
Henrique Alvim Corrêa's Martian Panic Scene, War of the Worlds 1906
Created in 1906 at the height of Edwardian anxiety about imperial vulnerability and extraterrestrial invasion, this pen-and-ink illustration by Henrique Alvim Corrêa depicts a chaotic stampede of terrified civilians fleeing an unseen Martian threat. Published in the landmark Belgian edition of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds,' Corrêa's frenzied crowd scene — bodies falling, figures scrambling — captures the raw panic Wells described with visceral, expressionistic energy that would define sci-fi illustration for decades.
Not flashy with color, but the seething mass of desperate humanity rendered in pure black ink is viscerally overwhelming. Corrêa's chaotic linework turns collective human terror into something almost abstract and genuinely unsettling.
“alvim Corrêa”





