The above is a great example of collision between pop culture and conspiracy theories. An upcoming talk by Kenn Thomas, one of the more level-headed conspiracy theorists, looks at the links between a story written by comic book legend Jack Kirby, for the comic Race for the Moon, (above) and The Face on Mars - the story coming decades before the feature was discovered.
"When Steamshovel Press editor Kenn Thomas speaks on "JFK to UFO" at RetroCon, his prefatory remarks will concern "Jack Kirby, Conspiracy Theorist". Thomas looks at the famous comic book artist's interest in parapolitics as well as the possibilities that Kirby had back channel sources within the world of covert intelligence. Richard Hoagland speculated that the secret space program gave Kirby information leading to the artist's 1958 comic book story, "The Face On Mars"--an anomaly that did not become part of the conspiracy lexicon until the Viking probe's Cydonia photographs of 1976.
Thomas examines the history of this as well as Kirby's prescient forecasts of American involvement in World War II and Vietnam; the use of conspiracy themes in his 1970s comics; and his documented involvement with a CIA rescue operation during the 1980 Iranian crisis.
How does central intelligence shape our view of conspiracies in the popular culture? "
Does this mean the CIA know we are about to be visited by 2,000 feet tall alien Gods? Or Devil Dinosaurs?
This has done the rounds for while, since Hoagland first suggested it, and I do hope there is more evidence to back this up, as the obvious problem with the theory is that the face is vertical, not horizontal. Still spooky though, but perhaps more a testament to Kirby's vision and skills, as well as his massive output - some estimates suggest he produced 25,000 pages.
The Iranian crisis story mentioned can be found in a long article at Wired.
Via - Nick Redfern.
Kirby was remarkably prescient about a number of things, esepcially in a comic strip he did called Sky Masters, at about the same time as the Face story. That's what my talk was about at RetroCon. It was recorded and is available now from Steamshovel.
kt
I'm pretty sure he doesn't think 911 was some elaborate inside job, for example, and has written a number of articles critical of the wilder fringes of conspiracism.
It is one of the reasons I'm intrigued to see this is the subject of his talk, which makes me wonder if:
a) He has some new killer piece of evidence - I am doubtful as I love Kirby and wacky conspiracy theories so I'm sure I'd have heard something.
b) He is playing it for laughs - which seems a lot of effort.
c) Or he is looking at it from the other direction - not that Kirby was given some kind of weird inside information but that Kirby's work and others have been a big influence on Hoagland's claims.
I'm hoping for c) as the influence of sci-fi on shaping the UFO phenomena is a topic I'm interested in and it could provide some interesting insights (and it seems more in line with Kenn Thomas' take on things). After all even people I know who think the Face on Mars may have some mileage still (more recent images actually make a better case - even if I'm still not convinced), think Hoagland is a little... out there (and not the "out there" where Mulder thinks "The Truth" lies, either).
So I will be keeping an eye on developments with interest.