A Princess of Mars

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The Tharks React

February's A Princess Of Mars! As I believe I said on my Patreon-only post of the inks, I really get into drawing tharks.  Just making them individuals, and pulling inspiration from not only human expression but also primarily dogs and insects. I feel I get to experiment more with them than Tarkas specifically, as he needs to stay a bit more human-ish to deal with his range over the distance of the project (if that makes sense).  Also, I sure hope it looks like they're cheering. :) I'm also hyping myself up for the Warhoon I think. :)

His Back Against a Table

Here's the latest APoM!  Playing a bit with camera and depth here. I'm going to miss the loose rendering of the tharks when we're back out of the deep shadows.  I've really been enjoying creating them as sketches.  It seems to bring out more individual personality.

A word about Tumblr

Uh Oh

Facing a tumble

Here’s the latest A Princess of Mars! Many apologies for the unreasonable delay! My usual summer month off cascading due to a few personal hurdles, but we’re back now!

The bottom panel was going to be the same angle as the top one, but the same info as in the bottom currently.  It’s a cinematic technique that I use often, but I decided late to switch it up, and almost have it as a pull- or pan-out. It helps (I hope) stop the pace and quiet the scene.

Ker-PAK!

The Center Of Attention

WHUMP!

A Winning Smile

Thus continues the theme of creepy thark smiles in A Princess Of Mars.

Drawing his Attention

I’m covering two different passages in the book here, one being

At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to me.

and the other

What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the hall in which they were congregated was the fact that the creatures were entirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other furnishings; these being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas the great bulks of the Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the chairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for their long legs

I’ve chosen a starkly lit, moodier hall throughout which the hundreds (seriously) of tharks slink and bob and move, as opposed to the brighter, well lit area described in the novel (though still the same gilt marble architecture). It just gives a greater sense of mystery, suspense, and foreboding, and to me is another example of the differences between comics and novels. And perhaps my own artistic inclinations as the pages of darkness contrast well with the vividly lit outdoors on Barsoom I’ve shown.

Of course, the problem that arises is how to go about showing all of those chairs and tables, and this was my solution. Combining these two passages in the comic, showing Carter notice the broken chair, and how wee it is under the thark, as his attention is drawn to it and away from the conversation he can’t understand to begin with.

As a side note, you can see I’m repeating the last panel of the previous comic. You can see it’s original (relative) size as opposed to how it ended up.

Explaining The Situation

I had to do some reformatting on this one for the web, as that second panel is, in actuality, about 1/2 the width and 2/3 the height of the top panel.  The original plan was to have the top panel as a single tier and 2 smaller ones at the bottom.  Life intervened, and as it’s important to me to maintain my schedule, I dropped the last panel (until next time!).

And those jewel-encrusted straps of leather are all in Lorquas’ character description in the novel.  I’m not sure what Burroughs was going for with him. Perhaps some broad stroke of a native chief?  I’m more going for flamboyant warrior.  And a hulking brute.  All of these panels with him (and coming up) emphasize his size. He leers over people, his cloak envelopes and crowds them.  He’s basically toxic masculinity as I interpret him and his movements.