Albion's Martian Longsword -- myArmoury.com

Patrick Kelly · Posted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 12:31 pm Post subject: Albion's Martian Longsword

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

Jason Dingledine · Posted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 3:15 pm Post subject:

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).

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 5:54 pm Post subject:

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

Gabriel Stevens · Posted: Tue 27 Sep, 2005 9:49 pm Post subject:

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

Anton de Vries · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 12:51 am Post subject:

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).

Mikko Kuusirati · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 3:04 am Post subject:

Michael G. Myers · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 7:20 am Post subject:

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

Caleb Hallgren · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2005 1:29 pm Post subject:

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?

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Fri 30 Sep, 2005 6:16 pm Post subject:

Eric L. · Posted: Fri 30 Sep, 2005 11:44 pm Post subject:

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

Patrick Kelly · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 12:19 am Post subject:

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.

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 8:16 am Post subject:

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.

Roger Hooper · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 8:54 am Post subject:

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 10:00 am Post subject:

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

Hisham Gaballa · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 3:40 pm Post subject:

Gabriel Stevens · Posted: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 10:45 pm Post subject:

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.....

Peter Morwood · Posted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 2:55 am Post subject:

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.

Glen S. Ramsay · Posted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:01 pm Post subject:

Patrick Kelly · Posted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:43 pm Post subject:

Albion Bloodstone.

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

Peter Morwood · Posted: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:

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.