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Tag Archives: Edgar Rice Burroughs


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A little game on Burroughs’ birthday

Today it’s the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a man that, out of his dreams of escape from a monotonous, soul-killing life, built a whole culture – a culture of which I am part, and if you are here reading this, you are too.
And just don’t take my word on this.

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I loved Tarzan movies and books as a kid, but it was discovering John Carter in high school that was a revelation.
If you really need to know it, my favorite by Burroughs is The Land that Time Forgot, with Pellucidar a close second – yeah, I like dinosaurs.
But should I choose a single title, I’d go for The Master Mind of Mars.
And so here’s a little game, for you… Continue reading →


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The Fifth Indiana Jones Movie

So, the big news seems to be there will be a new Indiana Jones movie, the fifth1.
And this is big news because apparently we will get Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, and Steven Spielberg at the helm.
Now, a lot of the fans I heard are damn sure this movie will suck.

It will be worse than that Crystal Skulls thing!

… they say.

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But I’m not sure.
There are ways to make a good, solid, entertaining action fantasy pulp movie featuring a 73 years old man as the main character.
Granted, it needs some work.
But if you would please follow this link, Mr Spielberg –> Continue reading →


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Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

I was talking with my friend Claire, last night, and the discussion shifted – as it is only natural, between a man and a woman during a stormy summer night – to the Tarzan animated series from Filmation.
Called Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, and it was originally released in 1976.

According to my friend Claire, the series was horrible.
I beg to differ. Continue reading →


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Burroughs’ Birthday

Screen-Shot-2013-03-19-at-6.26.45-PMSeptember the first is Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ birthday.
One of the great storytellers of the 20th century, Burroughs has left behind a corpus of narratives that are fun, entertaining, and much more sophisticated than those that never read them believe.

Like most kids in my generation I discovered Burroughs through the Tarzan movies, that were once the basic fare provided by the TV during the summer – and also, our parish cinema used to feature Tarzan in massive doses.

I discovered John Carter when I was in high school – and it caused a lot of raised eyebrows, not only from my teachers, but from my schoolmates too.
Stories set on Mars, written in the 1920s and 1930s?
C’mon.

Why don’t you read something more… realistic?

A few years more, and my Pellucidar or Venus paperbacks would be harshly criticized by friends that were “really into” cyberpunk.
More recently, poor ERB and his readers have been accused of almost everything, from violence to elephant poaching to rape, and a lot of friends frowned – once again – at my decision to re-read the Tarzan novels. As I said, a lot of people that never read Burroughs entertain a lot of weird ideas about his books. Continue reading →


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An eye for details: Fortunino Matània

Picture No. 10933845I wonder if they ever called him ‘Nino’.

The fine gentleman in the photograph is Fortunino Matània (sometimes spelled Matania, without an accent).
He was born in Naples in 1881, but spent most of his life in London, and he worked as an illustrator – the family trade. He published in such magazines as L’Illustrazione Italiana, Illustration Francaise, The Sphere and later The Illustrated London News.
He did some editorial illustration, but today he is mostly remembered for his paintings of scenes from the Great War – he was in the field, working as a war artist (basically an artist following the troops and sketching from life scenes from the battlefield -not exactly a relaxing job).

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But if today he’s remembered for his war paintings, in hist time he really became famous after the war Continue reading →