"War Of The Worlds' Martians (From Original Novel)???" Topic

From the descriptions in the HG Wells novel, would you say that these are fair approximations of what those Martians were supposed to look like?

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Or did you visualize something different when you read the description?

"They were, I now saw, the most unearthly creatures it is possible to conceive. They were huge round bodies--or, rather, heads--about four feet in diameter, each body having in front of it a face. This face had no nostrils--indeed, the Martians do not seem to have had any sense of smell, but it had a pair of very large dark-coloured eyes, and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak. In the back of this head or body--I scarcely know how to speak of it--was the single tight tympanic surface, since known to be anatomically an ear, though it must have been almost useless in our dense air. In a group round the mouth were sixteen slender, almost whiplike tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight each. These bunches have since been named rather aptly, by that distinguished anatomist, Professor Howes, the HANDS. Even as I saw these Martians for the first time they seemed to be endeavouring to raise themselves on these hands, but of course, with the increased weight of terrestrial conditions, this was impossible. There is reason to suppose that on Mars they may have progressed upon them with some facility.
The internal anatomy, I may remark here, as dissection has since shown, was almost equally simple. The greater part of the structure was the brain, sending enormous nerves to the eyes, ear, and tactile tentacles. Besides this were the bulky lungs, into which the mouth opened, and the heart and its vessels. The pulmonary distress caused by the denser atmosphere and greater gravitational attraction was only too evident in the convulsive movements of the outer skin."
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Thanks.

CC

I meant to add these also:

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CC

Something of that sort but my visualization of the martians had been set by a comic book illustration before I read the actual novel. The comic book martians had thicker tentacles and a more octopi look. Your first picture does not seem like the martians for some reason though it does have the characteristics in the novels descritptions.

This makes me wonder if perhaps Wells served as a subconcious influence to Lovecraft. It may be possible as W.o.t.W. was written in 1898, and 'The Call of Cthulhu' in 1928. So it may be possible, but how probable is it?

The second picture is way out of scale as to the size as they are described as 4' in diameter. I actually think the illustration in picture three is pretty close to it. If I were to make some I would try and find either a large squid or octopus and get a couple so I could make all the tentacles.

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Here's some minis from parroom station

The first one makes the most sense to me as an interpretation of the description, I can't find a single detail they didn't draw as it was described.
The shape and texture of the "body/head" are still up to interpretation though.
Also anyone wanting to make an accurate miniature of these has to remember to show the "ear" at the back, even though it's not visible in any of the images.

I had never thought of them as imperial grell before.

bleah…very revolting creatures…

The descriptions and the illustrations espeically 1 and 3 are enough to give you the heebie jeebies…
\

Murphy,

Funny you should say that.

The fella who did the first illustration had this to say when he submitted it to a discussion forum:

"An exercise in frustration! Wells' ''War Of The Worlds'' has been a favorite since I first read it as a kid and I have tried uncountable times to portray the Martians (and their tripod fighting machines) to my own satisfaction – capturing both the emotional reactions of the story's unnamed narrator and being true to the specific details described. Their appearance, we are told, evokes horror and disgust but some basic features like their large, round heads and big, round, dark eyes are features that to virtually every species on Earth, says 'Baby!' Add to those the Martians 'V-shaped' mouth – skittering dangerously close to a goofy smile – and I find it hard to avoid the dread 'Cuteness Factor'. The obvious 'angry eyebrows' cheat to convey a threatening look is ruled out by the fact that Martians have no eyebrows. After playing with this sketch several evenings, erasing and redrawing, erasing and drawing again, our two year old walked over to see what I was working on, smiled and said ''Oh, cu-u-u-u-ute!'' Arrrgh! If anyone has any advice on how to overcome this 'cuteness curse' while remaining true to Wells' original material, I'm open to ideas."
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CC

>The fella who did the first illustration had this to say when he submitted it to a discussion forum:<

My first picture of the Martians from TWOTW was from the Classics Illustrated comic book version which I read in the mid 1950's and that's the way I've vizualized them ever since. That is to say that they are an octopus like creature. The illustration that you're discussing here shows an alien that appears to be standing on very soft tentacles, which makes no sense at all. It almost looks suspended in the air.

The parroom station ones fit the bill well enough…

Ed:

The Classics Illustrated issue of War of the Worlds not only cemented my image of the Martians but also started my lifelong love of SF and monsters. We used the Parroom Station Martians with the tripod walkers in one of our Pulp games.

lol, interesting points considering the cuteness factor.

I think the trick to avoiding cuteness is to make them look as mysterious and alien as possible, it seems to me those are all the weapons you have there. So anything that can be done to make them strange and unfamiliar is welcome. Though, I don't have any good ideas on what that would be.
Maybe slant the eyes the other way, or make them vertical. Adding some strange sheen effect on the eyes might work. If you can make them slimy, that might help. And making them more dangerous-looking would probably be good (sharp beak, menacing pose, something…?)

Re: Shadow's comment on the tentacles: You're right I think, they should probably be thicker. It would be more practical for minis too.

These Black Hat Cephalods are close to what that first image showed, right?

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CC

That looks like ET's face in pic 2. Some of Wells' description sounds suspiciously like what a newborn baby bird's head looks like (some can be quite ugly.) Chop the body off of this:

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add the tentacles, do some cosmetic changes, and it can't be too far wrong, scary even…. ;)

LOL. Now, THAT'S scary!

No wonder I never cared for that bird when I was a kid.

CC

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Chip

Good old Classics Illustated! I remember picking up TWOTW on a road trip to Florida with my family. It definitely helped pass the time. (-: It must have had a major impact on me as well, since I can actually remember where I read that comic book. I was about about nine years old, so it must have been fresh on the stands as that number of CI was published in 1955.

Classic Illustrated took the place of all other comic books for me during the period that the Comics Code drove the EC titles and all of the other sexy and violent comics from Atlas, Fiction House, Fox, etc. off the stands leaving us with homogenized superheroes that all looked the same to me. While the good stuff was gone we still had compelling reading from Classics Illustrated like "Frankenstein", TWOTW, "White Fang", "The Jungle Book", "The Sea Wolf", "The Call of the Wild", and many others that turned me on to classic adventure, horror, and Science Fiction. From there it was just a short hop to reading the original novels and the great "pulp" magazines that were still available at the time. My guess is that Classics Illustrated was one of the most influential comic book series of all.

Shadow,

Do you mean these?

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I remember reading the 20K Leagues one to my nephew when he was little.

Didn't know they had done one for War of the Worlds.

CC

>Do you mean these?<

Yep. Classics Illustrated started in the early 1940's and released it's last issue of the series in the 1960's. It was re-printed in various forms after that. There's a revised form of CI with newer versions of the classic books and with new artists. I bought one of the issues, "Tom Sawyer", and it was pretty good, but I don't know if it's still being published. I didn't read every issue of the original series as some of the books didn't interest me at all, but I probably read about thirty issues. I have three issues among my other magazines, "Frankenstein", "White Fang", and "The Jungle Book". I believe that they were among the best.

Classics Illustrated, are now being re-issued, and WOTW is one of the first four, out now.
I got mine in W H Smith last week.

Malcolm

Classics Illustrated
No.1 – TWOTW
No.5 – A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

Malcolm

Quantumcat here:

Could the unnamed narrator have had a phobia about babies?

(He'd have been anticipating themes from Alien,Rosemary's Baby,The Omen,It's Alive and a few other stories from the late twentieth century.)

Maybe,we need to have a remake with the awwwww-inspiring aspects of the Martians retained.

I also recommend the book, "Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations," by W.B. Jones, Jr.
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Chip

Can you tell us a little about the book?

Looking back at a list of Classics Illustrated I see that there were many Sci-Fi novels released in the 1950's. Aside from TWOTW I remember buying The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I also remember that the art was pretty hit and miss in CI as there semed to be no permanent artist. Tom Sawyer and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were particularly disappointing.

God, I love a remake of the film staying faithful to HG Wells original, not the god-awful modern day set in the USA nonsense of a few years back.
The scope, size, and story of the novel is crying out to be done in a big budget film.
Imagine the Dreadnaught sailing up the thames, guns blazing, ramming into a tripod. Timeless stuff………. oh well, one can dream.

Look at this drawing!

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CC

It gets the scariness right but it's extremely flat, it would need some more work before it could work in 3d.
Another minor quibble is the tentacles are supposed to be "round the mouth".
But I think that image would be the perfect starting point, all you have to do is convert it to 3d.

More images:

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CC
PS. I think that the one from War of the Worlds Goliath is my favorite so far:
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wotw-goliath.com

Grey, cephalopod, reptillian…. it doesn't matter. If it's holding an anal probe, waste it.

I just realized how close these two cool illustrations are to each other:

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They almost look like heads of Grey aliens on tentacles.

CC

So . . .

Do you guys prefer the classic interpretations shown in the links above . . . or the way "WOTW:G" portrays them?

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TMP link

What do you guys say?

Dan

Has anyone produced any NEW cephalopod-like Martian figures (big brain with tentacles) since this topic was first started?

Thanks.

Dan
TMP link

Here's another interesting depiction:

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Dan

Fuzzy on LAF has sculpted one, being marketed by Eureka in Australia , not sure if they actually for sale yet though

Here the relevant discusion
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Picture here
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Mors

QUESTION:

Is there anything new for WOTW (novel) Martians available now, that could be used against 15mm humans?

Dan

tin-soldier.com/tripod.htm

I use these guys, they look very good to me and are not very expensive.

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

Mike,

How big are they?

Thanks,

Dan