Gullivar Jones of Mars

Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation

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Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation
style='orphans: auto;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing: 0px' alt=LieutGullivarJones.jpg v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"> Cover of first edition
Author	Edwin Lester Arnold
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy novel, Science fiction novel
Publisher	S.C. Brown, Langham & Co.
Publication date	1905
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	301 pp
ISBN	NA

Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation-an odd title for science fiction planetary romance is a novel by Edwin Lester Arnold combining elements of both fantasy and science fiction, first published in 1905. The last of Arnold's novels, its lukewarm reception led him to stop writing fiction. It has since become his best known work, and is considered important in the development of 20th century science fiction in that it is a precursor and likely inspiration to Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic A Princess of Mars(1917), which spawned the sword and planet genre. Ace Books reprinted Arnold's novel in paperback in 1964, retitling it Gulliver [sic] of Mars. A more recent Bison Books edition (2003) was issued as Gullivar of Mars, adapting the Ace title to Arnold's spelling.

Contents

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·         1 Relation to Barsoom books

·         2 In other media

·         3 Audio Version

·         4 References

·         5 External links

Relation to Barsoom books[edit source | editbeta]

The concept of a military man going to mars, exploring strange civilizations and falling in love with a princess had been explored as far back as Across the Zodiac (1880), but the connections between Gullivar and John Carter, the protagonist of Burroughs' Barsoom novels, are more numerous and stronger. Burroughs' novels bears a number of striking similarities to Arnolds'. Both Carter and Gullivar are military men – Carter serving in the Confederate Army; Jones in the US Navy – who arrive on Mars by apparently magical means (astral projection in the case of the latter,magic carpet in the case of the former) and have numerous adventures there, including falling in love with Martian princesses. Gullivar is a more hapless character, however, paling beside the heroic and accomplished Carter; he stumbles in and out of trouble and never quite succeeds in mastering it. The fact that Gullivar does not quite defeat his enemies or get the girl in the end helps explain why Arnold's Martian saga was not as popular as Burroughs', which eventually extended to eleven volumes.

Richard A. Lupoff, the first critic to argue for the connection of the two works, has suggested that while Burroughs' Mars was inspired by Arnold's, his hero may harken back to an earlier Arnold creation, the ancient warrior Phra from his first novel, The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (1890).

In other media[edit source | editbeta]

Marvel Comics adapted the character for the comic book feature "Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars" in Creatures on the Loose #16–21 (March 1972 – Jan. 1973), initially by writer Roy Thomas and the art team of Gil Kane and Bill Everett, and later written by Gerry Conway, followed by science fiction novelist George Alec Effinger. With the success of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, comics went pulp-mad, looking for other properties that were doing well in paperback reprints to adapt into the four-color format.

DC latched onto The Shadow, The Avenger, and Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser well as the entire Edgar Rice Burroughs library including Tarzan, Carson of Venus, and John Carter.

Marvel grabbed Doc Savage, added Kull (another Robert E Howard character), and looked for another barbarian/swashbuckling hero.After Marvel missed on John Carter.So what do you do?Look for another similar hero-one some think have inspired Edgar Rice Burrough to create John Carter and his Martian adventures in the first place.

They ended up adding two, Gullivar Jones and Lin Carter's Thongor, neither of whom ran more than eight issues.
Gullivar Jones had the advantage of only one novel to adapt, then the door was open to totally-new adventures.

Meanwhile, we're continuing the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present the second, never-reprinted chapter of the short-lived comic adaptation fromCreatures on the Loose #17 (1972)... Gil Kane,who created Blackmark,and would later on handle work John Carter,Warlord of Mars years,produced wonderful covers and interior art for a few issues.

You'll note that Sam Grainger has replaced Bill Everett as the inker.

Unfortunately, Everett's health was declining and he had to cut back on the volume of work he was doing, preferring to devote what time he had to working on his greatest creation, Prince Namor: the Sub-Mariner.

He passed away a little over a year later.

Meanwhile, we're continuing the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present, from Creatures on the Loose #18 (1972), the third chapter of the short-lived, never-reprinted, comic adaptation...

 Ross Andru, right before beginning his stint on Doc Savage, came on for a single issue, replacing Gil Kane, who continued to do covers.
Gerry Conway and science fiction writer George Alec Effinger take over the scripting from Roy Thomas, who plotted the story and remains as editor.

One of the major problems this series faced was only having 10 pages every two months to tell the story.
And, because it was a bi-monthly, the writers felt compelled to recap not only the previous issue, but the entire story, which ate into the page count for a given issue's tale!

Had Marvel given the series a 15-page or full-book page count to work with (or 10 pages in amonthly title), the series might have gained more of an audience.
As it is, we're already midway thru the too-brief color comics run.

Meanwhile, we're continuing the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present, from Creatures on the Loose #21 (1973), the sixth (and final) chapter of the short-lived, never-reprinted, comic adaptation... People did write, and though Gullivar Jones' four-color adventures were at an end, he returnedwith new graphic adventures in a Marvel title only a year later!
But that's a story for another time.The series moved to Marvel's black and white magazine, Monsters Unleashed #4 and #8 (1974), written by Tony Isabella with art by David Cockrum and George Pérez. Marvel's version modernized the setting, recasting Gullivar as a Vietnam War veteran. Though this official adaptation used many of Arnold's characters and concepts, it was not a strict adaptation of the original book.Marvel Comics,altered certain elements such Gullivar Jones starting out dark haired and turning platinum blonde.They altered certain character and kept Gullivar Jones on Mars,similar the Edgar Rice Burroughs character,whom many feel was inspired by Jones-John Carter. Has Gullivar been reunited with Heru only to die on the red Martian sands?

(Remember, there was only one Gullivar Jones book!No sequel!).When next we meet up with Gullivar...it's the fearsome finale of this story! Note: Gray Morrow steps up to assume the art chores (pencils and inks) for the final two issues of Gullivar's Creatures on the Loose run

The adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars, Gullivar Jones, as we present, from the b/w magazine Monsters Unleashed #4 (1974), the first all-new, never-reprinted, sequel strip, produced by two newcomers to Marvel... Dave Cockrum had been doing some inking over various pencilers including Rich Buckler, Don Heck, and George Tuska on The Avengers, but this was his first full art (Pencils and inks) assignment at Marvel.Tony Isabella had co-plotted/scripted a number of other stories including the last Doc Savage two-parter with Gardner Fox, but this appears to be his first solo effort as a writer.  Meanwhile, we're concluding the adventures of his swashbuckling predecessor on Mars,Gullivar Jones, as we present, from the b/w magazine Monsters Unleashed #8 (1974), the final all-new, never-reprinted, sequel strip, produced by a team which included a newcomer to Marvelwho would become one of the biggest names in the field (read the name in the credits below)... Yes, this was George Perez's first assignment after breaking into the business as Rich Buckler's art assistant!

Oddly enough, this story isn't listed on George's own website!

And, there's uncredited inking by neophites Bob Layton and John Byrne, who helped inker Duffy Vohland meet the deadline!

Wonder whatever happened to Byrne and Layton?  ;-)

Despite the promise printed above, Gullivar Jones and company never graced another Marvel comic or magazine.
(Monsters Unleashed was cancelled with #10, two issues before Gullivar would have reappeared.And this about for Marvels version of Gullivar Jones.

Both Gullivar and John Carter make an appearance at the beginning of Volume II in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series.

Gullivar Jones appears alongside a young Edgar Allan Poe in Jean-Marc Lofficier & Randy Lofficier's novel, Edgar Allan Poe on Mars: The Further adventures of Gullivar Jones (2007).

In the fourth volume of the Tales of the Shadowmen anthology, in the short story "Three Men, A Martian and A Baby", Gullivar Jones is briefly encountered by Doctor Omega.

Dynamite Entertainment's Warriors of Mars comic series crosses over Gullivar Jones with the Barsoom setting. In the comic, Jones' lover Princess Heru went on to marry Mors Kajak and became the mother of Dejah Thoris; the Hither People are equated with the Red Martians; and the River of Death is said to be the Valley Dor.

Audio Version[edit source | editbeta]

·         Gulliver of Mars on LibriVox, May 03, 2009.

·        

Reprint as Gulliver of Marsby Edwin Lester Arnold,Ace Books, 1964

·         style='orphans: auto;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing: 0px' v:shapes="_x0000_i1027">

Gullivar of Mars by Edwin Lester Arnold, Bison Books, 2003

·        

Issue of Creatures on the Loose featuring Gullivar (Marvel Comics)

References[edit source | editbeta]

·         Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 32.

External links[edit source | editbeta]

·         Gulliver of Mars at Project Gutenberg

·         Review of Gullivar of Mars on SF Site.

·         Foreword to Gulliver of Mars on The Nostalgia League website.