Mars & the Duke of Deception

In the Golden Age, the Roman God Mars ruled from the planet bearing his namesake, where he gathered the souls of dead men to serve as eternal slaves to his kingdom. Under Mars were three commanders, Lord Conquest, the Earl of Greed, and the Duke of Deception (along with General Destruction and Lya.) Mars and his lieutenants often deployed forces from the planet Mars against their sworn enemies, the Amazons, and their greatest champion, Wonder Woman. Initially, these "Martians" appeared to be Caucasian humans, perhaps related to those enslaved souls, but later, native Martians were clearly deployed. 

At one point, Duke Deception overthrew Mars to rule their planet, and later commanded a fiefdom over Yellow Martians, whose form he assumed to lead them in a combined invasion force alongside armies from Saturn and Jupiter. This was after Deception had gathered representatives from planets throughout the Solar System in a bid to join together to invade Earth, but they were put off when Princess Diana made an impressive demonstration of potential resistance in "The Olympics of Terror." Later still, after an unexplained separation from his prior army (which may have involved the machinations of Morpheus,) the Imperator of Illusions assumed a green-skinned form, and was surprised to make the acquaintance of actual Green Martians. For a sprawling arena of natives, the Master of Matter tasked Wonder Woman in the Martian Olympics of the Doomed, but the Amazing Amazon bested him in the crooked competition. In revenge, the Green Martians destroyed the Earth, but with the help of a Jovian, Princess Diana traveled back through to prevent the destruction before it began.

Mars himself pitted against Wonder Woman the Crimson Centipede, a powerful green-skinned being, and a Martian creation bearing roughly sixteen arms and legs. Meanwhile, the Duke of Deception disfigured Wonder Girl, and tried to use her as bait for the Wonder Family to be cut down by a Martian fleet, but was thwarted. After a final invasion attempt on Paradise Island with Martian saucers disguised as an Amazonian Swan Fleet, the Duke of Deception was commanded by the Lasso of Truth to return to the Red Planet, from which the Martian incarnation of the Imperator of Illusions never returned. This final return took place before the seeming destruction of Mars in the inferno of The Blue Flame.

2024 Comic Art Live “Ziggy Manhunter” Mystery Sketch by Nir Levie

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For the mystery sketch May 2024, I chose Ziggy Stardust, what I received was this gorgeous amalgamation of Ziggy Stardust and Martian Manhunter. It’s crazy, unique and fun as hell! That’s what I love about the mystery sketches, you don’t really know what you are gonna get. Nir Levie put his own wild spin on it, and it works fantastically. David Bowie would have killed for abs like these.

Sorry I missed yesterday. I went to a concert with the Rolled Spine Podcasts crew, and also was inspired to put a little more work into something that I'd intended to hack out before the weekend.

1986 FPC DC Comics Calendar Poster

Fellow children of the '80s likely longed for this swell looking calendar, featured in ads across various DC titles. It looked like a normal calendar, with 12 rectangular images of swell characters by top talents, incorporating the monthly calendar. There was a couple of cheats, in that the George Pérez New Teen Titans image was "zoomed in," obscuring six other partially visible sections, and obliterating a second. Further, all of those other images were barely more than postage stamps, and all of them were in black and white. It was a tantalizing tease though, including a Joe Kubert Sgt. Rock & Easy Company, a Gil Kane Sword of the Atom (featuring Princess Laethwen,) Keith Giffen Christmas with Ambush Bug & Cheeks, plus a very licensing on-model Superman (Ross Andru?)

It was produced by FPC, or The Federal Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., who distributed black & white DC Comics reprints in the Down Under. In fact, the ad running, in the original U.S. comics, added the unusual shipping penalty of $1.50 extra outside Australia-- which is, y'know, all of us buying the original North American editions. Like, almost everybody on Earth is somewhere besides Ozzieland, which has less than 27M population, only 0.33% of the global population. I live in the state of Texas, with nearly 31M, and that's only one (admittedly populous) of 50 United States, and these things went to Canada, too (40M.) At $6.50 in 1985 dollars, that's $19.00 today, including shipping, which actually isn't that bad when I consider it. But it's pretty hefty for something expected to be thrown out on a year, which might be why I've never seen one in the wild. But also, it's a one-sheet poster, not a flip calendar, with the Marshall Rogers Batman & Robin crowding into four of the other images (molesting a small portion of the previously unobscured Titans portion.) Other characters revealed in the final release are Blue Devil & Amethyst by Paris Cullins, and... wait... that's it? A twelve month calendar with only eight images, because several months do double duty, and one triple. What a rip-off.

The image that I haven't discussed yet is maybe my favorite, though not without serious competition. Green Lantern John Stewart, Firestorm, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter, drawn by Luke McDonnell and inked by Jerry Ordway! Wooo-we! That is quite the collection of choices cuts for ol' Frank-- enough for me to let my Texas (or at least my Slim Pikins) out just now. I really wish this art existed outside a sloppy, mangled sheet of paper. And it kind of does, as the original art is nominally available for trade or purchase. I'd miss that lovely Greg Theakston painted color, though I could overlook it wth those characters and that linework. But see, the seller doesn't actually post prices, and the listing is so old that for all I know it's part of the dead internet. I have enough trouble getting art and quotes from people face to face with me at conventions. I can't manifest the energy for "email me bro," so one of you can pursue it with my full blessing. I reserve the right to envy, however.

2016 Armek Commission by Rick Hoberg

I returned to comic conventions after something like a decade and started collecting commissions in 2010. I'd been daily blogging on J'Onn J'Onzz for going on three years at that point, and it seemed like a great way to visually realize the potential I saw in the non-franchise. I kept up that pace until a month after the seventh anniversary in 2014, the same year I began all those jams that took forever to finish (where applicable) and still await posting. Even though I'd pulled way back, I kept up with (on average) weekly posting for another couple years, but only bothered with seven total posts in 2017. My priorities shifted to podcasting sure, but also, I was just kind of sick of putting so much time and money into something that had made me that guy who shoehorned Martian Manhunter into conversations where he (or I) weren't wanted. I've kept my Alien Atlas art to a minimum in the COVID era, but old habits die hard, and I was still gathering a substantial body of material through at least 2017. So much of it, over such an expanse of time, that the process started to fall apart for me.

For instance, I approached Rick Hoberg at a convention. I'm pretty sure that it was in Houston, but I don't think it was Comicpalooza. Both Space City Comic Con and Amazing were still operating in town in 2016, the date on the finished piece, but it was a take-home that ultimately got to me later. For all I know, we might have first talked about it the previous year. I'd been getting 1950s-1980s characters done in modern styles, so I thought it would be fun have a comparatively recent (1996?!?) character created in the post-Image school done by a more classical Bronze Age veteran. There was an added layer of irony, because Hoberg is likely best known for his work on DC's Golden Age heroes in All-Star Squadron, but I mostly associated him with the Ultraverse's Image-adjacent team book The Strangers. I dug his clean line, and I think I gave him a choice of characters (I usually do,) with him picking the Hyperclan's robot member, Armek.

It turned out great, and I think you can tell that he had fun working on something outside what was expected from him. This poor guy probably never wants to draw another archer or old-timey mystery man again. His Armek reminds me of Geoff Senior's Death's Head, with all the armor layers and battle damage. There's another blog I could have threatened. Anyway, the same year as the art arrived, I was working on the first volume of Who's Who in Martian Manhunter, making a bunch of mistakes with it while chasing a stupid self-imposed deadline. That project was a ton of work, but I had every intention of getting back to it, and "saved" Armek for the first page of Vol II. Eight years later, I wouldn't hold your breath over that happening. So here I am, poorly serving Hoberg's efforts by sitting on them and forgetting most of the finer points behind the piece's creation. John Cassaday, twenty years Hoberg's junior, died today, and I'm still playing around with time like it's infinite. Sorry, Rick. The piece came out awesome. Thank you!

The Fake Manhunter from Mars Comic Series & Other Entertaining Fabrications

As an advocate for the Alien Atlas, I sometimes like to just imagine a world where the character could have supported his own ongoing solo series for decades, rather than largely disappearing from comics in the late 1960s, and mostly subsisting since by joining team books for the rest of his career. I piece together preexisting art to create "covers" for nonexistent books that I then "summarize..."

1. The All-Stars #120 (August-September, 1961)
2. The Boy All-Stars #1 (April, 1963)
3. John Jones: Manhunter From Mars #100 (Sept.-Oct. 1968)
• The Making of "John Jones: Manhunter From Mars #100"
4. The Manhunter From Mars #105 (Sept.-Oct. 1969)
5. Manhunter from Mars #125 (February 1973)
6. The Martian Manhunter #150 (Winter 1976)
• The Making of "The Martian Manhunter #150"
7. Manhunter from Mars #175 (February, 1979)
8. Limited Collectors' Edition #C-61 ([March] 1979)
9. Manhunter from Mars #199 (February 1981)
10. Manhunter from Mars #200 (March 1981)
• The Making of "Manhunter from Mars #200"
11. Manhunter from Mars #201 (April 1981)
12. Manhunter from Mars Annual #1 (1984) Part 1, Part 2
13. Manhunter from Mars #250 (May 1985)
14. Manhunter from Mars Annual #2 (1985)
15. The Best of DC #74 (July, 1986)
16. Manhunter from Mars #300 (July, 1989)
17. The Manhunter from Mars Annual #7 (1990)
18. Manhunter from Mars #350 (September, 1993)
19. Manhunter from Mars Annual #12 (1995)
20. The Manhunter from Mars Annual #14 (1997)
21. Manhunter from Mars #400 (November, 1997)
22. Surf and Turf #4 (9/08)
23. 2012 Martian Manhunter Super Spectacular #2 Mock-Up
24. 2012 New 52 Wave 3 Martian Manhunter #1!
25. 2013 New 52 Villain’s Month: Malefic #1!

I've also goofed off in other ways, like constructing the The Manhunter from Mars Filmation-style limited animation intro/theme, or coming up with a solicitation catalog for the years 1999 and 2021 featuring more alternate universe Sleuth from Outer Space projects...

• "1967 The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure: Manhunter from Mars Segment Intro"
• 35 Years Ago (an alternate history of J'Onn J'Onzz's super community in the Post-Zero Hour 1950s
• Silver Age Triumph by Gil Kane
• 2021 “DC Comics 1999 Editorial Presentation: Countdown To The Millennium”
• DC Comics 1999 Editorial Presentation: Manhunter
• 2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” Bloodwynd fanfic commission art by Brad Green
• 2021 “The Legend of Isis” fanfic commission art by Jean Sinclair
• Bloodwynd Mini-Series Announced!
• O’Neil & Netzer Announced for RETRO-ACTIVE 1970s Martian Manhunter!
• Creators for RETROACTIVE: MARTIAN MANHUNTER – THE ‘80S #1
• Creators for RETROACTIVE: MARTIAN MANHUNTER – THE ‘90S #1
• 2013 “The Post-Punk / New Wave Martian Manhunter” (In the style of "Butcher Billy")

2015 Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues #1289: Martian Manhunter and The Mighty Thor

Martian Manhunter and Thor in "Battle for the Bifrost!"

To show how long I've been absentee/coasting, it's been nearly a decade since I shamelessly recycled one of Ross' blogging efforts just to make my quota on a daily. Which means I had plenty to choose from, but this was a favorite.

2016 Cherry Capital Comic Con Martian Manhunter Commission by Ryan Lee

File under "cleaning out the files." I downloaded this eight years ago, I know not where, and went no further until now. Pretty nifty though, right? C4 is held in Acme, MI, and is billed as "Northern Michigan’s largest comic book and pop entertainment expo." I've never been in that direction, but someday...

Ryan Lee Art Studio

2024 Martian Manhunter Convention Sketch by Tom Mandrake

Click To Enlarge


I had something else in mind for tonight, but my files have gotten to be such a byzantine sprawl of external drives into which past computers have been collapsed that I can't find some required background. Also, I have a podcast and a long form blog supporting a podcast to get out tonight. So heere's a recent CAF post by prolific art patron Off(icer) White from the most prodigeous J'Onn J'Onzz artist in modern times. I'll do better tomorrow.

2014 Martian Manhunter Villains Comicpalooza Jam

Sometimes, common sense is a casualty of an erratic publishing schedule. For instance, I'm going through my commission books to see which pieces of art that I've posted, and whether the posts needed corrections for Photobucket failings or poor quality color scans. I picked up a large bed scanner over the past year, so I can now directly digitize 11x17" pieces, instead of resized photocopies at FedEx Office. I've made a bunch of revisions to old posts, most of which I promptly skeeted on BlueSky, since I can rarely be bothered top post anything there (I log into my personal Twitter account only a few times a year more than my Facebook, nowadays.) Besides finally getting stragglers posted (I haven't gotten many Martian Manhunter-related pieces this decade,) I wanted to make sure any dangling jam pieces were finally addressed, whether that meant new art to complete, or just posting stuff that's been in the works for a decade. I have to say, jams really killed my momentum on commissions for my blogs, as all those edits were from 2011-2013, and then the posts stall out. Anyway, given that I'm literally waiting for one of those commissions that you've never seen on here but is now completed to finally arrive in the mail, I hope I'm forgiven for the many, many hold-ups I hope to resolve by the end of 2025. For all that effort-- the one commission that I actually got done at a single show over ten years back? The one you've maybe seen every individual contribution from? Never posted the completed piece, as best as I can tell. So taste the low hanging fruit as I toil in the background on more involved stuff...

2014 Martian Manhunter Villains Comicpalooza Jam

• Alex Dunster by Lance Schibi
• Diabolu the Wizard by Chris Beaver
• The Human Flame by Sam Lotfi
• The Marshal by Pat Broderick
• Telok'Telar by Paul Gulacy
• Vandal Savage by Mark Texeira

1987 Amazing Heroes #161 fan art by Carl Taylor & Willie Blyberg

Countdown to 70

There's a symmetry in my starting this blog seventeen years ago on the first of September, which going forward would prove to be the month that I could expect the least engagement from an audience, despite often putting the most work into the "anniversary." The WebTV site goes back nearly another decade, when I first got passionate about the Manhunter from Mars. With too much time and absolutely no money, why not build a fan page on the digital frontier? And the blog came about because I was copying The Aquaman Shrine, with the intent of repurposing the fan page content that was lost when I stopped my WebTV subscription. But see, The Aquman Shrine began after DC had killed off its featured character, and over the course of the Shrine's run (and its spin-off/legacy podcast,) the King of the Seven Seas reached dizzying new heights from there, starring in a billion dollar motion picture.

They killed my character after I started the blog, and the Alien Atlas has mostly been subjected to a series of disheartening lows and a shrinking cultural footprint since his biggest moments, each coming before I had any skin in this game. The glory days of the JLA comics and launch of his only ongoing solo series inspired and preceded my overt fandom, and then his being featured on the Cartoon Network's Justice League happened between WebTV and Blogspot. If anything, the declining interest in the blog was followed by a successful supporting run on CBS/CW's Supergirl and a sort of appearance in Zack Snyder's Justice League (but not on an actual movie screen.)

All the spotlights and commissions and such that I wrote or crafted or paid for came of nothing in expanding interest in the Sleuth from Outer Space and his sphere. All my time in comics, as a retailer and as a public advocate, have helped forge a few friendships and filled some longboxes, but accomplished little else. If anything, I feel like I've been a bit of an albatross, never embracing the various creative visions for the character over the past thirty years. Bit of a back biter really, and maybe the Martian Marvel would be better off without me.

Anyway, I let other things eat up most of my time in August, but I'll step up a bit this September and next, plus points in between, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. I have a decade-long backlog of art pieces that I never posted, and most of the last few years' blogging has been driven by keeping the seat slightly warm ahead of getting all that out for the 70th anniversary in 2025. Having accomplished that minor feat, and finally acknowledging those artists' efforts, I can finally take or leave this thing as I please without a guilty conscience.

I put in so much time and effort, seemingly to no benefit to anyone, and I'm just damned tired of trying to prop up a piece of corporate intellectual property that I glommed onto in 1996 after a dozen year flirtation, starting around "War of the Worlds 1984" and The Super Powers Collection. J'Onn J'Onzz will always be my favorite Martian, and I want to wish him a happy birthday, but then it'll probably be time to wander elsewhere in this big ol' galaxy.