Thomas Yeates Refreshes Burroughs’ Barsoom

Last year Barnes & Noble commissioned Eisner Award-winning comics illustrator Thomas Yeates to illustrate its new edition of the first three Mars tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The handsome new volume, John Carter of Mars, contains A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars, which together comprise a trilogy recounting the fighting Virginian’s arrival and ascendance on the Red Planet.

A Princess of Mars was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first book, written after a series of unsuccessful endeavors led him try his hand at bettering what he read in the pulps.  His next book was the now-obscure The Outlaw of Torn; Yeates has done his part to revive this overlooked tale of the Middle Ages by illustrating a full color graphic novel edition to be published by Dark Horse under the title The Outlaw Prince (part one).  Burroughs’ third book was somewhat better received; Tarzan of the Apes went on to conquer every entertainment medium in use at the time or invented since.  A Princess of Mars and its two sequels were followed by eight more Martian novels, but unlike the Ape-Man has never had success in Hollywood; great hopes attend Pixar’s effort now underway.

Yeates’ art is infused with the spirit of high adventure and a healthy disregard for authority. Originally from Sacramento, he eventually moved to New Jersey to attend the first two years of the Joe Kubert School. He first got work doing back up stories in Sgt. Rock and various mystery and Science fiction comics at DC, then went on to Swamp Thing. After moving back to Northern California he drew Timespirits for Marvel/Epic and a number of projects for Eclipse including Brought to Light. A return to Swamp Thing and Dragon Lance graphic novels followed in the late eighties.

In the nineties he got to draw some of his favorite heroes, Tarzan and Zorro on various projects. Three Universe X and Paradise X specials for Marvel followed, and he helped Cary Nord pencil issues 3 – 14 of Conan for Dark Horse. Next up he did seven graphic novels like Robin Hood and Perseus for Lerner Publishing. Thomas is just now finishing two kids books on ancient myths by Anthony Horowitz titled Legends – Beasts and Monsters and Legends – Battles and Quests. Currently Yeates is also producing Conan art for Groo vs Conan with Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier for Dark Horse.

FM: Tell us first about you and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and his version of Old Mars, Barsoom.

TY: Like most Burroughs fans I started reading his books in my youth, by high school I’d gone from his Tarzan series to his Mars series and beyond the farthest star, so to speak. I first was interested in his books because I liked Tarzan movies and because of the terrific Frazetta and Krenkel cover art on paperbacks I’d seen. What keeps me interested in Burroughs today is his amazing vision of completely imaginary worlds and cultures, vividly described adventures and pointed amusing criticism of our own society, which he considered to be quite mad, and on that point I must say I agree with him. The first three John Carter books are among his best works and I absolutely had a blast illustrating them. I had always wanted to be a book illustrator, but there wasn’t much of a market for that when I got started so I ended up drawing comic books. This new profusely illustrated edition of “John Carter of Mars” should still be available either at Barnes & Noble stores or from them online.

FM: Please talk about your connections to Forrest J Ackerman and Famous Monsters of Filmland.

TY: Famous Monsters was advertised in the old Warren Magazines, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, which I pored over endlessly in my formative years, so I was aware of it, and thumbed through a few issues in the used book stores I haunted back then. This would have been the early seventies. In the late seventies I went to the Joe Kubert School and some of my classmates had issues of Famous Monsters laying around, probably Steve Bissette who was later my housemate; he’s a walking encyclopedia of monsters, famous and otherwise. I would look through them and study the black and white stills, which helped me understand dramatic noir lighting on imaginary creatures.

In more recent years I learned about Forry’s interest in Burroughs. I recall Forry at two gatherings of Burroughs fans that I also attended in Southern California. He talked about going in his youth to visit an aging Edgar Rice Burroughs and that Burroughs was a nice man in a modest house who came to the door in a wheelchair. At both events Forry invited all of us to his house afterwards. And what a house, it had previously belonged to Jon Hall, star of many adventure movies and a jungle TV series. The house was a virtual museum of Hollywood, pulp, horror and science fiction. From the moth-eaten remains of King Kong’s armature and other movie monsters, to Dracula’s cape and tons of art, it was a wonderful place to visit. I recommend those who are interested in this stuff to watch the video of Forry, Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen talking over lunch about their youth together. I think they’d all been friends since they were teenagers. They were among the very first fans of horror and science fiction, and seeing them reminiscing is a treat. The video is on a disk of Harryhausen’s early short films of fairy tales. ["The Clifton's Cafeteria Reunion" on disc 2 of Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection.]

FM: What were and are the major artistic influences upon you?

TY: As I mentioned, there’s Burroughs illustrators, black and white Warren horror comics illustrators like Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Reed Crandall, Wallace Wood, Alex Toth, etc., and old black and white movies. But I am also influenced by anything around me that catches my eye and looks interesting. I’m always staring out the window at clouds, light and shade on branches, houses, people, animals birds, machinery, lizards, you name it. Artistically I am fascinated by the illustrators of the first half of the last century. Hal Foster and Alex Raymond were the comics masters, but there were many equally talented illustrators working in magazine, newspaper and book illustration. Obviously Burroughs illustrator J. Allen St. John is one, N. C. Wyeth another, but there were tons of them.

FM: What interests you in imaginative entertainment today?

TY: For better of worse I’m really too busy to keep up on everything, but I catch a few things. I liked Avatar, which was very Burroughs-like; Lord of the Rings was great; I also was impressed by Pan’s Labyrinth. The films of Hayao Miyazaki are terrific. I love his vision, and I’m glad he’s out there doing what he’s doing. My teenaged daughter likes to get fantasy adventure films off Netflix, so I do see some of them. I loved The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Beowulf was pretty good, though the director’s cut I saw was way too bloody for my taste. I must say I’m a bit bored with the current recipe. That’s why I liked Pan’s Labyrinth, Miyazaki and Parnassus so much, they’re using different and more interesting recipes.

FM: If you could bring to life a lost or forgotten work, which one would it be?

TY: Well, let’s see; there’s the first version of the third Tarzan film with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. A big-budget MGM thirties spectacular that was completely re-written and re-shot as the film Tarzan Escapes that was released. I’d love to see the first version, it had an attack by giant devil bats, but was never released and so far it remains lost. There is also the serial version of Tarzan the Fearless starring the great Buster Crabbe. The feature version that’s available is one of the worst Tarzan movies, but I like Buster otherwise and wish the serial, with all the additional footage, would turn up somewhere. There are other lost Tarzan films; Tarzan the Mighty, a silent movie with Frank Merrill, might actually be good. A Willis O’Brien concept with Vikings riding giant eagles fighting dinosaurs looked great, but War Eagles was never made. I love Willis O’Brien’s films, the original King Kong is probably my favorite movie of all time.

FM: Thanks so much, Tom, for sharing your work and passion!

TY: Have fun storming the castle, Steve.

To see more of Thomas Yeates’s terrific art, be sure to explore his website: www.thomasyeates.com