The stories have been around for decades. Government Black-Ops, assassinations, and mind control, all fully sanctioned and approved by the highest levels of the United States Government, and carried out by the shadowy spies and spooks who operate within the cloak-and-dagger world of our own Central Intelligence Agency.

That much is pretty much common knowledge. But what of some of the wilder stories making the rounds among the conspiracy theorists and the other fruit baskets out there?

That the C.I.A. conducted horrific medical experiments on unsuspecting operatives and civilians alike — using LSD, brain implants, and worse — in an apparent attempt to transform their test subjects into brain-dead, yet obedient walking zombies?

As it turns out, the conspiracy nuts may have got that one right after all. Fortunately for those of us inquiring minds who want to know, but haven't the time or inclination to sift through the 18,000 or so documents about such things as Project MK-Ultra declassified through the Freedom Of Information Act, writer Jason Ciaccia and illustrator Aaron Norhanian have provided us with the next best thing: They've turned it into a comic book.

Using the Graphic Novel medium, The Sinister Truth: Project MK-Ultra tells the entire story of the C.I.A.'s infamous mind control project, in both an easy-to-follow narrative as well as with striking, often graphic images that are a cross between the wigged-out psychedelic art of someone like R. Crumb, and the pornier cartoons you'll find in the back pages of Playboy. Given the subject matter, it makes for a potent and appropriate mix.

Conspiracy fodder aside, the story itself is wilder and further out there than anything you'll read in an Ian Flemming novel — the James Bond author was sought out for advice about the "Cuba problem" by none other than JFK, by the way.

There's a colorful cast of characters including a Mad Doctor, "The Beard," and your usual garden variety of government spooks. Yet bits of it are backed by government documents verifying the story, many of which are annotated at the bottom of the pages, while others are reproduced in the back of the book.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

Visit Glen Boyd's author page — Glen Boyd's Blog