The fact that we live in strange times is one of the few things on which virtually everybody can agree. Interest has never been higher in subjects that were once considered to be fringe, the exclusive province of "weirdos"—a term once used as a pejorative but has recently been reclaimed by paranormal and metaphysical enthusiasts and is now gleefully worn as a badge of honor.

In many ways, we are living in a golden age of weirdness. Even after we rule out such mundane explanations as satellites, the International Space Station, and civilian or military aircraft, UFOs and UAP fly through our skies. Mysterious drones recently became a media sensation, seen by hundreds of witnesses around the world. No less an authority than the United States Department of Defense admits that unidentified objects are running rings around state-of-the-art fighter jets and warships, encroaching upon US airspace at will. Just who (or what) these anomalies are remains a matter of vigorous debate. Many believe them to be of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin. Others have floated the hypothesis that they may be time travelers, or the avatars of advanced artificial intelligences.

It's easy to forget that we've been here before. One of the most fascinating aspects of the UFO phenomenon is its apparent relationship with strange entities, such as the enigmatic (and intimidating) Men in Black, along with what is inarguably one of the best-known cryptids of them all: Mothman.

A lot has been said and written about this 7-foot-tall, winged humanoid creature with its distinctive glowing red eyes. Some have said that the flying creature is a harbinger of death and destruction, seen at disaster sites around the world immediately prior to the onset of terrible events taking place. Mothman is most commonly associated with the infamous Silver Bridge collapse of 1967, when the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia was the scene of 46 deaths. In more recent times, claims have been made that attempt to tie Mothman in to the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine; the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan; and even the collision of a cargo ship into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024.

The notion of Mothman as a herald of doom and disaster intrigued me. I wanted to learn more, to delve into the mystery and find out what I could about these incredible claims. As the author of more than 40 books, most of which range in topic from history, true crime, and ghosts/hauntings, I had to admit that the subject of cryptids was not in my wheelhouse. If I was to do a halfway decent job of investigating such a complex topic, I needed a guide to help steer me through the valley of weirdness that lay before me.

That's where Tobias Wayland comes in. As the driving force behind the Singular Fortean Society, Wayland knows whereof he speaks when it comes to cryptids and high strangeness in general, and Mothman in particular. In addition to having conducted extensive field research, Wayland is also the author of a book about the Lake Michigan Mothman sightings. One of the first big surprises came when I learned of the sheer scope and scale of the Mothman phenomenon. Many people first become aware of Mothman as a result of John Keel's seminal work, The Mothman Prophecies. Published in 1975, the book detailed the initial flap of Mothman encounters in Point Pleasant. I was surprised to find how little Mothman there actually is within that book. That isn't a criticism; rather, it highlights the fact that Keel was writing about a much broader phenomenon, one which included the aforementioned flying saucers and light anomalies, MIBs, disappearing (and reappearing) dead dogs, and a plethora of other strange occurrences. Keel wove these disparate parts into a unified narrative that culminated in the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge.

Tobias agreed to not only be my guide on what would turn out to be a highly bizarre adventure, but also to co-author the resulting book. We were both in agreement that this wasn't the type of project we wanted to write from the comfort of our respective home offices. In order to add something new to the annals of Mothman research, rather than simply rehash what Keel and others had already done before us (and that some authors had done very well) we were determined to put boots on the ground, interviewing eyewitnesses and visiting Mothman sighting locations to assess them for ourselves.

Mothman is just one of a myriad of winged, flying humanoids that have been reported from across the United States and around the world. The Midwest is a particular hot spot. Tobias and I made the long journey to rural Iowa to learn more about the Van Meter Visitor, a flying creature that was said to shoot a bright laser beam from its horned forehead. We traveled to Rockford, Illinois, to interview witnesses who had seen what they believed was a Mothman-like entity lurking in the boughs of a tree in an ordinary residential neighborhood and interviewed two other witnesses who spotted it flying up out of a creek running underneath a busy road. We investigated the scene of a near miss, when a motorist almost collided with such a creature as it darted across a bend in the road near Dufield Pond.

No Mothman-related research trip would be complete without a visit to Point Pleasant, the epicenter of all things related to the flying enigma. The town's annual Mothman Festival draws thousands and fills Point Pleasant with an atmosphere that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. In addition to visiting the excellent museum and taking the obligatory picture with the enormous statue of Mothman, we paid our respects to the victims of the Silver Bridge disaster and spent a night at the place most closely associated with the creature: the now-infamous TNT area. It was here in 1966 that Mothman swooped down on two unsuspecting couples, and from there, into the newspaper headlines. The night we spent investigating the eerie location, now part of a nature preserve, but still home to the shells of long-since abandoned TNT storage chambers, turned out to be an unforgettable experience, and made the perfect capstone for our quest.

The result of that journey, which spanned hundreds of miles and was also comprised of interviews with luminaries in the fields of cryptozoology and high strangeness, was Mothman: Sightings and Investigations of the Iconic Flying Cryptid. I believe I can speak for Tobias when I say that we hope you enjoy this adventure into the realm of the weird every bit as much as we enjoyed living it.