The cards tell the story of dinosaurs transported through time into the present day through a freak accident and wreaking havoc on Earth.

It was Gerani's original suggestion, and he receives a single "created by" credit in later Topps-licensed comic books and graphic novels based on the property.

The lead scientist, Elias Thorne, sacrifices himself to the Supreme Monstrosity so his wife, Helen, can succeed and send the dinosaurs back to their own time, tearing the animals apart in the process.

The artwork is intended to be shocking and graphically bloody, with one card showing schoolchildren being eaten by an Allosaurus, a Stegosaurus devouring a police officer while its spiked tail gouges out the eye of another and a Pteranodon tearing apart the President of the United States.

[3] In 2016, Topps and Kickstarter released Mars Attacks: Occupation, an all-new trading card series that contained six different subsets.

In 2019, the collectible cards were discussed on two episodes of the popular podcast Hello Internet[5] by hosts CGP Grey and Dr. Brady Haran.

In July 2013, IDW Publishing reprinted the one issue of the Eclipse comic and finished the story as part of the series' 25th anniversary.

[9] The miniseries reunited writer Gary Gerani, penciler Herb Trimpe and painter Earl Norem from the original trading card series.

[10] Dante and Finell rejected Gerani's initially treatment and began developing their own with Charles S. Haas writing the screenplay, while Will Vinton was being eyed to direct.

[10] After the announcement of Jurassic Park, Dante and Finell lost faith in the project believing they wouldn't be able to meet audience expectations.

[10] Dante and Finell briefly considered an alternate path for the project by retooling it as a parody of the recent glut of Jurassic Park and other dinosaur movies,[10] but the film never happened.