Mini Review: Jesse Lonergan’s ‘Drome’

Every so often a graphic novel comes along that feels tailor-made for me. I love creative paneling, silent decompressed storytelling, sparse dialogue, lots of action, and avant garde adaptations of classical mythology. Drome delivered all of the above in spades and this will easily be my pick for favorite original graphic novel of the year!

Drome proves that a graphic novel doesn’t need to drown every page in dialogue and pretentious narrative captions to be considered literary. Discerning readers will recognize echos of Genesis, Gilgamesh, and the iconography of world mythology. Jesse Lonergan has creatively substituted the dragons and monsters of medieval epics for colossal crabs, snakes, and sharks. The result is a primordial world that feels analogous to a Ray Harryhausen film.

It’s not a new idea that comic books are a form of modern mythology. What makes Drome work as a contemporary myth is how Lonergan has boiled down epic narratives about human nature to their essential core. Lonergan doesn’t overly complicate the narrative with unnecessary world-building. The result is mythological in that any reader from any age or background can read and understand the narrative through imagery alone. Whatever wisdom, elixir, or great boon is gained from Drome will be personally subjective for every reader.

Drome is available now from 23rd Street Books.