Done with Dandadan? We've Found Your Next Supernatural Obsession

Fans of Dandadan absolutely have to check out the American comics by James Tynion IV. While anime fans wait for the new season of Dandadan and manga fans wait patiently for each new chapter, they have plenty of time to take a look at comics like The Department of Truth, Blue Book, and many more by Tynion and his collaborators.

One of the best new anime - and shows in general - of 2024, Dandadan adapts the manga of the same name by Yukinobu Tatsu. High school student Momo believes in spirits and ghosts, but not cryptids and aliens. Her classmate, whom she nicknames Okarun, believes the opposite, so the two dare to prove each other wrong. However, they're both right, entangling them in the world of the supernatural and extraterrestrial in wild ways.

Danadan is an anime rom-com unlike any other, with Momo and Okarun navigating their feelings for one another while fighting spirits and aliens. While it is difficult to find anything else exactly like Dandadan, for those who love its paranormal elements, James Tynion IV is one of the best supernatural/horror writers working in comics. Titles like The Department of Truth and Blue Book would be favorites of Dandadan's Okarun.

James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds Explore Conspiracies and Cryptids in The Department of Truth

One of the Key Independent Series of the 2020s

Cover art for The Department of Truth, featuring a mysterious group member with crossed-out eyes

Launched in 2020, The Department of Truth is co-created by Tynion and artist Martin Simmonds, who are also the creative team behind Skybound's Dracula series, which arrived as part of a Universal Monsters line in 2024. The Department of Truth is about a shadow government organization, the titular Department of Truth. In this world, if enough people believe in a conspiracy theory - like that the Earth is flat -- then said conspiracy become a reality. That's where the Department of Truth steps in, determined to keep conspiracies in their place and the truth a reality.

Cropped cover to The Department of Truth #1 5th printing

Who Killed JFK?: Department of Truth Is Back to Expose the Greatest Conspiracy of All Time

As Department of Truth returns after a year-long hiatus, fans finally find out the truth of JFK's assassination and how it changed the world.

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For anyone looking for a political thriller unlike any other that is rich in history and conspiracy theories, The Department of Truth is for them. It doesn't just tackle political conspiracies, though, as it also covers the likes of cryptids and more. The series is a heavy read, especially given some of its darker subject matter, but The Department of Truth is one of the most thought-provoking thrillers hitting comic shelves. It also has artwork unlike any other comic, and it leaves a haunting impression, complimenting the dark themes explored in this ongoing Image Comics series.

James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming Tackle "Real" Aliens in Blue Book

Tynion Takes on "True Weird" Stories

Along with his fictional indie work like The Department of Truth, The Deviant, and the bestseller Something Is Killing the Children - as well as his fan-favorite Batman run - Tynion also takes real life accounts of "weirdness" and adapts them to the comic medium. Where The Department of Truth takes real life history and conspiracies and makes them fictional, Blue Book by Tynion and Michael Avon Oeming tackles reported cases of alien encounters, starting with the case of Betty and Barney Hill. Betty and Barney are a married couple, and they are also at the heart of the first widely publicized alien abduction case.

Blue Book Is 2023's Essential Read for Any Fan of Urban Legends (Review)

Blue Book #1 brings blends the horrors of alien abduction with the inspirational nature of urban legends in a book any paranormal fan will love.

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Meanwhile, the second volume of Blue Book is about Kenneth Arnold's encounter with several unidentified flying objects - or UAPs, as Okarun calls them. More recently, Tynion is part of a new trade paperback collection, True Weird, which features twelve "true" stories by a wide array of creators, like Oeming, Klaus Janson, Ming Doyle, John McCrea, Genevieve Valentine, Aditya Bidikar, Anand RK, Gavin Fullerton, and more. Whether they want to read True Weird, Blue Book, or The Department of Truth, Dandadan fans are sure to find something to love in any of James Tynion IV's comics.

The Department of Truth is available now from Image Comics. Blue Book and True Weird are available now from Dark Horse Comics.