The Department of Truth #13

The Department of Truth #13

Image Comics/Tiny Onion Studios 2020

Written by James Tynion IV

Illustrated by Martin Simmonds

Lettered by Aditya Bidikar

Thirty years ago, Cole Turner dreamed up a Star-Faced Man who ate children in the basement of his preschool. Today, Cole is going to make sure that nightmare can never haunt another kid. The second arc of the smash-hit THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH ends here with a revelation that turns the series upside down!

The lady in red, Lee, Ruby and now Hawk everyone seems to hold Cole in such high regard and some kind of golden child and as of yet I’m not sure I see this. Don’t get me wrong I think Cole is a great character but he’s also very whiny and insecure and to see all these folks putting so much faith and pressure squarely on his shoulders well I’m going to have to see how this plays out before I can really pass further judgement. I mean I have passed judgement but the real measure of a man is how he faces diversity and comes out the other side so maybe Cole will actually surprise me. Heck Hawk manages to surprise me here and maybe he really is more than a tool in someone else’s shed.

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really does wonders in fleshing their personalities out more wholly. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it really takes the reader on one hell of a wicked journey.

I’m very much enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The way that the layers open up new avenues to explore in the midst of exploring already existing avenues does a lot to really add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely stunning to see. The painted style that almost appears like it’s a mixed media style is thrilling. That at times it feels like we’re looking at a 8mm film being shown thanks to the graininess that we see is beyond expectations. The linework we see and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail within the work we are seeing creating the attention to detail is pretty marvellous. How we see the composition of the panels being utilised to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is exceptionally well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise its effects.

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What’s that saying, it’s a riddle wrapped up in a mystery, inside an enigma and it’s something that holds incredibly true. With each new moment of this story we see things take so many zigs and zags, climb heights and plummet downwards in the vein of a rollercoaster and it really does a number on you as a reader. From thrilling to chilling in the snap of the fingers thanks to how exceptionally well this is written and how dynamic the characterisation is and all this is wrapped up in these phenomenal interiors. There’s a reason this remains as exciting today as it did when it first debuted and it’s simply because it’s that damn good.