Martian Tripod Invasion — H.G. Wells War of the Worlds Frank R. Paul
London is being overrun. Towering Martian war machines on massive disc-like legs stride through smoldering ruins while tentacled Martian creatures crawl grotesquely across the foreground — bulbous, eyeless, trailing writhing appendages. Heat rays slash the smoke-choked sky as humanity's civilization collapses around them. This iconic pen-and-ink illustration captures both the mechanical terror of the tripods and the visceral alienness of the Martians themselves with extraordinary linework and dramatic black-and-white contrast.
Oh man, this one is PRIME — you've got squirming tentacled Martians crawling on the ground AND towering war machines all in one frame! The dense crosshatching and chaotic energy is textbook Golden Age pulp illustration at its most gloriously unhinged.
“The WAR of the WORLDS By H.G. Wells Author of "Under the Knife," "The Time Machine," etc.”
