the Mars books weren't quite as popular as the Tarzan books, but that didn't stop Burroughs from trying when the opportunity arose. That opportunity came in the early 1930's from animation pioneer Bob Clampett, who had recently earned his animation stripes at Warner Bros. studios. Clampett approached Burroughs with an idea for an animated film about one of his favorite characters: John Carter.

Here's some footage from the 1930's showing Clampett's early work on the project...

Burroughs and Clampett wanted to make a serious since fiction adventure while the studios (in typical studio fashion that foreshadowed decades of missteps) wanted to make a sci-fi slapstick comedy. One is left wondering how Clampett's John Carter of Mars would have shaped the science fiction films to come. But take heart, Carter fans, for Pixar is picking up that torch!

Giant Bus of the Future

I love this stuff. [Link]

Unique Bus of Future to Duplicate Speed of Railroads

RECENT developments in everything that moves has caused many flights of imagination. Thus the fancy conjures up a bus to keep pace with other transportation. The bus between New York and San Francisco will be equipped with airplanes for trips not on the regular schedule. For diversion, billiard rooms, swimming pool, dancing floor and a bridle path would be available. The pilot would be “enthroned” over his engines, with the radio above. Space for autos would be afforded by the deck.

Sort of like this. [Link]

The ultimate disaster film parody. A nuclear powered bus is going Non-stop from New York to Denver and is plagued by disasters due to the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the Oil lobby. When the driver is injured a washed up, down on his luck, but used to be great type, who as it happens, used to be engaged to the inventor's daughter is brought in to drive the giant bus which includes a one lane swimming pool and a one lane bowling alley.

For the well dressed Man in Black on the hunt

Handheld burner. [Link]

Easy to carry from place to place, a weed burner solves the problem of clearing land. It throws a fan-shaped flame that mushrooms against the ground, stone wall or rock pile to “melt” every growing plant within its range. One model of the burner is self-contained for one-man operation. It has a tank that holds oil for one and one-half hours” work. The handle is constructed for attachment of a shoulder strap or webbing to facilitate carrying. Thetorch also can be used for sterilizing poultry houses, dog kennels and stables.

Right, dog kennels and stables. Not shambling zombies or rampaging triffids. Good cover story.

DC Comic Pulp Annual Covers

This is a great gallery of pulp style covers done in 1997 for that years Annuals. [Link]

Back in 1997, DC Comics featured painted pulp-style covers on all of its annuals and called the event "Pulp Heroes." I wish this had become an annual event. I've done my best to gather an image of every issue in the series, along with links to the cover artist's site.

It's a trifecta of cool.

Retro Rockets

I want. [Link]

If you want to snaz up your rumpus room with a retro-pop science fiction look, your options have been limited to old posters from The Day The Earth Stood Still or glow-in-the-dark stickers. But now you can have install actual vintage-looking rockets, from Cool Rockets. They obsess over details in their rocket designs, making sure they capture that old-school feeling of Tom Swift gee whizzery.

Look at the gallery. [Link] Drool.

Doc Savage Experiment Gone Awry?

Some cars in a 5 block radius of the Empire State Building are mysteriously dying. [Link]

No one is sure what’s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst - specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Motorists like Russell Valeev, 25, learn about it the hard way.

“The lights work, the horn works, everything. But it won’t start,” Valeev, a driver for Golden Touch Transportation said one recent evening as he sat in his 2005 Ford van with the hood propped open on E. 35th St., between Lexington and Park Aves. “It’s my job. No money.”

I blame Doc Savage.

Conan's Kissing Cousin Coming to Cineplex

Another of Robert E Howard's famous characters, Solomon Kane, is coming to the movies.

Lovecraft coming to silver screen

At the Mountains of Madness to be made into a film by Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth director.

Latino Review reported a rumor that Pan's Labyrinth helmer Guillermo del Toro will direct an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness after he completes Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that del Toro will helm his longtime passion project , which he himself adapted. The story follows explorers who journey to the Antarctic, where they uncover an ancient race of beasts.

Cool.

Lucas talks about Star Wars on TV

I am cautiously optimistic.

Animation:

"There's Clone Wars, and we're in the middle of that," he said. "It's basically like Star Wars [in that it] takes place between, obviously, Episode II and Episode III, but it's the same kind of action. Unfortunately, it doesn't fall into the realm of what animation [typically] is, which is either adult, kind of off-color humor or kiddie stuff. This is, like Star Wars, sort of in between those two things. It's a lot of battle stuff, and it's obviously the Clone Wars, so it's a war picture. ... It's very much like the features. We're still trying to figure out how to put it on the air."

Lucas said that there are a hundred episodes planned for the series, half of which should be completed before the first one airs. Lucas and his company are aiming to premiere the series in the fall of 2008 but are still considering where it would fit best on the broadcast schedule. "So far, everybody's got the same conundrums," he said. "'How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?' You know, it has to go after 9 o'clock and it can't be on a kiddie channel."

Live Action:

Lucas is also working on a live-action series for television and said that he expects to be writing it about a month from now. The series will be set in the Star Wars universe between Episode III and Episode IV and will feature minor characters from the films.

"It's like Episode IV in that the Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about—people talk about them—but you never see them because it doesn't take place where they actually are. There are stormtroopers and all that, but there are no Jedis. It's different, but I think it's very exciting because I get to explore a part of that universe that I haven't been able to explore."