"The Odyssey" by Tim Mucci, Illustrated by Ben Caldwell, Rick Lacy, Emanuel Tenderini

Image Courtesy of: http://images.filedby.com/bookimg/1402/9781402731556.jpg

Bibliographic Citation

Title: The Odyssey

Author: Tim Mucci

Illustrator: Ben Caldwell, Rick Lacy, Emanuel Tenderini

Year of Publication: 2009

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Sterling

ISBN: 9781402731556

Author Website: No Author Website

Illustrator Website: http://www.actioncartooning.com/ & http://ricklacy.blogspot.com/ & No Author Website

Media Used for Artwork: pencil and digital colors

Fiction Graphic Novel

"The Classics Revisited" Group Project-  Please visit our presentation here to learn more about how this graphic novel and others can be used in a high school curriculum.

Annotation

Homer’s mythic tale of heroism, vengeance, and homecoming is re-written in graphic novel format. All of the pivotal characters and plot points are portrayed.

Personal Reaction

(Provided by S. Butts)

                I always loved mythology, going out of my way to read every story I could, memorizing all of the characters and their significance. The tales of Greek heroes still play a part in our modern conversation, and as evidenced by such titles as Percy Jackson, we as a culture still find importance in these literary icons. However, if a student is not gripped by the same love of these tales as many of us have, slogging through the Iliad and the Odyssey might be daunting. This All-Action Classics interpretation (#3 in a great series) makes the story accessible to a more general audience, while staying true to the original. The colorful artwork shows the beasts such as the Cyclops and Charybdis in all of their legendary horror, the goddesses’ unearthly beauty, and the underworld’s stark loneliness. Even better, the personalities of the characters are conveyed, from Odysseus’ cleverness to the petty rages and indifference of the gods. The illustrations all have a great sense of movement, conveying the stormy environment Odysseus was traveling through on his journey home.

Curricular connection: High school classic literature studies, sections on mythology, even world history. Best used in conjunction with the original text, and not stand-alone, as it assumes a familiarity with the characters.