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I adore Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus on Webtoon (it was one of the comics I recommended in my blog post about Webtoon), so I was thrilled when they announced there would be a physical paper edition. My preorder arrived last week and it is everything I’d hoped for.
Billed as “Witness what the gods do… after dark”, Lore Olympus tells the story of Hades and Persephone with a modern-infused setting and retro art. In Volume 1, Hades is smitten by Persephone at her first party on Olympus, and offends Aphrodite by saying Persephone is even more beautiful than the Goddess of Love. Aphrodite retaliates by having her son Eros stuff a passed-out Persephone in the back of Hades’s car, leading to the disoriented young goddess waking up in the Underworld. Hades knows the realm of death is no place for the Goddess of Spring. Plus, he has a girlfriend (even if she’s awful), and Persephone is just embarking on her eternal adulthood, living on Olympus with her roommate Artemis. Artemis’s brother Apollo, however, doesn’t have the same sense that Persephone is off-limits – not even when she tells him so herself.
Oh, my gods. This is just so good.
Lore Olympus positions Persephone as a goddess newly arrived on Olympus after spending her childhood and teen years being raised by her mother Demeter in the Mortal Realm. She’s also still coming into her divine powers, which aren’t consistently under control (her hair, for instance, grows to Rapunzel-like lengths when her feelings run high). She is tentative, insecure, and a bit of a country bumpkin, and you just want someone to take her under their wing.
Hades is a terrific hero. While his fellow gods consider him the “undesirable” god of death, he actually has the strongest conscience and moral center of any of the Olympians. A scene where Zeus and Poseidon (well-established by Greek mythological canon as, well, dirtbags) take Hades to a strip club is both hilarious and effective in establishing how different this god is from his brothers. He dreams of a companion, a queen for his kingdom, but hates the thought of saddling someone with his unhappy duties. He doesn’t think of himself as worth much, either, hence his relationship with a verbally abusive nymph named Minthe he’s resigned himself to proposing to. I spent every encounter with Hades wanting to give him a hug.
The art is what skyrockets Lore Olympus to prominence among the scads of comics on Webtoon, and it looks glorious and rich in full-color print. (I advise springing for the hardcover edition. Full-color graphic novel pages are heavy, and I have yet to encounter a paperback spine that supports them for more than a couple of readings). Lore Olympus is defined by its dark/light color aesthetic, the rich navy blues of Hades and the Underworld set against Persephone’s shades of pink. I was worried that the blues might print excessively dark, but there’s a balance of depth and clarity in the colors, and it reads beautifully.
The author has done a terrific job transitioning the layouts from Webtoon’s vertical scroll format to the full pages of a graphic print edition. Page layouts vary in number of panels and their sizes and shapes, which gives energy and pacing as you read.
Persephone is drawn in a hyper-feminized, exaggerated pin-up hourglass form. I don’t adore this shape, but at least it exists in a way that isn’t (for lack of a better word) male gaze-y. Persephone has cleavage like crazy, but she’s not posed to shove her boobs into the viewer’s face, nor is she contorted into porn-like flauntings of hips etc. She is less a figure of lust and more like what happens to a squishy child’s toy when you hug it so hard the waist gets reduced to a handspan. If you follow Lore Olympus on Webtoon, you’ll notice that the author’s style has shifted since she drew the earliest episodes, with Persephone, in particular, becoming less extreme over time.
Lore Olympus is an adult telling of the Hades/Persephone myth. It has on-page date rape which, while not graphically illustrated, captures the confused mental experience of the victim in a compelling and upsetting way that requires a mature reader. Because this is only the first volume of a long series, this plot won’t be resolved here, nor will Hades and Persephone find their HEA. You’ll have to keep reading for that.
Hades and Persephone are a hugely popular incarnation of opposites attract/beauty and the beast, and Lore Olympus is by far the best spin on their story. Can you read it online for free? Sure. Will you want this graphic novel anyway? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
Buy it at Amazon or your local independent retailer
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Grade: A
Book Type: Graphic Novel
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 02/12/21
Publication Date: 11/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
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This won for best graphic novel in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2021!
I love the Webtoon, but perhaps I need to buy the print edition for the bookshelf. Great review!
They went all out to make a high-quality print copy. It is absolutely beautiful. So if you like being surrounded by visually appealing books, this is for you.
I’ve started reading this — the review persuaded me.
I first heard about it when I saw Twitter promos for it. Those promos had lots of biased comments from people who’d never seen the webtoon and who wanted to rant against it anyway because they were convinced that the Hades/Persephone story was all about rape and Stockholm Syndrome. And that there could never be another version or a new take. (There was more than one version even in Ancient Greece!) Save us from those people.
If you also saw those Twitter promos… The reproduction in the hardback looks much better than in the Twitter ad.
I’m delighted you’re trying it! Please let me know what you think!
Yess!!!
I completely love the Rachel Smythe version of Hades and of Persephone – they are both so wonderfully self – steered, making their own decisions, again and again, taking time outs and having other issues than each other – . and constantly check and double checking to give room and freedom to the other – they prefer to yearn and dream than to impose on the other, especially Hades.
Pah!! nothing at all to rape and Stockholm syndrome in this version!!!
Thank you for the review!
I love the webtoon version, – the weekly webtoon format is perfectly used by the author – she shines !! – it is a huge sprawling epos and nowhere near an end (last time I checked).
This freedom is lovely, how it gives space for the main story, and for various minor characters to get their time on page.
We see how the author has a whole vision of the Greek Gods’ world, modernized, a hugely enjoyable experience.
And that there is a whole growth arc for both Hades & Persephone, this is not just a love story, but a story of their lives.
The author also deals with the long lived / immortal cast in a very interesting way, with flashbacks and adjustments based on their long lives and many roles over that time (Hades: brother, ruler, abused prisoner, ,,,,)
It also means that there is no end. Obviously.
So for those who want a resolution, it will be a while…
So I have two questions:
How does all this translate to a printed format?
You tell us about the colors and the panels, so I know that it will be lovely to have something to physically look at and touch – but what about the stories? Is it different – more streamlined?
Do you know something about plans for an end of the series?
Thank you!
It is the same content as the Webtoon. The print edition has one added/outtake bonus scene but otherwise it’s the same, and goes from Ep. 1-25 of the online version (and yes, I think that’s in the 200s right now, so it would be an Investment to go for the whole series in paper!)
I have no idea what her plans are for finishing the story altogether, but Webtoon has a number of ended stories so I doubt her plan is to do it indefinitely. It seems now like the digital version is at a climax.
They have already scheduled the second print volume for release in June.
Does that answer your questions?
Thank you, Caroline, perfectly!! And thank you, it was your blog that made me look at WEBTOON, I had never engaged with that medium & art form before, and now I am happy that I broadened my horizon, Lore Olympus is amazing!
Sold!