Martian Tripod Attacks the Thames — H.G. Wells War of the Worlds 1906

Dread and chaos saturate this frenetic pen-and-ink scene as a towering Martian tripod, its hood glowing with alien light, looms over a devastated riverscape. Shattered boats and desperate human figures scatter across flood-churned waters while a forest of broken masts — the wreckage of a once-busy harbour — fills the background in frantic crosshatch strokes. The composition captures the hopeless scale of the Martian invasion with raw, journalistic urgency.