Princesses of Mars, Part Twelve

Welcome to another trip to Mars, where beautiful alien princesses prove every day they don't take crap from anyone, no matter how many arms they have. Kicking things off, we've got another retro-portrait of John Carter and his love-of-the-ages Dejah Thoris from Michael Kaluta.

By Greg Motafis

By Aaron Lopresti

By Tom Hodges

By Gene Colan

Princesses of Mars, Part Eleven

Here's another round of famous comic book artists offering up visions of Martian beauty....

By Steven Butler

By Ernie Chan

By Gene Gonzales

By Mike Grell

By Mike Hoffmann

By Thomas Yeates

Princesses of Mars: Part Ten

More visions of Martian Princesses, as the series enters double-digits!

By Dave Hoover

By Marc Laming

By Rich Larson

By Gene Gonzalez

By Rafael Kayanan

Princesses of Mars, Part Nine

Welcome to an All-Star Edition of Princesses of Mars. In this installment, all the illustration are from top illustrators in the comic book and fantasy illustration field.

By M.W. Kaluta

By Rudy Nebres

By Thomas Denmark

By Alan Davis

By Pablo Marcos

By George Barr

By Mike Hoffman

Princesses of Mars, Part Eight

Dejah Thoris and other Martian Princesses are hanging out at my house, celebrating my birthday! (Okay, so it's just my cats and I. But a guy can dream, can't he?)

By Bruce Timm

By Randy Green

By Mitch Foust

By Paul Renauld

In all seriousness, I'm getting together with friends. But Martian Princesses would be welcomed at the table if they chose to show up!

Princesses of Mars, Part Seven

Let's take another trip to the home of John Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris: Faraway Barsoom, where the beautiful maidens are as mysterious as their headgear and as tough as their metal bras.

By Alex Nino

By Matt Wagner

By Rich Buckler

By Ken Allan

By Marc Laming

By Mike Hoffman

John Carter's Eternal Love

One of sci-fi/fantasy's great icons is Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, an "eternal warrior"-type character who finds himself leading two lives, teleporting back and forth between the post-Civil War American West and the other in ancient times on the savage, alien world of Mars (or "Barsoom" as the natives call it).

By Frank Frazetta

The Martian adventures of John Carter were published in 11 novels, with the first in the series being "A Princess of Mars". In in, Carter meets the love of his life (or lives, rather), and she is a presence to a greater or lesser degree in all the books that follow. Burroughs describes her thusly when Carter first lays eyes on her:

And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life... Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure.

By Adam Hughes

It perhaps goes without saying given that description that Dejah Thoris has been a favorite subject of fantasy illustrators since her debut in 1917. Over at Shades of Gray, I spotlight some of the best black-and-white illustrations of Dejah Thoris and other Martian Princesses I've come across during my wanderings through the web. Click on the links below to see what John Carter saw, as interpreted by some of fantasy and comicdom's best artists.

Princesses of Mars, Part One

Princesses of Mars, Part Two

Princesses of Mars, Part Three

Princesses of Mars, Part Four

Princesses of Mars, Part Five

Princesses of Mars, Part Six

Princesses of Mars, Part Seven

(Parts Eight through Ten Coming Soon)

Princesses of Mars, Part Six

By Alan Davis

By Leonard Kirk

By Buzz

By Alan Barsani

Picture Perfect Special: Princesses of Mars, Part Five

Starting the week with visions of beautiful Martian princesses sure beats starting it with images of a syphilitic madman whose brain was further damaged by too much time spent under the desert sun.

By Ben Dunn

By Frank Brunner

By Mitch Foust

Picture Perfect Special: Princesses of Mars, Part Four

Who needs Venus when you have Martian Princesses? Here are more visions of Dejah Thoris and other Martian beauties from a variety of artists. (Click on the byline to see more of that artist's work.)

By Steven Butler

By David Finch

By Talent Caldwell

By Adam Hughes

Picture Perfect Special: Princesses of Mars, Part Three

Here are some images showing what happens when you threaten a Martian princess with a knife. ("That's not a knife. THIS is a knife!")

By Mark Schultz

By George Perez

By Bob Layton

By Remi Dousset

By Ray Lago

To see a many more drawings of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Dejah Thoris, click here to visit Rob L.'s online galleries.