Edgar Rice Burroughs—the LA-based company that manages the rights to the author’s IP—has partnered with Flying S Films to develop a not-yet-named 2D-animated series featuring Burroughs’ characters. 

The 10 x 22-minute episodes follow sci-fi character Victory Harben as she goes on adventures with familiar Burroughs characters, including Tarzan and John Carter. The company is looking for co-production and distribution partners, says executive producer Gene Alexander. 

Burroughs, who died in 1950, left behind a catalogue of characters that has been featured in 60 films and 250 TV episodes, according to the company. The show will introduce Burroughs’ worlds and characters—some dating back to the early 1900s—to today’s YA audiences, explains VP of publishing Christopher Paul Carey. 

Victory Harben, who was created by Carey in 2020, is the star of a number of books and graphic novels that fall under the Swords of Eternity Super-Arc collection. She was specifically designed to introduce Burroughs’ creations to a younger and wider audience, says Carey. A scientist by training and an explorer by fate, Harben embodies the thrill of discovery as she travels through Burroughs’ fantastical worlds after being unexpectedly separated from her own homeworld. As such, she is part of the brand known as the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (or ERB Universe), in which Burroughs’ IPs cross over and meet each other. 

Production duo Scott Swan and Stuart Lowder run Seattle-based Flying S Films, which is adapting the character and storyline for the screen. Lowder has been involved in animation production for a number of major kids and family feature films. He was a producer for Reel FX while the company worked on Warner Animation Group’s Scoob! and served as a production manager at Animal Logic during the creation of Happy Feet. Swann’s resume also includes jobs as THQ’s director of motion capture, and animation department supervisor at Animal Logic. 

Swan is the showrunner on this series and Lowder is producing. Swan and Taylor Lowder are set to write it, Ray Hansel Morales (The Iron Giant) is on board as line producer. 

The series isn’t the only new project on the Edgar Rice Burroughs slate. The company is also overseeing the production of an upcoming collectible card game called OverPower from Lazarus Rising Games, which features both Burroughs’ characters and Victory. After raising more than US$300,000 on Kickstarter, the game is expected to be available in September, according to its Kickstarter page. 

And while the author may not have licensed his characters for collectible card games while he was alive, expanding the reach of his characters through merchandising was always part of his playbook, explains Carey. 

“Our company is over 100 years old, and Edgar Rice Burroughs himself persistently pursued merchandising licenses based on his best-selling works, which is a tradition that we carry on to this day,” he notes. “Since we launched the ERB Universe in 2020, we have seen a substantial uptick in our company’s internal publishing program, which has become increasingly profitable. We look forward to extending this success to other areas beyond publishing, and our partnerships with Flying S Films and the OverPower card game are examples of that.” 

Pictured is ERB Universe book Victory Harben: Fires of Halos by Christopher Paul Carey.