Frank Frazetta — 1950s sketches
Roy Krenkel — Sorcery
As well, they are forever linked to the Edgar Rice Burroughs' oeuvre of work, exciting the imagination more with their paint and ink, than perhaps ERB's words do (though don't get me wrong—they are ripping yarns).
A question came in from one of our good friends, regarding the ERB Ace John Carter books. He was having trouble figuring out just where they originally appeared and how many total there were. He's got four of them, but he can't find an image of a paperback with the universally famous artwork of the A Princess of Mars, and he's wondering what exactly to look for.
Well, first off, there ARE only four John Carter Ace paperbacks from the 60s, and A Princess of Mars is, inexplicably, not one of them. And when the new Ace series, with new Frazetta art, rolled out, none of the John Carter novels were among them. Instead, the hardback editions, published by Nelson Doubleday, presented Frazetta's mature paintings on dust covers and interior pen and inks. And that is where we find maybe the finest interpretations ever of the Barsoom series.
For any help it might provide, I'm posting below a checklist of ERB Ace paperbacks by Frazetta and Krenkel, gathered by Bruce Brenner in the lovely Fanzine Qua Brot, published some years ago. Disclosure: I did some editing to present only the information pertinent to this post.
