Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks was a card set released by Topps (identified on the cards as 'Bubbles Inc') in 1962. The set consists of 55 cards and no stickers. The front of the cards featured color artwork by artist Norm Saunders, with the backs on each card telling a complete story of a Martian invasion of Earth (which is ultimately thwarted). There is one checklist. Text boxes bearing the logo 'Attack From Space' have been found, leading to speculation that the cards were test-issued under that title.

Mars Attacks cards are notorious today for the unrelenting celebration of violence and gore that the cards depict. The Martians attack Earth with a variety of creatively homicidal weapons - everything from freeze rays and heat rays to giant robots and giganticized insects. Humans (and occasionally animals) are being shown disintegrated, burned, crushed, sliced open, and subjected to all sorts of other tortures. Naturally, parents objected to the explicit artwork - but the kids loved it. Besides, this was during the tail-end of the period when B-movies were featuring all manner of giant monsters and radiation-mutated menaces on the screen; the cards fit in with this theme nicely.

Mars Attacks cards, as well as accompanying wrappers and boxes, are highly prized by modern collectors and consequently command a high price.

In 1996 a big-budget, highly effects-laden Mars Attacks feature film was released, directed by Tim Burton. Although millions of people have watched the film, probably only a tiny fraction of them know that the premise originated with a bubblegum-card series.