Honestly, if you grew up in the sixties, those tiny pieces of cardboard were probably the most terrifying things in your house. We're talking about the 1962 Topps trading cards. These weren't your typical baseball cards with batting averages and dusty gum. No, these pictures of Mars Attacks were basically a kid's first introduction to genuine, unadulterated body horror and global extinction. They were mean. They were loud. And they were so controversial that parents basically forced them out of existence for decades.
It’s weird to think that a set of 55 cards could cause a national moral panic, but that’s exactly what happened. The imagery was designed by Norm Saunders and Wallace Wood—legends in the pulp and comic world—and they didn't hold back. You had giant bugs eating people. You had skeletons being fried by heat rays. It was peak Cold War anxiety wrapped in a five-cent wax pack.
The Art of the Scare: What Made These Pictures So Different
The 1962 set wasn't just "scary." It was visceral. When you look at the pictures of Mars Attacks from that original run, the first thing you notice is the color palette. It’s all garish greens, neon pinks, and deep, blood reds. It felt like a fever dream. The Martians themselves, with those exposed brains and bulging eyes, weren't just aliens; they looked like anatomical nightmares.
Most sci-fi of the era was pretty sanitized. Sure, you had The Day the Earth Stood Still, but that was more about philosophy. Mars Attacks was about cruelty. Card #21, "Prize Captive," or Card #36, "Destroying a Dog," showed a level of mean-spiritedness that just didn't exist in kid-focused media back then. The Martians weren't here to talk or steal our resources. They were here because they liked the sound of things breaking.
Norm Saunders used a painting style that made everything feel oily and tactile. You could almost smell the ozone from the ray guns. Because these were hand-painted, they had a texture that modern digital art just can't replicate. It felt "real" in a way that made the gore even more unsettling for a ten-year-old in a suburban bedroom.
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The 1962 Ban and the Cult of Rarity
Topps didn't realize they had a ticking time bomb on their hands until the letters started pouring in. Parents were horrified. Imagine opening your kid's drawer and seeing a card titled "Burning Flesh" showing a soldier being turned into a skeleton.
The backlash was swift.
Topps actually tried to tone them down first. They repainted some of the more "offensive" cards to reduce the gore, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, they just pulled the plug. They stopped production. For a long time, the only way to see these pictures of Mars Attacks was to find a collector who had stashed them away like contraband. This scarcity is exactly what turned them into a cult phenomenon. By the 1980s, a full set was the "Holy Grail" for monster kids and underground comic fans.
Tim Burton, CGI, and the 1996 Resurgence
Fast forward to the mid-nineties. Tim Burton, the king of the "weird but mainstream" aesthetic, decided to turn these cards into a movie. This was a huge turning point. Suddenly, the pictures of Mars Attacks weren't just niche collectibles; they were $100 million Hollywood IP.
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Burton made a very specific choice that divided fans: he used CGI for the Martians.
Initially, he wanted to use stop-motion animation, a tribute to Ray Harryhausen. He even hired the legendary Henry Selick’s team to start work on puppet tests. But the budget and the tech of the time pushed him toward Industrial Light & Magic. While the CGI in the 1996 film looks a bit dated now, it perfectly captured the jerkiness and the "wrongness" of the original card art. It kept that weird, bobble-headed movement that made the illustrations so creepy.
The movie also leaned into the dark comedy. It understood that the original cards were, in a way, darkly hilarious. The way the Martians quack "Ack! Ack!" while disintegrating Congress is pure 1962 Topps energy. It brought the cards to a generation that had never even seen a physical trading card, cementing the Martian design as an icon of pop culture.
Why the Design Still Works in 2026
You'd think after sixty years, we'd be bored of the big-brain alien trope. We aren't. There is something fundamentally "alien" about the Mars Attacks look that transcends time.
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Modern sci-fi often tries too hard to make aliens look "biological" or "plausible." They have translucent skin or weird sensory organs. But the pictures of Mars Attacks don't care about biology. They care about silhouettes. The giant cranium, the green spacesuit with the orange ribbing, and the oversized ray guns create a shape that is instantly recognizable. It's high-contrast design.
- The Brains: Representing an intelligence that has outgrown its humanity.
- The Eyes: Fixed, unblinking, and devoid of empathy.
- The Teeth: Always visible, always grinning.
It’s a visual shorthand for "the monster under the bed" but with a high-tech twist. Even today, when artists at companies like SideShow or NECA create new statues or figures based on the brand, they stick religiously to the Saunders paintings. You don't mess with perfection.
The Modern Collector's Market
If you're looking to get your hands on original 1962 pictures of Mars Attacks, bring your checkbook. We aren't in the five-cent-pack era anymore. A high-grade (PSA 8 or 9) Card #1, "The Invasion Begins," can go for tens of thousands of dollars. Why? Because most kids in 1962 actually played with their cards. They put them in bicycle spokes. They traded them in the dirt. Finding a "gem mint" version of a card that was actively hated by parents is nearly impossible.
Fortunately, Topps has released several anniversary sets. They’ve done "Heritage" editions that use the same cardboard stock as the sixties, giving you that vintage feel without the mortgage-sized price tag. There are also digital archives and coffee table books that let you see every brushstroke of the original paintings in high definition. Seeing the art at ten times its original size reveals just how much detail Saunders crammed into those tiny frames.
What to Do If You Want to Start a Collection
Don't just jump onto eBay and buy the first thing you see. The world of vintage cards is full of reprints and fakes. If you want the real experience of owning these pictures of Mars Attacks, follow these steps:
- Identify Your Budget: Original 1962 cards are for serious investors. If you just want the art, look for the 1984 or 1994 reprint sets. They look almost identical but cost a fraction of the price.
- Check for "The Curl": Vintage cards often have a slight natural curve from age. If a "1962" card is perfectly flat and glossy like a modern Pokémon card, be suspicious.
- Focus on the "Key" Cards: If you can't afford a full set, try to find "The Invasion Begins" (#1) or "Checklist" (#55). These are the bookends of the series and hold the most historical value.
- Look into the Comics: IDW and other publishers have released Mars Attacks comics that expand the lore. These often feature "variant covers" that are essentially new pictures of Mars Attacks drawn by modern masters.
- Visit Heritage Auctions: For the high-end stuff, skip the hobby shops and look at major auction houses. This is where the authenticated, slabbed (graded) cards live.
The impact of this series is everywhere. You see it in the design of the aliens in Destroy All Humans!, in the aesthetic of retro-futurism, and in the "gross-out" humor of 90s cartoons. It taught us that sometimes, the bad guys win, and they look pretty cool doing it. Whether you're a fan of the 1962 originals, the 1996 movie, or the modern comics, those big-brained invaders are here to stay. They've outlasted the censors, the critics, and even the medium they were printed on.