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My Princess of Mars Project

"Five or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatures which sat blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity. They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.

The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.

There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon, this color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in the female. Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of proportion to their bodies as in the case of the young.

The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while the pupil is dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth. These latter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and terrible countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located. The whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming of china. Against the dark background of their olive skins their tusks stand out in a most striking manner, making these weapons present a singularly formidable appearance."

A Princess of Mars

Green Martians

There are many examples of cool green Martian art. They are described in great detail and completely, meaning men, women and children. Their culture is probably more defined than the red Martian culture. There was only one way I wanted to deviate from the common portrayal of them and it involved returning to the original text.

Green Martians have six limbs. Almost without exception they are drawn with two legs and four arms, usually set on two human-looking torsos. On rare occasion they have a squat first torso, like a gorilla, with the lower set of arms springing from it. The problem is, the second set of arms, the lower set, are specifically described as usable as arms *or* legs.

I loved the idea of making them almost centaur-like. Being able to use two, three, or four legs, while using two, three or four arms, provides for several cool things. One, I could design a great combat style for them. Two, I solve the problem of their great height: green Martians are described as around 15 ft tall. There are many cheats people have used to be able to frame them in the same scene as someone 6 ft tall, but putting them on four legs would make it easy. And, finally, it was more accurate to the source material. There may be other versions out there that reflect their interchangeability, but I haven't seen them.