John Carter of Mars, Red

Second part of the three part Christmas gift for my dad from 2007: Red John Carter of Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of his favorite writers, but he's only so-so on Tarzan. His real preference was John Carter. Beside Captain Carter is, of course, the loveliest woman on Mars, Dejah Thoris.

This portion of the gift specifically is why I chose to do flat graphic pieces for this project. My dad always was somewhat disappointed no "decent" rendition of Captain Carter could be done accurately. Why? Well, in the books it's made pretty plain that the main cast is flyin' free.

So this enabled me to show that Carter is rockin' out with his cock out without having to draw it and embarrass my dad. I think the last thing he really wants for Christmas is a nude drawn by his youngest daughter. Eyeah. Awkward.

When doing this piece I tried to push a few of my personal takes on the character, number one being I just can't see a Civil War-era captain being as buff as Frank Frazetta depicts him. Taking a look at photos of time-period men, they all seemed to have THAT SPECIFIC HAIRSTYLE, and not a one of them looks like they've livin' at the gym the last few years. However, not to dis Frazetta I gave Carter the sword he's shown holding in illustrations. So yeah, awesome.