Orpheus in the Underworld by Yvan Pommaux (review)

In this graphic novel version of the Orpheus myth, lush artwork tells the story as much as the brief text. The story follows the traditional lines: dreamy Orpheus plays his lyre, meets Eurydice, loses her and tries to retrieve her from Hades, and then is beheaded by bitter women. Short blocks of text (in small print) and occasional speech bubbles tell the tale, but art is the truly memorable element here. Pommaux’s pencil and ink drawings have a formal stillness that’s highly effective for the traditional subject. The scenes from the underworld are particularly dramatic, with the author/illustrator using dark, rich shading to full effect. The ending is a bit baffling in its brevity (clearly the focus in this retelling is the romance, not Orpheus’ death), and the pronunciation guides throughout the text would have been less distracting as an endnote, but those are fairly minor concerns in what is otherwise a thought-provoking, elegant outing that both myth and graphic novel fans will appreciate. A map, character guide, and index round out the tale.