At San Diego Comic Con, Topps will be distributing an exclusive set of promotional MARS ATTACKS trading cards.

This set of free cards, featuring all-new art by Eisner award-winning artist John McCrea, are part of a 9-piece puzzle.

To find the cards, fans must visit nine different booths throughout the convention. When all of the cards are collected they will form a larger image which showcases characters from IDW's hit new MARS ATTACKS ongoing comic book series by John Layman and McCrea.

The exclusive cards will be available throughout the weekend at the booths of Abrams Books, Diamond Comic Distributors, Funko, Gentle Giant Ltd, IDW Publishing, Mezco Toyz, Nerdist News via Legendary Pictures, Russ Walks & Wild Tempest and Toynk Toys. Supplies will be strictly limited, and are expected to go fast.

The giveaway will be the centerpiece of several events planned for San Diego Comic-Con, including a MARS ATTACKS 50th Anniversary panel on Saturday. The panel will cover the history and future of Mars Attacks, with representatives from Topps, IDW, Abrams ComicArts and others, including special guest John Layman. Expect lots of juicy info and maybe even some major announcements!

GENTLE GIANT LTD will have for sale a limited edition SDCC Exclusive mini bust, and Diamond will be selling copies of a SDCC variant edition of IDW's sold-out MARS ATTACKS #1. A limited edition T-Shirt featuring Matt Frank's exclusive cover will also be available.

Finally, Toynk Toys will have for sale a limited edition, comic-con exclusive "night-glow" version of their upcoming MARS ATTACKS Halloween mask!

For those attending San Diego Comic-Con-- expect a full Martian invasion!

-Topps.

Sounds like fun! Will the cards be available during preview night?

As of now, it does not look like cards will be available during preview night because we could not ensure that all participants would be on-hand and available to distribute the cards. We wanted above all else to be fair to fans-- to make sure that everyone has a chance to get all nine.

I am looking forward to the hunt but please be aware of what happened to RA last year when they held a similar event. When delivered to the hotel of one dealer the hotel thought they were free handouts and put them in the lobby. Another booth was maned by personnel who didn't know their purpose and sent them up stairs to the freebee table. And at least one booth required a purchase in order to get the free card. I wish you the best off luck in this promtion and will in the thick ot it trying to complete the set.

quote:

Originally posted by John Tirohn:
I am looking forward to the hunt but please be aware of what happened to RA last year when they held a similar event. When delivered to the hotel of one dealer the hotel thought they were free handouts and put them in the lobby. Another booth was maned by personnel who didn't know their purpose and sent them up stairs to the freebee table. And at least one booth required a purchase in order to get the free card. I wish you the best off luck in this promtion and will in the thick ot it trying to complete the set.

Thanks for the tip-- this is why a Topps employee will be hand-delivering the boxes of cards to each booth on Thursday, and will give each of them instructions. A large "Giveaway" banner was also produced for each partner as a reminder of what they are for!

I guess the RA experience taught everyone a few things.

Thanks for the info Martian Commander! That will hopefully help things go smoother!

Will we in the U.K. be sent a set of these promos

quote:

Originally posted by Jake:
Thanks for the info Martian Commander! That will hopefully help things go smoother!

I think it will! We also understand there will probably be hiccups-- that's why we'll have somebody going around every day to make sure each booth is running smoothly-- banner up, cards out, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
Will we in the U.K. be sent a set of these promos

There are no plans just yet for these promos outside of SDCC-- but believe me, we are definitely listening to the many UK requests for product.

Don't forget, also, that the original Mars Attacks was primarily an east coast product. :-)

The SDCC promotion sounds spot on though. Wish I was going.

quote:

Originally posted by Martian Commander:

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
Will we in the U.K. be sent a set of these promos

There are no plans just yet for these promos outside of SDCC-- but believe me, we are definitely listening to the many UK requests for product.

I was only joking, I'm aware that the show exclusives are "Show Exclusives". I used to attend the Con but it's almost impossible to get tickets now, so I don't bother trying to book up.

I'm waiting patiently for the card release so I can start opening the cases I've ordered.

quote:

Originally posted by Martian Commander:

but believe me, we are definitely listening to the many UK requests for product.

Thanks very much for that,

There will be an update to this card promotion next week with some added incentive and bonus material that should interest everyone, even those not in attendance at SDCC.

We'll post it on our facebook page, so keep your eyes peeled!

www.facebook.com/MarsAttacks
@realmarsattacks on twitter

Shoot! Hope it's early. I have to have all promo info gathered by Monday night to send my friend that's going.

btw, for those fans in the UK, artist John McCrea, who is drawing the comic and contributed 15 cards to MA HERITAGE, is appearing at Orbital Comics in London on July 17!

He'll be doing sketches and selling original art as well!

Completed my puzzle cards today at SDCC today. Thanks Martian Commander!

Some locations required you to ask for the cards as they kept them hidden away, some had them out by the registers for anyone to take and even one place had a girl handing them out as people walked by.

Ditto Martian Commander, all the cards look good individualally but look great as a set! Worth the tired feet!

Thanks for the fine promotion, Topps, and it definitely led to some business for the various booths the hunt sent you to. I was particularly happy with my visit to Abrams Comicraft down towards the far end of the convention center in the book publishers section.

Not only were they really nice people (and quick with the promo!), there were free Mars Attacks logo lanyards, and even autographed Daniel "Ghost World" Cloves oversized ad cards, really little prints, suitable for framing. (Thanks for signing those Mr. Clowes!).

And thanks for Abrams Comicraft, where they treat these classic Topps cards like what they are, a timeless blend of art and pop culture, and worth being seen in convenient, inexpensive format

Anyway, my enthusiam is maybe a little bit enhanced since while there for the promo, I was shown a 150 copy limited edition of the upcoming "Mars Attacks" hardback book, done in the style of the recent Wacky Packages pair of books which covered the entire 1970's series and Garbage Pail Kids volume 1. So this is really in the fourth book of it's kind, and the most welcome addition to it so far. Under the the now expected Wax Wrapper dust jacket are those superhigh quality pages showing the art likely more as the artists intended than the original cards did. Included are the classic original 55 by original series artist, the masterful Norman Saunders, but also the cards created for the "New Visions" subset in the well remembered 1995 Mars Attack Archives series.

This limited edition book was hand numbered out of 150 and signed by both Len Brown, co-creator of Mars Attacks and Zina Saunderes, daughter of Norm, and an acclaimed artist like her father. She worked on the 1995 Mars Attacks Archives series.


I was lucky to get the last copy shortly before the show closed and I think they went on sale at about noon, so it was a pretty quick sell through. I likely would have bought it even were it not autographed, being able to get it 4 months early (plus those 4 bonus Mars Attacks cards in a cello wrapper on the inside back cover made it pretty hard to put it down!. They'll be a nice complement to the new Mars Attacks set.)

Good stuff, Thanks, Topps, and thanks to all the partners for distributing these in such a friendly and organized way. The cards were a little late arriving to the booths, but they all seemed to get them around 11 or noon and we were able to finish our set in about a briskly walked hour or so (stopping off at other places on the way from booth to booth).

Thanks everyone! Don't miss our panel on Saturday at 12:30 in room 8! We'll have special guests including JOHN LAYMAN and others!

Had fun doing the scavenger hunt- found that the locations of the cards were very even and had fun with some of the vendors when I was a, um, multiple customer. Some just laughed outright at me but still gave me cards which helped others get a their own sets.

Love Mars Attacks and found out a fellow Connie was in the movie!! Very cool!