Ambush Bug back again with another Q & @. This time we’re chatting with Whitley Strieber writer of COMMUNION and creator of the new original graphic novel THE NYE INCIDENTS. This is a fascinating read from Devil’s Due Publishing mixing the alien abductions, cow mutilations, and serial killers. Let’s see what Mr. Strieber had to say about THE NYE INCIDENTS.
@$$HOLES (@): I found the NYE INCIDENTS #1 to be a fascinating read. The first issue did a great job of introducing an intriguing mystery; sprinkling just enough clues to tease us like the video tape showing the UFO cult, the mutilated bodies, the ties to cow mutilations and even the dreams the main characters suffers from as she obsesses about solving the crime. The book sets the mystery in a context that is very well could happen. Is this based on any actual events? Have there ever been human mutilations similar to the cow mutilations before?
Whitley Strieber (WS): There may have been. I came across some very disturbing cases between 1996 and 2003 that really upset me. One case involved quite a few people who were taken off the streets, mutilated by having their genitals, lips, eyes and tongues cut out, then taken 70 miles from the town where they were picked up and drowned in the ocean, deep enough to damage their lungs.
But was this a real case or not? They were street people, and they were taken from a town about a forty-five minute drive from the cabin in upstate New York where I had the close encounter experiences COMMUNION was based on.
I could prove nothing, so I decided: do your thing. Transform this terror into entertainment, and get free of it that way--as much as one can.
@: THE NYE INCIDENTS combines the UFO and serial killer genres. What type of research went into this story?
WS: I don't know exactly what genres are. I'm not much into marketing. To me, it's all about whether or not I want to tell a given story.
I actually did a lot of research. I tried to track cases down, but whenever I did, I ran into reluctant, unwilling and even hostile law enforcement personnel. Our researcher tried to pin down a case in Pennsylvania, for example, and was told to either leave town or go to jail.
@: Did you take any special considerations since this is a comic book that you are working with instead of a novel?
WS: My original treatment was transformed into the comic by Craig Spector. At the time, we were interested in making a movie. But then the comic possibility came along and I was real intrigued. So was Craig. He'd never written a graphic novel before, so it was a real adventure for him.
@: How closely did you work with the writer and artist of this comic?
WS: Craig and I worked hand in hand. I have never met the artist.
@: After doing a bit of research on you, I found it interesting that you are not quick to say that your experiences with the paranormal were actual UFO experiences straight out of the X-FILES. You seem convinced that something happened to you, but call these characters that abducted you "visitors" instead of aliens. Could you elaborate on this experience a little and what you believe happened?
WS: Basicially, I have had an entire life of a kind that supposedly does not and cannot exist. I have unknown intelligent beings in my life. It's as simple as that. After my close encounter in December of 1985, I proactively sought to engage their interest by going out into the woods at night.
This resulted in the richest, most astonishing and complex relationship I can imagine having, and it continued for 11 years until we lost our cabin due to financial difficulties brought on by the fact that I was made a laughingstock, and people quit buying my books.
We moved to Texas but, sadly, the visitors did not follow.
@: Why you? Out of all of the people in the world, why do you think you were the one chosen to have this abduction-like experience?
WS: One of my uncles was involved in the attempt to catalog the debris from the disk that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. I think that his involvement led to the visitors' interest in our family, and to me.
@: No doubt, this experience was a life-changing experience since you've dedicated quite a few books on the subject and you continue to explore this theme in THE NYE INCIDENTS. Do you think something like this will ever happen again to you or is this probably a once in a lifetime happening?
WS: Oh, it is a lifetime happening, not once in a lifetime. It is a way of living. After we left the cabin, the visitors did not follow, but since December 7 of 2007, they have been coming around again a little bit. You get to the point where you just live with the truth that you do not and cannot know what they are. Just that they are real.
@: There seem to be thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects, alien abductions, and other strange experiences. Just as one would assume that some of them have validity to them, one also has to guess that some of these people are full of shit or want to believe in this phenomenon so much that they make themselves do so. What is it about UFO's that capture so many people's imagination and makes them want to believe?
WS: Not too many of the people who are really involved want it. I didn't want to get raped on the night I got stuck with the 'rectal probe' that has made me into such a joke. Then, in May of 1989, two people broke into our cabin and placed an object in the top part of my left ear. I was awake but immobilized when they did it. They were people, not aliens. Their work left no scar.
When I tried to have to object removed, the doctor was horrified to see that it was a white disk, and when he touched it with his scalpel, it moved on its own into the lobe of my ear, down from the top. He got a sliver of it, but closed the incision because he had never seen anything like this.
The pathologist who examined the sliver reported that it had cilia on it, which was probably why the thing could move. A few days later, it went back to the top of my ear, which is where it is now.
So, what I believe is that this thing is in my ear because I can reach my hand up and feel it right now. I don't know what to believe about who put it there or why, or even how, given the absence of a scar.
My beliefs extend as far as facts. The rest interests me as speculation--the whodunnit aspect.
@: There are skeptics and believers out there. No real in between. Believers believe whole-heartedly that we are not alone. While skeptics roll their eyes and claim that the believers are full of it. Why do you think people are so all-or-nothing with the topic of UFO's?
WS: There certainly is an in-between. The media lives in its own world of skepitcs and believers. The folks who actually have this happen are mostly like me--wondering what the hell is going on, here.
@: I know no one knows the reasons why UFO abductions and cow mutilations occur. But if you had to guess, what do you think the reason is for all of this udder…I mean, utter carnage and mischief? *(sorry, bad pun)*
WS: If it is real, then whoever is doing it must or they would not. God only knows why.
@: Why cows? I know steaks and burgers are damn tasty, but why not emus or elephants or monkeys or lawyers?
WS: One thing is that bovines have DNA that is surprisingly close to ours. Or perhaps we get abducted and mutilated because our DNA is close to theirs.
@: Now that you've dipped your toe into the comic book pool, do you think you might want to work more in this medium?
WS: I love this medium! I'm a fan, and my wife Anne, who is also a writer, has a dynamite idea for a graphic novel so, yes, I shall return...
@: Sounds great. Check out THE NYE INCIDENTS Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions, Mr. Strieber.
