Somewhere in the Skies - Welcome UFO People

Episode Date: March 26, 2023

On episode 310 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are joined by Rob Kristoffersen, host of the Our Strange Skies podcast, and Todd Purse, artists and host of Creative Weirdos. Together, Rob and Todd have created the web-comic, "Welcome UFO People," where each monthly comic is devoted to true UFO, alien and cryptid encounters. We hear the story of the how and why the comic came to be, the research and creative process, and then they discuss each case they've covered so far. We also get a tease of what cases they'll be covering in the future, and why UFO case histories are a lost art in the current landscape of UFO discourse. Follow the Welcome UFO People Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/welcomeufopeople/ Order prints on Welcome UFO People at: https://www.createmagicstudios.com/welcome-ufo-people Follow Our Strange Skies and Rob at: https://twitter.com/YerUFOGuy Follow Todd Purse at: https://www.instagram.com/toddde85/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Book your Cameo video with Ryan at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Official Store: CLICK HERE Buy Somewhere in the Skies coffee! Use promo code: SOMEWHERESKIES10 to get 10% off your order: https://bit.ly/3rmXuap Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Email Ryan directly at: [e-mail] Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51 Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry. And the best heavyweight in the world, Frances Ngano versus Felipe Lenz. Watch Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, live only on Netflix. Saturday, May 16th at 9 p.m. Eastern Center time, 6 p.m. Pacific time. This is somewhere in the sky.

Welcome, everyone to Somewhere in the Skies and welcome UFO people. We are going to be talking all about this brand new comic series from the two gentlemen you see on our screen right now or their voices you're about to hear if you're just listening to the podcast. So we have with us today, Todd Purse and Rob Christofferson. Guys, how's it going? Going good. It's been a day. It's been a day. It's been a day.

We're getting through. We're getting through. We were talking off air before we started here, guys. Myself and Rob are both under the weather. So we're going to make it through this because you guys came out with a brand new issue of this comic today, actually, the day we're recording this on March 16th. And it's just, I love it. I love everything about it. And the fact that we didn't have something like this before astounds me,

but I'm so incredibly excited to know that you two are at the helm of this. So let's just get to it. Welcome UFO people. How did this project come to be? How did you decide which cases to cover? Let's start with that. How did you guys connect, first of all? Yeah, I'll handle part of this and let Rob handle the other part.

So thanks for having us. This is awesome. I mean, both you are hosts of my two most long-listened UFO podcast by far. So it's kind of wild sitting with both y'all and talking. But, yeah, I mean, me and Rob connected via Instagram and just kind of talking to each other. And Rob would send me these amazing cases that he would have these just like absurd either experiencer drawings and cartoons too or these unknown artists that I'd never heard of. And there's just so much, like, amazing art revolving around these cases already that I kind of really wanted to throw my hat in the ring and revitalizing some of these stories.

And I don't even remember who asked too, but me and Rob just kind of decided to start picking out some cases, which I left completely up to Rob. So I'll let him speak to how the cases are selected. And then, yeah, I just kind of, he sends me a script and I get to do my thing over the first part of the month. And it's been beautiful. Awesome. Yeah, Rob, how did you decide which cases you'd cover in this thing? Which of these you'd bring to life? So when I, a lot of the time when I'm looking at, you know, cases for the comic, I think of like, you know, cases that I've covered and like, what would really make stunning visuals for a lot of these things. And in some cases, there are no sketches at all associated. with them, like in our second issue on the Dan Duggleby encounter.

But like, a lot of it just came from covering cases on our strange skies and just thinking, wow, this would be amazing if it had this kind of second life as a comic. And more people were exposed to these, you know, wild looking cases that are really the high strangeness, the high strange or the high strangeness. Like they are the weirdest cases that I can find. And pretty much every single one of them I've covered on the podcast. There's one that I covered in a bonus episode. But every single one I've covered so far.

So within the course of doing a lot of the research, I'll think of something, type out of script that usually take me, you know, like an hour or two, and then send it on over to Todd in this Google doc folder that we share. And he takes it from there and turns it into the magic that you all see now. Spins it into gold. I know, I know. Well, Todd, I got to ask you, man, in terms of art and whatnot for these things, what are some of your favorite comics that kind of inspired the style for this?

I love the aesthetic of it. It's got like that really 60-70s contact-y feel to it. But yeah, are there? any big inspirations for how you decided to approach this artistically? Totally. So I really wanted to do it in a little bit of a different style than I normally work in with my daily drawings or my daily cartoons. I wanted to keep the kind of whimsy and fun that I have in the drawings, like that I aspire to have, I should say. And I wanted to combine it with that more traditional like 50s, 60s comic style that a lot of the artwork that inspired me that Rob

shared with me from the different UFO journals and these different zines from the 70s and stuff. But as far as specific comics, the EC stuff from the 50s and 60s has always been my favorite, from Wallywood to Jack Davis, to these guys that have some of the most expressive lines. And visually, I'm not able to recreate those styles as much as I'd like to. But I like to try and take what they do as far as movement. and kind of bringing all these, each thing to life in a different way, and really approach these things with a bit of fun to it, and just having fun with the whole thing.

So, yeah, I think that 50-60s really beginning of the sci-fi comics era is where I really kind of dug into for inspirations. Nice. Yeah, and you could definitely feel it in this first one that we're looking at. And guys, if you're just listening to this episode, I would highly suggest watching the YouTube version because we have all the visuals from Welcome UFO people up here tonight. We're going to be referencing it. So this is definitely a YouTube version for those who usually listen.

So head on over to YouTube and watch this right now. Well, I guess my next question is, Rob, how do you decide, you know, these cases are so complex sometimes. there's so much to them. And like, I know for you and me, when we try to cover these things, it could take hours to try to get through an entire case. But here, you guys are doing one page for each of these. Easily digestible for someone who just wants like kind of the Cliff Notes version, I guess, is kind of how I looked at it. But how do you decide what you want to actually be included in each of these without, you know, unfortunately sacrificing a lot of stuff, I would have made.

imagine. It's hard. And I see it as a challenge every single time stepping up and saying, we've got five panels to make this happen. How can we tell this story in five panels that makes it compelling and tells a complete story? And, you know, there are a lot of cases that I think of in my head that I want to do that are tough. Like the Herbert Schumer account, I, it's tough to do that because there's so much to it. And it's such a wonderful story that when you cut things out, it just, it loses some of its muster. But like with the space pancakes and Joe Simonton, it's a short compact story that's easy enough to tell in which, you know, Joe Simonton, he's about to sit down to breakfast. Here's a sound outside.

He's a UFO goes outside and there's a opening. and he sees a guy and he's got a jug and he's looking for water. And inside, you know, Joe sees that there's just another guy in there and he's grilling something on some, like, smokeless grill. So, you know, he goes, he fetches the water and he comes back and he basically asks, hey, can I have some? You know, he like gestures to him. So, you know, like, we really were able to distill it down into the basic elements. but a lot of the time, if I can find a story that if you can like take a portion of it out of it and really adapted into something that gets across the point, that's what I try to do.

And so far, we've been able to do that. It's just I will run through my head and say, well, you know, what have I covered? that will make a good comic. What can we do that's brief? And every single one of them, I think we've done a good job of telling a complete enough story to where anybody who wants to check these out, they're not going to be lost. And, you know, they may even want to go and track down some of the sources that, you know, these were pulled from.

And, like, one of the big things that attracts me to the stories that I put in there, are the sketches that I find. And a lot of them are just like absolutely fantastic. And like, just thinking like, how would Todd do this? And I'll take that image. I'll put it in the dock and I just can't wait to see how Todd's going to do it. And like every single comic has been that way so far. And every single one has just been fantastic.

Nice, nice. Yeah, I love, you could tell you guys, work well together because it just, it comes together so easily. There's some comics that you see where you can just tell there's some sort of, there's something, there's a wall between the writer and the artist, and they just don't seem to mesh, but this just comes together so well. And I know we showed the, the Simington one. Let me get this back in on the screen here. This is one of my all-time favorite cases. You cover most of it, Rob. So we'll leave, we'll leave that up for the listeners to continue. you're researching the assignments in case because it's one of my personal favorites.

But I do want to kind of just run through all of these with you guys, if that's cool. Absolutely. And then, yeah, yeah. So let's move to this one right here. This one happened in the Canary Islands in Spain, I believe. Is this the 1976 one? Would you guys mind telling us a little about this case and maybe why you decided to cover this one? So for me, the biggest visual that you see on there is that bubble with the aliens inside of it.

And that is verbatim, a piece of art that exists on the internet that is associated with this case. So I covered this case probably back in September, August, somewhere around there. And it's such a fascinating case because it involves the military. the military sees a light over the Canary Islands. It's over by a different, there's like a battleship over by a different island and they just watch this thing. And they believe at first that it is like a submarine shooting,

you know, missiles into the air or something like that. And then you find out there's another portion of this story. And the story involves a professor and another passenger in a taxi cab. And they get close to this thing. Like, they get a really good view, probably less than 100 feet away from it. And they see this giant bubble and they see these giant humanoids inside. Everything is large inside that craft. And they eventually, everybody, including the taxi cab driver, they all flee to a neighbor's house and they just watch this thing depart.

And, like, the story is so, like, it's terrifying, but it is also, like, captivating and like the visual aesthetics like it just because the visual aesthetics are so like arresting like it just made for the perfect comic this is this is one of my favorites nice Todd what about where where does this one lay in your your pantheon so far of well yeah people this is one that I didn't really know much about it all until Rob sent me the script and what I do when Rob sends me those scripts is I scroll straight down to the last page where he usually includes the witness sketches or anything that is like a little reference for me. And when I see that, that's usually what I start with. When I see the reference point and they're just so, I love aesthetic patterns.

And there are so many aesthetic patterns that I can kind of pinpoint already from things starting out as colorful lights in the sky and then transforming to more of these physical crafts. And like bubbles seem to be one of these aesthetic patterns that I'm really digging. And this was a great way to like really personify that. And when Rob sends me these scripts, I love how he's broken down these encounters so that when you read the panel descriptions, you can picture it so clearly in your mind. And that's why I spend a little bit more time kind of doing the page layout than even the rendering of the actual artworks.

I really wanted to kind of flow in that way that he's broken down the page. but still have a little bit more interest to it all, because it is a really short contained story. So I wanted to be visually interesting, but I wanted to read really well. So that's kind of the technical side that I think of. And this one was really hard for that. Like, this one was one, like,

I don't draw battleships or, like, military stuff. Like, I don't, that's not like my daily, so, like, getting those things down was really fun. And it also made this story sticking my brain more because of how much work that stuff put into it. But like getting to the part where I get to do the bubble craft and the entities is almost like the icing on the cake. Like I save that. I start with the sketch of that, but I save the finish part for the end because it's my favorite.

And it's just so much fun to get really weird with it. And I try to make sure all of these are not portrayed in like a scary way or a way that has a lot of fear associated with them. I've been very conscious of trying to present some of these different cases and paranormal ideas and things in a more positive. positive light because I think there's a benefit in the long term of doing that. And I like kind of adding that into the mythology of these things that we're covering. Absolutely. Like, you know, I can't imagine doing a welcome UFO people of like Whitley Streeper. You know what I mean? Like, what do you get into like the 80s and 90s? You're getting into that really scary alien abduction time period. But I think, again, since you guys are really, really kind of right now at least,

in the contactee era and the humanoid era. It does lend itself well, I think, to that idea of it not being scary, and it being weird, A. F. And just fun and fun. Like, that's what I love about these cases. Totally. Go ahead. I was going to say, Whitley's a great person to bring up in that regard,

because one of my favorite things that he's said is that if he had better science fiction growing up, a more positive version of science fiction. He doesn't think his experiences would have been as scary and as frightening as they are. And I think there's some real truth to that. Dr. Jeffrey Kriple cites that all the time. I believe it. It was in his book Supernatural that he did with Whitley. And I love that because I think about that with my kids.

I'm trying to present them these ideas and these paranormal UFOs, all these things that they are encountering in pop culture. I'm trying to make sure that they're encountering the curious side of it. the side that makes you go, oh man, we live in a really like magical, wonderful world that can enrich your life, not the side of it that I was kind of brought up on where it's all scary, or it's like Ghostbusters where you have to hunt the other and it's all antagonistic. I'm trying to find a middle ground here where, you know, fear is a part of this and just like the definition of all, it contains fear. Like all is inspiration and wonder with a part of fear. So I think fear is a fine

element of all of this, but taking away that antagonistic kind of, you know, hunting and being initially afraid of something that's different and approaching it with a curiosity and kind of a, wow, stuff's really magical and weird. Yeah, man. I mean, so far we've got aliens with pancakes and we've got bubble craft. Rob, only you could find a UFO that was just a straight up bubble. I knew, I knew you could do it. All right. Well, let's move from one island to another. Keats Island, British Columbia. This is another really

interesting one that I actually had never heard of. Rob, when did this case first come on your radar? And yeah, tell us a little about this one, if you don't mind. Back in October, I had done this deep dive into Canadian UFO

report, which is fast become my favorite UFO journal because it's very down-homey kind of like very rustic in the way that it approaches investigation in these cases. Like, oftentimes they include photos of the witnesses, which you don't get in a lot of UFO journals. So there was this story from this woman named Bernice Niblett.

And it's rare in UFO journals when they devote page space specifically to witnesses. I've only ever seen it one other time. Like, if the witness wasn't a UFO investigator, or anything like that. And then the other case is Mariam Starr. She was given some space for flying saucer review. She saw the old Saybrook blockheads, which is this very strange case from 1957 in which Mary Star,

she saw this weird UFO outside her bedroom window. And she also saw these weird beings on board. and like, uh, they look kind of like, across between like a dolic with a, uh, square head on it with a red kind of orb in the middle of it.

It's a very strange case. But, uh, with Bernice's case, I think what was so interesting about it and, and covered it on the podcast is that it was so very personal to her. Like, uh, everything that she was seeing.

She basically moved to Keats Island. and she winterized this cabin that she had moved into. And before long, she started having these close encounters, like, on a weekly basis almost. And, like, these are strange crafts. One of them is a barrel-shaped kind of craft. And there's a caption, like, the center image that you see of Bernie's looking up at that barrel-shaped object is taken right from Canadian UFO report. Todd put his spin on it, but the caption for that

particular image said that the UFO sounded like it was laughing. So it's like, okay, this is just like very, very weird, but she had like a lot of different sightings and like these things were very interactive with her. And the only thing that you're not

getting in this comic is that there are like men in black type of encounters that she has with hydromen. These kind of like a electrical workers that, you know, inspect the lines and stuff like that. It didn't really detract from anything because it's kind of, it's strange in her account, but like what you get right there is like the bulk of her, like, story.

And it's absolutely fantastic. I love it. Could you maybe run us through that last panel there? This I found really interesting. You don't, the only case that I really can think of that would connect or correlate, to this is Ray Hernandez, you know, the guy who's come up with like these protocols and whatnot. He recalls having like this orb in his actual home, which you don't hear about often. So apparently this happened to her as well.

Yes. Yeah, it did. She, uh, she was basically sitting kind of bundled up, uh, in the cabin. And she saw this orb kind of move into the room, kind of fly around, move around the kitchen. and then it just kind of exited out. And she at one point moved her bed, like, right in front of the window to, like, keep an eye on these things. Like, she was interested, but she was terrified at the same time. Like, it's interesting how she, like, boils down things

into this human perspective that, you know, I can only imagine a woman who is largely alone on this island. Like, Keith's Island is not very populated. I think there's, like, 80 people that live there now. and there is, I think, like, a Baptist camp or something like that on there. But, like, it's just the weird, the weirdest of the weird, like, in this small area, this, like, hot spot that just has this myriad of activity that she sees. But, yeah, like, that's probably the strangest part of the entire thing is just this, she documents this one orb of light that just comes into the cabin and then eventually leaves. man can you imagine like being one of 80 people on an island and all this starts happening like

talk about words spreading fast they probably they probably wanted her off at island ASAP either either because she was crazy or it was about to become like a tourist attraction I don't know like she was very um she would try to engage people with it and they just kind of dismiss her. Like, oh, it's nothing. Don't even worry about it. It's not even it's nothing worth worrying about. So, like, she kept going through this over and over again, talking to police

who had boats in the harbor like patrolling and like, they just would not take her seriously. There was one that made an offhand comment. It was like, oh, yeah, it's nothing new. It just happens all right. Yep. Sounds about right. Typical, typical Keith's Island

BS, as usual. Well, Todd, I I'm going to ask you, man. Like, Rob mentioned, you know, there's often sketches of, like, the craft or even the witness sometimes. There's a photo or whatnot. But, like, what is it like interpreting these craft? Because, like, in the UFO world, witness testimony, like, their description of a craft is, like, Bible. You want to, you want to, like, stick with that as much as possible.

But also, as an artist, like, you have to make it compelling. You have to make it aesthetically pleasing. you've got to kind of give it your own spin. What is that challenge like when it comes to like a witness saying it was this big, this, that, this, that. Yes. How do you tackle something like that? So I try to stay pretty true.

And like Rob said, if you looked at the image that the main image on this page, the one that came from the Canadian UFO journal, like compositionally, structurally, it's pretty dead on. Like I try and stay pretty true to what is offered in those journals because I think there is something special to those drawings. It is a big source of the inspiration. And when I saw how much I love the connection between creativity and the weird, whether it's UFOs or paranormal, any of it, I think there's a huge thread that connects the two. And when I saw how many of these people that experience these things are inspired to recreate the thing visually or how much the aesthetics

play into their experience, it inspired me to keep it pretty true to what they're putting out there because I think that's important. So really, the biggest thing I try to do is I try to change up the color palette to make it a little bit more fun and a little bit more imaginative and loosen up the reality of it all. I feel like if I can kind of loosen up the color palette and make it so that there's a little bit more of a dreamy feel to the whole thing, it makes a reality for these things to exist in a little better, if that makes sense. But yeah, in general, I try to stay pretty true to what they're creating. And this one was another one that I had never heard of before until Rob sent it to me.

And the island thing is super interesting. I definitely think there's something to isolation and these events. I know Rob, not to maybe a spoiler alert here, but I know Rob's been looking into Jeff the Mungoose, which is another one of my favorite island weirdness things. Island of Man, is that right, Rob? Yeah, I'll make. I love, man, yeah. So I love that there's like these little consistencies that go through these cases as we as we keep moving through them.

Yep, something with the water. I'm telling you, too. There's something there. Absolutely. Something there. All right, guys. Let's move on to probably the man with the best last name I have ever heard in my entire life. Dan Dugleby.

What's going on here? Rob, give it to us, man. What is this case? I've never heard of this one. So one of the resources that I like to use when digging up kind of humanoid encounters is the humanoid catalog that David Webb, Ted Bloucher, they kind of compiled it. And it's contained on QFOS's website. And when you open them up, there are these long PDF documents and they look like pictures

of basically like index cards. So I opened up the one for, I think this was in 1965, because I was looking for supplementary material for a series I did on all the weird stuff that happened in the United States in 65 to 67. And this case just kind of stuck out. For one, it said that it came from FBI files. Okay. That's just absolutely weird. Two, that name Dan Dugblebee does stick out. but like dudes out in Bozeman, Montana hunting,

and he hears a weird sound, looks over and he sees this like rocket sitting on the ground, this tall rocket, and these robots get out. Think about forearms. They're going around collecting samples. And I'm like, it's a crime that nobody has ever illustrated this.

I'm like, that was the one thing that I thought of like, nobody knows about this case. I think it'd be like for a great welcome UFO people. So I wrote out the script. This is the second installment of the comic. And I knew Todd would put his, like, just absolute perfect spin on it because, like, you know, all these robots are happy. They're collecting flowers and air and, like, so many samples.

And then you got a supervisor in the back who's just, like, happy with all the progress and stuff like that. And, like, this is, like, the perfect amalgamation of what we do and, like, you know, finding these, like, really odd cases that I know. Todd, it's right up Todd's alley and that he can like turn into and make uniquely his and that's what he did with this and that's, it's one of my favorites. It's so warm.

Like when I, when I looked at this one, it just immediately my heart felt fuzzy, especially the last panel there. Todd, yeah, man, like, what does this one mean to you? I think this really like,

is a representation of that, that kind of, emotion that positive emotional impact you are going for absolutely this one was a bit different again never heard of it until rob sent it to me and since it didn't really have any visuals with it i could really kind of lean into doing it and like go whole hog with the wonder and the whimsy and the really have fun with it and what i i do love to share this stuff like i work on this stuff i have two kids and i'm on the couch strolling with them a lot of the times on this stuff because this is the stuff i do after the stuff I get paid to draw.

So I'm doing it like around the family a lot. And I never want to have something that I've been like, no, don't look at this. Or like, you know, so I'm constantly showing my kids what I'm working on. And this was one of those ones that like, as soon as I finished the bottom panel, my six-year-old came running over. I was like, what is that? Like, I want this. And he's really into robots and space right now.

And he's a very, he's a huge source of inspiration and weirdness for me. But yeah, this one was the one that helps solidify that whole idea that I've been working on as far as how to present a kind of positive paranormal primer to my kids. And like it's really, it was like Rob said, the second one and kind of solidify that that's a big part of what I want to do with these and what Rob's offering me by finding these like just kind of cases that mix that absurdity with that like, you know, physicality. That's my favorite part of all these too. It's like, you know, I definitely love the idea of a lot of this stuff having a psychic link

and being something self-reflective about the experience and things like that. But I also don't discount the physical elements of these things. And something like this combines those two in the perfect way for me, where you get to draw silly little robots collecting flowers because they need to collect pretty flowers. Right. Well, and, you know, that goes back to the whole idea of, you know, these aliens or robots sampling things. I know, Rob, you're a big fan of the case in. It's in New York, right?

Where the aliens were taking soil samples? New Jersey. New Jersey, Northburg and New Jersey. Yeah, the Stonehenge incident, which is going to come up. I think it's next months. That sounds familiar, right? Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, all these, you know, George Olbarski driving home from his job,

he worked, he co-owned a liquor store, and he was cutting through North Hudson Park, which I think it's called the James J. Braddock North Hudson Park now. But cuts through, and he's paced by a UFO, and UFO kind of pulls ahead of him and it stops in this field, and he watches as these 10 beings get out and start collecting soil samples. And yeah, there are a lot of similarities. And I'm like, there's no way that we're not doing that one. Definitely. Again, it would be a crime if he didn't.

Um, Dougalby. I love this. This one really, really, uh, warmed my heart on a frigid day in Scotland. Um,

to this one, guys, this one's a little, uh, not scary, but we're definitely getting into more close and count, really close encounter and possible abduction, um,

territory. Uh, and this is the case of Paulo Catano, I believe, 1971. Am I reading that right? Yeah. Yeah, who wants this one?

Paulo, he's an interesting guy. And like, he kind of got to take what he says with, you know, a grain of salt. But he claims that in 1971, he was just driving home. He was kind of harassed by this UFO. And it followed him for a while until it just like cut off his car in the middle of the road. And it's a tiny UFO. It's not more than a few feet in diameter. And these really short beings less than a,

foot tall get out and they walk over to his car and they use like um uh teleconhesis to open his driver's side door and they escort him inside like we're talking like a tardis kind of situation here where you know he's like somehow inside this object and one of the most arresting images with this case when you look it up um it's in uh flying saucer review in one of their special issues but uh the the center image on the bottom there is is lifted directly from the case files. Like, there's a bare-bones sketch of Apollo standing underneath this light that, you know, is above him. And there's this plank, and there's this, like, little being walking across it.

And it's like, it's one of the most whimsical things that you can see. And I'm like, there's no way that we're not, like, doing that. So I included that. And I love Todd's version of it because he talks about, like, I, you know, I was in the space and I was seeing movement. and I was seeing color come down at me. And eventually he wakes up next to his car. And he claimed to have further contacts with other beings. This was a case that I covered.

Yeah, back in like August, I think it was. And it's just so, it's so strange just because of the proportions of these aliens and this craft and stuff like that. It's just so very strange. And yeah, it's just, it made sense for the first. welcome UFO people because I really wanted to see how Todd was going to do that one image and he knocked it out of the park. So this was the first one. Is that correct? Okay.

Yep. Gotcha. Gotcha. So what was that like the first one coming together? Like were you guys, what did you think? Were you like, oh, yeah, we got to keep going with this or this was a huge mistake? Well, from my end. Yeah, from my end, when I got to get going on this,

Rob had already preloaded like three or four scripts off the bat. So this was the first one I really got to dive into. And I'd say like two panels in, I was hooked. I was like, this is fun. And I was still kind of formulating the aesthetic. Like, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted it to look like from the get-go. But you can see the progression, even just the previous one with the robots versus this one, how I kind of already leaned into more colorful and brighter and less of the,

and less of the, uh, the darker tones. But the thing that's been consistent is exactly what Rob said, like, I really focus on getting that like, uh, main image that's provided by these accounts he's finding and kind of putting my own spin on it while staying true. And again, I'm doing that a lot of the times via color because a lot of the accounts he's sending me are black and white sketches. So that's where I can really kind of liven it up and still remain true with what is being experienced. And I mean, anything with little folk I'm into. I love,

I love the small people that seem to, or small beings that seem to pop up in all of these, uh, stories of the weird for all the cultures forever. Right. Yeah. I mean, tracing back to the whole, you know, Magonia sort of feeling and a lot of this stuff like,

going back to like the days of the fairies and the fay folk. And, and you really do see a lot of that in these humanoid cases. and whatnot. It's fascinating. And yeah, yeah, this one, you're right. Now that I know this was the first one, you can definitely see you leaning more into the colorful aspects. And that's no more true than with the next one. Now, the Simonton case, the pancake case is one of my favorite UFO cases.

But the next one you guys did is by far my favorite, welcome UFO people with the space penguins. What the heck is going on here? Rob, what is this case? The Summer in the Sky's podcast is free to listen to every week. But if you would like to help support the show, we have a very active Patreon page where you give what you think the show is worth. In return, you'll get early access to the main show, bonus episodes, and priority to ask our guests your listener questions.

Your support truly makes the show continue and grow. So, to learn more and to join, visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. So, yeah, Tuscumbia, Missouri, 1967, Claude Edwards, it's Valentine's Day. He heads out, like he normally does, it's a cold Valentine's Day in Missouri, and he heads outside, and he noticed that his cows are all staring in the same direction. So he finds that kind of weird, and he looks in the same direction, and he sees this, it's a, like a mushroom-shaped object. And I love Todd's interpretation of it the way that he did it. And he sees that underneath this, there are these green beings just kind of like shuffling around underneath the thing. And like the cows are looking, but they're not really startled. But Claude decides to go over and he's going to start pelting these beings with rocks. But when he does, he finds that there's like a force field or something blocking him. And these beings just like all disappear inside. The object, lifts off, but it's one of those, like, weird, whimsical kind of encounters from a down-to-earth

farmer that, uh, this is, uh, this is a Ted Phillips case. It's, it's one of my favorite Ted Phillips cases, because, uh, he, he, uh, he, uh, like to investigate, uh, cases with the physical traces and stuff. And, uh, he wrote a lot about this case in the, uh, Mufon UFO journal and flying saucer review and stuff. Like, this case perpetually kept up for, kept coming up for him. It wasn't until, I think, like, the last 20 or 30 years that they finally decided to release his name, Claude Edwards. But, yeah, this is just, like, whimsical as hell. And just, you know, the way I knew Todd was going to put a spin on it with these penguins in it,

it just turned out so great. Well, what I love about this, too, is the fact that, like, the first reaction this guy has, is to just chuck rocks at it. I love that. I mean, it makes perfect sense, right? It's like, yo, are you messing with my bread and butter? My cows are like, what I do for a living? Like, my

farm, bro, little space penguins, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah, Todd. Give it to us, man. What was it like in this one? I love that whimsical panel of the cows in space there. Totally. This was one of my favorites and one of the few that I knew before Rob sent it over. I don't know if it was

the kryptonaut dudes that I probably first heard it through, but there was, I've heard this one before and it's always been one of my favorites. And I mean, the fact there's a mushroom-shaped UFO and penguins getting out of it, there was just so much fun to be had. I love the idea and the link with psychedelia and all these experiences. So the fact that they arrive in a very psychedelic symbol was beautiful and I just thought was the coolest things. I really wanted to kind of emphasize that mushroom shape of the the UFO there. And especially, I like kicking around the idea that, you know, with all the psychedelic images, that maybe these beings or entities or whatever you would like to call them are coming here

to have their own psychedelic journeys, that they are, they're receiving some sort of psychedelic interaction between their relationship with us. And I think this is one of those ones that could totally be a bunch of penguin entities coming here to do a little tripping on the weekend with, with Claude. I love it. I love it, man. It's just an intergalactic vacation. Exactly.

That's all it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A couple party penguins. Party penguins. Let's go! I love it. I love it. Well, as of March,

yeah, March 16th today, you guys released a brand new welcome UFO people. So if you don't mind, I'm going to go ahead and share that one that just dropped today. Again, another case I've never heard of. Rob, you're so good at this man.

Tourist Spain, 1979. Tell us a little background on this case if you don't mind. Yeah, so this guy was headed to his vineyard, and along the way, he sees this giant egg sitting in the road. It looks exactly like half an egg sitting on like three or four legs. And he sits there and he watches it. He's about to get out of his vehicle. And before he does, he sees these short little beings.

And they're running towards this craft. And they get in and it eventually lifts off. But this to me is the spiritual successor to the space penguins. Because these are space chickens. Like, that's the only explanation. their space chickens. They look like, like, I could see this being like some kind of alien chicken just like running towards a craft and, you know, getting, getting back in like their egg craft. And it just, like, it seems so symbolic in many ways. Just like in the, in the presentation of the craft in the beings, because they, there's just something about them that just reminds me of chickens. So like, it made for the perfect. case for Todd because I knew he was going to like this just like

screams Todd like all the way so and like when I when I pick out a case and I start writing a script because I don't technically know how to do that I had to kind of figure out how to do it and even now I don't do it. You know the greatest but one of the things

that I'll do is I'll picture in my head how I think Todd will do it and then I'll I'll put my I'll try and describe it as best I can. I'll you know there will be the description and then the text to go with it

and you go down into the five panels but yeah this a lot of the times I will pick things that I just want to see what Todd's going to do with them and he knocked this one right out of the park yeah Todd anything to add to that man for the most recent welcome UFO

people yeah the two things that I loved I mean okay the cosmic chicken is great I think that's a very apt description of this entity. But I also love that the entity almost mirrors the craft, like that big bell shape. So this was one of those ones where the entities are really small in the account. And we kind of have to do like a zoom in panel so you can get that the scale is super tiny,

but you can still see kind of what the entity was described to look at. And I just loved that when you zoom in, they kind of mimic the shape of their craft that they arrived in. And I also loved that this was. was a daytime encounter. I have a lot of, you know, a lot of these are occurring at night and have kind of more of the evening setting going on. And this one I got to use a lot of the bright blue skies and really emphasize that, you know, this is a big colorful experience going on and that stark white egg as a kind of contrast of the whole thing.

Cool, man. I love it. The chicken and the egg. I couldn't think of a better way to, to kind of wrap up welcome UFO people. However, that's not the only project you guys are doing together. You're also starting another kind of, what would you call it? Like maybe a companion to this? And you're doing portraits too now, which is super, super cool. And you started with the one and only George Adamski.

So tell us a little about the portrait project. Who are you guys going to be covering? And what made you decide to kind of do this as well? A lot of the idea. that we have, we'll just start with me sending images to Todd on Instagram. I'll just like spam them with a bunch of images. And I'd be like, and this was an idea that came up like, what if we did these portraits, you know, not only, you know, UFO witnesses and the beings that they interact with,

but like some of the investigators and some of the weird beings that they've investigated, like there's one that I definitely want us to do at some point, which is, Druffel and Anne Druffel was a fantastic investigator. She, um, she was always objective, although she had a very Catholic bent to the way that she believed in things, but she always presented things objectively.

And the thing about Aunt Druffle is that she, it didn't matter how weird the cases were, uh, you know, she would investigate them in like one of the, um, strangest is the Palos Bairday's brains case, which, uh, is,

it's such a weird case of these two guys who are heading home from a friend's house in California and they turn on their car lights in the middle of the road there is this brain. It's just sitting there. And this brain basically tells the driver, hey, drop your buddy off at home. We're going to abduct you. And they abduct him and he's shown a bunch of stuff on board this craft. and his outlook is very, it's very bleak at the end of it, but it's just such a weird case investigated by And Druffle.

So it would be great to do a portrait with Anne Druffle and all these weird aliens that she investigated. Oh my God, I always spit my coffee out when you said, there's just a brain. I'm thinking of Craying from Teenage, Ninja Turtles. Basically, basically. That's what it looks like. And this like large, it's a large brain. It's like, it's oversized. And it has this red light on it.

And what he later finds out, the, the, the experiencer in this case is that the red light is basically like a tumor because it's old and it's getting close to retirement. No, no. Wow. That was an emotional roller coaster. I know. I know. Also, I love the fact of like, yo, go drop your loser friend off. We only need one of you to have done. Yeah, we just need you. And, you know, don't, like, don't even worry about it. And, like, you know, there are other beings that he interacted with, like, these, like, really tall beings with, like, webbed hands and stuff. It's, it's, it's just a very strange case. And, like, Anne Druffle investigated a lot of them. She, um, uh, investigated the, uh, investigated the, uh, uh, investigated the, uh, uh, uh, investigated the. the Harrison Bailey case, which is,

he was an African-American man who is one of the earliest abductees, if you want to call him that. He was abducted in 1951. And he was abducted by beings that look like large frogs in many ways.

Like, uh, um, kind of similar to, uh, you know, your Lveland Frogman in a way, but like holding these like big sticks. And like, And it just be great to get a portrait of Andruffle with all of these aliens.

Just all the various aliens. She's investigating. That's interesting. Wow, man. Well, okay. So what made you guys want to start with Adamski here, I guess? So I think it made sense to start with Adamski because he's kind of, when you think about him, he's kind of the first guy that you go to when you think of alien contact in the United

States is that, you know, it's George Adomsky, he, you know, interacted with Orthon and, you know, a bunch of other people and, uh, they all looked humans. So it, it kind of made sense. Like, there are, there are a lot of earlier kind of humanoid cases and like, you know, one of the things that I'm working on right now is outlining a book that I'm writing about a lot of, um, like humanoids throughout the years because they're so interesting. Like, you know, there are a lot of, There are a lot of strange humanoid cases from the 40s that, you know, I found and up through, you know, the 2000s. So it only made sense to start with George Adomsky. Like, he seems in many ways for a lot of people to be like ground zero because in the United States, it was as if, you know, the UFO showed up, but the aliens didn't show up until a little bit later.

So George Adomsky just made total sense, you know, to start with. Yeah, absolutely. He's like, uh-uh, we're not just talking about the craft. We're talking about the pilots in the craft. And I mean, what's more iconic than, you know, the Yadamsky saucer, to be honest. It's just like, again, it just when I see that image, it just warms my heart. It brings me back to like the early days of when I flipped open my first book on UFOs and saw, like, in a Dembsky craft or even a Billy Meyer craft.

And that was euphology for me back then. And, uh, God, I wish it was still that way. Now, now we've got tic tacks and we've got flying pizza slices and we've got, um, and we got orbs. But, um, yeah, yeah, Todd. I was just going to say, what was it like doing this? Oh, this was great. I, I think, uh, I really resonated when your recent guest.

RPJ spoke about how the contactees get a little pooh-poohed too fast these days. And so I love starting with the Damski because I think there's so much value in the stories of some of these contactees. And I love the amalgamation of the culture at that time that the New Age movement was really taking off. And that this was almost a precursor to the New Age movement in a lot of ways. And the messages are so similar. And there's so much in there that I think is still very valuable. and you can access the life enrichment side of these things through the stories that a lot of the contact these bring. And so, yeah, I love starting with the Damski.

And I was going to say that I agree with what you just said, Ryan, but it's nice to see, like, what we're doing here is a way to kind of bring back the fun of it all and bring back the imagination of it. And like the series that you've been doing recently, like your episode with Fred and RPG and those, like those are the things that will make the phenomenon. or whatever, if it really is reflective, change and go back to these stories and get away from the military and the Tic Tac, at least in my mind. I think stories are way more powerful than any of that other stuff. So if we can keep telling this side of these stories, then I think it will go back to that. Oh, thanks, man. Well, and I think that's, you know, what Rob and I have always had in common. We find a lot of value in stories while a lot of UFO researchers do not.

it's not data for them. It's not something they can hold in their hand or, you know, that they can really dissect from a nuts and bolts sort of euphology. And I think that's why Rob and I connected so early on is we we realize that it's a lot more about the stories and the people telling them. And that's what I've always found fascinating. And I think in the last few years, and I do want to get both of your thoughts on this, uphology has changed for some people. You know, I know a lot of researchers that have completely ignored everything post-2017 uphology. And I greatly respect that. I got caught somewhere in the middle of it, I would say.

And I think I reached that point where I'm at right now, where it's just, I want to go back to the reasons that I first got involved in this topic. I saw something in the sky. I couldn't explain. I sought answers for it. And then I found this entire world that I didn't know was out there. And that's stories like this. Stuff far weirder than just this triangular thing I saw in the sky. Or this egg that Rob saw.

Not to, you know, not to say that our sightings weren't life-changing because they were for us. But yeah, it's stuff like this. Stuff like a damsky. Stuff like space penguins. stuff like aliens giving, you know, someone pancakes in exchange for water. Like, that's what uphology, I think, is. It's the absurdist nature of something we'll probably never truly understand. And if we try to understand it, that's when, you know, it gets frustrating.

And that's when it gets boring. And I think right now in uphology, and I know I'm going off on a diatribe here, I apologize. but we're finding people, people just want answers, and they want them from the United States government. The people who they did not trust to give them those answers for 70 plus years, but then now all of a sudden they are the go-to for it. And I don't know. I'm in this weird place in my own personal journey within euphology,

where like I can have the Navy Tick-Tick-Tac pilot on one week, and that I can have someone on talking about the Swedish men in black the next week. But I think that's what's also beautiful about this. You can kind of explore it from all different angles. But for me personally, I think it just got too bogged down with the Tic Tacs and the DODs and the congressional hearings. And are we any closer to answers? I would argue no. So why not go back into the case history like you guys are doing?

And maybe we could find some answers there. So, yeah, that was my long-winded way of saying, I love you. I love what you guys are doing. That was beautiful. No, I resonate with a lot of that, Ryan, and it's really nice to hear it, to be honest. And, like, there's a, one of the things that always surprised me as I got farther into things like this is how far back some of the weirder, or the non-physical ideas go. Like when you start learning about Carl Jung's work with UFOs

and the idea that I feel like it gets mistaken a lot because these types of ideas where it is more of a psychic object that is a co-created phenomenon or how, you know, Young never discounted the physical aspect of these encounters. The physical aspect and the physical object was part of why these were so special and why they serve the purpose of, I think Terrence McKenna actually theorized that they serve the purpose of reminding us that we don't know what consciousness is. We don't know what our mind is.

And there's no way to solve the UFO phenomenon until we figure out what thinking is. And when you think about how long we've been thinking and still don't know what that is, it's kind of one of those things that, like, it just keeps going in circles. And it's all just meant to remind you that every day is kind of magical. the mundane is as magical as you want it to be. And it's just funny that it goes in waves. And I love that there are people like you that sit in the middle, Ryan, because I think there's a lot of value to the physical side getting more people thinking weirder. And the more people that think weird, even if they don't go into the deep weird as Dr. Jack Hunter, I still think it's better for everybody, if that makes sense. Yeah, man. And, you know, while while some people think

fence sitting's not a good thing. I'm going to keep sitting on that fence until my butt can't take it anymore. But Rob, something I've respected always about you, Rob, is, you know, ever since 2017, like, you stuck to what you first got, like, what first got you into doing our strange skies. And you never really veered away from that. And that's what kept me coming back every week to listen to these incredible stories. So I got to ask you. I don't think I've ever really asked you this on air at least. Like, what do you make of post-2017 euphology and kind of what made you not really want to tackle any of that sort of stuff, if you don't mind me asking? So 2017 felt like a reset switch for a lot of people. I've been investigating and researching this stuff since 2015.

and what I was finding was weird, like just absolutely weird. And then, you know, the New York Times article drops. And it becomes this, it becomes the face of uphology. And it introduces you to like the future faces euphology and mainly Louelizondo. Like, and how he's largely been associated with the UFO movement up to now. And like, if you engage with people online, it can be toxic because it just seems like a lot of people put blind faith into government agents. And I've never, it's just to me that that's not the interesting aspect of this topic.

And one thing that I always go back to is your book, Ryan, because like you asked questions that nobody had really bothered to ask. which is, you know, how did this affect your life? How, what happened after this? How did things change for you? And to me, I think that's the most valuable question that's not being asked of these witnesses. And we don't have the ability to go back and ask them because many of them are no longer with us. Like, Claude Edwards is no longer with us. Dan Dogleby no longer with us.

I don't know if Paulo Saitano is still with us. But, like, we can't ask those questions, and nobody really bothered to ask those questions. So when you get bogged down in asking the government to tell us what they know when the truth of the matter is, they probably don't really know that much, you're cutting out the witness in and of itself. Like, the witness is the most important aspect of all of this. It's not even the aliens. It's not even the UFOs. It's the witness. where are they in their life that they're having these encounters?

And we don't ask that question. Like, that's not something that, you know, comes up in a move on. Like, you know, when you're filling out a survey, it doesn't come up there. It doesn't come up on, you know, Peter Davenport's site. Because nobody thinks to ask that question

because they're so concerned with the nuts and bolts of it all. And one thing that I've really started to gravitate towards is that people see these UFOs and these these beings when they need to see them in their life. And it affects them in a way that fundamentally changes them and may, in fact, lead to positive changes in their lives. And nobody is considering that. Like, nobody's, to me, like, nobody's really asking, what did you do after this? What did you, how did your life change in the years following this encounter? And like, your book was a first. first was the first to really put that out there. And like, you know, you, you talk to people who,

you know, became pastors, who became actors and stuff. And, and that's very important to, like, I think it's the most important thing to figuring out what these things are. They are, they are these things that show up when people need them to show up and they change their lives. And that is the fundamental, you know, my fundamental belief in UFOs. You have, the foes are change. Change for people. Change for the better, sometimes change for the worse. And I think that's important. And the other aspect of this, too, is how it inspires us. It's inspired us to do this comic. So, like, you know, all of these stories inspired us. And to me, they deserve to have a second life in many ways. And now they're getting their second life in this

in this comic. And it brings me joy every month to see them when Todd's done. And he'll like, send me a message over on, you know, Instagram and say, hey, have a look at this. Let's, you know, make sure it's good. And then, you know, post it. And to me, that's at the, at the base level, that's what we do is like, we give a lot of these cases a second life. And, you know, that brings me just a lot of joy. So, like, to me, in the course of our strong, strange skies and doing this project, it's fundamentally changed how I feel about this phenomenon and how I, uh, you know, connect to it. So, you know, like, to me, that's, that's what UFOs are. They're changed. They're changed for people. And, um, yeah, that, to me, that's a beautiful,

beautiful thing. Absolutely, man. Wow. Get me all misty-eyed over here. Seriously. That, no, that was, you make so many good points. And I think. think, you know, joy, joy. Like, even if these things affected someone negatively, at the end of the day, you guys have given it a second life and you've given it, you've given it a sense of magic. You've given it a sense of wonder. And every time I see a new, you know, one of your comics drop, it brings me joy. Every time I see a military shot UFO still, it brings me nothing but just pure.

nausea at this point. So I have to thank you guys. I have to thank you for doing this at a time where I think the field desperately needs this. They need to feel wonder again. They need to feel, they need to see the history of this topic, the extremely weird and possibly unanswerable side of all of this and realize that euphology, at least to me, I don't know about you guys. It's not about finding the answers. Like, I'm never going to know what I saw in, you know, over the St. Lawrence River. You're never going to know what you saw, Rob, up there in upstate New York as well. But at the end of the day, like, it's brought us together. It's built a community of, um, of dreamers. I think to just keep dreaming, keep inspiring, keep aspiring, I should say. And I think that's what a lot of this topic does. It really does make us look forward, you know, while also looking back at cases like what you guys have done. So, no, it's amazing. I can't wait to see what comes next. So let's get there. Let's wrap things up to welcome UFO people. What's coming next with the

comic? Can you tease a little anything for us? Well, the one thing that I'll go ahead and say is that we are going to have Prince really soon. I think this is probably the third time we've made this promise somewhere, but it's really going to happen, I swear. I'm in, I'm in the final stages. Like I said, this is a labor of love that we do kind of on the side of everything else. So, I mean, the more that we can do it, my end goal, and I think Rob's as well is to have a full print publication of these, to have a comic book of a collection of all these pages where, you know, you can see that larger narrative and you can identify those kind of patterns and see it all kind of play together. Because I think these, the way,

way that Rob's been curating these stories, there is like an overall narrative going on. That's kind of presenting itself that I think is really interesting. But yeah, Prince coming soon, eventually full book. Amazing. Amazing. Rob, can you tease any upcoming cases you might be covering? Yeah, so we're definitely doing the Stonehenge incident. That is one that I, it has.

it has to be done. To me, that's a fundamental case that kind of affected me when I covered it on our strange skies so many years ago. Like, it's a short episode. It's like 20 minutes long, but like it's such an interesting case because it features, you know, one witness who sees things close up. And then another one that sees things from across the street over at this large apart. building and their times coincide and everything. And that's just always been an important case for me. And there's a case called, I called it the Shield of Light.

And it's from the year of the humanoids in which this woman looked out her trailer window and saw what she called a gorilla-like being inside a shield of light, just like moseying around the parking lot. So like it's, it's a weird and whimsical case. And like it is another one that I can't wait to see what Todd does with it. Because like the sketches of it are, it was Leonard Stringfield that did the initial sketch.

But in Canadian UFO report, one of my favorite artists in there is a guy named Brian James. And Brian James, he, he's done a lot of, these beautiful like full page spread images of certain cases there's one of my favorite my all time favorite image of his

is a it's a case called the Rosdale Humanoids case what you see is it's beautiful to me it is the equivalent of like starry night but in UFO form it's you see this like it's a nighttime scene

there's these mountains in the background moons out and you see in this kind of like valley in front of these mountains, this like square shaped object with this door open to it. And there are two beings inside. One of them is right next to a control panel. The other one is signaling to a being that is outside collecting like rocks or something like that to get in because there's a woman observing them.

And it's just a beautiful like art piece that I wish I had like an original copy of and I could put on my wall. It's just so great. But, yeah, Brian James did this one sketch of this gorilla looking like entity, like just like tall. Really just looks like an anthropomorphic gorilla just like hanging out in the shield of light, moving around. And I was just like, yeah, I got to see what Todd does with this because it's so good.

So that's another one coming down the line. I need to start getting some more scripts going because these are the last two that I have done. but I've got some good ideas. I've got some good cases that we'll make for great comics coming down the pipe. Awesome. Awesome, man. I can't wait. Space Gorillas coming up, guys.

Stay tuned for that. Todd, before we go, man, tell us a little about this project, if you don't mind. Yeah, personal folklore is, it's kind of my little baby. I a little over a year ago now, I've been working as a full-time cartoonist an illustrator for a while. I'm very grateful to be able to do that. And I was feeling a little stuck in certain ways creatively. And I wanted to get back to making zines. It's something that I did growing up that was very special to me to self-published comics and just art zines and stuff. So I gave myself a challenge to publish a monthly zine for a whole year. So I did 12 issues. Well,

I did 11 issues of personal folklore. And then I did a self-published kid's book called Sun and mouse. So those were my 12 months of publishing one book a month. And this is the first collection of the first seven issues. I picked out my favorite stories, recolored them, added some new artwork, and got it professionally printed. All of the monthly issues were printed in my garage, very DIY. I just, you know, printed on a Xerox machine and stapled and cut together and everything. Lots of silk screened little variants and stuff. So I took all of that, all my favorites from the first seven issue and got it professionally printed, super nice and pretty. and got a ton of them for the first time to kind of start the new chapter.

Maintaining a monthly periodical is not something I can keep up with at this point. So I'm going to be going to a quarterly version of it, and this is the first. So they'll be professionally printed. They'll be bigger. This one's 48 pages. And these comics are, they're all like very paranormal and weirdo and UFO related, just in a lot less of the way that welcome UFO people is case retelling. this is the philosophical, the touching on things from what role do psychedelics have to play in the paranormal to what role does death have to play?

And all the things that I've kind of amalgamated in my brain from reading books and listening to people way smarter than I am over the years. And I put them back out in these silly little kind of five to seven page stories. And then there's a big chunk of just single page goblin, like funny is like just single page goblin comics where he's doing silly stuff. So that's kind of my, the big thing I'm trying to, uh, to keep going this year and been really grateful for all the support. And yeah, I'm real excited to share this one with everybody. Awesome, man. Goblin funnies. I love it. Um, well, last question for you, Todd. I'm probably going to throw the two images up here. But, uh, both Rob and I had the awesome honor of coming on your podcast, actually, uh, creative weirdos. Can you tell us a little about that before we go?

Totally. So creative weirdos is the interview segment of a daily art podcast I do called Create Magic Podcast. I do daily drawings and I post them on Instagram and then I do a little five to 10 minute kind of ramble about what I was drawing and thinking when I was drawing it. And I started doing an interview segment to kind of explore this idea of creativity and weirdness. And I have two main groups of friends, one of them being professional artists and full-time creatives and one of them being people like y'all who ride this boundary of the world of the weird and being full-time creatives. And I wanted to explore that connection more by talking to folks like yourselves and really just having an excuse to reach out to people that really inspire me and all the work that I do and

kind of throw some ideas around. So yeah, I drop a different interview every Saturday. And it's been super fun. I've gotten to talk to some people like yourselves that have like very much inspired my work the last couple of years. So yeah, I definitely hope to keep doing it. It was super fun, man. Again, got to stretch those theoretical and creative muscles over there. So thank you. Thank you for having this.

It was great. And thank you. I mean, so one of the coolest things about doing the podcast and kind of putting myself more out in this community is these weird little synchronicities. and the like I got the chance to have you on Ryan and from there Mike Cleland who was somebody I've always loved his work he reached out because he heard our episode and was like I think I would be a great guest on your podcast and I was like this is amazing and it's a long story but essentially you know Mike Cleland is known for owls and synchronicities and UFOs he reached out to me he texts me on my phone which was very different like I don't usually get text messages from random people right so it texts me on my phone and I I literally just got home from the hospital because my six-year-old had eaten a Lego. He swallowed a Lego and it was a piece from Hedwig the owl set from Harry Potter. So my son had literally just swallowed a piece of an owl and then Mike Lellen text me because he listened to our podcast and asked to be on. And I was like, Mike, you're not going to believe this.

First off, yes, 100%. I can't wait to talk to you. And this just happened. My son swallowed a piece of an owl. Wow. Yeah, I couldn't remember if I had actually relayed that to you, Ryan, so I figured this would be a good opportunity. So thank you for allowing that happened.

You hang out or you talk to Mike Lohen, something weird is bound to happen. Try spending a whole weekend in his Adirondex cabin. That was an experience. Rob knows well at this point that I've told. But yeah, yeah, awesome, man. Well, Rob, obviously, man, before we go, can you tell us what you might. might have coming up over at Our Strange Skies. Yeah, so Our Strange Skies, we've been going weekly since late 2021, which was something

that I had never done before and somehow managed to keep it going. And yeah, like lately I've been driving into these like narrative episodes. And they've been super fun to do because like, you know, sometimes it's just fun to sit there at a microphone and, you know, decide how am I going to, you know, dramatize this for the listener? And the next couple episodes that we got coming up are great. Next week's episode is on the Coronado Group alien abduction, which is very strange.

It's kind of the popery of abduction cases from the 90s where you have a bunch of different alien beings abducting people that are attending a UFO conference. And it's a very strange case. We are going to be doing an episode. It's been recorded on the Led Mask's case. And, you know, we dove very deep into it. And we came away with, you know, I think what is the kind of best conclusion on that.

And yeah, right now we're, you're going to hear a little bit about Jeff the talking mongoose at some point. very soon with some very special guests on that one. And I'm really excited to share that one because it's a great story. It's a great story about, you know, a family that purchased the farm and they had a talking mongoose in their house. You know, I'm always like, I'm always thinking, always working, always kind of putting out stuff. But yeah, it's pretty much what I got coming down the pike right now. Awesome, man. Well, hey, I can't wait.

We covered the lead mask case over on Patreon, but not as in-depth as I'm sure you went. So I'm really interested to hear this conclusion that you possibly came up with. So I definitely looking forward to that. Rob, where can we find everything you're up to, brother? So the one-stop shop for Our Strange Skies is Our Strange Skies.com. You can find links to everything.

there, if you want to check out Welcome UFO People, we are on Twitter at Welcome UFO Peeps and Instagram at Welcome UFO People. And Todd and I both release high-res images on our Patreon pages. So if you want like the really high-res, high-quality images, join either one of our Patreon's. We put them out monthly. And yeah, if you want to follow along on Twitter, I am at your UFO guy, spelled Y-E-R-U-F-O-Gai, and the show account is at Our Strange Skies. So if you want to keep up with all the weirdness of that guy going on, those are the best places to do it. Perfect.

Todd, give us the socials, man. Where can we find everything you're up to? Cool. Createmagic Studios.com is the best place as far as the shop and Patreon and podcast and everything. Create Magic Podcast, wherever you listen to it, that'll get you the interviews and the daily art stuff that I I ramble about. And then at Todd D.E.85, which is a weird one.

But that's my Instagram. And that's where I keep all of my daily pictures and everything. So if you want to see the stuff that I make every day, that's the best place. Awesome, man. Well, guys, welcome UFO people. Goodbye, UFO people. So Todd, Rob, I had to do it, guys. I had to get the fun in there.

I had to do it. Todd, Rob, thank you so much, guys, for joining me today on Somewhere in the Sky. It was a true law. Thank you. It was a great to be here. Somewhere in the skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network. You're great at protecting your data,

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