Dan Dare #2 - Book review

 

This is the second deluxe collector’s edition of The Red Moon Mystery and Marooned on Mercury featured in the Eagle comic from October 1951 to February 1953.

I first bought the Eagle in February 1958 (featuring the Dan Dare story The Ship that Lived). Thereafter, I was hooked – not only by the colourful artwork in Dan Dare but also the other features inside. The comic exuded an almost intoxicating smell, either the ink or the paper, or a combination of both. Subsequently, I managed to obtain a good number of the preceding issues, but never had an entire set. So the publication of these deluxe editions published by Hawk Books (1988) in full size and full colour were must-haves!

The story of The Red Moon Mystery is about a mysterious red moon that has appeared. It is threatening the space stations of Mars and, inevitably, it is likely to move against Earth. The other characters are Dare’s batman Digby, Sir Hubert Guest, Professor Jocelyn Peabody, the Yank, Henry Hogan, Sondar, the good Treen and Dr Ivor Dare, an eccentric scientist. It seems only Dan Dare and his pals can avert disaster! This adventure is written and drawn by the legendary Frank Hampson (though also see the reference below). This adventure takes place in 1999 - some 48 years in the future...

Marooned on Mercury. At the end of the previous adventure a massive explosion thrusts Dare’s spaceship towards Mercury, where they crash-land. Little do Dare and his crew know, but the evil Mekon has set up a base on the far side of Mercury; from here he intends to attack Earth, as space-born despots tend to do from time to time. On Mercury the team encounter strange beings, Mercurians, and enlist their help to combat the Mekon and his Treens. This adventure was drawn by Harold Johns as Hampson was ill.

Naturally, the tales are somewhat dated in their speech patterns and unscientific appreciation of planets like Mercury. And yet, they are fast-paced, inventive, even exciting, as well as amusing. There is a tendency to put too many words in the speech balloons – seemingly necessary to explain many of the ‘technological’ goings-on. And, for the time, it was probably ground-breaking to have a female professor as a significant character.

For more insight into the production of the weekly two-page full-colour strip, see WRITEALOT: FFB - The Man Who Drew Tomorrow (nik-writealot.blogspot.com)

Make a date - June 4, 12 & 22

Some time ago I published a regular monthly magazine column linking a set selection of dates in history. The series was popular. I'm busy coordinating the articles into book form. As today is 22 June, here are a number of linked events for that date plus two other June dates. To avoid repetition, I've simply indicated the relevant date in brackets. Apologies for the length of this entry! The three dates for this article are:
 

4, 12 and 22 June

If memory serves me right, June in England seems to be a time for pleasant warm evenings watching cricket on the village green, though it’s also the month when fetes are invariably washed out. That’s only one reason why many Brits have become expats in Spain! In 1896 J T Hearne set a cricket record for taking 100 first-class wickets (12).

Then in 1931 forty-eight-year-old Charlie Parker (not the Jazz musician!) equalled Hearne’s record (12); a day later, Tich Freeman achieved the same record. William Attewell was another bowler who took 100 (not first-class!) wickets (in 1884). He played in ten Tests; he was born (12) in 1861 and actually died a day before his birthday in 1927.

Still on the subject of sport – the sport of kings. The Epsom Derby in 1913 was sadly marred by a suffragette, Emily Davison, running out in front of the king’s horse Anmer (4). She was trampled underfoot and died a few days later. In 1994 sports superstar O J Simpson was accused of killing his wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman (12); he was acquitted though held liable in a civil case.

Eight years earlier Argentine soccer maestro Diego Maradona scored (22) against England during the World Cup in Mexico City. You know, that game where the Hand of God scored the winning goal.

Hot air ballooning is regarded as a sport, too. And it all started in 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated (4) their hot air balloon.

 

Montgolfier balloon - Wikipedia commons

 

Another pioneer in flight was the pilot of the Gossamer Albatross, which flew across the Channel in 1979. It was man-powered by Bryan Allen.

Irwin Allen produced many films, among them Five Weeks in a Balloon, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. He was born (12) in 1916. He was responsible for many science fiction series on TV, including The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space in the days when fiction was becoming fact, when, for instance, Venera 4 was launched in 1967 to become the first space probe to enter another planet’s atmosphere and successfully return data (12).

In 1633 views on the universe were very different: the Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo to recant his view that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the universe (22). It wasn’t until 1992 that the Vatican recanted and effectively apologised for the treatment of Galileo.

A transit of Venus in 1769 was followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse (4); interestingly, on the same day in 780 BC the first solar eclipse was recorded in China (4).
 
On the same day Austrian astronomer Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, was born (4) in 1754 and he set out to find a predicted missing planet between Mars and Jupiter. His team located Ceres 1, which is the biggest rock in the Asteroid Belt that passes between these two planets.
 
In 1978 Pluto’s satellite Charon was discovered (22), some forty-eight years after the planet itself was actually found. Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld and Charon ferried the dead across the Styx to Hades; in August last year Pluto was declassified, no longer being a planet but merely a dwarf or minor planet, seventy-six years after its discovery.
 
Of course, instead of searching the heavens, many people simply explored our planet. One such man was George Vancouver, who was born (22) in 1757. He claimed Puget Sound for Britain (4) in 1792 and of course Vancouver in Canada is named after him.
 
Canadian actress Norma Shearer died (12) in 1983; she had been offered the part of Scarlett O’Hara in David O Selznick’s Gone With the Wind but he was overruled. Selznick died (22) in 1965; both he and Shearer were born in 1902.

Gone with the Wind poster - Wikipedia commons

Two of Selznick’s most popular films were Duel in the Sun, a western starring Gregory Peck, who died (12) in 2003, and The Third Man, based on the novel by Graham Greene. The Canadian actor Graham Greene, who captivated global audiences in Dances with Wolves, was born (22) in 1952.

The fifth century Capitoline Wolf statue symbolises the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus at the birth of Rome. It’s featured in the epic film Cleopatra, which premiered (12) in 1963.

 
Henry Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines and She also wrote a novel called Cleopatra in 1889. He was born (22) in 1856; he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for East Norfolk in 1895. His tales of Allan Quatermain inspired modern interpretations like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.
 
Tomb Raider star Angelina Jolie was born (4) in 1975. Her film Tomb Raider also featured Daniel Craig, who is the current movie James Bond, as well as Richard Johnson, who was in the TV movie The Secret Life of Ian Fleming.

Angelina Jolie - Tomb Raider - Wikipedia commons

 
Ian Fleming was actually in Intelligence during the Second World War. In 1940 the end of the evacuation from Dunkirk (4) seemed to offer little hope for the European continent’s future, with Rommel accepting the surrender (12) of 13,000 British and French troops followed by France being forced (22) to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany.
 
Two years later, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank received a diary on her birthday (12) – she was born in 1929 and was murdered in 1945.
 

And of course the war ended in that year with an Allied victory, thanks to Churchill’s leadership, among other factors. Prime Minister Churchill was succeeded in 1955 by Anthony Eden, who was born (12) in 1897.

Churchill, 1940 - Wikipedia commons

 
Perhaps because he was headstrong and stubborn, Winston Churchill didn’t get on well with fellow students in his early school years. He even had to hide behind a tree when some boys threw cricket balls at him. After this experience, he vowed to be as tough as anybody else. So with that cricket anecdote we’ve come full circle for this look at linking dates, people and events.
 

A Martian Odyssey

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water...Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. – The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells (1898)

Out here in Spain we’re usually blessed with clear night skies so we can view the stars and planets without too much light pollution. There’s something about stargazing that tugs the imagination, a sense of wonder, perhaps. 

 

Nasa just released a video revealing what Mars may have looked like as a young planet billions of years ago. http://news.sky.com/story/1168023/nasa-video-mars-evolution-from-watery-world

It appears to have had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support oceans of liquid water - a crucial ingredient for life.

The animation, created by Nasa's Conceptual Image Lab, shows how the surface of Mars might have developed over four billion years. The artist's concept is based on evidence that Mars was once very different. It shows vast Martian lakes surrounded by mountain ranges, beneath Earth-like blue skies and rapidly moving clouds.

The shift from a warm and wet climate to a cold and dry one is shown as the animation progresses. The lakes dry up and transform into a rocky landscape with canyons, volcanoes and craters. The atmosphere gradually turns to the dusty pink and tan hues seen on Mars today.

Nasa scientist Dr Pan Conrad told Sky News: "We think that the when Mars was created it was a lot wetter and warmer than it is today. It probably lost much of its atmosphere over time and that's how it came to be such a desert and cold place."

Red dust - from the iron in its soil - now covers almost all the surface of the Red Planet, which has an average temperature of -27C (-80F).

Nasa's Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of the planet since August 2011 and has made several discoveries to support the theory that Mars was once able to support life. These include pebbles providing evidence that a stream once flowed on the planet, and more recently, Martian dust, dirt and soil suggesting a "substantial" amount of water on Mars.

The planet’s atmosphere is over ninety-five percent carbon dioxide and its rocks, soil and sky have a red or pink hue. The distinct red colour was observed by stargazers throughout history and the planet was named by the Romans in honour of their god of war. Other civilizations had similar names, for instance the ancient Egyptians called the planet the red one. 

It has two orbiting moons, Phobos and Deimos.

 

The Red Planet, fourth from the sun, diameter 4,200 miles, with a day forty minutes longer than ours and a gravity only thirty-eight percent that of Earth’s, Mars is more than an astronomical sphere.  As a symbol Mars is imbedded in our culture, even in our psyche.

Galileo was the first to observe Mars through a telescope and eighteenth century Frenchman Giovanni Cassini first noted the planet’s poles. 

However, in 1892 it was Schiaparelli who was responsible for many of the popular illusions about the planet.  When he saw grooves or channels on the surface of Mars, his report in Italian used the word canali to describe the phenomenon. Translations interpreted canali as canals rather than channels and the description evoked an image of an old and sophisticated but slowly dying civilisation on our sister planet. 

 
Three years later American astronomer Percival Lowell published a non-fiction book, Mars, in which he speculated about the terrain and the presence of life on the planet.

These works were read by Wells and fired his imagination in the writing of his classic The War of the Worlds which was given the Spielberg blockbuster treatment, inevitably transposing the story to the United States.  A British version came out at the same time (2005), H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.

Lowell published two more books, Mars and its Canals (1906) and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908).  Fourteen years after Lowell’s death, Pluto was discovered – its presence beyond Neptune had been predicted by Lowell. He’s probably turning in his grave now that Pluto has been demoted from planet to dwarf planet (plutoid).

Then in 1911 the serial ‘Under the moons of Mars’ was published in the monthly All Story magazine.  Written by the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the story was a great hit and was later published in book form as A Princess of Mars.  This was the first of eleven swashbuckling imaginative books Burroughs set on Mars – or, as the inhabitants called it, Barsoom. The first three volumes in the series actually constitute a single super epic. A film version, John Carter was released in 2012 to a mixed reception; the fans loved it, most of the critics panned it, and the marketing was abysmal.

 

Burroughs’s tales showed great innovation for their time, and the exciting stories caught the interest of millions of readers, helping to inspire serious interest in Mars and in space exploration. 

Many later science fiction works, from the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers films of the 1930s, to Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, to the Star Wars films, to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy, about terra-forming the red planet, also offer nods in Burroughs’s direction. Robert A Heinlein’s novel The Number of the Beast and Alan Moore’s graphic novels of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen directly reference Barsoom.

This article’s title is taken from the classic short story by StanleyWeinbaum published in 1934.

 

Mars and Martians naturally figured in science fiction books and movies over the years but never seemed to capture the popular imagination until 1978 when interest in Mars was revived by Jeff Wayne who put together a memorable and quite eerie musical version of Wells’s The War of the Worlds, narrated by Richard Burton.

In June 2003 – when the positions of Mars and Earth provided for the shortest possible route, a condition that prevails every twenty-six months - the Mars Express rocket was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by the European Space Agency. Comprising an orbiter and its lander, Beagle 2, its journey took six months at a velocity of 10,800km an hour.  The spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars on Christmas Day, 2003. Pictures and information are still being collected by the orbiter. The lander failed to respond to Earth-based instructions so was deemed a failure. It’s unlikely that it was tampered with by any Martians, however...  Indeed, Mars Express, so called because of the rapid and streamlined development time, represents the European Space Agency’s first visit to another planet in the Solar System. The spacecraft borrows technology from the failed Mars 96 mission and from ESA’s Rosetta mission that is currently en route to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission helps to answer fundamental questions about the geology, atmosphere, surface environment, history of water and potential for life on Mars. For the past decade, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has been observing atmospheric structure on the Red Planet. Among its discoveries is the presence of three separate ozone layers, each with its own characteristics. A new comparison of spacecraft data with computer models explains how global atmospheric circulation creates a layer of ozone above the planet's southern winter pole. The full article can be found at http://sci.esa.int/mars-express/52881-a-seasonal-ozone-layer-over-the-martian-south-pole/

Probes sent from Earth beginning in the late 20th century have yielded a dramatic increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and possible habitability potential.

Engineering interplanetary journeys is very complicated, so the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially in earlier attempts. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions, and there are some that failed before their observations could begin. However, missions have also met with unexpected levels of success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers operating for years beyond their original mission specifications.

Since 6 August 2012, there have been two scientific rovers on the surface of Mars beaming signals back to Earth (Opportunity, and Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory mission), and three orbiters currently surveying the planet: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

To date, no sample return missions have been attempted for Mars, and one attempted return mission for Mars' moon Phobos (Fobos-Grunt) has failed. (previous 4 paragraphs, from Wikipedia).

On 18 November (Monday!), the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), is set to launch. It will explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds, such as CO₂, N₂, and H₂O, from the Mars atmosphere to space has played over time, giving insight into the history of Mars atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. On 8 November Maven was placed on top of the Atlas V rocket; checks so far look good for launch. See http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/

The magic of Mars still exerts its influence and pulls us there…

BARSOOM REVISITED

Ron Fortier’s a great fan of pulp fiction and literature in general.

His blog is worth a look at any time. I’d like to spotlight his March book review of

JOHN CARTER AND THE GODS OF HOLLYWOOD by Michael D. Sellers, (Universal Media, 348 pages).

This book is all about the movie version of “A Princess of Mars,” by the greatest pulp writer of them all, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Reading this book will doubtless engender some animosity towards many of the people who were 'a part of one of the most disastrous Hollywood marketing fiascos of all time'. 

As Ron says, ‘It is a book that details catastrophic incompetence among so many high ranking Disney executives one is left marveling how such a great movie as “John Carter,” ever got made in the first place.  It also turns the spotlight on the heroes of this epic calamity; the few with the courage of their convictions and the daring audacity to see it finished.  All this despite the selfish individuals determined to see them fail to the point of spreading lies to their cronies; unscrupulous movie critics eager for any scrap of negativity to enhance their own lackluster careers.’

Harsh words. Read the full review here, and weep:

http://pulpfictionreviews.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/john-carter-and-gods-of-hollywood.html

 

At time of writing the votes for the DVD were phenomenally good. Amazon.com has 1801 reviews, of which 1200 = 5-stars, 345 = 4, 112 = 3, 55 = 2 and 89 = 1 star.  This translates as 67% vote of 5 stars. Add 4 and 5 stars and that’s a hefty 86% viewers highly in favour of the film. Go to the bottom scores and the 1 and 2 stars can barely muster 8% of the total votes.

The story is much the same at Amazon.co.uk, with 395 reviews. Of these, 231 are 5-star (59%), 94 are 4-star (24%); that’s combining 4 and 5-star vote of 83% in favour. At the bottom end, the 1 and 2 stars can muster only 10%. (For the record, the 3-star votes, hits 6-7%).

Interestingly, the Rotten Tomatoes score-card of 51% doesn’t quite reflect the notion of a ‘flop’, despite the sourpuss comments; sure, it isn't up in the high 70s, mid-eighties either! Now, their score of 27% for Ishtar, for example, might suggest a flop… Reading the 11 pages of comments of these reviewers, it’s clear that many were very favourable towards John Carter and those who were not, simply didn’t get it, (why, I don’t know, perhaps because they were too young, deaf or jaded). Another oddity: on the Rotten Tomatoes site, they suggest movies ‘like John Carter’ – these are: Prince of Persia (35%), Avatar (83%), 300 (60%) and Thor (77%). Considering most post-war pulp science fiction was derivative of Edgar Rice Burroughs anyway, this is amusing, at least.

There is a sizeable group who are still lobbying for a sequel to John Carter – they can be contacted at http://backtobarsoom.com/

JOHN CARTER - WORTH THE 50 YEAR WAIT

A bit late, perhaps, but I’ve finally watched John Carter and, surprise, surprise, I find that the film I saw wasn’t the same as that viewed by several critics! At least, that’s how it seems.

The film suffered a severe savaging from many critics on both sides of the pond. Almost without exception, the majority of them hadn’t read the source material and bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t much original in the film. Some had the good grace to accede that the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian tales were often the inspiration for the many sci-fi flicks over the last hundred years (that is, his ideas were pinched). Some blamed the poor marketing of the film. Others targeted the main actors, and the dialogue. A few didn’t quite grasp information that was offered in the script – maybe they were tucking into their gourmet cinema meal at the time – such as Carter’s ability to leap great distance, attributed to the lower gravity of Mars. One reviewer in UK commented that A Princess of Mars was ‘hailed as a geek classic’ – that must therefore include those well known geeks, astrophysicist Carl Sagan and literary luminary Ray Bradbury, both of whom went on record more than once that Burroughs’ Barsoom novels inspired them to follow their respective careers.

Well, all those naysayers are mightily wrong. Maybe they were all suckered into ‘adulation of The Artist mode’? Just take a look at the reviews on Amazon. When I ordered the DVD there were already many very favourable comments, deriding the critics. Now, as I write this, the combined 4 and 5 star reviews total 602 out of 698 – that’s 86%. The rotten tomato reviews clock it at 52% ‘suffers from uneven pacing, incomprehensible plotting and characterisation.’ Forget all that. The plot and characterisation are not incomprehensible, though in common with most modern action movie scripts you do have to pay attention to what is being said… If ever a film was badly served by the media, then this was it.

Cinema has many purposes – but primarily it’s intended to entertain. John Carter did that with gusto. This was a fantasy film designed for the big screen, with spectacular scenery, epic scenes, gorgeous colour, fabulous costumes, characters true to the books, and a sense of wonder tinged with modern sensibilities. Utah served well as Barsoom. The tharks were superb, in creation and depiction, seeming totally natural. The flying machines were definitely otherworldly. The city of Helium was impressive, as was the thunderous mobile city of Zodanga. There was pathos, humour, irony, romance, bravery and betrayal within the 127 minutes of film; the time flew by – and I for one wanted more!

Direction, script, music score, film, actors, and special effects – none deserved the mauling the critics dished out. This was a splendid visualization of an imaginative adventure lovingly plucked from the pages of a 1912 best-selling story. There were clever touches in the script, notably including Burroughs in the bookend vignettes. This also rang true to the first person narrative of the original. The evil Therns were endowed with additional powers and knowledge, granted, but they were not far removed from the conniving beings of the books. (See my drawing of August 1963, ‘Attack on the holy Therns’ (The Gods of Mars).)

Maybe another fifteen minutes would have deepened the characterisation of some. But essentially this was a fast-paced exotic story and in-depth characterisation would only have slowed it down. Taylor Kitsch delivered a strong man tired of war and death, while Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris embodied in every way the beauty and strength of the princess of Mars. Though heavily disguised by CGI effects, Samantha Morton (no relation) captured the essence of Sola, her fragility and compassion. William Dafoe’s Tas Tarkas was great, too. And Mark Strong as the inimical Matai Shang, chief Thern, proved he can play villains with consummate ease, but never hams it up. Woola was engaging, even with six legs and deadly incisors – and not dissimilar to my drawing of Woola and John Carter battling the deadly Sith (Warlord of Mars).

I agree that the marketing was poor. The DVD cover is lacklustre. And as for putting up the quote ‘Star Wars for a new generation’, they’d have been better employed stating: ‘Before Avatar, before Star Wars, before Star Trek, before Flash Gordon – there was John Carter of Mars!’ Initially, I sympathised with the critics of the choice of film title and felt that John Carter of Mars would have been better, as it would leave no filmgoer in doubt. But then I saw the end of the film and it seemed right – until the end, he’d been John Carter of Earth. But at the end, when he married Dejah Thoris, he became John Carter of Mars, and that’s the title that’s shown – heralding at least two sequels. Two sequels that are sadly now probably stillborn due to the misguided marketing and reception of this first epic adventure.

If you haven’t seen this film because you were put off by the critics, then ignore them and buy it. Buy it and prove them wrong. It’s escapist fantasy of the highest order.

A 50-Year Wait-02

In those far off days, I was drawing instead of studying for my GCEs...

This illustration is based on a scene from A Princess of Mars - John Carter's rescue of a Zodangan royalist. Drawn July 30, 1963. The original is 22"x10.5".

Even then I must have hankered after a split personality - ie using several pennames - as I signed it RWN-Morton and Ross Morton!

A 50-Year Wait-01

Way back in 1962, I happened upon Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel Warlord of Mars. I’d already devoured several Tarzan novels, published by Four-Square at 2/6d. I read this, the third in the original Martian trilogy and was hooked. Then I bought the first in the series, A Princess of Mars and like many boys of my age, fell in love with Dejah Thoris. I still have this book in my collection:

At the time I used to draw bookmarks for my favourite books. Here’s the bookmark for A Princess of Mars, drawn in 1962.

The story of John Carter’s first visit to Mars was serialised in the February to July 1912 issues of All-Story Magazine, then entitled Under the Moons of Mars, as written by Norman Bean. Bean was the early penname of Burroughs, though he’d used Normal, rather than Norman, but it got screwed somehow. The full novel was first published in book form in 1917, after Burroughs’ phenomenal success with Tarzan.

Burroughs’ Martian adventures – all eleven of them – inspired the scientists Carl Sagan and Arthur C Clarke and novelists Ray Bradbury, Robert A Heinlein among many others.

At last, in 2012, an epic film entitled John Carter is being released – 100 years after the publication of the original story, and 100 years after the publication of Tarzan of the Apes. Indeed, 2012 could be Burroughs’ year, and deservedly so. Burroughs was born in 1875 and died in 1950. A crater on Mars is named in his honour.

John Carter trailer
http://www.disney.co.uk/john-carter/?ex_cmp=sem_g_uk:movies:jcm:01211:1211#video

John Carter fan site
http://jcofmars.com/

Official ERB John Carter site
http://www.johncarterofmars.ca/