The Funnies #30
The Funnies #30 marks the first time John Carter of Mars — Edgar Rice Burroughs's Virginia-born Civil War veteran turned Barsoomian warlord — ever appeared in comic book form, translating a pulp-fiction phenomenon that had been captivating readers since 1912 directly onto the comics page. That transition mattered enormously: it demonstrated that licensed prose properties could anchor ongoing comic features, a template Dell would refine for decades. The issue also initiated a 27-part run (through #56, June 1941) that represented the fullest sequential comics adaptation of the Barsoom saga produced in Burroughs's own lifetime. Every subsequent comic treatment of John Carter — from Dell's Four Color specials to Marvel's celebrated 1977 series to Dynamite's modern runs — descends from the creative and commercial precedent set here.
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Dell launched the John Carter feature inside its established anthology title The Funnies, which had been running since 1936 as a home for reprinted newspaper strips alongside original material. The opening installment adapted Burroughs's first Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars, beginning at the story's earliest action. Artist Jim Gary, a King Features Syndicate illustrator whose style drew on the slick adventure-strip aesthetics of Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff, drew the inaugural issues (#30–33) before John Coleman Burroughs — the author's own son — took over with issue #34 and carried the strip through its conclusion. The feature was significant enough that Dell later reprinted art from the Funnies run in its February–March 1940 Fast Action Story digest, extending the material's reach beyond the newsstand anthology format.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic book appearance and origin of John Carter of Mars, published May 1939 by Dell in The Funnies #30.
- The story launches a direct comic adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel A Princess of Mars (originally serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912).
- Tars Tarkas, the four-armed green Martian warrior and Carter's closest Barsoomian ally, makes his comics debut in this same opening story arc beginning in #30.
- Art for The Funnies #30 was drawn by Jim Gary, a King Features Syndicate illustrator working in the tradition of Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff.
- John Coleman Burroughs, son of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, took over interior art duties starting with issue #34 and continued through the final installment, #56 (June 1941).
- The John Carter feature ran continuously in The Funnies from #30 through #56, comprising 27 issues — the longest sequential Barsoom comics run published during Edgar Rice Burroughs's lifetime.
- Dell reprinted artwork from the Funnies John Carter run in a Fast Action Story digest (February–March 1940), one of the earliest comic reprints of the material.
- The issue's cover features the Bosko character (the animated cartoon star), meaning John Carter received no cover billing on his comic book debut — the feature was one of many strips inside a 68-page full-color anthology.