''O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce'' is an American four-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

mini-series about the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous team of fictional

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

s. It was created by actress

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include ''He Got Game'' (1998), '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

, writer David Atchison and illustrator Tony Shasteen. Dawson also lends her likeness to main character Sophia Ortiz.

Publication history

The series debuted in ''O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce Heroes Con Preview'' #1, published in June 2006 by

12 Gauge Comics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. ''O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce'' #1 debuted one month later after a move to 12 Gauge Comics and Image Comics.

Background

The Occult Crimes Taskforce is a fictitious group of New York Police investigators who patrol a district of New York primarily populated by practitioners of magic. The "Otherground", as the denizens refer to it, is the 'Extant', the location that connects the Earth with another dimension.

Overview

There is an old and forgotten resolution in recesses of the City of New York Annotated Code of Ordinances mandating the creation of a taskforce in the Manhattan Police Department specifically designed to deal with crimes of occult origin. The primary mission of the OCT’s is to serve and protect the Manhattan populace from magical contaminations, Rogue Ceteri (creatures from the dimension beyond) and Tainted, practitioners who exploit magic for personal gain at expense of the citizenry. Contrary to general assumption, the OCT is not a large, sweeping conspiracy. It is a small, elite task force of officers dealing with a problem only they can. The entire operation is no larger than 250 full-time officers, investigators and auxiliary personnel. The OCT precinct is located near the epicenter of the Extant in an area of Manhattan informed Tainted and Ceteri refer to as the "Otherground". Due to the Otherground’s proximity to the Extant's epicenter, it is a hotbed of magical activity and a haven for Ceteri and Tainted alike. Like Shangri La,

Avalon Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...

and the Garden of Eden, only Tainted individuals and Ceteri can actually see the Otherground and spells of concealment prevent the average person from viewing it.

Fictional history

1600s

In Occult Crimes Taskforce (OCT) continuity historians claim

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Wallonian merchant from Tournai, in present-day Belgium. He was the 3rd Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New ...

purchased the Isle of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in 1626 from

Wappinger The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...

Indian Tribe for 60 Dutch Guilders or $24. What the historians don’t know is why the tribe sold the island for such a low price. The Wappingers had been plagued by demons, ravaged by

werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...

and haunted by spirits. Their

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

s cast a spell blocking passage from the Alternate Universe, but knew the spell was a temporary solution at best. When Minuit made his offer the Wappingers saw it as an opportunity to avenge themselves for the injustices they suffered at the hands of the early settlers. Things remained peaceful on

for nearly two centuries, but eventually the Wappinger’s barrier dissolved and conflict arose. Those closest to the extant center suffered the worst casualties. Those living farther out saw their lives minimally effected. The OCT was created shortly after the barrier breach as a means of minimizing MERlin contamination and protecting citizens. With the barrier broken and magical energies once again flowing from the extant, the area around the epicenter began to attract magical beings from across the planet.

1800s

Formed in the 19th century, the Occult Crimes Taskforce is a covert police unit composed of the Manhattan Investigators and "Ceteri", supernatural beings from the dimension beyond, who have pledged their existence to the protection of mankind. Together, man and monster have secretly defended Manhattan for over 200 years.

Collected editions

The series has been collected in a trade paperback: *''Occult Crimes Taskforce'' (152 pages, Image Comics, June 2007, )

Other media

Film

The Occult Crimes Taskforce film rights were acquired by Dimension Films in September 2006.

Television series

A&E Network announced that they were working on an ''OCT'' TV show in March 2012, with Jorge Zamacona as the script writer. He is also a producer along with the comic's creators Dawson, Atchison, Gilmore and Shasteen, and '' The Walking Dead'' producer

Gale Anne Hurd Gale Anne Hurd (born October 25, 1955) is an American film and television producer, the founder of Valhalla Entertainment (formerly Pacific Western Productions), and a former recording secretary for the Producers Guild of America. Early life Hu ...

Notes

References

* *

External links

*
12 Gauge Comics
*{{IMDb title, id=0871437, title=O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce

Reviews

Comics Bulletin Comics Bulletin was a daily website covering the American comic-book industry. History Silver Bullet Comicbooks The site was founded in January 2000 as Silver Bullet Comicbooks by its New Zealand-based publisher/editor Jason Brice. During this ...

2006 comics debuts