Marsbediener
1906
Henrique Alvim Corrêa created this mind-bending illustration for a 1906 Belgian edition of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds', capturing the terrifying technology of an alien invasion. The scene feels like a subterranean fever dream, filled with ribbed, snake-like tubes venting steam and large, dark mechanical spheres. At the top, a strange object resembling an open book tied in a knot floats in the air—a wildly surreal touch decades before the Surrealist movement even began. Corrêa was a Brazilian artist who died tragically young at 34, and his incredibly detailed, eerie visions were largely forgotten until modern art historians rediscovered them as masterpieces of early sci-fi art.