General Caption: Mars ♂ invades:

1. Image 1 Caption: Because of the popular interest in Martians in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Martians invaded fiction---most famously in H. G. Wells' (1866--1946) scifi novel The War of the Worlds (1898):
   "At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise.
   Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
   ---Chapter 1, paragraph 1 The War of the Worlds (1898), H. G. Wells (1866--1946). Quotation from The War of the Worlds online at Fourmilab by John Walker.

   Mars is aridifying---hence the need for the Martian canals---and the Martians want our water.

   At first, the Martians are faceless invaders---oh eventually, they turn up in person.

   They attack with tripod fighting machines (perhaps they are robots) armed with heat rays---which are a lot like death rays---see Image 2 below.

   

2. Image 2 Caption: "Artwork for the book The War of the Worlds (1898) of a 1906 Belgian edition by the Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Correa (1876--1910). Image 2 shows the Martian tripods destroying a town in England." (Slightly edited.)

   

3. Image 3 Caption: An urban sculpture (by Michael Condron (1972--)) of a Martian tripod (which is perhaps a robot) from The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells (1866--1946).

   The sculpture is in Woking, Surrey, England.

War of the Worlds videos (i.e., The War of the Worlds (1898) videos):
1. Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast | 57:02: The War of the Worlds (radio drama): Director and narrator: Orson Welles (1915--1985).
2. The War of the Worlds (1953) Trailer | 2:33: For The War of the Worlds (1953 film).
3. War of the Worlds 2005 Tom Cruise- First Encounter with Alien Tripods | 7:46: From The War of the Worlds (2005 film): Film director: Steven Spielberg (1946--). Starring: Tom Cruise (1962--).

Images:

1. Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2004 / Own work.
   Image link: h_g_wells_mars_invades.gif.
   
2. Credit/Permission: Henrique Alvim Correa (1876--1910), 1906 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Brany_J., 2009) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikipedia: File:The War of the Worlds by Henrique Alvim Correa 08 b&w.jpg.
   
3. Credit/Permission: © User:Warfodreams, 2006 / Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0.
   Image link: Wikipedia: File:Woking tripod.JPG.
   

Local file: local link: h_g_wells_war_of_the_worlds.html.
File: Art_h file: h_g_wells_war_of_the_worlds.html.