DIA Comic Book:
World-Building
Translating complex agency capabilities into an engaging graphic novel to recruit top-tier talent.
The Challenge
The Defense Intelligence Agency needed a compelling way to showcase the reality and impact of their work without violating classification rules. Traditional recruitment brochures failed to capture the dynamic, high-stakes environment.
Initial sketches and layout.
The Strategy
It started as a simple task. DIA was presenting at Spy Day at the International Spy Museum and they wanted to look cool since other agencies had cool swag while DIA had 'boring' pamphlets. The first comic book was quick-turned in about three days for the event, written and illustrated by Mike West. The goal was to find a way to showacse DIA's role in a digestable way.
The follow-up issue "The Killer Robots of Badlandia" was a followup a few years later that targete the risks with Supply Chain Resource Management. It featured better illustrations, a more fun story that still managed to be grounded in actual US strategic concerns.
The Impact
The plausible story, jargon-free dialogue and an easy-to-follow plot all explain how the DIA works across the U.S. Defense Department and other parts of the federal government, raising awareness of a “whole-of-government” approach to solving difficult national security problems.
As one of the few products that can be shared with family members and friends external to the DIA, hard and electronic copies of the comic book have been widely disseminated among employees, job candidates, college students, high-profile visitors to agency headquarters and more. The issue is also available on the agency’s website, DIA.mil.
Feedback to the comic book has been overwhelmingly positive, with many people asking about storylines for subsequent issues. Agency recruiters have also cited the comic book’s popularity at public events attracting people across demographic categories.