What Happened In Roswell, New Mexico?

Oh mama, you best believe I was a bit of a paranormal aficionado 25 years ago— a regular, middle school-aged wannabe Fox Mulder. You know what I’m talking about: UFOs. Sasquatches. Poltergeists. Tall tales steeped in intrigue—and a bit of menace.

These days? I’m more into the lore from a historical and storytelling point of view. There’s fun in the mysteries simply for their own sake.

To wonder about the unfathomable everything of what’s out there in the cosmos—but also the potential banality of one’s own experiences of strange happenings here on Earth. Is that curious light in the sky a clandestine visitor from an advanced interstellar civilization? Or just the reflections of automobile lights on a distant lonely swath of highway?

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To this day I can still recall the sheer awe and terror of seeing the Roswell UFO episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 1989. I have a pit in my chest when imagining the dramatic reenactment, where the rancher who discovered the crash debris is confounded when the metallic scraps magically reshape when crumpled in his hand. Crashed flying saucers + trench-coated Robert Stack = childhood media trauma.

So, what better way than otherworldly goings-on to inspire some type and illustration nonsense? I’m excited that everything in this little composition was crafted from scratch! I drew the type, sketched out the map, created the textures. I’M A BIT OF AN AUTEUR, HUH?

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