Clinton Pettee immortalized the image of the hero astride the back of a lion caught in a titanic struggle. That was for the cover of All-Story Magazine featuring Tarzan of the Apes. That frozen moment in time was a classic scenario of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He used it in most of his different settings. I won’t go on about that. (You can read about ERB’s immortal lion here.)
What I do want to talk about is one of Burroughs’ best lion look-a-likes, the banth, the Barsoomian version of the lion. Ed described it for the first time in his second Martian novel, The Gods of Mars (All-Story, January-May 1913):
The banth is a fierce beast of prey that roams the low hills surrounding the dead seas of ancient Mars. Like nearly all Martian animals it is almost hairless, having only a great bristly mane about its thick neck.
Its long, lithe body is supported by ten powerful legs, its enormous jaws are equipped, like those of the calot, or Martian hound, with several rows of long needle-like fangs ; its mouth reaches to a point far back of its tiny ears, while its enormous, protruding eyes of green add the last touch of terror to its awful aspect.
To make the fierce creatures even more interesting, ERB has them acting like a bunch of pussy cats for the beautiful Thuvia, Maid of Mars, eventually to be John Carter’s daughter-in-law. Because of this pairing, we get many images of the banth standing next to a beautiful woman.
The first image of a banth did not happen on the covers of the All-Story. That magazine chose Thuvia being chased by a thark. (for more on tharks, go here.) It had to wait until November 1953, when Jesse Marsh did a black & white filler illo for Dell’s Four Color #437. He later used the banth for a color back cover for Four Color #488 .
Marsh’s rendition of the banth is not much different from an African lion. More legs and spots, but it looks pretty terrestrial otherwise.
Book covers have given us the most frequent banth images. Ballantine kept the Tarzan and Barsoom series during a legendary copyright battle with ACE Books back in the 1960s. ACE got Pellucidar, Amtor and others. I first read of John Carter in the Ballantine paperbacks with the Gino D’Achille covers. The print in them was painfully small. That was why I preferred the easy-on-the-eyes ACE books. (It is also why I read more Pellucidar than Barsoom books.) The Science Fiction Book Club hardcovers with the Frank Frazetta illos blew them all out of the water, of course.) Michael Whelan and Jeff Jusko did later reprints. Whelan’s Barsoom covers are Pulpishly colorful but have a nice etherealness to them, while Jusko’s work always speaks to violent action and solid muscle. Gino D’Achille is perhaps the first artist to make the banth look less lion-like. The enlarged head would become even more prominent under Frazetta.
Bob Abbett 1963
Gino D’Achille 1973
Frank Frazetta 1973
Michael Whelan 1979
Joe Jusko 1996
Other Images
The comic books hadn’t forgotten John Carter or the banth.
DC Comics became ERB central when Tarzan left Gold Key. The John Carter comics did not get the Joe Kubert treatment though. John Carter became a back-up feature for Tarzan then in Tarzan Family. The artists changed with each issue: Murphy Anderson, Gray Morrow and Sal Amendola.
Marvel did a better job with Rudy Nebres leading the charge in 1977.
Dark Horse gave us a brief glimpse of a banth in Tarzan/John Carter: Warlord of Mars #1, January 1996.
Marvel revived the John Carter comics for the movie release in 2012 but even their adaptation of The Gods of Mars has no banths. WTF? Dynamite did better with cover by Stephen Sadowski and Joe Jusko. Warlord of Mars #13 adapted the same novel and has banths.
Conclusion
Our Visual History of the Banth would not be complete without this next stop. The ultimate homage to the banth happened in 2002 with George Lucas’s second Star Wars prequel, The Attack of the Clones. The Petranaki arena scene is a multiple homage with the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs scenario of man versus beasts taking place. (Let’s not forget that George added an “a” to the Banth to get Bantha…) And what kind of an ERB fest would this be if one of the monsters wasn’t a banth, or something very much like it? The Nexus is a four-legged version of the banth. The other homage is to the great Ray Harryhausen. When Obiwan Kenobi stabs at the other monster with a spear, you know this is Harryhausen time! Even though the John Carter of Mars movie did not feature any banths, this scene gives us a good idea of what that might have been like.
