January 2016 Challenge: Barsoom

[Chick]

After years of reading Burroughs as a child, and years teaching Mars geology in my Planetary Geology class, there couldn't be any other choice for me for this. Barsoom it is!

Besides that, I have long wanted to do a map of the double circle two hemisphere style, so this is the perfect excuse to do it.

So I fit a modern Mars map to the two hemispheres, drew in some boundaries for the Barsoom territories, did a little additional texturing and coloring, and here is the start of my map.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to put in the outside regions currently black.....

### Latest WIP ###
Barsoom 05.jpg

[Bogie]

Great map Chick! I was also thinking of doing a John Carter map, but it would be a much smaller scale than this.
I also read a lot of ERB when I was young but got away from sci-fi / fantasy in High School and College. It was during my junior year in college that I stumbled across Tarzan at the Earth's Core and got hooked again. The crossover novel between the Tarzan books and the Pelucidar series was great. I wish ERB had done a Tarzan / Mars crossover. Imagine Tarzan wrestling the 4 armed white apes!

[Diamond]

Yay! An entry!

Nice start on this, Chick.

[johnvanvliet]

if anyone wants some references
i have a few OLD mars maps , mostly from the 1800 and 1900's .
and from " Brenner" and "schiapparelli"
https://picasaweb.google.com/1026959...centMapsOfMars

[Chick]

if anyone wants some references
i have a few OLD mars maps , mostly from the 1800 and 1900's .
and from " Brenner" and "schiapparelli"
https://picasaweb.google.com/1026959...centMapsOfMars

That's really great, thank you, John!! I've tried the canali map on top of mine, but it didn't look all that good against the modern real Mars. It's very cool though to see the history of attempting to map Mars from afar.

[Chick]

Here is my latest effort. I even took a whack at drawing the Roman god Mars, for those of you who like a good laugh

### Latest WIP ###
Barsoom 10.jpg

Comments, suggestions, and critiques always welcome!

[snodsy]

Wow, Chick this is look spectacular! I'd give a little more room around the header text. Maybe cut down the leading for the three bottom text blocks. Maybe a pinch or two more space around the small labels from the element they represent.

Are the upper and lower regions ice caps, they look more like clouds with them overlapping the border, if ice caps, I'd make them fit under the striped border, if clouds I think they are ok.

[Meshon]

Here is my latest effort. I even took a whack at drawing the Roman god Mars, for those of you who like a good laugh

Hahahaha!

Wait, why am I laughing? If you hadn't mentioned it I would have just thought, "Oh cool, there's Mars in the corner." It's perfect. I'm really glad to see you do this map. I realized that I just didn't have enough connection to the source material for this challenge; I'm glad you brought your experience to the table.

As to the polar caps and playing with the authority of map borders, I know you've already resolved that but seriously, good to try things out and then hear what people think. Do it again on your next map, in my opinion.

cheers,
Meshon

[Chick]

Hahahaha!

Wait, why am I laughing? If you hadn't mentioned it I would have just thought, "Oh cool, there's Mars in the corner." It's perfect....

Thank you, Meshon, you're nice to say that, but I have no illusions about my drawing ability, it's still about second grade elementary school But I do appreciate the encouragement very much!

[J.Edward]

Mars doesn't look too bad Chick.
My suggestion would be to have those white polar areas back behind the outer rings.
I think it will look better.
And one other thing - if you can color match Terra-Mars-Luna to be closer to the color of Mars/Barsoom.
I think that would look better, but that's just my opinion on the color.