What do Martians look like?

[shakespear]

The idea I have is like this:

http://aegisfigures.blogspot.com/2010/09/preview-mantis-men.html

[Dewbakuk]

Looks more like a Selenite from the moon to me 

[Hat Guy]

Martian or Moonman, an army of those would look great.

[Thunderchicken]

They look like the thingies from Quatermass and the Pit too.

[Gluteus Maximus]

The simple answer is "whatever you want them to look like" 

You could follow descriptions by Wells, or in Burroughs' John Carter series etc - or just do what you fancy.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Well, Well's is the true VSF description, John Carter isn't really VSF, but has a VSF feel and the description in Serviss' 'Edison's conquest of Mars' is wildly different from Well's description, regardless of it being marketed as the 'sequel'.

I personally think the imagery used in the Graphic Novel of War of the Worlds is as close to what I imagined when I read the novel as you're going to get.

Cephalods basically.

As for these, definately Selenites. 

[colin_baillie]

Those look great, but not martians - definately Selenites. Though as real martians don't exist (as far as we know) then anything goes in my opinion.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Well, Well's is the true VSF description, John Carter isn't really VSF, but has a VSF feel and the description in Serviss' 'Edison's conquest of Mars' is wildly different from Well's description, regardless of it being marketed as the 'sequel'.

I personally think the imagery used in the Graphic Novel of War of the Worlds is as close to what I imagined when I read the novel as you're going to get.

Cephalods basically.

As for these, definately Selenites. 

I wouldn't say that Wells's Martians were "the" VSF Martian, just as Conan is not "the" fantasy barbarian. Both are viable options in their genres and could be said to be the original version, but as Mars isn't and almost certainly never has been inhabited by anything sentient, there is no hard and fast rule. A Green four-armed man is just as viable as a tentacled blob   

As for John Carter not being VSF... well, he was an officer in the ACW and that puts him well and truly in the time-frame and many of the vehicles, devices, creatures etc in the stories are VSF staples. Floating craft and huge landships, anyone?

SF and fantasy should be about use of the imagination and fooling people into believing the impossible is plausible. In the end it boils down to whatever floats your 'Nef.

[Froggy the Great]

Martians are the Barsoomian cornucopia, while at the same time being the batwing-eared elves of Space 1889 AND the amorphous shape-shifters in the form of Helen Narbon Alpha.   It's like the WSOGMM from Mostly Harmless - slice it anyway you like it and chances are there's someone that calls it home.

[shakespear]

They look like the thingies from Quatermass and the Pit too.

exactly!

[Whiskyrat]

Having just bought a bunch of Darkfen Blades four-armed Martians - I think they look like Selenites. 

[thebinmann]

Big bodies and little heads, or the flumps

[P_Clapham]

The second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series starts off on Mars, with Carter and the Burrough's Martians vs the Wells Martians.  Given the variety of life in the Burrogh's series, having the Well's Martians or Cepelopods as they call them isn't too much of a stretch.

The simple answer is "whatever you want them to look like" 

You could follow descriptions by Wells, or in Burroughs' John Carter series etc - or just do what you fancy.