Showing posts with label war of the worlds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war of the worlds. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MARVEL CLASSICS COMICS "War of the Worlds"

We Wind Up Our Month-Long Retrospective with a Halloween Season Treat (No Trick)...

...HG Wells' best-known novel, The War of the Worlds...told the Marvel Way!

Adapted by Chris Claremont, penciled by Yong Montano, and inked by Dino Castrillo, this almost half-century-old book-length tale is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the original novel, which was the basis for Marvel's just-cancelled KillRaven: Warrior of the Worlds series, which was a sequel featuring a second Martian invasion in 2001!

Note: this was not meant as a tie-in to that series, so Dave Cockrum, who was aiding Art Director John Romita Sr as his Associate Art Director while also drawing the All-New X-Mendeliberately designed the tripods and Martians to look different from the ones appearing in KillRaven and other Marvel Universe titles!

Monday, October 25, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part V: End of the Invaders"

(This was Dave Cockrum's presentation piece for the Martians and their tripods, looking decidedly-different from the aliens and war machines from the then-recently cancelled Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds series!)
You know the story.
Guy meets alien!
Alien conquers planet!
Alien suddenly ghosts guy...
Overall, not a bad job by the creatives, eh?
The Marvel Classic Comics series ran 36 issues from 1976 to 1978, the first 12 of which were reprints of the b/w Pendulum Press Now Age Books comic adaptations of literary classics which had been sold directly to schools and libraries.
(Note: Classics Illustrated had ended in 1971, leaving a void in the retail comic market that Marvel attempted to fill.
Sadly, sales of the books after the reprints in 1-12 didn't warrant continuing the ambitious project.
The Direct Sales/Comic Book Shop market was just beginning, and if the project had survived another couple of years, it might have found a successful niche, but the timing was off.)
Like Classics Illustrated, the Marvel adaptations included text pieces about the original authors...
...and other goodies like the Dave Cockrum model sheet seen at the beginning of this post!
The adaptations featuring new material (13-36) have never been reprinted in America.
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Monday, October 18, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part IV: Earth Under the Martians"

...this ain't no treat, but the mother of all tricks, as the Martians have effectively conquered the Earth!
(Though you have to admit, this painted cover for the German edition, based on Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum's pen-and-ink art, is a treat, indeed!)
...what's the answer?
Another trick?
Or a life-saving treat?
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(the First [and extremely-unauthorized] sequel to the HG Wells novel)
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Monday, October 11, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part III: the Rout of Civilization"

When Last We Left our anonymous Protagonist...

...as this amazingly-kool Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum cover for the British edition shows, the Martians are here, and they're kicking Mankind's collective ass!
That's really all you need to know!
...we're safe for the moment...only...as we shall see>>>
NEXT MONDAY!
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(Including Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, John DeLancie and other Star Trek cast members!)
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Monday, October 4, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part II: The Conquest of Earth!"

Yeah, we could've called this chapter...
...but then HG Wells' ghost would've risen from the grave and bitch-slapped us!
(and rightly so!)
...projectiles from Mars have landed on Earth in 1898, unleashing aliens with heat-rays destroying everything in range of their landing sites.
Unfortunately, the aliens are now mobile...
To Be Continued...
NEXT MONDAY!
Adapted by Chris Claremont, penciled by Yong Montano, and inked by Dino Castrillo, it's a pretty straighforward visualization of the original novel, without updating to the present, as most adaptations of the tome have done.
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(Mars' Invasion of Earth from HG Wells to Orson Welles)
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Sunday, October 3, 2021

Classic WAR OF THE WORLDS Movie Posters!

Because Halloween makes me think of War of the Worlds, here's a link to a batch of 6 limited-edition posters from the first (and best) movie version of HG Wells' classic novel.

Photographed from the original posters (not from second-generation repros, tiny pix in books or low-rez internet files), the art has been lovingly-restored and digitally-remastered.

And, best of all, every one of the posters features those really-kool Martian war machines!

And there's even a couple of foreign versions...

Enjoy!