A Lore Olympus animated series is the good news the world deserves

The popular Webtoon comic Lore Olympus will be developed into a YA animated series by the Jim Henson Company and we’re over the moon about it.

If you have never heard of the webcomic called Lore Olympus before, prepare for this article to change your life.

Rachel Smythe’s Eisner Award nominated work is both gorgeous and compelling, a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, with plenty of other appealing and hilarious twists thrown in.

Warning, however: Once you start reading it, you probably won’t be able to stop.

It can be found on Webtoon, an app and web reader full of content creators telling stories in innovative, new ways. Lore Olympus is the most popular comic on the site – it gets over a million downloads per episode, which drop weekly – but there are many others, encompassing pretty much every genre you can think of.

But soon the screens of your iPad won’t be the only place you can find Lore Olympus.

According to Deadline, The Jim Henson Company and Webtoon have partnered to bring this gem to the small screen, in the form of a YA animated series. Which, honestly, is perfect – so many of Smythe’s drawings feel made to be animated.

We don’t know where this series will live just yet – once it exists – but it feels perfect for a variety of streaming platforms, or possibly the next evolution of Webtoon itself should they decide to start offering video. Who knows. What I do know is, I will subscribe to whatever service I need to in order to view it.

The story is that good.

It’s not a surprise that the tale at the heart of Lore Olympus is popular (again). Stories based on or involving Greek myths are all the rage now from the publishing world to the boards of Broadway – Madeline Miller’s Circe was one of the best-selling books of 2018, and musical Hadestown just picked up a Tony for Best Musical earlier this year.

Lore Olympus is a bit different from any of those offerings, presenting a take on the famous Greek myth that feels a little bit more modern. In Smythe’s version of the story, while the mortal realm exists firmly in the past, the world of the gods is set in our present, complete with cell phones, computers and tabloid newspapers.

It’s style is bright and evocative, with strong color palettes to represent each character and setting. It is honestly beautiful to look at, and if the finished animated product looks anything even vaguely like Smythe’s original artwork we are in for a real treat.

Though the story focuses primarily on Hades, Persephone and their obvious connection to one another, there are a dozen other gods who appear in the story, each with their own ongoing stories, relationships and issues. So while we wait for our primary couple to figure out they’re in love with each other – insert JUST. KISS. ALREADY. GIF here – we can spend our time despising Apollo, sympathizing with Hera, and cheering for Hecate, who is straight up amazing.

Also, there’s Hades’ dogs. We definitely stan the puppers of the Underworld.

No word yet on when we could see an animated Lore Olympus on (any of) our screens. So, for the time being you’ll just have to catch up on Webtoon – and thank me for it later.