‘Mars’ Film Began As Trading Cards

Skull-faced Martians with itchy trigger fingers hassle the human race in “Mars Attacks!”

But think of it as a second wave. Before “Mars Attacks!” the movie, there was “Mars Attacks” the trading-card set.

The conceptual cornerstone of director Tim Burton’s $80 million science-fiction extravaganza was laid in August 1962, when the Topps Co. released the original 55-card version of “Mars Attacks.”

“It was a labor of love,” said Topps creative director Len Brown, who co-created, co-plotted and wrote the serialized story that ran on the backs of “Mars Attacks” cards. “I couldn’t wait to get into the office, sit around the table and come up with these crazy scenes.”

For a nickel - the price of a candy bar in 1962 - a kid could buy a “Mars Attacks” wax-wrapped pack containing a piece of bubble gum and five lurid cards. (Today any single original “Mars Attacks” trading card in decent shape will sell for about $20.) At the forefront of the colorful calamity were the big-brained Martians, who spent most of their time mercilessly ray-gunning capital cities and scores of doomed humans.

Not even pets were safe, as seen in the infamous card No. 36 called “Destroying a Dog.” A version of that point-blank scene appears in the Burton film, along with other images and story concepts borrowed from the card set.

“A lot of scenes are very similar,” Brown said. “The flying saucers look like the saucers in the cards, and that’s nice. And he’s got the Martians down to a T. He really replicated the brain and the outfits that they wear.”

The film’s seductive “Martian Girl,” who sports a huge beehive hairdo to hide her oversize noggin, first appeared in a Topps “Mars Attacks” comic-book story written by Brown in 1994.

“I guess Tim got a kick out of it, because it’s part of the movie,” Brown said. “That was a pleasant surprise.”

Other card-based images that made it to the screen include a shrinking ray, a giant robot, a battle outside the Capitol in Washington and Martians burning cattle alive to destroy the human food supply.

“My wife and I went to see ‘Ransom’ a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden the ‘Mars Attacks!’ trailer came on,” Brown said. “And I did feel goose bumps, I’ve got to admit. I said to my wife, ‘I’m getting a bigger kick out of this than I realized I would.’ “

The subject matter of the original “Mars Attacks” was rooted in popular science-fiction films and comic books of the 1950s.

Yet the cards’ graphic violence was foreshadowed by Topps’ centennial series of Civil War cards in 1961.

“We knew kids loved blood and gore and action, so we did the bloodiest Civil War card series that you could imagine,” Brown said. “It probably was not that historically correct, but it sold very well.”

A year later the young Brown and Woody Gelman, head of Topps product development, were searching for another successful project. They’d found the right formula: blood and guts. What else would fit?

“I remember cutting up a cover - it seems blasphemous today - of Weird Science comics that Wally Wood had drawn,” Brown said. “It showed a couple of kids behind a rock looking out into a field and a saucer had landed. And these aliens were disembarking from the saucer.

“I was able to crop it almost to card size, show it to Woody and said, ‘Wouldn’t this work as a card series this way?’ And he agreed. Ultimately, we said, ‘Why not do a “War of the Worlds,” a space invasion?”’

Wood was hired to make rough sketches of Brown and Gelman’s ideas, while adding conceptual touches of his own. Those were sent to comics artist Bob Powell for reinterpretation and detailed penciling. Then pulp and comic-book cover artist Norm Saunders painted the final images.

“We planned each card very carefully and it shows,” Brown said. “That’s what made them so remarkable, in a way. We wanted each card to tell a story, almost like a little movie poster.”

But what seemed remarkable to Topps and its enthralled grade school and junior high school customers proved offensive to parents.

“We started to get letters from parents saying, ‘How could you sell these things to kids?”’ Brown said. “‘You show a dog being destroyed. These are terrible images.’ Then the press started to pick it up.”

Among those who complained was a Connecticut district attorney and friend to the president of Topps. The company reconsidered, and less than three months after releasing “Mars Attacks” cards on a regional basis, Topps ceased distribution.

“We got away with the ‘Civil War’ because it was historical,” Brown said. “In fact, we actually had school teachers write us saying, ‘This is really good. You’re getting kids interested in history.’ And it was as bloody as could be. We would concoct these scenes of torture machines, swords going through people, blood spurting - and here’s the teachers praising us.”

In retrospect, the “Mars Attacks” card set was special because it had one foot in the past and the other in the future. The past was represented by its devotion to ‘50s sci-fi cliches; the future by its over-the-top violence that wouldn’t begin to gain mainstream acceptance until the late ‘60s.

“It was a set that was ahead of its time,” said Tom Hultman, entertainment card editor for Comics Buyers Guide and Sports Collectors Digest.

Some cards are worth more than others. Because collectors used to rubber-band their card sets, the top and bottom cards took the brunt of handling damage and were less likely to survive. So “Mars Attacks” card No. 1, “The Invasion Begins,” sells for up to $60. The final card of the set, “A Short Synopsis of the Story” and card checklist - even more valuable when the checklist is free of writing - brings up to $250. The complete set can fetch up to $1,800 in near-mint condition.

“It’s supply and demand,” Hultman said. “Even before the movie was announced, this set was always highly sought after by collectors who were kids back then and wanted to buy it, or who did buy it and had it taken away by their parents. Now that they’re older, they say, ‘I’ve got money now. I can go back and buy this set.’ They’re kind of reliving their childhood.”

“Mars Attacks” co-creator Brown thought enough to keep a set for himself back in 1962. But he didn’t think of everything.

“You talk about ‘Mars Attacks’ cards being so valuable,” Brown said. “Well, what’s a lot more valuable than a ‘Mars Attacks’ card? A ‘Mars Attacks’ wrapper, because the kid would buy the pack, rip open the wrapper and throw it out.

“Now the wrappers are suddenly the premium thing. And they go for $300 to $500 a wrapper. I don’t have a wrapper. Who knew?”