Just a heads up. The Cthulhu illustration at 0:35 is actually by John Kenn Mortenson, who has a very similar style to Gorey. Gorey never illustrated Lovecraft as far as I know.
I grew up with the Great Illustrated Classics version of the novel, and it had an illustration for every single page. As a little kid, I could look at those illustrations for hours. They were my first introduction to how tripods looked.
Edward Gorey's Tripods are quite an iconic, stark design and definitely one of the most creepy versions of the Martian Fighting Machines from H.G. Wells story.
I'm a professional model maker (retired) and over the years I built up a collection of WotW Martian fighting machines, all built to the same scale. So far I have built; 1898 original version from Pearsons Magazine. 1906 Corea version. 1953 movie version. 1955 version from Classics Illustrated. 1968 Buffalo Radio version. 1976 Jeff Wayne version. 2005 movie version. I may add this one.
I think I like these more than Correa's. They are somewhat ethereal, but in more of a malevolent way. Alvim's are great but I love Gorey's style quite a bit.
oh man this gave me a wave of nostalgia, i have a soft spot for this design! the gorey illustrated version was the one i would get from the library as a kid. it's definitely in the top 3 best designs alongside jeff wayne's and the ones from the 2005 film.
The eyes and their arrangement on the bodies of the tripod machines reminds me of a close-up view of the two main large eyes of a wolf spider. Very creepy!
Very nice video, definitely earned a sub, love these designs. If I may, I suggest covering the machines and canceled adaption by Ray Harryhausen, one of if not my favorite interpretations.
Thank you very much! :) The Harryhausen one is actually my next video, should be coming out this (or next) week. :) Was actually intending to release it before the Gorey one but I just ended up finishing this one first. From what I've seen, not many people seem to know about the Harryhausen one, you're literally the first person I've seen mention it in a comment. (Actually, just checked my comments and only one other person has 3 weeks ago.)
@@pupbenny yea, me and some friends have a sort of cult following of that machine, I actually have a few hard to come by images of the Martians, including a restoration of an unfortunately extremely low quality picture from a documentary on the man himself. Little fun fact that’s not well known about it; the saucer is allegedly able to spin, this would balance it (spinning objects are always more stable because funni physics). And there was meant to be a part of the movie where a Hindenburg esc disaster happens, the Martians burn an airship (you can actually see this referenced in the famous colored composite often thrown around. All in all, a design definitely worth exploring
@@starry3459 I've included the spinning in (not very good, but hopefully somewhat reasonable) animations for a 3D model I've made of it, so I'm glad I caught that detail! :) It does seem very difficult to find information about this project, so it's nice that there are people taking such a detailed interest in it. Hopefully everything in the video will be accurate. It's a great shame the film didn't get made, the scene of the airship getting destroyed would've been really interesting to see.
@@starry3459 I said it'd be my next video but might be delayed slightly, I got distracted with the War of the Worlds Siberia trailer that got released and wanted to do a video on that, but the Harryhausen one should be finished soon, I overestimated how long I wanted to spend finishing it up it seems haha, sorry.
Another great illustration of this subject was the Classic Illustrated Comics version of the War of the Worlds. A review of this artwork would be welcome.
I think I wouldn't have given much thought to these designs before your perspective, and if someone had made fun of them I probably would've been swayed toward that view, but your enthusiasm for how menacing they are is appreciated. What I like is that they have similar eyes to Jeff Wayne's version but are significantly more organic looking, and distinctly alien. You wouldn't assume people would make these.
A great examination with some really astute observations. The closing comments are highly valid too. For me, as a naval history enthusiast, perhaps the one thing which would betray the date (as not being the first, from the late 1890s) would be the bow of the Thunder Child: Not the forward-slanting ploughshare bow of a late 19thC ironclad, but rather a post-WW2 backward-raked clipper bow. Nice video.
We definately need an animator that will use this style of drawing as animation's part (like frames made of self-redrawing lines), and use it as analog horror...
I always imagined the red weed seeds being sprayed from the fighting machines and it looking like how when you but your hand on the part of the sink that the water comes out of it sprays everywhere maybe that’s why the sky looks purple or it could be night time
I wonder if Remy Abode was influenced by Gorey's design of the martians when he made the Gemini Home Entertainment series; His Woodcrawlers and Skinwalkers have very similar arthropod/cephalopod characteristics.
I’ve always thought this design looked like jellyfish.. or in how my brain sees it a Flying saucer with legs and tentacles coming out of it, but that’s just me
One thing about any depiction of the fighting machines I've found, is they always seem enclosed. If I'm recalling correctly, in the book they're described as open, with the Martian fully visible, hence why the one that was hit at Weybridge was described as being splashed to the four winds. I've yet to see anything that illustrates them this way.
But at last word of the world against #zoophila unlike #masseffect made humans shipping alien catman and other humanidoanimals and not alien like Zelda even because Zelda still human looking just with longer airds same as the human with wings, I am very glad they taking this game down ,better alien game's like oddworld war of worlds dead space
Thank you very much! :) It's funny you say that because the next one I'm doing a video on I literally describe them as looking like "flying saucers with legs" lol.
That's a really good question, I was wondering that too. I probably should have brought this up as a criticism as he seems to have kind of just forgotten about this seemingly.
I always assumed it was out of their eyes. Kind of like how the Heat Ray in the 1953 machines is used as both a device to scope and check out areas and also as a weapon.
You know, I’ve been watching your work for a while, and I am curious if you would ever make a video on your thoughts of doctor, who may be some of the weeping angels are the Dalex or the Cyberman or the Sun Torrens or the Zions or the Master or the audiobooks by big finish or what are your thoughts also on Doctor Who being owned on Disney+, and other things of that nature, it’s not Doctor Who, then something in that sub genre of science fiction I’m very curious
Hold up...wait a minute, where do the gorey tripods shoot there heat ray? I predicted they shoot the heat ray out of there eyes, or maybe they sprout a extra tentacle with the heat ray attached to it? I don't know
