As an optional extension project, I read Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe on webtoons.com. I have never had a big interest in graphic comics or novels but this website change my perception of them. I had always associated these sorts of books with children and thought that they could never be engaging for an adult audience but I was wrong. Lore Olympus follows the entwined stories of the Greek Gods and Goddesses and the love affairs between them. I chose to read this one as it was under the romance category and had very high ratings. I have some knowledge of the Greek Gods and Goddesses so I thought it would make the story a little easier to follow. Within the first chapter I was mesmerized. The graphics were so intricate but simple. The author highlighted certain colors such as blue and pink throughout the chapters to maintain a sense of consistency. Certain characters were certain colors which helped me keep track as many of the characters names were similar. Smythe also choose colors that were somewhat in relation to the characters. For example, Hades the God of the Underworld was depicted as a dark blue color and Hera the goddess of birth and marriage was a glowing gold color. These colors also set the mood and personality of the characters giving background that was never explicitly said.

Another thing that I learned when reading on webtoons was the value that pictures hold in stories like these. There was not much text in each chapter yet a very detailed part of the story was always conveyed to the reader. The pictures including the scenery and actions and emotions of the characters and told most of the story with the support of dialogue between the Gods and Goddesses. Not too many literacies were needed to understand this text, except for the understanding of how to read speech bubbles in the right order. A basic knowledge of greek gods would also be helpful to understand the dynamics between all the characters but a reader could scrap by with just what was given in the story by the author Rachel Smythe.

After reading Lore Olympus, I browsed a few more stories from different authors on the website. While each story shared the same concept of being in comic format, they were all drastically different. Each one had their own artistic style, varying amounts of text, and varied amounts of picture completeness (such as drawing a complete background or not). I was glad I explored a few more stories on webtoons because I was able to understand the creative freedom and platform that this website provides for artists and authors alike.

I overall really enjoy reading in this new style. One unique aspect of this story style is that the reader can imagine the characters just as the author intended which I think allows everyone to a share a connection to the story. This assignment also showed me how much one can understand a story with just pictures. The phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” started to make more sense to me after this experience.