MARS ATTACKS ON MONDAY!

As we learned in the last installment, when Len Brown was hired on at Topps and began work on the Mars Attacks trading card set, Woody Gelman was the company's creative director. Gelman had been an animator and comic book writer himself (ACG, DC, Eastman Color funny animal stories), and co-created the Bazooka Joe mini waxed comic strip that was found in each piece of the iconic bubble gum brand.

Gelman had a hand in many of the card ideas and his layouts were penciled by veteran comic artist Bob Powell while illustrator Norman Saunders painted most of them (Geoffrey Biggs and Maurice Blemenfeld were the others).

Len Brown recalled: "Woody Gelman's theory was that every card should look like either a pulp cover or a movie poster or a paperback jacket -- the viewer should have an 'Oh, my gosh!" reaction when they see it. He really wanted each card to tell a story."

NEXT: Burning Flesh!