Marvin Martian

Marvin is one of those mysterious creatures that comes out of the sky or up the stairs late at night. You don’t know what he thinks, and you don’t want to know. It is not simple happenchance that he appears to have no character. He is a Martian, and you cannot expect to find much personality in there. I gave him a certain amount of gesture, but he expresses little passion; instead of howling with anger and excruciating pain when his plans lie in ruins, he merely and carefully says, “Oh dear, back to the old drawing board.”

Because he is a Martian, I decided that Marvin should be dressed as a Martian. My first step in creating the character was therefore to draw the curiously tufted helmet worn by Mars, the Roman God of War, although Marvin could take his version of the helmet off and shine his tennis shoes with it.

Then I figured, black ants are scary, so I put an ant-black face and a couple of angry eyes inside his helmet. The Martian has no evident mouth, but people are rarely aware of that. I then decided that a metal skirt was suitable wear for a God of War, and--suitable or not--putting tennis shoes on an ant seemed like a good idea, so I gave Marvin a pair of tennis shoes, like a lot of my characters.

Marvin the Martian appears in:

• Haredevil Hare

• Hasty Hare, The

• Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century

• Hare-way to the Stars

• Mad As a Mars Hare