ERBzine 0758: Mad King C.H.A.S.E.R.

The First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Volume 0758
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ERB C.H.A.S.E.R ENCYCLOPEDIA
A Collector's Hypertexted and Annotated Storehouse of Encyclopedic Resources
Present

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THE MAD KING
Part 1: "The Mad King" ~ working title: "The Mad King of Lutha" written October-November 1913
Part 2: "Barney Custer of Beatrice" started writing September 1914

READ THE E-TEXT EDITION

PUBLISHING HISTORY (USA)

PULP
"The Mad King": All-Story Weekly: March 21, 1914
    Fred W. Small front cover ~ Modest Stein B/W headpiece
"Barney Custer of Beatrice": All-Story Weekly: August 7, 14, 21, 1915
    W.C. Fairchild cover art on first installment ~ no interiors
FIRST EDITION
McClurg: September 18, 1926 with corrections made in second state edition ~ 365 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 55,000 ~ Heins word count: 93,000
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and same illo for frontispiece
REPRINT EDITIONS
Grosset & Dunlap: 1927 ~ 365 pages
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and same illow for frontispiece
Grosset & Dunlap: 1940 wartime
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and no interiors
Ace paperback: April 1964 and reprint ~ 255 pages
    Frank Frazetta cover and title page art
Ace paperback: third reprint, larger size ~ 252 pages
    Frank Frazetta same cover and title page art
Ace paperback ~ 252 pages
    Boris Vallejo cover art ~ Frank Frazetta title page art

For detailed information, see Robert B. Zeuschner's
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography (ERB, Inc., 2016).
Click on www.erbbooks.com or call 214-405-6741 to order a copy.

The Mad King Life as a gentleman-farmer in the once-wild West was hardly exciting enough for an adventurer and master swordsman like Barney Custer. So when he had the chance to make the long voyage to the land of Lutha, he took it and there encountered more adventure in a few months than most people find in a lifetime. A crumbling kingdom, a black-hearted regent and his diabolical cohorts, a beautiful princess trapped in a dark and dismal dungeon, sinister plots and harrowing escapes - this is what Barney Custer found and this is what awaits the reader when he begins this tale of romantic adventure from the pen of master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs -- compete with swordplay and intrigue, a beautiful princess in need of rescue, a courageous American hero, a throne in danger, evil conspirators, derring-do and narrow escapes.

www.edgarriceburroughs.com

"December 3, 1913
Received from The Frank A. Munsey Company
Eight Hundred Eighty Dollars in payment for one novelette entitled
"The Mad King of Lutha" of which I am the author and sole owner
and I hereby sell it to The Frank A. Munsey Company, with first serial rights.
Edgar Rice Burroughs"

COVER GALLERY

Pulp Covers
See the ERBzine ERB Pulp Gallery
www.erbzine.com/mag2/0222.html

March 21 Cover from the Dennis Kesler Collection

All-Story: August 7, 1915 - Barney Custer of Beatrice 1/3

The French edition of 1937 (Paris, Hachette)
Translates: "King In Spite Of Himself"

Paperback Covers
Frazetta Ace PB

Frazetta cover painting (click)

“During my first visit to the Frazetta estate in 1967, I asked Frank about this painting. Frank told me that he liked the painting so much that he was determined that Ace Books would not keep it. After it was printed as the cover to 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒅 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈, he asked Donald Wolheim if he could borrow it back so that he could photograph it for his records. Wolheim agreed and after he picked it up he painted a quick copy, which he “returned” to Ace. When Wolheim gave Edgar Rice Burroughs lnc. several of Frank’s Ace covers, it was the copy that, unbeknownst to Wolheim and ERB, Inc., that it was among these.”

-Robert R. Barrett (long time family friend and Frazetta aficionado)

An Analysis of ERB's The Mad King
by R.E. Prindle
www.erbzine.com/mag14/1454.html
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Zenda, Graustark, Lutha, Barsoom, Jasoom And Other Improbable Places
The Hillmans Visit Beatrice, Nebraska
THE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS / BERT WESTON / BEATRICE CONNECTION
www.erbzine.com/mag51/5161.html

Lutha In The Time Of Barney Custer
J. G. Huckenpohler

AN OUTLINE OF LUTHANIAN HISTORY
by J. G. Huckenpohler

From Philip Currie's ERBivore Fanzine No. 6 ~ August 1973
http://www.erbzine.com/mag51/5107.html

.
Source ERB-dom 12
Two THE MAD KING panels created for the 1963 World Science Fiction Convention Art Show.
Early art by Mike Royer before he became well known in the comics field.
This was around the time he created an illustrated WIZARD OF VENUS booklet as a Pacificon II souvenir.

Burroughs Bulletin No. 11
The Mad King Issue
www.erbzine.com/mag52/5211.html

Click to read editor George McWhorter's Bibliographic Notes on the book.

Sometime in early 1923, ERB advertised the story as "available" for newspaper syndication.
Unfortunately, there is no known record of its appearance in any newpapers.

London's PENNY MAGAZINE published the story as an eleven-part serial entitled
"The King and the Woman" (March 4-May 13, 1922)

Gridley Wave #106 ~ July 1991

Click for full-size sample page
Just one of 20 online comics from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Splendid serial adaptations of ERB novels adapted by top writers and artists.
Read them all every week for only $1.99 per month from:
www.edgarriceburroughs.com/comics

THE MAD KING SUMMARY AND COMMENTS
By John Martin
ERBzine 6787: INTRO and CONTENTS

ERBzine 6788
BK I: CHAPTERS 1-6

ERBzine 6788a
BK I CHAPTERS 7-12

ERBzine 6789
BK II: CHAPTERS 1-8

ERBzine 6789a
CHAPTERS 9-16

Click for full-size splash panels

**Web Refs**
ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. Online Encyclopedia Hillman ERB Cosmos Patrick Ewing's First Edition Determinors John Coleman Burroughs Tribute Novel Summary by Bruce Bozarth J. Allen St. John Bio, Gallery & Links Edgar Rice Burroughs: LifeLine Biography Bob Zeuschner's ERB Bibliography J.G. Huckenpohler's ERB Checklist Burroughs Bibliophiles Bulletin G. T. McWhorter's Burroughs Bulletin Index	ERB Life and Legacy Daily Events in ERBzine Illustrated Bibliography of ERB Pulp Magazines Phil Normand's Recoverings ERBzine Weekly Online Fanzine ERB Emporium: Collectibles ~ Comics ~ BLBs ~ Pulps ~ Cards ERBVILLE: ERB Public Domain Stories in PDF Clark A. Brady's Burroughs Cyclopedia Heins' Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs Bradford M. Day's Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Bibliography Irwin Porges: The Man Who Created Tarzan

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