Sunday, February 16, 2014

Golden Age Idol--Lars Of Mars!!

We 21st century fools with our social media and our snarky irony like to think that we invented meta.

Ha!!

Our forefathers could get so meta it would make Grant Morrison's head explode!!

Case in point:

Lars Of Mars? Who dat, you say?

Let start with a great scientific advance on Earth:

This freaks the Martians out, because they once almost destroyed themselves in a nuclear war with Venus!

So the leaders summon their top agent, Lars, with a special mission!

Upon arriving on Earth, the first thing Lars sees is:


Well, all is not as it appears...





Wait a minute...


Wait...so Lars is a Martian who is pretending to be a human  pretending to be a Martian, while starring in a TV show named after himself, and fighting crime on the side?? Oh, my aching head!

This is akin to watching Flash Gordon and finding out the actor really is Flash Gordon, except he's just an actor pretending to actually be Flash Gordon for publicity, except that's just a ruse because he actually IS Flash Gordon, and...oy, my brain!!

Oh, and did I mention the Martian Victory Yell?

Lars only appeared in the two issues of his comic, #10 & #11, in 1951. [Yes, the only two issue of Lars Of Mars were #10 & #11. Next time one one you kids complains about Marvel's numbering, you're going to get a stern "you don't know how good you have it" lecture regarding comic numbering in the 1950s...]

Lars was apparently created by Jerry Siegel (GCD credits all of his stories as authored by "Jerry Siegel?") and Murphy Anderson, which by itself is more than enough reason to revive him in the present day.

And holy crap--a series about the lead actor of an action series who pretends to actually be the lead character, but in fact really is that character and is just pretending to be the actor, all the while saving Earth from destroying itself?!? That screams 2014, baby!!

So someone jump on this, please!! DC, Dynamite, BOOM!, what are you waiting for?? And don't forget my finder's fee...
at

6 comments:

  1. Prof. ChronotisFebruary 16, 2014 at 10:59 AM

    I showed this to my son, who instantly (and I must think, rightly) observed that the "Martian Victory Yell" is the theme from DOCTOR WHO. Now we know the lyrics!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mista WhiskasFebruary 16, 2014 at 12:09 PM

    Awesome find (and where did you come across this!). I love the meta.

    In that same vein, check out Kirby & Simon's Captain 3D, which was a 3D comic about a character who was a character in a 3D comic that came to life when the boy reading the comic (the comic in the comic) opened the pages. Pretty meta there, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. snellFebruary 16, 2014 at 8:35 PM

    Professor--Good lord, you're showing my blog to your son?? You're flirting with child endangerment, man!

    ReplyDelete
  4. -3-June 5, 2017 at 11:41 PM

    You might have (even more) trouble cashing in on this one.
    Back in 1987 Eclipse published a 3D revival of Lars Of Mars, and they even used the cover art for #10 for the cover of their book.
    Sure, it's been another 30 years, but you know someone's gonna step forward to fight you for those revival riches.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A. J. PaylerAugust 3, 2023 at 3:03 PM

    The Eclipse book was just a reprint, not a revival. The property remains in the public domain.

    ReplyDelete
  6. -3-August 3, 2023 at 3:17 PM

    You're right. It was all old Murphy Anderson tales, just 3D formatted.

    But, y'know - if someone does a new version of a public domain character, isn't the character still in the public domain, with only the new stories are protected? I think that's how it works.

    Of course, that doesn't stop folks from grabbing lawyers and trying to see what they can get.

    ===

    (We miss you, Brian)

    ReplyDelete