Alien Abductions in Comic Books

The interplay between science fiction art, comic books, and comic strips and actual descriptions of UFOs has received some attention, such as in Maurizio Verga’s Flying Saucers in the Sky (self-published, 2020). Verga, however, passes over how alien abductions were depicted in comics.

Comic books of the mid-1950’s occasionally had stories featuring characters who were lured or dragged into landed UFOs. For example, in Basil Wolverton’s “The Man From the Moon,” (Weird Tales of the Future #5, Jan. 1953), beings from the Moon physically seize a man and abduct him. In “The World That Was!” (Adventures into the Unknown #61, Jan.-Feb. 1955), aliens land in a Kansas field and manhandle the first rube they find, dragging him into their craft. (The story, with better coloring, was reprinted as “Interplanetary Episode” in Forbidden Worlds #86, April 1960.)

Basil Wolverton, "The Man from the Moon"

 

[Top] "The World that Was!" [Bottom] "Interplanetary Episode"

In “One Night of Terror” (Web of Evil #21, December 1954), aliens put humans in sample tubes, presumably to be carried into a landed UFO.

 

In 1955 an abductee was shown being hoisted into an overhead UFO, whether by some sort of hook or a levitating ray is not clear (“Mr. Bleeding Heart,” Strange Suspense Tales #27, Oct. 1955).

"Mr Bleeding Heart"

 

Depictions of abductions by light beam appear in “Ten Thousand Years Old!” Weird Tales of the Future, vol. no. 1, March 1952; “The Amazing Guest of Planet 23,” Unusual Tales, vol. 1, no. 23, August 1960; and “Ammortu’s Moon,” Strange Suspense Stories #9, Sep. 1969. There are undoubtedly more examples of this mode of abduction in other comics of the era.

"Ten Thousand Years Old!"

 

"The Amazing Guest of Planet 23"

 

"Ammortu's Moon"

The abduction trope in comics is mirrored – sometimes with a lag of a few years – in the evolution of “actual” abduction reports, from the classic case of Betty and Barney Hill, claimed abductees who walked (or were dragged) into a UFO in 1961, to more recent reports of people levitated into UFOs by beams of light.

Compare the levitating light beam as shown in comics with the cover art for The Walton Experience (1978), a paperback account of Travis Walton’s claimed abduction.

[Update 2 February 2021]

“Clem Never Does Anything Big!” Midnight Mystery #6, Sep. 1961

 [Update 3 October 2021]

“The Absent-minded Professor!” Tales to Astonish #33, July 1962