John Carter of Mars Covers by Gino D’Achille
Posted on July 14, 2012, in Books, John Carter of Mars, with 3 CommentsMy first encounter with Edgar Rice Burroughs was in the elementary school library in 1974. I was nine and I saw The Chessmen of Mars with a cover painted in 1973 by Gino D’Achille.
The eerily casual pose by the headless female figure, her back turned to us and a kaldane (that hideous spider thing) creeping towards her. That was too much for my young mind. I shuddered and turned away. It would be another four years before I ventured into ERB territory, and then to Tarzan with those great Neal Adams covers. It would take the more fantasy-oriented, brightly-coloured Michael Whelan to finally get me to read John Carter when I was in my mid 20s.
But that’s not to put down Mr. D’Achille. The covers were a bit more adult, a little more serious, and perhaps more realistic. And very well done.
I haven’t been able to gather a complete set of virgin art to include here yet, but I did find some of D’Achille’s roughs, and a piece of art direction he received for A Princess of Mars.

A Princess of Mars rough
The rough was returned to D’Achille with these notes on the back (or he wrote the notes to himself during a review meeting) :
“Dejah must be red skinned and should be more covered – more jewelled harness. Green man must be taller, and skeletally thin.”

A Princess of Mars

The Gods of Mars

The Warlord of Mars rough

The Warlord of Mars

Synthetic Men of Mars rough

















Box set of the first four novels


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3 Comments
keith
07.21.2012 ·
Howdy Scott! Love your site! I’ll have to check out your book. I love the rough to final cover designs. I stumbled across your site trying to research information on this set of books. I have a complete set in very good shape – a couple of cover creases, and some spine fading. Any idea of the value?
Scott Dutton : Admin
07.21.2012 ·
Hi Keith -
I paid about $10 for A Princess of Mars on eBay, for a very clean copy, but I bought the rest in a used book shop for about $3 apiece. I don’t have the box set (that was just an image I found on the web).
Thanks for joining erbopolis. Yes, I created the site, but it’s the people who choose to come here that will truly “create” it.
keith
07.21.2012 ·
Thanks for the scoop, Scott! Happy day to you!