In Japan they very often depict a UFO as a flying saucer with four (or sometimes five) hemispherical domes on the lower surface. Here is drawing of one from volume 5 of Doctor Slump from the early 1980s. Here is one as a toy (from a manga/anime). And here is a wind chime crudely featuring them. That style seems to be distinctly Japanese–any idea when/how this style originated?
Not sure, but this page has an example of that style. Well–it’s three hemispheres, not four or five, but close enough. This seems to be from one of the “Outer Space” comics from the late 50s (Bill Molno and Sal Trapani).
Since this is about an artistic style, let’s move it to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Just by memory I knew that shape was familiar:
Seems that in Japan fanzines of UFOs got to accept the shape as what a UFO was supposed to look, way into the 1980s.
A larger influence for the modern manga and Anime animators is likely to be this short Anime “documentary” showing fictionalized recreations of famous UFO encounters.
And of course, before* Dragon Ball* Akira Toriyama made Dr. Slump for Toei Animation.
I did also check for the actual Adamski inspiration.
I don’t know if he was the originator, but alleged UFO contactee George Adamski produced similar imagesin 1952 America.
He published several bookson the subject. Obviously a crank, but a famous one at the time.
Huh. The comic I linked to is obviously based on Adamski’s story, but with an amusing twist. And the comic UFO is nearly identical, from the three hemispheres to the triple-window clusters at the top.
Thanks. I appreciate getting factual answers about the real-world origin of the styling despite the move from GQ, where it actually belonged.
I happened on a manga chapter last night that specifically called it an “Adamski type”.
That’s interesting!
I figured the answer to the OP was that Japan was visited by different aliens than the West. We got the Grey Ferengi, and they got the Pakleds.
What disgusting creatures. The only episode I remember that featured the Pakleds was the one where they kidnapped La Forge. Did they seem remotely bright enough to master space travel? Not!
But they looked for things. Things that make them go.
I remember a period single panel comic where Geordi blasted the head off of a Pakled (who is still standing), and (someone) is saying, “Not in the head! Aim for something vital!”
The Pakleds are the main antagonist in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Saucer source for that Manga page please.
Seems to come from this, if that helps.
How the heck did so many of you know about the Adamski guy? Is he in a lot of modern UFO believer stuff, even after his photos were known as fakes?
He’s pretty well disappeared from modern Ufology, but that’s because Ufology has no real sense of its own history*. He was huge in the 1950s, into the 1960s. Anyone who was interested in UFOs and Ufology in that period could hardly have avoided him. If you read pretty much any skeptical work on Ufology, which almost universally take the history of Ufology far more seriously than any of the “believers” do, Adamski is going to figure prominently.
*In fact, Ufology seems to have an actively anti-historical sense. It memory holes inconvenient elements, then recycles the same claims with the serial numbers filed off, over and over again, each time presenting them as if they were brand-new revelations.
Ain’t that the truth. I must have just missed him, my UFO reading started with Chariots Of The Gods.