Mars Attacks

The Mars Attacks trading card series was created by Topps in 1962. Product developer Len Brown, inspired by Wally Wood's cover for EC Comics' Weird Science #16, pitched the idea to Woody Gelman. Gelman and Brown created the story — with Brown writing the copy — and created rough sketches. They enlisted Wood to flesh out the sketches and Bob Powell to finish them. Norman Saunders painted most of the 55-card set (Maurice Blumenfeld painted 10 – 20% of them, but Saunders provided the finishing touches to all of the images). The cards, which sold for five cents per pack of five, were test marketed by Topps through the dummy corporation Bubbles, Inc. under the name Attack from Space. Sales were sufficient to expand the marketing and the name was changed to Mars Attacks. The cards sparked parental and community outrage over their graphic violence and implied sexuality. Topps responded initially by repainting 13 of the 55 cards to reduce the gore and sexuality. However, inquiries from a Connecticut district attorney caused Topps to halt production of the series altogether before the replacements could even be printed. ==Adaptations and merchandising==

In 1984, the first official item was released since the original series appeared: a direct copy of the original series of 55 cards, plus a 56th card that reprinted the wrapper graphics, was released by Renata Galasso Inc. through an agreement with Topps. In 1994, Topps re-released the cards as an expanded version titled Mars Attacks Archives, with the original 55 cards and 45 "New Visions" cards. The 45 new cards are further divided into a #0 card, three subsets ("The Unpublished 11" (with 11 cards)), "Mars Attacks: The Comics" (with 10 cards) and "Visions: New and Original" a.k.a. "New Visions" (with 22 cards)) and one card titled "Norm Saunders: A Self-Portrait". Twenty-one artists collaborated on the new cards, including Zina Saunders, the daughter of the original artist Norman Saunders. Topps Comics, in conjunction with the trading cards, issued a five-issue comic book miniseries based on the original 55 cards written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Charles Adlard. Topps Comics continued the story in an ongoing series that lasted seven issues, a one-shot special and three more miniseries. Wizard magazine and Topps Comics also published a #1/2 issue and an Ace Edition issue (#65). Topps also re-released the original 55-card series again as a second expanded version titled Mars Attacks Heritage, including two subsets ("Deleted Scenes" (with 10 cards) and "Guide to the New Universe" (with 15 cards)). In 2013, Topps issued Mars Attacks: Invasion, a reboot series of 95 trading cards featuring a new story (Mars Attacks: Invasion (cards #1–58, plus a #0 promo card from the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con)) with new artwork cards (divided into "Mars Invades IDW" (cards #59–77 and #91–92) and "Art of Mars Attacks" (cards #78–90 and #93–95)) and including four new subsets ("Mars Attacks: Early Missions" (with six cards), "Mars Attacks Masterpieces" (with five cards), "Join the Fight!" (with four cards) and "Anatomy of a Martian" (also with six cards)). This was the last Mars Attacks trading card series to be sold in retail stores as of this date; all other such series have been sold online ever since. A second series of trading cards, Mars Attacks: Occupation, also featuring a second reboot series of 81 trading cards that picked up where Mars Attacks: Invasion left off (Mars Attacks: Occupation (cards #1–45) with new artwork cards (divided into "Art of Mars Attacks" (cards #46–63), "Factions" (cards #64–72), "Occupation Profiles" (cards #73–78) and "The Kickstarter Video" (cards #79–81)) and including six new subsets ("Mars Attacks Superstars", Mars Attacks: Then and Now!", "Mars Attacks All-Star Art" and "Dinosaurs Attack! vs. Mars Attacks" (each with nine cards (the last one of which was also available as a foil card set)), "Attacky Packages" (a hybrid subset between Mars Attacks and Wacky Packages with 13 cards; the last three cards in this subset were titled "Attacky Packages Old School" (like "Dinosaurs Attack! vs. Mars Attacks", this one, too, was also available as a foil card set)) and "Mars Attacks/Judge Dredd" (with 18 cards)) was funded by Topps on Kickstarter in 2015 and released in 2016. A licensed sourcebook written by David Levine appeared for the fourth edition of the tabletop roleplaying game system GURPS. This included artwork taken from the cards and comics. In 2017, to commemorate the franchise's 55th anniversary, Topps released an official sequel series to the original 1962 55-card series called Mars Attacks: The Revenge!, which takes place five years after the events in the original series and chronicles a second invasion of Earth by the surviving Martians that were off-world and on Earth during the destruction of Mars. It contained 110 cards - the story itself (cards #1–55) and rough pencil art for the story cards (cards #P-1–P-55). No subsets were made for this series. It was sold as a complete box set that contained only the unwrapped 110 cards. A third series of trading cards, Mars Attacks: Uprising, was released in 2020 exclusively through a Kickstarter campaign, with cards sent to those who donated to the campaign. Multiple artists were tapped to create multiple storylines, which generally depict counterattacking humans beginning to turn the tide against the Martian invasion. ==Bibliography==