‘Blue Book: 1947’ #1 recounts the UFO sighting that started it all

As a follow-up to to Blue Book Volume 1: 1961, James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming return today with Dark Horse’s Blue Book: 1947 #1, the first in a five-part series that will look at the UFO activity of 1947 that launched the “Modern Age of Flying Saucers.”

This first issue details the progenitor of many UFO memes and tropes, the Kenneth Arnold case of June 24, 1947. Arnold was flying his private plane on a trip to Yakima, Washington, when he decided to take a side jaunt over Mount Rainier, where a Marine transport plane was thought to have crashed. There was a $5,000 reward for the discovery of the wreckage, so Arnold thought it was worth a try.

While in flight, Arnold saw a bright flash over the mountain and thought there was another plane on a collision course with him, but then he saw a linear formation of bright objects over the nearby mountains. Upon closer observation, he was able to make out nine objects flying in an “echelon,” but at the same time swerving, flipping from side to side, and dipping one way and another. They looked like flat discs, though one seemed to be crescent-shaped, and they all flashed in the sunlight as they flew between the mountain peaks. Arnold didn’t think they were a flock of geese, as noted in the issue, and only mentioned later that their formation reminded him of how geese sometimes fly.

This case is the origin of the term “flying saucers,” and it’s not from Arnold’s description. It was from headline writers for newspapers, reading the text written by reporters who recorded Arnold saying the flight of the objects was like a flat rock when you skipped it across a lake — slightly up and down. And of course, “saucer” is more visually appealing than “flat rock,” so that was went into the news copy.

A sequence in Blue Book: 1947 #1 has Arnold landing at Yakima and telling other pilots what he saw, then going “directly to a local newspaper,” which leaves out some details. At Yakima, Arnold discussed what he had seen with everyone, and they wondered if the objects were missiles from a military base. He then flew on to Pendelton, but while he was en route, someone called ahead and told people there that a guy who had seen some weird “aircraft” was on his way.

And wouldn’t you know it, there was an airshow in Pendleton at the time, so there were many people eager to hear from him. There was a group discussion, and the consensus was that Arnold had seen a missile after all. The next morning, someone told Arnold he had also seen some kind of “missiles,” and Arnold decided he really had seen something remarkable, and needed to tell someone. That’s when he went to the newspaper office.

Blue Book: 1947 #1 goes on to show other cases reported around the same time, including a series of panels depicting what a prospector saw in the mountains. He, too, had seen a flash and used a small telescope to observe a disc-shaped object. He then noted several others, but they weren’t in a line or formation, as in the issue. Several other cases serve to support that soon, everyone was seeing saucers.

There’s a backward glance in Blue Book: 1947 #1 at earlier reports of odd objects in the sky, including reports by military pilots who reported seeing “strange circular aircraft that moved erratically,” called “foo fighters” (yes, that’s where the band’s name comes from). The issue says that foo fighters were seen primarily over the Pacific, when in fact the Allies had been reporting them mostly from Europe. The term “foo” was Anglicized from “feu,” French for “fire,” since what was reported by pilots were balls of light or fire that were pacing their planes.

Every February, to help celebrate Darwin Day, the Science section of AIPT cranks up the critical thinking for SKEPTICISM MONTH! Skepticism is an approach to evaluating claims that emphasizes evidence and applies the tools of science. All month we’ll be highlighting skepticism in pop culture, and skepticism *OF* pop culture.

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