Art of Dejah Thoris and the Worlds of Mars

If you are a fan of Dejah Thoris and love the Dynamite comics then this is for you. I love the comics and it is a pleasure to see the covers as well as the zillions of variant covers in this book and in large format. An impressive book in full colour and I loved this and also bought the other volume (as well the Red Sonja etc one). Dynamite really bring out quality art books and I look forward to any new additions to the series

On first perusal the subject matter seems to be a much of a muchness. In spite of the aspirations asserted in the introduction about presenting a nuanced portrayal of the 1st Lady of Sci-fi this tome does seem to be another T&A parade with totally unnecessary 'with or without nipple covering' variations of the same illustrations. At over 300 pages they're not even padding out the page count! As it is a Dynamite book the illustrations here only touch on their run of Dejah Thoris comics instead of including previous depictions of the character since 1912, and it would have interesting to have seen her through the decades. Persist, though Motal, through this Martian abundance of nubile flesh AND you will discover the prolific art of Joe Jusko who provides enough man flesh to almost counterbalance the pneumatic bounty of Barsoom as well as providing an anatomically correct Dejah ( no belly button as Martians are hatched from eggs). There is also the subtly dynamic cover designs of Paul Renaud; the sumptuously delicate & detailed illustrations of Jay Anacleto; and the work of Fabiano Neves who seems to impart some personality to the apparel bereft heroine.A lot of Art here and a well produced book that could have done with some editing, but delve deep enough through its pages and you will find Beauty & Design.

For what it is, it couldn't really deliver much more. Essentially this is an approximately 200 page full colour gallery including standard and risque/erotic (topless) variants of Dejah Thoris which are all wonderfully drawn and sexy throughout. There also covers featuring John Carter and other characters from the series but as the name suggests it is Dejah who steals the spotlight. Well presented, with some great art on display, this is worth getting for Warlord of Mars fans.

Stunning all of it worth every penny

In my childhood, I had read Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, but never the Mars-based ones of John Carter and his Princess Dejah Thoris. I had heard of them, but it was only when the recent film came out that I knew the story, as it were. Right - firstly, I was under the impression that this collected volume of artistic interpretations was to include work from the early days, including magazine and book covers etc from the pulp fiction era, through the 50s and 60s to contemporary times. I was expecting to find work by Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Boris Vallejo and others, but this collection, although quite comprehensive, does only include todays artists. Which is not to belittle it - far from it, but be aware that this is all it contains; sadly, for me at any rate, no retro imagery!For my money, Frank Frazetta will always be the king of fantasy artwork - I have admired his style ever since I first laid eyes on the Conan books back in the late 60s. (And the only true inheritor of his crown is, again in my opinion, Brom, but that is another story!)Having got that out of the way, this volume does contain some very good artists that do come quite close. Joe Jusko - his work graces the cover - and Lucio Parillo are the two who have the most 'painterly' style whereas the others fall between very well executed images to the just, well, tacky! Large breasts do not always necessarily an attractive woman make!? I felt that in some of the imagery, Dejah Thoris would, in reality, have fallen flat on her face, let alone leaping about decapitating Tharks etc.There is a tendency in these pages - more by artists depicting the aforementioned over-endowed women! - to have 2 images of Dejah Thoris: one suitably draped and one categorised as 'risque', i.e. topless. Just seems a bit cheesy and tacky.Also worthy of merit are illustrations by Paul Renaud, Stephen Segovia, Wagner Reis and Jay Anacleto.There is - and top marks to Dynamite Books for this! - a very good introduction on Rice Burroughs' writing, how the books and comics came to be and a concise history of artists and illustrators used down through the decades.The book itself: Good quality hardback with printed cover, but alas, minus points for no dust jacket. The pages are a bit on the thin side, but the printing is excellent with attractive end-papers.Overall, quite a good buy if you are into this genre. And there is a small section at the back for other available publications from Dynamite.

Despite the colourfully enticing front cover this book really isn't up to par, Joe Jusko's work aside. There are other artists contained within that are pretty good but for the most part it's lacking in depth and feels massively padded out. Compared to Dynamite's two Vampirella collections this isn't worth the high quality paper it's printed on.