Drome

by Jesse Lonergan

Jesse Lonergan rewrites the rules of graphic novels with Drome, a visually mind-blowing epic about war, love, and death in a fledgling world.

First, there was nothing. Then, humanity was born, and an endless cycle of violence began. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess is called forth to rein in humankind’s destructive impulses, and teach a language of peace and harmony. Civilization quickly takes root, a great city rising from the desert. But the balance between chaos and order is a fragile one, and there are higher powers at work in this strange new world.

Creator Jesse Lonergan pushes the boundaries of the comics medium in this visually spectacular epic. In turns pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Drome is a creation myth for the modern age.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction, Mythology

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 19, 2025

About the author

I grew up in Saudi Arabia and Vermont, attended Hampshire College, was a Peace Corps volunteer, and have always been an only child. I'll never be a real uncle, but I'll be a pretend to be one to my friends' children. I like Star Wars, Elvis, and black coffee. I don't like waiting in line, whistling, or writing biographies about myself. I'm worried about the state of modern America and the individualism and self-importance that has become the norm. There seems to be a lot of loneliness out there and a lot of anger too, but then again, maybe I just like to worry.

Reviews

[Hosein · Rating 5 out of 5]

بهترین کمیک ۲۰۲۵ بود، شک دارم هم هیچ چیزی بخونم که از این بهتر باشه.

همینقدر می‌تونم بگم که اون جمله‌ای که توی توضیحاتشه و داره می‌گه کلا کمیک رو به شکل جدیدی تصور کرده و دیده اغراق نیست، همینقدر نوآورانه و جدیده.

داستان هم تقریبا بی‌نقصه، فقط می‌تونم توضیح بدم که بیشتر مربوط می‌شه به "اساطیر نو" و خیلی رفرنس داره به اساطیر بین النهرین و آفریقا. داستان هم قوی تر از اونی بود که انتظار داشت، اینطوری نیست که جدا باشه از طراحی یا پنل ها، همشون ترکیب شدن با هم دیگه.

حتما بخونین، حتی اگه از کمیک خوشتون نمیاد احتمالا این براتون جالبه.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Savage She-Hulk and Red Hulk play out a version of the Gilgamesh epic and cross paths with Cain and Abel in this extended fight scene cum creation myth.

Not something I really needed . . .


(Best of 2025 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:

• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2025
• Publishers Weekly 2025 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2025: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels

This book made the WaPo list.)

[Sunny Carito · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a NetGalley review copy. It’s one of the most incredible comics I’ve ever seen. The art takes everything you can do with panels, light, color, geometry and pushes them well past the limit. The story is mythic, epic, visceral. Very little dialog but you don’t miss it. I don’t feel like I can really describe the plot or characters, but if you like mindblowing comics, this one is for you. It’s one of the first times I felt like the scope and layout and movement of a comic worked particularly well reading it on a tablet in a digital format.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drome is Jesse Lonergan's longest individual piece yet, and it utilizes his penchant for cosmic level storytelling and ambitious paneling to its full extent. A landmark work from Lonergan has been Hedra, a short one-off one-shot issue where he flexes his ability to deliver a wordless story through an expert unique use of sequential storytelling. The emphasis on layered grids, repeating panels and breaking of formalism allowed for a showcase of a much more unique contemporary artist, though this hasn't really led to repeat quality in the years that followed the release of Hedra. Lonergan has collaborated with others on various comics, but it seems that his best work continues to be pieces he has full narrative control on (see also Planet Paradise and Faster as two short comics featuring his vibrant paneling and layouts).

But with Drome, Lonergan gets to really push himself to the same level that he reached with Hedra. A creation myth of sorts, Drome opens with a pair of gods creating life and time, and witnessing the carnage that follows. The universe crafted is unfamiliar to our own, having undergone some form of divergent evolution whereby a barbarian-esque society functions with high fantasy and sci-fi elements, but the mythology works well within Lonergan's artistic voice. The gods create a few demigod/minor deities as well, who serve as the primary characters of the largely wordless story. The civilization we observe is warlike and violent, so the action is prevalent and engaging as Lonergan depicts every scene with captivating energy and explosiveness. It's also with the vibrant use of color that Lonergan continues to shine, shifting from deep colors in the recesses of space to a muddier palette for the grime and gore of the world below the gods of creation. And despite the relative lack of dialogue and text, Drome is a relatively simple follow along with some nice subversive twists that work even despite the lightness of the narrative.

[Peacegal · Rating 5 out of 5]

DROME is a graphic novel that really has to be seen to be believed and appreciated. It's an epic of world-shaping sorcery, prehistorically-proportioned creatures, and vengeful gods. It reminded me somewhat of the early '80s animated movie "Heavy Metal," albeit with a less adolescent tone.

Imagine a musical score composed entirely of doom metal and fall into this roiling lava pit of a graphic novel.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been years in the making now, and having followed it since its inception on Patreon, it's very cool to finally read it fully and in print.

Clearly a spiritual successor to his excellent Hedra, Jesse Lonergan takes the formal experimentation and applies it to his own creation myth. What was punchy in a 50 page book isn't necessarily over 300 pages, but Lonergan gives himself room to breath, and gives the story more of a focus.

That's not to say that there aren't some gorgeous and exciting visual moments in here, on the contrary. But it's not quite as relentlessly innovative as Hedra was. It's also much sillier, featuring fighting crabs and swinging sharks.

But I think that's what makes it work. It's a pretty hefty book, but I read it in an evening. Obviously, it doesn't have a lot of words, but it also keeps you hooked all the way. And with the way it ends, I'm curious to see if he's got more up his sleeve !

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this “as it was written” - kind of - on Jesse’s Patreon. As amazing as it was to see then, having the finished product shows his groundbreaking approach to sequential art and a commitment to letting the story flow. Fantastic.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely creative and gorgeous book about love and war. A powerful story about sacrifice. Why does god give us the toughest battles, and why are the toughest battles always related to love and loss. How many giant crabs do I need to stab or kingdoms do I need to conquer to be happy when compared to just being in love and finding an equal partner. This is a must read. I will read this again in a few years to see if I can glean more from the story.

[Peter Drummond · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways, I think Drome is the kind of New Gods book I’ve always wanted, with beings from beyond the stars plucking their random chosen from the violent primordial masses of the pale and hungry world below…

[Jerry Chen]

Some of the coolest paneling I've ever seen.

[Taylor Quinn Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an art book I’d rate this 4 stars. As a graphic novel it’s more of a 3. It’s light on story. This one runs mostly on vibes. I respect the artistry and experimentation so I think it deserves a 4.

Many of the 2 page spreads are meant to be sat with for a beat and enjoyed as a whole, rather than focusing on some of the individual panels. Some of the pages get really busy with intersecting negative space white lines. This makes for some unique effects but also sometimes just looks a bit busy. At times the visual storytelling suffers with this approach. On some pages and panels it all comes together and really works.

The ideas behind the story are interesting, but this book is very light in dialogue. There are no text boxes to show characters thoughts. Only reaction shot close ups of their facial expressions.

Lonergan’s art looks great. His style is captivating. Paired with a really good script and some direction/collaboration, Lonergan is capable of making some very iconic graphic novels.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing art style, a good point of view of a very simple and very old story. It doesn't take long to read it, but it takes long to consider it. Being thought-provoking is always a win with me. There are also so many fun little details. Like how Red and Blue weren't a singular colour at that battle close to the city. I think a lot of meaningful details were scattered around in the story that you're gonna have to read to see. Talking about it would spoil all the fun.
And I'm sure different people are gonna walk away from having formed their own different idea of the story, of its meaning and their own take on its details.

[Paulo Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 1/2

[rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why I read it: We were at a bookstore and we stopped to flip through this. I was immediately arrested by the art style and colour scheme, so of course we bought it.

Thoughts: Wonderful stuff. I want seven more volumes. The story itself is fine. Like, aggressively fine. A couple of gods play out a little creation myth that spins out into unforseen consequences. Nothing super out there, I guess (the gods should really know better by now). But the way the story is told, the colour work, the panelling -- wonderful. Superb. Never read anything like it before. I felt things.

Would I read more from this author: Yes.

Would I recommend it: Yes.

Keep or cull: Absolutely keep. Maybe even keep nearby, like on my nightstand, so I can occasionally flip through it and be wowed all over again.

[ShamNoop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. Lonergan is beyond legendary in his use of panels and layouts and space.

[Javier RC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually striking 👌

[Alexander Dye · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art, the colors,.the mythos, this was such a unique and beautiful book. I couldn't recommend it more.

[Soteralzobooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Excellente trame. Le découpage et le montage sont à l’honneur, très audacieux et hyper innovateur. Magnifique œuvre!

[Aves Trainor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost wordless comic, but entirely coherent narrative. I loved the visual story telling. Quasi biblical, somewhat similar to Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. This would be an attractive wordless animation with music. Complete in that it sticks the landing in a one shot.

[Paul Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Jesse Lonergan’s work from the time I first saw it. This was back in the summer of 2020, with Image Comics’ publication of Hedra, a 50-plus page silent sci-fi comic one-shot printed in oversized newspaper format. The format and subject choices alone were enough for me to make it an automatic physical purchase. But all those (good) choices mattered less than the actual cartooning. What I found when I opened Hedra was nothing short of a revelation, a cartoonist who was a top-tier storyteller and also seemed to have a deep curiosity for toying with the boundaries of comics as a medium, like Chris Ware if he wanted to get deep and think-y with outsized genre stories.

I was immediately hooked, and I have since read every project Lonergan has worked on, from the under-the-radar-but-excellent graphic novel Arca to the Mike Mignola collaboration to the few pages he contributed to DC Comics most recent New Gods series. All of that work has been excellent. If you’ve read any of Lonergan’s comics, you know what he does with grids and page layouts and intricate details packed into surprising spaces. Their aesthetics could not be more different, but discovering Lonergan’s comics reminds me of when I saw the first Wes Anderson’s movies as a teenager — in that both creators put their mark on their mediums by forging a unique visual language. When you read a Lonergan comic, your brain fires dopamine at every page turn, taking in every choice and every detail, almost independent from the narrative.

All of that said, I had started to feel of late as if Lonergan’s best work was yet to come. As he put out book’s like Man’s Best Friend or a stand alone story in a color-themed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles anthology, I started to feel like I was witnessing a master-level cartoonist in search of his masterpiece, of the book that would put him up there as one of the most exciting cartoonists of this generation. With the publication of Drome, that masterpiece has arrived.

Drome is Lonergan’s longest and most ambitious project to date. The 300-plus page book is a feudal-tinged, sci-fi creation myth. It uses dialogue sparingly, while fully embracing the utilization/shattering of grid boundaries that is the hallmark of Lonergan’s work. It has romance and hubris and contemplations of violence. And it’s absolutely gorgeous from start to finish.

It’s almost hard for me to pick what elements to drill down on . The characterization is strong — from the gods to the human beings under their gaze — and the narrative arc is, indeed, an engrossing one. Even without Lonergan’s playful tweaking of comics craft, Drome is a great read on the merits of its story. But one thing that struck me as especially well done in the book, and perhaps even this book’s secret weapon, was the way that Lonergan uses color.

Maybe that’s an obvious point, given that the book is divided into sections with colors as their titles, but on the opening pages of Drome, before the comics even start, there are bars of primary colors, of the familiar CMYK colors, in fact, that comics printing has long been built upon, dating back to their own genesis. It looks great the way Lonergan uses these colors, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his plotting used those shades as inspiration. But as I read, I started to derive more meaning from their presence (often with the god scenes). It felt like I was taking in an almost ineffable contemplation of those colors as building blocks of both comics and stories and maybe even life. It’s something I need to think about more, and I’m happy to do so. Hell, I may even need to give this one another read before the year as out.

But that might also just be me as a reviewer proscribing undue meaning to an aesthetic choice that was made simply because it’s cool (to be fair, that’s a big part of the job of a comics reviewer). So, I don’t want to lose site of this either — as deep as you want to get with Drome, this book is just badass and awesome and cool on its genre merits. The characters are big and they punch hard. They punch giant crabs (among other things) and they fight guys who have a dozen swords and they box with the most primal powers of the universe.

In this way, Drome speaks to nearly everything that I personally love about comics. It’s a masterful display of craft, and it’s one that pairs up lofty philosophical ideas with face-pounding genre badassery. It’s a comic that might expand your thoughts around the nature of the universe on one page, before a big freaking fire guy split into two dozen panels erupts on the next, getting ready to punch things. Simply put, I think it deserves a full recommendation to any and all comics readers.

[Cody Wilson]

Drome is cartoonist Jesse Lonergan’s masterpiece, easily the most innovative and exciting graphic novel I’ve read this year. Lonergan’s choice to construct every page on a five-by-seven grid is ambitious and frankly, a little insane. Over the course of roughly three hundred pages, he constantly finds new ways to subvert this structure, with characters pushing against and often leaping over panel borders. Thanks to his formalistic trickery, readers must take in each page as a whole just to figure out how to read it. However, Lonergan demonstrates a keen sense for guiding the eye, and moments of confusion remain relatively rare. Few artists in American comics are operating on this level of visual experimentation.

In terms of the story itself, Lonergan fuses together aspects of various creation myths into a veritable epic. With minimal dialogue, he largely conveys his ideas visually, arguable the purest way to craft comics. His visual themes and motifs are clever, as is his color-coding of the limited cast of main characters. Each character’s mannerisms and tics are distinctive and memorable. Lonergan succeeds in building toward climactic confrontations, such as a battle against a fiery agent of chaos and an interstellar bullfight. Trying to summarize the plot in words does the narrative a disservice. Drome often reminds me of Jim Starlin’s psychedelic cosmic epics from the 70s, while the fight choreography evokes the work of Frank Miller. But Lonergan is never derivative, with a loose inking style and approach to digital coloring that are uniquely his own.

Lonergan has crafted a work that is unadaptable to another medium, unambiguously celebratory of the comics medium. I cannot recommend this graphic novel enough and hope Lonergan receives his deserved accolades at the Eisner Awards so that Drome can reach a wider audience.

[Randy Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lonergan weaves a powerful and captivating mythology, but it is the way Lonergan uses the comics form that sets DROME apart from other graphic novels. Sometimes it is a simple innovation for showing motion, such as the path of an arrow as a thin white line cutting through black panels. There is a sixteen-page sword fight that holds the reader spellbound due to Lonergan’s page layouts, panel shapes, and composition of images within the panel.

In DROME, comics panels exist not just as containers for moments of the story, but as part of the fabric of reality in the world of the story. Characters’ relationships with the panel grid illustrate their power differentials. Most of the beings in this world must struggle up through the grid to be born. However, the gods can reach down into the grid, through panel borders, to pull up their favored creations into being.

When the heroine of the story bull rides a force of nature it disrupts reality in the diegesis and on the page. The characters in the story experience endless days, with no sunset. The reality of the reading experience is also disrupted. The fearsome cosmic battle jumbles rows of panels and causes columns of panels to split apart.

When the heroine, in her quest to confront the gods, falls through the ground into a different plane of existence there is not merely a difference in the panel shapes, but a new level of reality - new physical laws for the functioning of panels and pages. Creatures in this dimension can move behind, in front of, and through panels. The heroine adapts to these physical laws, crawling and through and climbing over panels to reach the gods.

Lonergan uses the comics form to convey concepts that would be difficult to communicate with words. Seldom has recognition and appreciation of the comics form been so integral to understanding and enjoying a graphic novel.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavily influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh, Lonergan's novel is pure graphic storytelling at its finest. By that, I mean the book as written could not be done justice in any other medium -- the way most comics could easily be adapted to animation, film, or even into novel formats --; this uses the medium to its full potential to tell a visual story that is designed to be experienced on the page. Any adaptation would strip the work of its essential qualities.

This particular reconfiguration of the classic Gilgamesh myth is fresh enough to stand alone as its own piece of mythic storytelling, but those familiar with the Babylonian epic will know the framework of this book: A godlike ruler, a nature boy, a relationship that can't be broken by death, hunting the undefeatable monster, fighting the Bull of Heaven, seeking out the gods to find a way to bring back the dead -- it's all there. But everything has been remixed -- the gods are different, some other elements of jealousy and sabotage are woven in with Biblical elements (Cain and Abel, for instance).

But even though the influences are all recognizable, the end result transcends its individual parts -- the storytelling is so pristine and so perfectly suited to the medium, reading it is an experience that reminds you that comics are more than just storyboards for anime series and superhero films; at their best, they are unadaptable works of narrative art. Could I see this as a thrilling animated film? Sure -- but the filmmakers would have to make up for everything that would be lost in the process, replacing it with things that only film is capable of providing. I don't mean that it is ENTIRELY unadaptable, but only that it is a pure comic book experience as is, and it deserves to be read that way.

[Zac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw some very positive reviews of this before publication and it’s as good as the critics say. I don’t remember Hedra that well but this gets a similar rating and review. This is a bit more fantasy than I remember Hedra being - a bit La Planete Sauvage. Lonergan again works some of the time in a large grid (occasionally 35 panels), and it’s sometimes unclear initially how the contents of the panels spatially and chronologically relate to each other so you need to take each page as an entire work of art first and then delve in further to get the story. The art can be fairly simple - think ligne claire, Moebius-y figures for the humans - but the overall design is extremely inventive, with clever use of panel borders and white space. There are a bunch of fight scenes with big animals, bringing to mind Geof Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy. If all these references make this sound appealing to you, well, I reckon it’s even better than it sounds. The story has lovable heroes and a detestable bad guy and some other great side characters. It build up to a great climax, which is then followed by a trippy section with a satisfying ending. I hope this gets a wide distribution (my comic shop couldn’t order it in) because it’s a moving and really fun comic that shows a little of what you can do with the medium.

[drown_like_its_1999 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A god creates humanity and watches their ceaseless conflict until another deity decides they need a powerful entity to guide them. After sending their demigod down to earth to control and lead the people, the gods continue to meddle in humanity's progression by dispatching other aid and challenges. This soon leads to a conflict that requires sacrifice from humanity, the demigods, and the all powerful deities themselves.

Much like it's spiritual successor Hedra, Drome is an exercise in comics formalism that experiments with the interplay between panelling and composition. The choices therein are generally quite satisfying, especially in how characters actions impact the structure / organization of scenes. Drome also did a good job separating itself from Hedra in the application of this effect, using characters to manipulate the scene structure instead of being manipulated by it as was Hedra's predilection. That being said, I didn't find many of the panelling choices quite as novel or effective as I did in Hedra and being spread over a much larger page count made the effect less impactful. Furthermore, panel gutters are often used just to illustrate movement and don't really result in the scenes being framed in an interesting way, though providing a unique visual aesthetic. If the narrative was more creative or complex then perhaps this wouldn't have mattered to me much, but given the story's simplicity all there really was to focus on was the visual presentation. The structural experimentation did ramp up near the end though and I quite liked the 3D panelling elements and Gerads like use of chromatic aberration.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesse Lonergan has quietly been one of the most consistently inventive and surprising creators in the field of comics for years now. Anyone who has been paying attention to his career knew he had an absolute masterpiece somewhere in the pipeline and it's finally here: "Drome" is that masterpiece. On every level - formally, artistically, narratively, creatively - this graphic novel is perfect. Lonergan's fluid artwork practically moves on its own across his tightly designed pages (I swear I could even hear sound effects as I was reading it) and his plot and world-building are absolutely exquisite; this a modern myth that deserves a place amongst the classics of history. I turned the pages so fast they were practically on fire from the friction (it's the tragic beauty of comics that they take so damn long to make and, when done this elegantly, they're so easy to devour). I've only read it once (so far) and it's already probably in my personal Top 5 of Greatest Comics Of All-Time.

[S.Matt Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wild ride!

The story and creation of this world is nothing short of jaw-dropping. With two gods making up the rules as they go, the earth rumbles into existence with every manner of beast and humanoid, all battling to the death. The civilization that emerges is one based on brute strength, but it's a fragile peace.

Drome is not a wordless book, but there might be a few hundred words in the entire 312-page book. Long stretches are wordless, and it's here that the book engages the reader. The author tells so much of the story through wordless action, but he also uses panels, the gutter between the panels, colors, and blank space to heighten action, imply movement, or add to an emotional reaction.

Drome explores the potential inherent in the comic form. It's a delightful challenge for those used to the 6-to-9 panel page. Read it and be amazed! The mixture of image, story, and excellent cartooning will win over readers young and old.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three cheers for Drome!

Drome is a mythological, epic story that draws heavily on the Epic of Gilgamesh (though, I also noticed some Biblical, Greco-Roman, and Norse influences too).

The dialogue is minimal, so it takes a bit of work piecing the narrative together. For the most part, however, it is fairly straightforward: The gods create a beastly male demigod and female demigod to reign humans in. They fall in love and go on conquests together. Of course, you know that the course of true love never does run smooth (if you’ve read Gilgamesh, you already know where this is going).

The art is spectacular here. The characters are drawn to be both fearful and lovable. Lornegan does things with comic panels that I’ve never seen done before. And the colors!

It’s no wonder this book is getting so much hype! What a fun read.

[Aliyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visually stunning graphic novel that contemplates life, death, love, and hate. An epic and an origin story that pulls from some of the greats (Orpheus and Eurydice, Chiron and the River Styx are two of note) and yet never fails to present an original twist. The storyline of the antagonist was particularly engaging.

The panels were occasionally too busy, making it a bit hard to focus and hard to follow the progression of the page. But the story was so riveting that it can be pushed past fairly easily.

Readers of epics may enjoy this foray into the graphic novel, and fans of Saga may want to step out of their sci-fi comfort zone to enjoy this work. It's worth the risk.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Macmillan - 23rd St. for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Ingrid Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, there was nothing. Then, humanity was born, and an endless cycle of violence began. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess is called forth to rein in humankind’s destructive impulses and teach a language of peace and harmony.

The artwork is beautiful, but I fear the story it was telling was a little above me.
What I got from it was that man will always try  to destroy what it does not understand or can not control, and the gods will always play games with the lives and destiny of humans.

Recommended  Expected publishing date 8/19/2025

Thanks to @netgalley and First Sexond Books/23rd St.  for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion