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Patrick Kelly




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PostPosted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 12:31 pm    Post subject: Albion's Martian Longsword         Reply with quote

As a longtime fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter stories I think this is fairly neat. I don't check the filmswords site very often, but I just saw this.



Looks like it might be ready for sale.
http://filmswords.com/frazetta/martian-longsword.htm

"In valor there is hope.".................. Tacitus
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Jason Dingledine




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PostPosted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 3:15 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hey Patrick,

Yep, both the limited edition (which you pictured), and the standard model are in production. It does handle nicely, and matches well to the paintings (although each of these varied slightly).

Jason Dingledine
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Steve Grisetti




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PostPosted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 5:54 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

So, what are those hooks on the basket guards supposed to be for??
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Gabriel Stevens




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PostPosted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 9:49 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

If I remember right this sword is from one of Frazetta's covers so my guess is aesthetics.
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Anton de Vries





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PostPosted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 12:51 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The lower hook would serve well as an "eye-catcher", especially on those big bulging Thark eyeballs. Eek!

I'm oh-so-slightly disappointed though, as I was hoping for a closer approximation of the blade in Frazetta's painting, which would probably be (nearly?) impossible. .
Also I consider the skewed guard in the 2nd picture on Albion's website unacceptable (probably fixed in the final product, which is a good reason to fix the picture as well).
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Mikko Kuusirati




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PostPosted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 3:04 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Gabriel Stevens wrote:
If I remember right this sword is from one of Frazetta's covers so my guess is aesthetics.

Several covers and B&W illustrations, actually.

http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/f01.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/f08.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/f16.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/ffdraw41.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/ffdraw59.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/frank_fraz...lizard.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/frank_fraz...thesky.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/frank_fraz...ofmars.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/frazeta2.jpg (this is the one on Albion's site)
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/QMan_FF_Le...f_Mars.jpg
http://frazetta.ragnarok.no/images/QMan_FF_Le...f_Mars.jpg

...just to link a few.

"And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."
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Michael G. Myers




Location: El Paso, Texas
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PostPosted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 7:20 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

This is neat! I wish I had a nickel for every hour I spent trying to draw Frazetta's A Princess of Mars cover as a kid. Seeing this in steel gave me a big grin. 'Best of luck to Albion in further pursuing this Frazetta line.

Per the guard's lower "hook", I think the needless rationalization I came up with was a kid (endlessly scanning Wilkinson's old book in our library) was as an aid to parrying in all those uncounted-hordes-of-swordsmen-to-one odds John Carter always faced. Hey, it was Frazetta! Kudos!

"I still live",

Michael

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Caleb Hallgren




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PostPosted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 1:29 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Although I am a general fan of Albion work (and that of Jody Samson) I admit a certain degree of dissapointment in this piece.

Although I'm sure it handles well, IMHO the curve of the blade is unattractive and not true to the pictures of it. Why couldn't it have been a nice gradual/consistent curve rather than the weird half-curved/half-straight blade?
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Steve Grisetti




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PostPosted: Fri 30 Sep, 2005 6:16 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Mikko Kuusirati wrote:
Gabriel Stevens wrote:
If I remember right this sword is from one of Frazetta's covers so my guess is aesthetics.

Several covers and B&W illustrations, actually.
...just to link a few.

Thanks for the links. I vaguely recall seeing some of the illustrations in the (distant) past. I would agree with the comments by Caleb Hallgren on the Albion blade. The blades in the illustrations tend to have a more consistent, graceful sweep to them.
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Eric L.




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PostPosted: Fri 30 Sep, 2005 11:44 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I`m disapointed to, can`t understand why he should make this change to the blade.

Here you can read something about the progress of the movie http://www.comics2film.com/FanFrame.php?f_id=13466
Could be that they will use this sword in the movie. Wink
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Patrick Kelly




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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 12:19 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

While the design isn't what I imagined when I read those books as a boy, and I've never cared for Frazetta's design either, I'm glad to see someone putting out swords of the genre.

Anyone who helps give Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard some long overdue attention should be applauded.

"In valor there is hope.".................. Tacitus
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Steve Grisetti




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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 8:16 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I actually went to the FilmSwords site, finally, to see what other pictures there might be of the Martian Longsword. I noticed that the photos that Patrick posted were of the "Limited Edition" version - of which there will be only 10 pieces made. The "Standard Edition" does not have the highly polished guard, and uses green leather for the grip in lieu of the rayskin of the Limited Edition. I find the Standard Edition more appealing.


 Attachment: 46.78 KB
Barsoomian13.jpg
Standard Edition Martian Longsword
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Roger Hooper




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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 8:54 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Patrick Kelly wrote:
While the design isn't what I imagined when I read those books as a boy, and I've never cared for Frazetta's design either, I'm glad to see someone putting out swords of the genre.

Anyone who helps give Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard some long overdue attention should be applauded.


I always liked Roy Krenkel's cover art better than Frazetta's. Note the price for that book - 40 cents in 1962. I loved Chessmen of Mars when I first read it - especially the human chess game, duelling for squares on the stadium chess board.



 Attachment: 59.98 KB
chessmen2.jpg

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Steve Grisetti




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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 10:00 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I gather (from all of the illustrations) that Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters didn't believe in shields or armour (other than helms)?
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Hisham Gaballa





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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 3:40 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Steve Grisetti wrote:
I gather (from all of the illustrations) that Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters didn't believe in shields or armour (other than helms)?


Big Grin

ERB was always a big fan of nudity (slightly impractical in Mars' Sub-zero temperatures, but he wasn't to know that), see also his Tarzan and Pellucidar novels. If he were a alive today I'm sure he would be a dedicated naturist.

I'm pleased there is a posibility of a film. although considering that Kruger also wrote Grimm and Skeleton Key, both mediocre films, I'm not holding my breath.

I'm also rather disappointed by the sword, it's a bit... bland. Still I suppose Martian aesthetics are different.
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Gabriel Stevens




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PostPosted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 10:45 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Actually I remember several times when small sheilds were specifically mentioned, there's quite a bit of different fighting styles in the books if I remember right, though its been about ten years since I read them. Course when John's running around killing people just by punching them.....
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Peter Morwood




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PostPosted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 2:55 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Handsome though it is, I’ve got a bit of a problem with this sword, because after comparing my memory of the work-in-progress pictures to the apparent finished product, I feel distinctly let down. It was designed to be, and is being advertised as, a “Frank Frazetta® Martian Longsword™”. Unfortunately IMO it isn’t, not any more.

Please note: I didn’t include those trademark symbols to be sarcastic, but to point up what an extremely specific image such terminology invokes – not merely Edgar Rice Burroughs’s text description of a Red or Green Martian’s sword, but rather, the precise visual design created by a specific artist. To emphasise this, Frazetta's signature and a characteristic painting are two of the most prominent features at the top of the relevant FilmSwords.com web page.

Unless I completely misread the situation, this reproduction is aimed more at fans of the artist and his portrayal of this sword, than fans of ERB’s writing in general. It can’t – or certainly shouldn’t – be subject to the sort of “interpretation” granted by un-illustrated words on a page, but ought to be as close to the original as any sword-from-a-film with lots of visual references. An example of how it should have been done is the Bloodstone sword which, courtesy of Jason Dingledine, looks just like the one in Frazetta’s painting.

So what on Earth (or Mars) went wrong with the Martian Longsword? It’s not as if there weren’t plenty of those visual references. Almost all the artwork in Mikko’s links (of which the FilmSwords painting, cover art from A Princess of Mars, is one) show similar swords, with that distinctive curlicue-pronged bell-guard hilt and smoothly tapering curved – or in just a single example, John Carter and the Savage Apes of Mars, straight – blades. None, however, have the replica’s current blade, whose profile reminds me just a bit of a sword-length yataghan bayonet. The hilt looks right, the blade… No. Hence my comment at the top that it no longer properly recreates what it’s supposed to be. That’s a real shame.

Anton writes that he’d hoped for something closer to the illustrated blade, but considers that it would “probably be (nearly?) impossible.” In fact (unless the photo is deceptively distorting, and there are enough of them in the collection entry that I don’t think so) a blade of this shape already exists. The current incarnation is probably broader than would be correct for a Martian longsword, but the curvature and taper look spot-on. It’s the blade from the ArmArt Swiss Sabre in Nathan’s Collection, used here for a quick-and-crude PhotoShop cut-and-paste image of my interpretation of the Frank Frazetta Martian Longsword.

It’s a pity this or something similar isn’t what’s available. Maybe the blade-shape will be changed; Albion’s products are constantly being refined and developed, so it’s not impossible to hope for. But right now, better luck next time.



 Attachment: 8.62 KB
adapted Martian sabre.jpg


"I care little for your Cause; I fight not for your Crown, but for your half-crown, and your handsome women!" - Capt. Carlo Fantom (from Aubrey's "Brief Lives")
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Glen S. Ramsay




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PostPosted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:01 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Peter Morwood wrote:
An example of how it should have been done is the Bloodstone sword which, courtesy of Jason Dingledine, looks just like the one in Frazetta’s painting.

Any link to where we may see this sword? Or if you have a pic of it you could post? I'm always interested in seeing masterfully crafted fantasy swords, and I don't believe I've seen that one...
Thanks...
(By the way, you're photoshopped version looks good. Although I do like the Albion version, you're right that your suggestion would definitely have been more in line with the Frazetta art.)
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Patrick Kelly




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PostPosted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:43 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Albion Bloodstone.

http://filmswords.com/frazetta/bloodstone.htm

"In valor there is hope.".................. Tacitus
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Peter Morwood




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PostPosted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:45 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Glen -

Original painting and replica sword are both here.

(Edit, to add this...)

Since Patrick beat me to the FilmSwords punch by two minutes, I'll trump my duplicate post by providing a much larger version of the Bloodstone cover here. As you can see, if the Martian Longsword had been as accurate a repro as the Bloodstone sword, it would have been quite something.

"I care little for your Cause; I fight not for your Crown, but for your half-crown, and your handsome women!" - Capt. Carlo Fantom (from Aubrey's "Brief Lives")
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