You can take the animal out of the wild… but you can’t take the wild out of the animal.
Wild Thing is an ongoing horror-drama comic series about a fox named Magdalene who joins a religious cult of dogs who worship humans. Not all is as it seems however, as Magdalene soon comes to find that the cult's true intentions are more horrifying than the reason she left the woods to join them.
Wild Thing is a personal story about religious trauma from a queer perspective. Queer people are represented by wild animals, fundamentalists are represented by dogs, and the concept of God is represented by humans.
Wild Thing #1: Induction is currently in production and available to read online.
The Story
Magdalene knows all too well about how difficult it is to survive in the wild, and the uncertainty of what awaits after death looms over her like a dark shadow. She finds hope when she stumbles across Pure Heart Adoption Center, a home to dogs who follow a religion called the Friends of Man. The dogs preach of unlimited shelter, food, and water that come only to those who dedicate their lives to human masters. Their teachings of eternal life keep drawing Magdalene back to visit, but there’s a catch- she’s a wild animal. The Friends of Man tell her that if she wants to be adopted and therefore spared from damnation, she must leave the woods and her family behind forever. Stuck with a paw in both worlds, tensions rise as each side begs Magdalene to abandon the other. She is faced with a choice- give up her life to be a human’s pet, or stay in the woods at the cost of a hellish afterlife she’s not even sure exists?
The Characters
The woodborne- or “wilderns” as dogs call them- are the wild animals of the wood. Knowing the struggle of survival, they have grown to both revere and fear the forest they call home.
The cityborne are the domesticated dogs of suburbia, most of whom follow a religion called the Friends of Man. They believe all dogs are inherently sinful by the nature of their blood due to their wild ancestry. When man came and domesticated wolves, salvation arrived. Is it taught that the only hope for redemption is through cremation of their entire bodies at the hands of a human master, a process of purification which can only be carried out with ritual fire.
Behind Wild Thing
The story of Wild Thing is written based off my own experience growing up as a queer person with obsessive compulsive disorder in a Christian upbringing.
Some believe that a gay person can turn straight through heteronormative conditioning, but just like expecting a wild animal to act tame by placing it in a domestic environment, it is not within their control (or their right) to change one’s true nature.
While practices like conversion therapy have been widely banned, many Christian institutions continue to take advantage of queer youth through other means. Wild Thing is a commentary on the harm caused by these institutions.
I began writing Wild Thing in 2021 and illustrating it in 2024. It has been live since 2025.
