Number 1800: John Carter and the Black Pirates of Omean

John Carter, having returned to Mars after disappearing back to Earth for a time, is plunged into the death struggles of the religious...those who take their last pilgrimage down the River Iss and fall into the clutches of the Therns and Black Pirates. It is an adaptation of The Gods of Mars, which was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ take on religion. There is an article examining ERB’s views of organized religion online, in ERBzine #1434.

In The Gods of Mars, ERB’s second John Carter of Mars novel, originally published in All-Story Magazine in 1913, ERB described the Black Pirates as “ebony-skinned,” which is reflected in this illustration for the 1918 book jacket by Frank Schoonover.

In 1952, when the novel was originally adapted for Dell Four Color series, the wise decision was made not to show them as black people. The pirate stuff is kind of ludicrous, though, because I see a skull and crossbones. On Mars, yet.

If you have not read my posting of the first in this Gold Key series, you can go to Pappy's #1732, then come back here.

The three issue series, as mentioned, first published in 1952 as Dell Four Color #375, 437, and 488, are reprinted out of sequence. Gold Key John Carter of Mars #3, which is what you are reading today, is actually #2, and vice versa. I am showing them in the order in which they should be seen, not in the order they were reprinted in 1965.

Drawn by Jesse Marsh.

Posted in: Pappy Comics