You could consider it a print media proto- X-Files, except the stories were so tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top that they held an immediate appeal for a generation steeped in cultural irony and raised on the camp weirdness of John Waters, the slack secrecy of the Church of the SubGenius, and the cult schlock of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Unlike its celebrity-focused neighbors, WWN heralded stories about beasts and supernatural phenomena like Bigfoot, UFOs, mermaid skeletons, and ominous omens.
For those who grew up in the 1980s and ‘90s, the newsprint tabloid Weekly World News was a steadfast presence in the grocery store checkout aisle.
