Mars Attacks

by | Aug 25, 2012 | Reviews | 0 comments

Mars Attacks!

No, were not talking about the so-so (at best) Tim Burton film from the 1996, but the awesome collectable trading cards of the same name from the early 60s. While I am too young to have collected the cards the first time around, as a tiny horrorhead growing up in the 80s, I sure knew about them. They were constantly referenced with reverence in the horror and sci-fi mags I was reading back then. I thought they were totally cool, and so did a lot of weird kids like me, so much so that now, in honor of their fiftieth anniversary, Topps has releases a neat little hardcover book all about the kickass cards.

MARS ATTACKS is basically an art book. Sure there’s a short introduction giving the history in brief on the series, but after that each page reprints in beautiful full color each of the original 55 cards. One page will have the imagination inspiring art from the front of the card while the facing page will have the fun flavor text from the back of the card. That alone would be worth the price of this book, as these slices of classic sci-fi goodness should be experienced by all genre fans, but as they say on late night TV; “wait, there’s more.”

After the Classic 55 are covered, the 10 new cards Topps did as a Mars Attacks reissue in 1994 (that I somehow never knew about, damn it) are covered. After that there was a 32 card subset called Visions and they are also found here. Furthermore, over the years Topps did a number of random Mars Attacks cards for other companies to act as cross promotions, give-aways, tie-ins for Mars Attacks plastic models, and more. Well the illustrations from all of those cards can also be found in this book. Lastly there’s a huge collection of sketches, ideas for cards that never made it, posters, and other random bits of Martian goodness.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the four new Mars Attacks cards that come with the book? Yeah, please allow me a moment to squee like a fangirl. *Squee!*

If you’re a fan of the Mars Attacks cards then this book is a must have. If you’re too young to have had these cards yourself then this is a great way to experience them. If you’re a sci-fi fan and don’t know a thing about Mars Attacks, you should still get this book. In fact, unless you absolutely hate big-headed, green-skinned Martians melting, frying, freezing, and blowing up people real good, then you should get this book. And if you are that person, then I weep for you.

About Brian Sammons