about the book
Athena and Ares are both gods of war. As Ares arrives on the Trojan War battlefield, his presence and interference forces all the other Greek gods and goddesses to take sides. It was a war of men; now it becomes a divine war of gods!
Athena is the level-headed one, always using judicious force. She is the goddess of training, wisdom, strategy, martial skills, and formations, the one to use the best possible defense as the best possible offense.
When Ares takes the battlefield in his chariot of fire, he is accompanied by his sister, Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, and his sons, Deimos and Phobos, the demigods of terror and panic. The battles rage on and on, becoming fiercer and more bloody. The human death toll mounts higher and higher. Neither Ares nor Athena will stop. Each is determined to win!
Formations break and strategies crumble. Warriors scatter in the brutal chaos that ensues. It is overwhelming, terrifying, and bloody. But Ares and Athena are not the only players in this epic war. Zeus, Ares’ father, plays the long game, and more will parish during his machinations. Though Ares is the vilified bringer of war, only he grieves the death of his mortal son.
Although this is a story of conflict (it is based on Homer’s battle-driven poem, The Iliad), it is also a character study and, at times, even humorous. It is a glimpse into the complex relationships among the deities and the tensions that arise when the fate and the glory of their own demigod sons are at stake.
about the author/illustrator
As a kid, George O’Connor was always drawing and making up stories. He especially liked tales with monsters. When he was in the fourth and fifth grade, he was part of an experimental immersive study program in which, for a couple of days each week, he left his regular class to do all sorts of cool stuff. The best were the months studying mythology, and George became a total Greek myth addict. Still it wasn’t his idea to create the Olympians series!
Although George has been doing graphic novels for a while now, he got his start in the publishing business doing children’s picture books. One day he was hanging with his picture book editor, Neal Porter, who commented that one of their mutual acquaintances was like Cerberus, a three-headed hellhound. George immediately responded with a nerdy reference to a Cyclops. The surprised editor suggested that George write a graphic novel retelling the Greek myths.
It was a eureka moment for George. Two weeks later he returned to his editor with the first draft for Zeus: King of the Gods and plans for eleven more graphic novels about the other gods. To decide which stories to tell, he made a huge spreadsheet of all the gods and picked those whose stories interweaved with others so that each book could be a stand-alone and also lead into the next. Of course, he included some he thought were so unbelievably cool that he had to fit them in, no matter what!
George creates his text and illustrations at the same time. That means if he does a rewrite, he tosses out a lot of artwork! His palette is saturated with bold colors and he gives each book a color theme. He does 95% of his drawing on paper and only retouches digitally.
George admits he is the king of geekery. He has a huge collection of Master of the Universe action figures and a Lego town he is slowly building, and he does standup and improv comedy. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Check out his website, http://olympiansrule.com/, for fun Greek myth activities and tips on how to draw and write about the Greek gods.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Wired
Author talks about his studio and creative process: YouTube
Also by George O’Connor:
Aphrodite : Goddess of Love (Olympians, Book 6). First Second. 2013.
Poseidon : Earth Shaker (Olympians, Book 5). First Second. 2013.
Hades : Lord of the Dead (Olympians, Book 4). First Second. 2012.
Hera : The Goddess and Her Glory (Olympians, Book 3). First Second. 2011.
Athena : Grey-Eyed Goddess (Olympians, Book 2). First Second. 2010.
Zeus : King of the Gods (Olympians, Book 1). First Second. 2010.
read more!
Hades : Lord of the Dead (Olympians, Book 4) by George O’Connor
Hades is lonely down in the Underworld, so he whisks away Kore, daughter of goddess Demeter, to be his bride. Demeter is furious and starves the mortal world until Zeus agrees to get her daughter back.
The Lightning Thief : The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between he gods.