Ministry of Truth: Wild Fictions (Image, 2024) is a companion volume to Eisner Award-winning author James Tynion IV’s hit comic series The Truth of Truth. Unlike other series with similar facilities, however, Aliens, Ghosts and Clipsticks are intertwined with departments not autonomous entities but imaginary beings that exist by collective beliefs. In short, they are wild fiction.
Truth Ministry: Wild Fictions is designed to be a field guide for new recruits, allowing you to get used to the various classes of symptoms. As first explained in issue 10 and 11 of the Truth of Truth Comic series, Wild Fictions is divided into three categories:
Cryptos like ghosts, fairies, demons, ufos, and angels
Wild Fictions has 27 entries across all three categories, with the Cryptids section being the most proud of its list of 13. In the short introduction, Tynion inserts himself into his series as a character, a senior dot ranger, explaining that while DOT operatives are often mistaken for Cryptozoologists, wild fiction is not because they are actually not physical or blood animals. The brilliance of the premise allows Tynion to treat these subjects as modern folklore, but still weaves a fascinating narrative, the very line in which interests separate facts from fiction.
In choosing to present the world of conspiracy theory and paranormal, Tynion has also established itself as close to true authority on these topics, or at least as the finest author of comics on contemporary paranormal themes. His title is now booming! Through Studios’ UFology, Truth of Truth and Trilogy of Books from Dark Horse. Blue Book, the Truly Strange, and most recently this has become a demon.
The Truth Division: Wild Fiction, Tynion takes Fortean’s role as historian a step further, with 27 short essays accompanied by stunning illustrations from the best artists working in comics today, including James Stokoe, Bill Sienkiewicz, Yuko Shimuzu, and Erica Henderson.
Image Comic
An entry is written in the same metatextual way in which the history of a particular subject is usually discussed in the Ministry of Truth. But there is no bibliography. Tenion may quote his sources in text. The skeptical Benjamin Radford was dropped in a Chupacabra essay, and Lauren Coleman, owner of the international museum of Cryptozology, is mentioned in the Devil’s Entry in Dover. Paranormal investigator Greg Newkirk, the Hellier star of the Amazon Prime series, has also been discussed in the entry for Black Children, with his “Week in Weird” webpage being “not necessarily a real, well-known website.”
However, readers who want to gain additional insight into the true comic series may be disappointed. Apart from a few clever appearances, Santa Claus’ entries suggest that Dot is particularly busy at the end of the year when his belief in Saint Nick is particularly high.
There are also no entries in either of the two most notable wild fictions in the comic. A man with a star surface and a woman with a red face. Mothman has played a prominent role in the series since issue 15, but rather makes him feel sick when he was “edited by someone with a high level of clearance.” Similarly, there are many references to entries that do not actually exist in this book. For example, readers are repeatedly instructed to consult Slenderman’s entries, but only discover that this is not the case. But Elvis has one!
Wild fiction also somewhat confuses the concepts of three classes by repeatedly highlighting the relative level of threats of certain fiction. So, how likely is it to appear in reality? The lower the number (1 – 3) the lower the probability of manifestation is determined by how much you believe in the reality of a particular wild fiction.
Image Comic
All this is going well, but Tynion classifies the devil as Class 1 and the Jersey Devil as Class 3, creating the impression that more people believe in the Jersey demons than the actual Christian demons. A 2021 Yougov poll found that 43% of Americans believe in the devil, but the Jersey Devil is a little more today than a hockey mascot that is harmless to most people.
Similarly, Tynion places Ghost as class 1 and Bigfoot as class 3. This is the exact opposite of research like the ones Chapman University regularly finds in paranormal beliefs among Americans. In 2018, 58% of Americans publicly declared they believed in ghosts, but only 21% believed in Bigfoot. Both of these percentages are high enough to prevent either Spectre or Sasquatch from being truly considered a fringe, but suggests that DOT should probably be more engrossed about the film’s harmful popularity about the Devil’s possession, rather than keeping the codemaker from working.
Truth Ministry: Wild Fictions is beautifully illustrated, informative and fun for fans of the comic series. Alternatively, it could also be useful as an introduction for those who are interested in ghosts, UFOs, and Cryptids but have not read what is one of the simple cartoons to explore these phenomena so far.
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