Suddenly he vanished

Warwick Goble

Photomechanical reproduction of a watercolour

7¾ x 5½ inches

H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, serialized in Pearson’s Magazine, 3 (Jan–Jun 1897), 373.

In this illustration the shop-man is pulled into the Martians’ nest, presumably to be used as a starter in a much larger meal of blood. Wells does not elaborate on the scene, but Goble shows the event with characteristic dynamism as the figure is snatched backwards by a writhing mass of tentacles. The Martians’ are described in the text as squid or octopus-like, but Goble endows them with an unlimited number of wormy tentacles.

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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