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Guns of Mars
On the dying world of Barsoom, where ancient seas have turned to dust and the last water on the planet is at the polar ice caps, Kal Keddaq is running for his life. A ten-foot-tall green warrior of the Warhoon tribe, he's committed the ultimate blunder by violating a fatal taboo. Now branded an outcast by his own people and hunted across the merciless Martian wastelands, Kal must reach the settlements at the edge of the northern ice cap before his water runs out, his mounts die, or the mysterious bronze-skinned bounty man tracking him finally closes in for the kill.
Set more than one thousand years after a visitor from Earth first walked the deserts of the Red Planet, Chuck Dixon's GUNS OF MARS plunges readers into a thrilling survival odyssey across the desolate grandeur of the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs. As Kal races north through scorching deserts and treacherous ice fields, his desperate flight becomes entangled with something far more dangerous than a mere personal vendetta. Is the relentless bounty hunter pursuing him his greatest threat, or his only ally, against forces that threaten every living being and tribe clinging to existence on the dying planet?
Packed with breathtaking action, exotic alien landscapes, and the gritty frontier justice of the Old West, GUNS OF MARS delivers classic sword-and-planet adventure for a new generation. As the longtime writer of BATMAN and THE PUNISHER, comics legend Chuck Dixon skillfully combines a brutal battle for survival with breathtaking world-building, creating a page-turning tale where honor, desperation, and raw courage collide beneath the orange skies of a world breathing its last. A perfect book for fans of classic planetary romance, Westerns, and science fiction adventure.
Set more than one thousand years after a visitor from Earth first walked the deserts of the Red Planet, Chuck Dixon's GUNS OF MARS plunges readers into a thrilling survival odyssey across the desolate grandeur of the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs. As Kal races north through scorching deserts and treacherous ice fields, his desperate flight becomes entangled with something far more dangerous than a mere personal vendetta. Is the relentless bounty hunter pursuing him his greatest threat, or his only ally, against forces that threaten every living being and tribe clinging to existence on the dying planet?
Packed with breathtaking action, exotic alien landscapes, and the gritty frontier justice of the Old West, GUNS OF MARS delivers classic sword-and-planet adventure for a new generation. As the longtime writer of BATMAN and THE PUNISHER, comics legend Chuck Dixon skillfully combines a brutal battle for survival with breathtaking world-building, creating a page-turning tale where honor, desperation, and raw courage collide beneath the orange skies of a world breathing its last. A perfect book for fans of classic planetary romance, Westerns, and science fiction adventure.
Kindle Edition
Published December 11, 2025
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About the author
Chuck Dixon
3,433 books1,034 followersCharles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 23, 2025
Meandering plot riddled with typos
I quite like Dixon's yarns, but this is not one of his better works. Not by a long shot.
It almost seems like he got the job and, knowing that it would be a one-and-done, put about as much effort into it as one might do a morning BM.
Even the thematic or universe building bits are stated in a very dry, matter of fact style and not blended into the narrative. It almost feels like this is "found footage" material that a narrator removed from the events is trying to make sense of.
The plot is one long series of betrayals and shootouts that lead to a hidden treasure the characters more or less luck into the location of. There is fast and loose play on thirst and hunger, with the passage of time and effects of these coming as the plot requires them. Besides, I thought thoats could go a long time without water, months at a time?
There are countless typos and errors that further make this a bad read, from "thark" being used to refer to one of the human characters to "wretch" instead of "retch", too instead of "to" and a bunch of other grammar issues that compound as the book wears on.
I can't, in good conscience, recommend this either as a standalone book or a Barsoom offshoot. Shame on whoever let this go to print in its current state.
I quite like Dixon's yarns, but this is not one of his better works. Not by a long shot.
It almost seems like he got the job and, knowing that it would be a one-and-done, put about as much effort into it as one might do a morning BM.
Even the thematic or universe building bits are stated in a very dry, matter of fact style and not blended into the narrative. It almost feels like this is "found footage" material that a narrator removed from the events is trying to make sense of.
The plot is one long series of betrayals and shootouts that lead to a hidden treasure the characters more or less luck into the location of. There is fast and loose play on thirst and hunger, with the passage of time and effects of these coming as the plot requires them. Besides, I thought thoats could go a long time without water, months at a time?
There are countless typos and errors that further make this a bad read, from "thark" being used to refer to one of the human characters to "wretch" instead of "retch", too instead of "to" and a bunch of other grammar issues that compound as the book wears on.
I can't, in good conscience, recommend this either as a standalone book or a Barsoom offshoot. Shame on whoever let this go to print in its current state.
December 31, 2025
Chuck Dixon is one of the world’s most talented and versatile living writers of action/adventure comics and novels. His novel GUNS OF MARS, although inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels, is grimmer, grittier, and more hardboiled than ERB’s Martian tales. Dixon’s story is set a thousand years after Carter’s adventures. The Martian seas have dried up and turned into parched deserts. Most remaining water is bound up in polar ice. The once great Barsoomian cities are ruins inhabited by small bands of warring tribes and vicious outlaws of various races. One of the two main characters in Dixon’s story is an amoral Thark named Kal Keddaq and, in an interesting twist, Dixon tells the first part of the story from Kal’s point of view. The other main character is a nameless human bounty hunter. He’s trying to capture Kal for a reward offered by the father of a female Thark that Kal dallied with, then deserted. After trying to kill each other in several encounters, Kal and the bounty hunter are forced to fight together against other Martian rogues and monsters. Ultimately, they become reluctant partners in a search for a lost liquid treasure that could make them both rich—if they can find it and survive. GUNS OF MARS is a bloodier, more adult descendant of Burrough’s novels. It includes many elements that will be fondly familiar to fans of Burroughs’ John Carter yarns but does not attempt to copy ERB’s style. It’s not a rip-off. It’s a rip snorting, fresh take on Barsoom by a modern grandmaster of action/adventure who is well versed in the work of one of the grandmasters who came before him. I heartily recommend it to fellow aficionados of either of those grandmasters.
December 26, 2025
This is mostly a western. You could rewrite this and set it in the old west and not lose a ton of story. The middle sags as the bounty man, unnamed, and his Thark prey hunt and capture each other. It is set, we can figure out, many, many, perhaps thousands, of years after the cannon stories. This is truly a dying world, on the edge. This is the grimdark version of Barsoom.
I've read a good sampling of the newer books in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe. Treating those works as a shared world was something I thought should be done ages ago, but in practice they have been lifeless, with only a few exceptions.
Though this book has its flaws, it has life. It's a new take on Barsoom.
I've read a good sampling of the newer books in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe. Treating those works as a shared world was something I thought should be done ages ago, but in practice they have been lifeless, with only a few exceptions.
Though this book has its flaws, it has life. It's a new take on Barsoom.
December 16, 2025
Outstanding!
A quest for water book set on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom, with a three-way fight reminiscent of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
But which is the Clint Eastwood stand-in and which are the others? A fun novel, crossing some familiar and some unfamiliar territory, complete with tharks, thoats, banths, giant white apes, and even some plant men.
A really fun read.
A quest for water book set on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom, with a three-way fight reminiscent of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
But which is the Clint Eastwood stand-in and which are the others? A fun novel, crossing some familiar and some unfamiliar territory, complete with tharks, thoats, banths, giant white apes, and even some plant men.
A really fun read.
December 16, 2025
One thousand years after John Carter hit Mars, the planet is in even worse shape, with even less water, and deeper into its doom spiral.
A Thark is on the run. A bounty hunter is after his head, and a bunch of rabble is after them both. A third party is also after the bounty, and anything he can get.
A Spaghetti western in Barsoom!
A Thark is on the run. A bounty hunter is after his head, and a bunch of rabble is after them both. A third party is also after the bounty, and anything he can get.
A Spaghetti western in Barsoom!
January 18, 2026
I suspect this is an unauthorized Barsoom pastiche. Though it clearly takes place on the same Mars as the John Carter of Mars stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, it is vague on some points. The language is a bit coarser than one would expect from Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the protagonists less admirable, but it still makes for a highly entertaining tale.
January 8, 2026
Why did he bother me
Far from his best work. I am a fan and have read every damn thing he has written but this was workman like and charmless.
Far from his best work. I am a fan and have read every damn thing he has written but this was workman like and charmless.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews