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Jeff Kapalka, a reviewer of comics and video games for the New York website Syracuse.com, is taking complete responsibility for the inclusion of Lars of Mars No. 10 in the new book 1000 Comic Books You Must Read (Krause 2009), by comic writer and columnist Tony Isabella. Attributed to writer Jerry Siegel and artist Murphy Anderson, Lars of Mars No. 10 was published by Ziff-Davis in May 1951 and is really the first issue in this short-lived series. Thanks to the French website GotoMars, you can read beautiful jpegs detailing the exploits of that incredible crusader from another world, Lars of Mars!

MORE: http://booksonmars.blogspot.com/2009/11/lars-of-mars-makes-list-of-1000.html

While this is marked as Lars of Mars # 10 and the next issue #11 they are really numbers 1 and 2 of the short lived series with Ziff-Davis starting the numbering at 10, which was a common practice with them. (they did the same with another two issue comic at the time by the title of Alice `in Wonderland.')

After the first hydrogen bomb is exploded, a worried Grand Council of Mars sends Lars “Mars’ most daring adventure” to Earth to preserve interplanetary peace.

His ship however has engine trouble before he can get to the UN and he just manages to escape with his life.

Flying by rocket pack to the nearest town Lars sees a woman who looks as if she is being attacked by robots. Defeating the robots easily Lars is shocked when he finds the robots are really stunt-men testing out robot suits.

With his ship destroyed Lars knows it will now be difficult to convince the governments of Earth who is, fortune however has smiled on Lars when, using his telepathy to learn her langue, Lars also finds that the woman he has “saved” is Jane Conway a television producer who is about to start a television series about a man from Mars.

Jane believes Lars is just an actor however she is impressed and convinces Lars to take the role of the man from Mars on her television program. Lars then divides this time between acting and fighting evil.

MORE: http://www.comicvine.com/lars-of-mars-lars-of-mars/37-154694/

MORE: http://gotomars.free.fr/lars_of_mars.html

LARS OF MARS

Medium: Comic books
Published by: Ziff-Davis
First Appeared: 1951
Creators: Jerry Siegel (writer) and Murphy Anderson (artist)

Lars of Mars was a superhero whose "superheroness" came from his normal attributes as a member of an extra-planetary, non-human species/culture. This put him in a class with Superman, J'onn J'onzz and half the members of The Legion of Super Heroes. He was also a 1950s superhero, part of the ongoing comic book superhero tradition that didn't, as many think, quite come to an end when the public …

… moved on to new fads in the early '40s, and that put him in a class with Nature Boy, Strong Man, The Avenger and a couple of dozen others.

The parallels don't end there. Like Col. Bleep, he came to Earth as a response to nuclear activity. But the Martians don't seem to have even noticed the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. It took the more powerful H-bombs of the 1950s to catch their attention, but once it was caught, they acted with breakneck speed. Their Supreme Council summoned Lars, their most trusted agent, so fast they didn't even accept the fact that he was in the middle of subduing a horrible monster as an excuse for his delay in reaching their chambers.

MORE: http://www.toonopedia.com/lars.htm

Lars of Mars 3-D (1987 Eclipse) comic books 1984-1991

MORE: http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?minyr=1984&maxyr=1991&TID=518001

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