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Martian Tentacle Attack — H.G. Wells 'War of the Worlds' 1906 French Edition
A French reader of 1906 would have gasped at this frantically sketched scene: a hapless Victorian gentleman is seized and dragged across the ground by sinuous Martian tentacles, his mouth open in a scream of terror, one hand thrown out in desperate appeal. The loose, kinetic pen-and-ink linework by artist A.C. captures pure panic — shoes flying, body splayed, debris scattered — making the alien threat feel viscerally immediate and utterly unstoppable.
Category: Book Illustration
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Artist: A.C. (unidentified French illustrator, initialed)
Era: Edwardian (1901-1914)
Decade: 1900s
Country: France
Coolness: 6/10
Energetic and viscerally expressive, this illustration channels pure Edwardian dread with a loose, gestural confidence. It belongs in a museum exhibition on early science fiction book art — but it would look equally thrilling framed on a wall.
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Text in image:
“A.C.”





