Olympus

Olympus

Although coming out from Humanoids and published in a European-style hardcover, Olympus features two creative names familiar to superhero fans. Butch Guice draws and Geoff Johns co-writes, with Kris Grimminger, this fantasy-themed action thriller, reprinted from an earlier paperback.

Typical of Guice’s style, the people are pretty and many of the panels look like snapshots. His work doesn’t flow; there’s no sense of action or movement, but the staging is attractive, often framed around shots of the female characters that look as though they could have been magazine photos.

Olympus drawn by Butch Guice

Olympus

Sisters Sarah and Rebecca are in Greece as part of a summer research trip. Rebecca is there to study archeology; Sarah is there to get out of the US and be decorative in a bikini. Whoops, that’s the artist’s motive, not the character’s.

Anyway, Professor Walker has taken the girls and another student, Brent, on a dive, where they find Pandora’s Box, only it’s a jar. A huge storm blows up, during which their boat is boarded by a band of well-armed desperadoes. They’re all shipwrecked together on a mysterious island populated by the monsters of Greek mythology, and they must resentfully cooperate to survive.

Olympus page by Butch Guice

As the story proceeds, there are squabbles within and between the two groups as they start getting picked off one by one by Cyclops, man-eating birds, Medusa, and a minotaur. At about a hundred pages, it’s a brisk read, with emphasis on the action.

The obvious concept is competently executed in a fashion that isn’t particularly memorable. There were times when, due to Guice’s storytelling, I wasn’t sure of the details of what was happening, but that wasn’t really the point. It’s to move quickly through the ride, finding out which threat comes next on the quest. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)



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