The Invasion Begins

December 11, 2003 10:33 PM

Mars Attacks!
"In 1962, Topps released the bubble-gum cards known as "Mars Attacks". They were the creation of Len Brown and Woody Gelman. They were painted by the famous pulp-comic artist, Norm Saunders. Presented here, for the first time on the Web, are scanned reproductions of their genius..."
posted by quonsar (23 comments total)

Q: Link no workee...
posted by davidmsc at 11:04 PM on December 11, 2003

d: link workee fine in IE6 and Firebird .70 on windows and linux. source lookee fine too. maybe browser brokee?
posted by quonsar at 11:14 PM on December 11, 2003

And to think Canada, Russia, France and Germany didn't want us to liberate Mars. Well now they're going to miss out on all the Martian reconstruction contracts. Serves them right I say...
posted by BartFargo at 12:04 AM on December 12, 2003

And if Mars' attack isn't enough...Dinosaurs Attack!
posted by Guy Smiley at 1:03 AM on December 12, 2003

I don't blame you for forgetting the movie ever existed....
posted by PenDevil at 1:13 AM on December 12, 2003

You can certainly see the influence of that art in one of the best pinball machines of all time: Attack from Mars.
posted by gluechunk at 1:19 AM on December 12, 2003

I heard that the sfx designers didn't have much time to design the aliens, but maybe that wasn't correct. Maybe they didn't have much time so they copied these cards.
More likely seems to be that Burton, or somebody associated based the whole look on those cards, they read like a storyboard.
Anybody know the answer?
posted by asok at 1:49 AM on December 12, 2003

What a great find. I can't get over how violent and creepy and these cards are. This page from the site details how the design came about, and how the cards were denounced by parents for the blood and gore and shock factor.
posted by iconomy at 2:55 AM on December 12, 2003

I was sorting through some old bookmarks and was going to post this, but quonsar beat me to it. Oh well, I'll have to post some of the other ones.

asok: Yes, the movie was based on the old Topps cards.
posted by the biscuit man at 4:42 AM on December 12, 2003

A guidebook on what Americans fear most.
posted by stbalbach at 4:47 AM on December 12, 2003

I was 5 years-old when those cards came out. They scared the absolute crap out of me. Nightmares and everything. I laugh at them now.

Sort of.
posted by tommasz at 5:48 AM on December 12, 2003

I don't blame you for forgetting the movie ever existed....

Yeah, but Tom Jones performance as himself was truly Oscar-worthy.

Considering how long these cards have been around, I'm surprised that it's taken until now for them to appear on the web.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:18 AM on December 12, 2003

The movie was pretty explict about being based on the trading cards in the credits BTW.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:53 AM on December 12, 2003

:: also ::
posted by Peter H at 8:06 AM on December 12, 2003

hey, i liked the movie!

tom jones, nature man. classic.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:01 AM on December 12, 2003

Smells like McDonald's.

"Aaak! Aak aak aakaak!"
posted by Shane at 9:37 AM on December 12, 2003

[this is SO good]
posted by LinusMines at 9:53 AM on December 12, 2003

They made the international sign of the donut!
posted by Katemonkey at 9:55 AM on December 12, 2003

* * * * *

(5 stars!)
posted by Mick at 10:23 AM on December 12, 2003

Interesting taste of xenophobia here. I find their mysterious, Oriental suffering inscrutable.

I wonder just who the hell's idea this was? "I've got it! Trading cards, depicting the grim, violent destruction of the human race! The kids will like it!"
posted by mikrophon at 1:21 PM on December 12, 2003

This would have been so up my alley when I was a kid. Or now. Excellent.
posted by furiousthought at 1:36 PM on December 12, 2003

I collected several of these when they first came out. Card 12 pushed Boris Karloff and Claude Raines right off the top 10 nightmare list for a good while (at least until replaced by Anthony Perkins, who earned a permanent spot). My parents relieved me of my collection after a week of 2AM "it's OK, there are no Martians" duty.

Thanks - now the nightmares start all over again
posted by georgeTirebiter at 9:09 PM on December 12, 2003

I have still have a bunch of my Outer Limits cards from the 60's. The garish color is wonderful, especially since the original tv show was in black & white.

Not as gory as the Mars cards, but I was afraid to put my feet on the floor after watching this episode of the show.
posted by groundhog at 5:44 AM on December 13, 2003