Machine volante martienne
1906
This eerie, grainy sketch looks like something out of a sci-fi nightmare, and it basically is! Created in 1906 by Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa, this is one of the original illustrations for a French edition of H.G. Wells' *The War of the Worlds*. The floating, ringed contraption with dangling tentacles hovers ominously over a dark, misty riverbank, capturing the terrifying alien invasion decades before 'flying saucer' became a household term. Corrêa was a prodigy who died of tuberculosis at just 26, leaving behind these chilling images that defined how we visualize Martians for generations.