Every story based in some level of realism requires research of the subject. It’s not always about retelling the story, but understanding details of an environment or a situation and using that information as a backbone. Period pieces and war stories are evident of this ideology; we need to understand factual details before we can create a realistic world for our characters to live in.
Though it’s common practice in a variety of genres, there’s one where it’s decidedly absent: extra terrestrials.
At Motor City Comic Con, Rob Shelby was debuting the most recent issues of Pure Human, his series on the subject. Featuring a fictional narrative set aboard an alien ship, capturing the details of the environment was necessary and pivotal to accuracy, and will be integral to how the story unfolds.
But those details can be hard to find. There hasn’t been enough research on the subject, as it still falls in a taboo area for many. That didn’t stop Shelby from reaching out to abductees for the necessary information. Spending the last few years interviewing abductees and survivors, Rob worked to find out what was common between what abductees witnessed and experienced, how they felt and what they specifically remembered. As the narrative of the books relies on these details, making sure they are absolutely consistent is key.
The method is much like that of a sketch artist pulling details out of interviewees, and so Shelby brought in Mindy Mcpeak to illustrate. As she creates panels and artwork, Mindy asks Rob to contact abductees about specific things. Do the aliens have feet? Do they wear shoes? Are there lights on the walls, and what color are those lights? It surprisingly doesn’t take a lot of effort to get the information out of abductees, as the memories tend to be vivid in their minds. In fact, every convention and expo the duo go to seems to result in visitors, abductees themselves, coming up to their booth to thank them for capturing the scenes so accurately. One adult man even cried when he saw it recently, since his own family didn’t believe his experience.
But the interviews and the book aren’t meant as therapy or as outlets to recreate the stories of others, just as factual grounding. This is Rob’s original story, and crowdsourcing details is the best way to understand what he’s creating in. Perhaps that’s why most of the interviewees haven’t wanted to or asked to read the books — it’s not about their particular stories, just the mental photograph of the scene they experienced.
It’s an interesting subject for a book; more often than not the researched stories become “remastered” versions for mediums instead of used to paint the world around them. The extra terrestrial aspect is one that most of us haven’t experienced, so all of the details would come off as new and need to be correct for us to latch on.
Pure Human has released two issues, with a total of six planned.
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