Which Odyssey Graphic Novel Should You Read? 3 Editions Compared

For a teen or adult reading Homer’s Odyssey in comics for the first time, our pick is Gareth Hinds. His 256-page edition has room for both sides of the journey: a husband struggling to get home and a household struggling to survive his absence. For a younger monster enthusiast, the 104-page Usborne edition is a better first encounter.

1. Gareth Hinds gives Ithaca room to matter

The Cyclops is the easy sell. The harder sell is persuading someone to care about the men eating dinner back home. Odysseus has been away long enough for strangers to settle into his house, court his wife and treat his stores as their own. His son Telemachus has grown up in that house without the power to send them away. Remember the dinner guests when the story follows Odysseus out to sea. They are the reason that surviving the voyage will only get him halfway to what he wants.

Hinds both wrote and illustrated this adaptation. His watercolor art gives the sea room on the page, while a change in a face can carry the smaller business of someone deciding whether to trust a stranger. Start here if you want to get invested in Penelope and Telemachus as well as Odysseus. Candlewick lists the US hardcover for ages twelve and up and supplies interior spreads and a teacher guide.

2. Russell Punter and Fabiano Fiorin put the monsters within reach

A child who comes home asking about the giant with one eye already has a reason to open this book. Punter and Fiorin give that curiosity a short route into the adventure. Their Odysseus sets out from Troy with an island to reach and some exceptionally hungry creatures between him and home. The monsters make the journey easy to talk through together. How do you get past something too big to fight? What does a captain owe the men who have to carry out his plan?

Usborne puts this graphic novel in its 7+ range. At 104 pages, it is the most manageable of these choices for a child taking a first swing at a long Greek story. The publisher offers a look inside, useful if the child loves the idea of a man-eating giant but has strong opinions about seeing one.

3. Classics in Graphics gives a class somewhere to go after the ending

If the reader will be discussing the story in school, the extra pages around the comic matter. This edition starts with background and follows the story with material on its themes and language. A teacher can hand students a single book, let them read the comic and then turn to the same resources when they talk about it.

Steve Skidmore and Steve Barlow adapted the story with artist Martin Bustamante. Hachette describes the design as dyslexia-friendly and intended for readers aged ten and up. This is our choice when the reader wants help getting oriented or a teacher wants one edition to support several kinds of reader. Check the series name, Classics in Graphics, as well as the title when ordering.

Reading it for school? Keep the assigned translation handy

A comic makes one of Homer’s trickier moves visible. You can see Odysseus telling his story to a room full of listeners, then turn the page and find yourself living through the danger he remembers. When an assignment asks who tells an episode, keep that room in mind. When it asks you to quote a line, turn back to the assigned translation. Different translators make different choices even before an artist decides what can be said with a look.