Buck got sent into the woods to hunt a huge gorilla that didn’t actually exist. Some kind of a nightmare creature that he had to kill. Even though it didn’t exist! And 60 years. A lot of things don’t exist. Now they’re sending him to Hollywood in  The Department of Truth #26. Writer James Tynion IV adds another deviation from the central story in his sprawling narrative. This one is brought to the page by artist Alison Sampson. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jordie Bellaire. Tynion explorers and interesting mutation of mid-20th century popular culture in an enjoyable opening for a whole new story.

Huck hates Los Angeles. Too hot. Too dry. Too bright. He’s there to meet with a legendary Hollywood actress. He’s confident enough and he’s got the right energy to go in and speak to one of the biggest actresses in Hollywood. She just sang at a birthday party for the U.S. President. Now he’s there to talk to her on behalf of a Mr. Capra who is a bit more than just a filmmaker. And Huck is beginning to realize that Marilyn might not be any more real than that thing he shot in the woods. This IS the world of The Department of Truth after all: enough people believe in something and they’re going to make it exist whether it’s Bigfoot or the star of The Seven Year Itch. 

Tynion cleverly plays with some of the more prominent bits of legend of pop culture. Tynion sets-up a brilliant juxtaposition creating a contrast between a down-to-earth agent of the supernatural and a Hollywood legend who only thinks that she is down to earth. The weird abstractions and convolutions of reality that inhabit Hollywood mythology slowly play on the page in an interesting opening for a new story. 

Sampson lightens the typically hatch edge of a Department of Truth issue in order to tell a story drawn from the epicenter of mid-20th century American glamor. Bellaire’s light pastels and airy color rendering. The overall feel of the art develops into something that wouldn’t have looked at all out of place in the 1960s. It here are a few spreads that expire a kind of artistic experimentation that was quite prominent across the popular arts during the era, but on some level it lacks the greater glamor that could have made it assert itself against the larger world of The Department of Truth.

As Tynion continues to develop all of the edges and corners of the DoT universe, it becomes more and more apparent that he would have the opportunity to explore quite a lot with respect to popular perception, and what reality is. Theoretically, it would be interesting to see him, pull forward through into the era of the Internet, and beyond in a more detailed fashion. But there’s so much about the history of pop, culture and popular perception. That would be interesting to explore from the 20th century. It will be interesting to see him take his time with this story, though.. Hollywood in the 1960s kind of has it coming.

Grade: A