Whilst in a Bradford bookshop today, in the old mill of Titus Salt, I came across an amazing book. Just seeing it sent a frisson of pleasure up my spine as me and its subject matter have, as they say in cop shows, 'previous'.
The book is a pictorial record of Topp's iconic Mars Attacks cards lovingly printed card by card and page by page to celebrate the Set's 50th anniversary. With explanatory notes about each card and images from the Tim Burton movie it really is a thing of beauty. But the best part was at the end of the book inside a slot behind the dustjacket, a set of four new chase cards to add to the original set! Wow! How fabulous! I didn't have time to check them further and a stubborn bout of penury prevented me from buying the book but it did look superb.
Through a big green dose of martian good luck whilst walking round a car boot sale I once owned a set of the original Topps Mars Attacks cards. Through a series of equally brazen cruel twists in my personal standing during the Nineties I had to sell them and later settle for a repro set by way of consolation in the Noughties. I still have this and the new book's chase cards would sit with them perfectly. I best start selling on Ebay again if I am ever going to get anything new! Wow, just had a thought, I wonder if they are re-issuing the original cards in packs of gum again? My big green brain has just exploded!
Anyone else like Mars Attacks?
I never had either real or repro sets. Loved the cards, but I was seriously unimpressed with Burtons film of the same. The book looks fabulous, but I bet its expensive. Book tie-ins seem to be unfeasibly high priced, especially deluxe editions with freebies inside.Hopefully this will eventually appear in a discount bookstore.
ReplyDeleteWoodsy - I had some of the original set back in the '50s. The graphics were unlike anything we would have seen on TV at the time! (I also had some of the Civil War series - nuthin' like seeing a cannonball rip through a hapless soldier - ewwwww!). I know and understand Tim Burton's movie was s'posed to be a tongue-in-cheek parody of sci-fi flicks but it just didn't 'click' with me. HOWEVER, the imagery, the special effects, - THE TOYS - awesome!
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