World UFO Day: It’s undoubtedly UFOlogists Erich von Däniken and Giorgio Tsoukalos’s favorite holiday—and the History Channel’s, too, considering how often they run episodes of their documentary series Ancient Aliens! Could it also be the favorite holiday of William Shatner, host of HC’s series The Unexplained?
Well…that is what we’ll try and find out…
(Fun fact: The narrator of Ancient Aliens—as well as another HC series, The Curse of Oak Island—is actor Robert Clotworthy, whose credits include a supporting role in the 1996 Showtime adaptation Vampirella, a movie starring Talisa Soto and Roger Daltrey that I discuss at length in my nonfiction comics history, From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures—available from StarWarp Concepts. And since Vampirella is an alien from a distant planet, it’s the perfect book for you to read today!)
According to the site There Is a Day for That, World UFO Day was, er, launched in 2001 by UFO hunter and Mobile UFO Museum founder Haktan Akdogan and “is observed and celebrated on July 2nd every year to raise awareness about Unidentified Flying Objects UFOs) and alien life forms. The day aims to discuss and educate people about UFOs, flying saucers, and sightings of bright blue light in the sky that make headlines across the world.”
So, grab some popcorn and a favorite beverage, kick back and make a movie day of it—I recommend Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day (appropriate, considering it’s Fourth of July weekend), War of the Worlds (the 1953 version, not the Tom Cruise update—too many unlikeable characters in the latter), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (again, the original, not the Keanu Reeves remake). Or, if you’re in the mood to be terrified by off-world visitors, there’s always the alien-probe horrors of Fire in the Sky or the shape-shifting nightmare of John Carpenter’s The Thing (it came in a flying saucer, remember), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
And keep watching the skies!
