H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds 1906 — Panicked Crowd Flees Martian Attack

Rendered entirely in stark black-and-white pen-and-ink, the monochrome palette amplifies the chaos and dread of a civilian population thrown into blind panic. Figures stumble, fall, and flee in all directions as billowing clouds of smoke or poison gas engulf them — likely the Black Smoke deployed by Martian war machines in H.G. Wells' novel. The loose, kinetic linework captures breathless motion and mass hysteria, with a dense crowd receding into the smoky background, suggesting an unstoppable, unseen alien threat.