The Wall Street Journal reports that Dynamite Entertainment and Dynamite Forces are being sued for trademark infringement over comic books based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and John Carter of Mars characters. The family-owned company that owns the rights to the deceased author’s work, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., filed the suit, claiming it did not have an agreement with Dynamite covering the comic book series, Lord of the Jungle and Warlord of Mars.
Dynamite publishes comic books based on a number of other well-known literary works, including Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, and Zorro. Burroughs died in 1950, but his John Carter of Mars is the subject of an upcoming Disney movie, called ‘John Carter’, which is scheduled for release next month. This year happens to be the 100th anniversary of the character’s debut. Take a peek at the trailer for ‘John Carter’:
Here’s an interesting bit of Burroughs trivia. Did you know that the area of Los Angeles, California that is known as Tarzana is actually named after Tarzan? Burroughs bought a ranch in the area in the early 1900s and named it “Tarzana” after his own fictional character. During the 1920s, the community adopted the name Tarzana as its very own.
Do you know of other cities or towns named after fictional characters?
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Flin Flon, a mining city in Canada, was named after the lead character in The Sunless City by J. E. Preston Muddock.
Deloraine, Tasmania was named after a character in a poem by Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
Romulus, New York was named after the mythical founder of Rome (as Rome itself may have been). Marfa, Texas may have been named after a fictional character. There is also a Santa Claus, Indiana. Please let me know if you find any others!