In Persephone, the Greek God Hades gets shot with a love arrow and falls in love. In iZombie Vol. 4, Gwen and friends have to deal with a zombie apocalypse and other supernatural happenings. In Plume, Vesper and her supernatural guardian travel through the Old West on a quest for revenge. Enjoy my mini reviews for these three graphic novels!
Persephone by Allison Shaw
I had been searching for a graphic novel about Hades and Persephone, something with a sweet romance rather than a dark, erotic one, when I stumbled upon the Kickstarter campaign for this, the exact thing I was looking for. But, even though I did like some things about this, I ended up being disappointed. I liked how this author/artist kept the same general story but made it into her own version with little twists and variations. I love the idea of good guy Hades and of his romance with Persephone being a healthy, respectful one. I didn't love the idea of them only falling in love because of Eros's arrows, but the arrows made for pretty art at least. And it was pretty art. There wasn't much detail, at least not in the background usually, but I liked the style and the colors used. Hades was like a beautiful, dark, old school romance novel cover model. My problem though was that it was so short and rushed that there wasn't any depth or chance to explore the relationship, emotions, or even the characters. But overall this was a sweet, albeit simplified, retelling of Hades and Persephone with pretty artwork.
iZombie Vol. 4: Repossession by Chris Roberson, Michael Allred
I still liked the pretty art, great characters, and fun supernatural stuff, however, this was my least favorite of the series. I liked it when these were just about a zombie girl playing detective with her ghost and were-terrier best friends, monster hunter boyfriend, and hot mummy acquaintance, but this volume went full-blown saving-the-world-from-the-apocalypse. The story felt a little out of control and was less character-focused, and the ending was one that I personally didn't like. Also, some sections were done by a different artist, and that art style was very much not to my taste. So overall it was a good series, but the final volume was somewhat of a disappointment for me.
Plume by K. Lynn Smith
*This review is for the entire series.*
This was a fun fantasy western webcomic. It required a lot of suspension of disbelief (mostly for the non-paranormal aspects, but the logic for some of the paranormal was iffy too), but I enjoyed it. I liked the Old West setting. The characters were likeable and had some development. (Side note: *SPOILER* I feel like Dom actually had the most depth, even though he was kind of a side character and was the antagonist for a while. Really, he was just doing the same thing Vesper was. He wanted to kill his dad's killer. And he lost his dad when he was young, which left him kind of lost, I think. The guy didn't even know how to get by other than gambling and stealing, which wasn't ok but was kind of sad. I felt kinda bad for him. He was a coward most of the time, but then he was brave. He earned some of my respect by the end. *END SPOILER*) The art had a unique style that I thought was pretty, and it was full color, super clear, and easy to see. Overall, this was a fun, albeit somewhat bittersweet, read.
*Note: This review is based on the webcomic. Other formats may have differences I am not aware of.*
A Persephone graphic novel? Color me intrigued. This one sounds interesting and kind of like a twist that I may squeal over. I have yet to read iZombie, but I’m sorry to hear that the fourth volume wasn’t as good. Great reviews!!
There should be more sweet GNs about Persephone and Hades, right?? I’d still rec iZombie, despite my thoughts on the last one. And who knows, maybe you would like it more!
Of all of these, I think Plume sounds the most interesting. I do love western elements in my speculative fiction😁
I did enjoy it! And I love SFF westerns too!
iZombie is a favorite show of mine, but I’ve never read the graphic novels. I’ll have to look into them, even if this volume wasn’t the best.
I’ve never seen the show, glad to hear it’s good!
Sorry you didn’t like Persephone more. I have been super interested in it because my facebook ads keep giving me snippets of it. (At least I think its the same, it looks very similar)
I still thought it had pretty art at least! And maybe you’d like it more 🙂
I had meant to dive into graphic novels more this year but that got blown out of the water by my move. And Amazon Prime had dozens of them (usually 1st issues) to read so that was a fun way to dabble to see what I liked but not there aren’t many to choose from.
These all sound pretty good even though they weren’t stand outs.
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
I didn’t realize Amazon Prime had any GNs, but that does sound like a good way to just test some out!
I did enjoy these. I wouldn’t not rec them, if that makes sense. They just didn’t blow me away.
Well I must confess from all these Persephone is the one that attracts me. Probably the drawing … So, all liked but not loved right? Too bad 🙁
All liked but not loved is a good summary of the post lol. But if you just want to look at pretty art, Persephone does have a lot of that 🙂
Ooh some GN reviews. Plume has me curious because I’m kinda interested in anything vaguely Weird West- related these days, so the paranormal aspects get my attention a bit. and I’d like to try more webcomics!
It was good! I did enjoy it, and you know I like my Weird West stuff too!
Sorry you didn’t LOVE any of these. I read the iZombie graphic novels a couple years ago maybe and I enjoyed them. I’m FINALLY starting to watch the show.
-Lauren
Yeah, I did enjoy iZombie overall, I was just disappointed in the ending. I haven’t seen the show, I hope it’s good!
I am actually. Sometimes the artwork just doesn’t work for me, and as graphic novels are half told through the drawings it does impact my enjoyment of the book. I never realised that most of the Persephone Hades books were all erotica romances >.> But I am sorry that even though this was what you were looking for, it wasn’t really that good. Izombie sounds like it just got a bit out of hand at this point… But Plume sounds like a good read! Just not amazing… which happens sometimes.
I definitely feel the same. The art is such a big part of the enjoyment of GNs. I mean, maybe there are some sweet Hades and Persephone romances out there, I just seem to always come across BDSM-esque ones lol. I would definitely rec Plume! I did enjoy it! It’s just like you said, it was good, it just didn’t blow me away.
Linda Sejic has been working on an awesome ‘Punderworld’ Persephone/Hades webcomic: https://www.deviantart.com/sigeel/gallery/68481640/comic-strips 🙂
I’ll have to check that out!