Henrique Alvim Corrêa – Martian Cylinder Impact, War of the Worlds 1906

Created in 1906 for the landmark Belgian edition of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds,' this pen-and-ink drawing captures the smoldering aftermath of a Martian cylinder's impact crater amid broken, scattered earth and rocks. At the height of Edwardian anxieties about imperial overreach and technological catastrophe, Corrêa's meticulous crosshatching conveys eerie stillness — the alien object half-buried, venting steam or gas, with a devastated landscape suggesting tremendous violence just concluded.