It’s beautiful. It’s limited. It’s amazingly bound and illustrated. It’s expensive, the cheapest edition is $200, the highest is $7000.
And it must be mine.
It’s only fair to say I know nothing more about Jake Saunders’ The Martian Legion: In Quest of Xonthron than what I’ve read on the web site, and yet I’m totally sold. It is a lovely, leather bound, boxed, and amazing composition of compelling art and presentation. The book’s story feels composed to specifically capture my attention; all my childhood heroes from so many divergent backgrounds, somehow joined in a single tale, a single huge volume of pulp fiction wonderment.
Tarzan, John Carter, Doc Savage, The Shadow, Carson Napier, Alley Oop… the list goes on and on.
The fun is in picking the heroes out of the crowd. The amazing artwork here is just stunning.
At it’s heart, this is a new Edgar Rice Burroughs story, “told” to an ancestor of Jake Saunders for publication later. That’s a common enough trope, but this takes it to a new depth. It’s also a ‘what it’ mash-up of so many legendary pulp heroes all in the same book, all in the same adventure. The titular focus is John Carter, the Warlord of Mars and hero of “A Princess of Mars” and the remainder of that series. Classic, and a personal favorite of mine being that it was the first chapter book I recall picking out for myself as a young reader, with the approval of my mother who had read them herself in her younger days. The idea that Carter meets and adventures alongside so many other great heroes of that age is compellingly wonderful.
It’s a heroic “Where’s Waldo” of illustrative awesomeness.
The first thing to catch my eye was the exquisite leather binding, with gold embossing and full-color inset picture on the cover. Garish? No! It’s totally a homage to the feel of pulp adventure, as if the book itself were an artifact of the story. This is so wonderfully over the top, there’s absolutely nothing understated in this presentation. It’s a huge tome, waiting to be opened by a magic spell. OK, a magic spell of several hundred dollars…
A gathering of heroes. One of over 130 illustrations!
Next, sending me deeper into a book-lust state, the art is evocative of nearly every artist who has worked in the genre. From cleanly serviceable to lush and imaginative, the art I’ve seen so far is representative of the best in the industry. It evokes every aspect of pulp heroics.
Absolutely lovely artwork, ranking with that of Frazetta or Clinton Pettee.
Those two aspects alone would sell me, admittedly perhaps on a somewhat less pricey volume, but the presentation as a whole is breathtaking. Bejeweled and embossed box for the weighty volume, I’ve paid more for less. And I’ll be the first to admit the Martian coins are a bit of an overkill, but they do go a long ways towards establishing the exclusivity of the package.
Boxed with Martian coin!
So, it’s just a matter of time before I pull the trigger on this purchase. And some time after that I’ll provide you with a hands-on review of the book itself.
Watch for it.
The Martian Legion, a beautiful book, a historic partnering of heroes, a must buy.
More information can be found on the web site at www.themartianlegion.com/
