Giant Comics! Flying Saucers!
and The Battle of Los Angeles

In 1967 the Wham-O Manufacturing Company created a giant comic book, appropriately entitled "GIANT COMICS," and they ran irresistible TV ads in Los Angeles announcing this amazing feat. Being six years old at the time, I had to have one, so my grandmother and I picked up a copy for 98 cents at the local Sav-On drug store. It was so big they had to fold it in half to get it into the comic book rack and I remember it took forever to get that crease out. I fell in love with it and dragged this thing around with me for the longest time--probably till it fell apart. I don't remember what happened to it.

There were over 1500 'action panels' according to the cover, all original works, some of them quite interesting, some by well-known artists (Wally Wood, for example.) The thing that captured my attention right away was on the back page; "Flying Saucers Mystify The Air Force" followed by a quintessential 1960s tag line "... Official Investigators Can't Decide: Are They From Far Out In Space -- Or Simply 'Far Out?'" Below were six color drawings of "The Most Interesting Ones Ever Reported." Some of these sightings dated back to 1897.

I had heard of flying saucers, having seen a few sci-fi movies and Twilight Zone episodes; however, this was first time I had seen the subject dealt with in a serious way. It was very cool and very spooky; stories of cow abductions, mysterious lights in the desert, mysterious lights at sea, mysterious flying cigars, an egg shaped thing marked up like an outhouse built from a shipping crate, and the most chilling story of all: the horrible fate of pilot Capt. Thomas Mantell, Jr., who unwisely investigated "a circular object in the skies over Kentucky on the afternoon of January 7th, 1948." There was a lurid drawing of a Navy Mustang in a death-dive, minus one wing, and above it a bloody-looking flying saucer tearing across the sky. The saucer was obviously the instrument of destruction.

"'The thing looks metallic and is tremendous in size...' were the brave Captain's last words...." This suggested to my six-year-old mind that it would be prudent to avoid large metallic things in the sky, particularly if they looked like a bloody saw blade enshrouded in a spinning halo of death. Just an observation.

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I think this was the event that set off my interest in such things, at least until I was old enough to learn of the improbability of interstellar travel. I ate it up and read everything I could get my hands on and wasted a lot of time and quarters on this nonsense. It did enhance my vocabulary though, and I could surprise the adults with phrases such as 'vector path'... 'extraterrestrial'... 'alien technology'... 'atmospheric phenomena'... 'lenticular clouds.' The lenticular clouds got them every time.

"Where's that boy gettin' all this stuff, Goldie?" they'd ask, and my Grandma would smile and simply say--"Well, he *does* like to read all kinds a' things." She was very happy that I liked to read.

My interest in flying saucers took on an added dimension one morning during a visit to my great-grandparents over on Bundy Drive.

My great-grandfather Al was sitting in his rocker, radio on, front door open to catch the breeze, and I was lying near his feet on the floor with my Wham-O Giant Comics open to the last page. I think the plummeting Mustang airplane caught his eye.

"What's that you're looking at, boy?"

My great-grandfather delighted in acquiring arcane yet useful knowledge. He was a very open-minded fellow, largely self-educated, collected hardcover books, and he had great skill with numbers. In his younger days he had considered becoming a Jesuit priest and had qualified for entry into whatever college the Jesuits attended, but for some reason he became a cab driver instead.

He seemed genuinely interested, so I explained. As he was the one in the family who knew many things, I asked him "Are flying saucers real?"

"Ah." he smiled... "Mary, come here." Granny was in the kitchen, as always. "Do you remember that thing everyone saw when the war started? The UFO? Down on Wilshire?"

She came in carrying a dishtowel. "Oh yes, the great big thing that flew up Wilshire Blvd from the beach." She looked at me and my comic book. "It didn't make a sound. Everyone saw it. Shaped like a cigar. It looked like that one there." She pointed to one of the drawings of a blimp-shaped object. "Orange."

"What was it?" I asked.

"Well... it wasn't a plane, and it wasn't a balloon..." their voices became conspiratorial "... I don't think they ever found out... did they, Mary?"

"Oh no no no, I don't think they ever did."

Of course they were both grinning at me like the cats who cornered the canary. I'm sure they were enjoying the look on my face--'Wow! Adults, in my family, who may have seen an actual flying saucer!'

This was their way of doing things.

The years went by, I grew up and developed other interests, they passed on, and I pretty much forgot about the story. Then the Internet came along.

I picked up another copy of the comic book on Ebay a few years ago--thought it'd be fun to look at it again, maybe share it with my kids. When I came to the last page, I remembered my great-grandparents' story. Hadn't thought of it in years.

"Everyone saw it" so they said -- "right after the war started." Perhaps there was some mention of it on the Internet?

Yes, indeed. The Battle of Los Angeles. You may have heard of it.

In the pre-dawn hours of February 25th, 1942, a large unidentified aircraft of unknown origin appeared offshore and slowly travelled inland in a wide arc from Santa Monica to Long Beach, and then back again. Coming just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the object drew a hailstorm of anti-aircraft fire from defense installations around the westside, beginning at 3:36 AM. Over fourteen hundred 12lb anti-aircraft shells were fired at it for 45 minutes--and apparently it never took a hit. The craft ended up flying serenely away over the ocean from whence it came.

It was the most widely viewed unidentified flying object in modern history. Thousands of people were drawn out of bed by the anti-aircraft barrage and saw the object and the attempt to shoot it down. There was no shortage of eyewitness accounts.

The papers were full of the story the next day. At least three people died and there was significant property damage from the shelling. This was serious business.

And there was at least one photo of the object itself, published in the Los Angeles Times:

"SEEKING OUT OBJECT - Scores of searchlights built a wigwam of light beams over Los Angeles early yesterday morning during the alarm. This picture was taken during blackout; shows nine beams converging on an object in sky in Culver City area. The blobs of light which show at apex of beam angles were made by anti-aircraft shells."

Based on the flight path described in the paper and the terrain shown above, I'd guess that this photo was taken looking over Baldwin Hills near Culver City. Probably shot from Jefferson Blvd.

The story was broadcast nationally on the radio.

No one really knew what it was--or if they did, they didn't admit it. The event was largely seen by officials in Washington DC as evidence of ill-prepared coastal defenses. All that firepower and nothing came down.

But there's the real question, even 65 years later: why didn't they succeed in bringing it down? The thing was travelling less than a mile an hour across the sky and they lobbed enough firepower at it to bring down a dozen conventional aircraft. If it was a balloon, it most certainly would have been toast within a few minutes of shelling...

"Well... it wasn't a plane, and it wasn't a balloon..."

Heh.

I can see them grinning still. Now I know how they knew.

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