We’re firmly in the midst of the Halloween season and the folks at Dark Horse have decided to share a little something special with you, dear reader, to help make the spooky season just a little more spooky. We are exclusively bringing you the entire first issue of Blue Book Volume 1: 1961 in its entirety for the low, low price of free. That’s right! We’ve got the full issue of James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming’s take on the true-life alien abduction tale. And, if you enjoy this, there is much more to uncover.
Blue Book sees Tynion explore strange but true stories of aliens and the supernatural. The first series details Betty and Barney Hill’s abduction encounter, also known as the first widely publicized abduction that went on to shape and influence all future encounter stories. Recently, Dark Horse announced the follow-up series titled Blue Book: 1947, with the first issue due to hit shelves in February. The forthcoming book will tell the tale of Kenneth Arnold, with the logline teasing:
“In 1947, Kenneth Arnold flew his Call-Air A-2 over the skies of the Pacific Northwest when all of a sudden, he saw a blinding flash of silver light. What followed was a bizarre and difficult to explain encounter with several flying objects that would change the course of his life forever.”
But before that happens, we’ve got the first of what Tynion calls his “True Weird” stories. Tales of ordinary people encountering the strange and the impossible. Blue Book Volume 1: 1961 was collected in a trade paperback by Dark Horse last month. So if you enjoy this first issue, the rest of the tale of Betty and Barney Hill awaits. To offer a peek into the mind of the man behind the series, Tynion, speaking with Oeming on his Substack in 2021, explained why unexplainable encounters such as these fascinate him.
“What fascinates me about UFO encounters, or Cryptid encounters, and everything that ties into what I'm doing in The Department of Truth... Is that there are these moments where people brush up against something that they don't understand, and then they tell stories about those moments, and it’s the stories themselves that I find so interesting. Less the actual thing they saw, or the literal truth of it, but the act of storytelling and folklore that comes from experiencing something outside the natural order of things.”
Blue Book: 1947 #1 hits shelves on February 7, 2024. In the meantime, you can check out the full first issue of Blue Book: 1961 below. Enjoy!
