A charging thoat mounted by a fierce green martian! Barsoom is a world of contradictions: Barbaric and Super Science — yet even the technologically advanced cultures rely on the thoat for general transportation, especially outside the cities. Burton's thoat is that perfect desert creature. Like the Earthly camel the Martian thoat thrives in the most inhospitable terrain. Fierce and combative, endowed with a general bad-temper, the animal is subdued and guided by telepathic commands from the Barsoomian rider; hence no reins or other means of controlling direction. 
The thoat — a moss-grazing herbivore — is the natural prey of humans, banths (the Martian lion), and the great white apes of Barsoom (left).
The great white apes are massive in size. Some are as tall as fifteen feet and weigh many hundreds of pounds. Meat eaters, the white apes are found in all parts of Barsoom, but most particularly do they haunt the ancient dead cities.
Other denizens of the dead cities of Mars are the barbaric green martians. A chief among these creatures is Lorquas Ptomel. Here we have the plotting fellow, Lorquas Ptomel. One of the major things that I want to strongly impress upon people is that not all Tharks are alike. Each creature, each being in this series, in my eyes anyway, is a character, not just background material. Each Thark has a difference in their features and in the persona. Not all of the portraits that I'm doing will see publication, I do them for myself.
Burton's "do it for himself" includes prelimary sketches of creatures, characters, anatomy, and cultural attributes mention in the stories but not fully described. The artist's imagination run wild — we will all benefit! This is another of my design pages. Here you see some of the weapons I've designed. I wanted to avoid the swords that everyone else has used in the past. While the blades are mostly the same,  the pommels and cross guards are different. When you see a foot solider, he'll have a sword that's similar, but not the same as a general's, and so on. The only people who won't have this, will be the Tharks. The process of taking your fallen enemies would give them a variety. One liberty that I've taken is with the long sword. I've placed these on the backs of the human type Martians (and in some cases, some Tharks). The reason for this, as anyone who's ever tried, one cannot successfully draw a five or six foot long blade from the side. Well, not with any kind of grace or speed. They'd be dead long before it was drawn.
 Dejah Thoris Captured. Here, Dejah Thoris being dragged away by two female Tharks. The differences between male and female Thark are these: Female's are smaller in overall frame. Their heads are shaped different as well. The back of the skull comes almost to a point and is smoother than a males. Their tusks have more of a curve to them than the males have, as well. Dejah Thoris has nothing but her ornaments and jewelry on as that this was how, at this point in the story, she is described. I'll go into the whole "nude doesn't mean naked" thing later with another piece.
Dejah Thoris's BedRoom. For this piece, I wanted to show a few things; One is the size of the rooms and cities that are in my version of ERB's Mars. Rooms are monstrous and cities, well, you'll have to settle for what you can see outside of the window for now, but they're going to be BIG. Burton's vision of massive structures in Barsoomian cities, both ancient and modern, mirrors the texts of Burroughs' Mars series.
 Cover Study 1. This is the first version of my first cover for Strange Worlds. This scene wasn't written by ERB, but does take place. Dejah Thoris has just been discovered upon her airship in the early part of, "A Princess Of Mars". Cover Study 2. This was to be my first cover for Strange Worlds. Though I wasn't happy the final piece, and no one will ever see that version of it here. I do plan on repainting it. This is a painted sketch, which I sometimes do before the final painting. For scenes such as this I acknowledge N. C. Wyeth and my friend Gary Gianni--both artists who are masters at this sort of story telling for my inspiration.
 Woola Fights The White Ape. Here we have the scene in which Woola saves John Carter (in the background) from a White Ape. At some point, I'll have Tangor post some of my creature designs and you'll see that my White Apes are close to our own Gorilla's, but have more in common with Tharks, as they should.
More Burton Barsoom art, designs, sculptures upcoming!
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