Rachel Smythe may have only just said goodbye to the world of Lore Olympus and the weekly webtoon schedule, but the creator has just announced two brand new standalone graphic novels currently in development: Eleanor’s Deathbed and Patients in the Dark. In an exclusive interview with Cosmopolitan, Smythe said while it is still early days, the titles and general plots are in place – but no publication timeline has been specified.
The official info on the two forthcoming books:
“The first is Eleanor’s Deathbed, an original graphic novel following a socially isolated mortician’s apprentice whose quiet life is turned upside down after an unlikely friendship with Death entangles her in the politics of the gods.
“And the second will be Patients in the Dark, about a grieving psychiatrist summoned home by her estranged family, whose old secrets—and new patients—are not of this realm.”
While the first book will echo Lore Olympus with fantasy elements coupled with the romance genre, the second book will be comparatively more grounded. But things are definitely in the early stages:
“Right now I’m just in the process of world building, so it’s very early days. Especially for Eleanor’s Deathbed being the first one, I’ve been trying to hunker down and work on what the themes will be and what I’m trying to say with it. It is a romance, but what else could it be? What can we do for people that will pull them in and make them excited and make them feel seen? So that is also a very fun prospect of it.”
Apparently the shift to the more concise graphic novel format was inspired by another critically acclaimed work from the past year – Emily Carroll’s 2023 graphic novel A Guest in the House:
“I was reading A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll, a graphic novel that is roughly 250 pages, and I was like, This is roughly the size of a Lore Olympus printed novel and it is one singular story. I told myself that I have learn to streamline what I’m doing. I’m really excited, honestly, to take what I’ve learned from my experiences of working on such a big, big story, and really fine tuning it and applying it and making it really succinct.”
Smythe’s feelings about shifting from the weekly webtoon format to making a whole graphic novel:
“…when I was getting to the end of Lore Olympus, I physically felt like I could keep up this momentum. I don’t want to be like, Oh, my gosh, I’m in my late 30s and I will be turning 40 in a couple of years, because age is just whatever you make it. But I do not have the bounce back like I once had. Recovery time is longer when you work for long stretches of time.”
The changing approach from webtoons and fitting the expectations of the audience:
“…in terms of production, it is a very different animal, for sure. I’m really interested in exploring the other side of the coin, which is, We want it all at once and here it is. I’m looking forward to writing for this sort of audience.”
The finished work might be a fair ways off, though:
“Right now I’m just in the process of world building, so it’s very early days. Especially for Eleanor’s Deathbed being the first one, I’ve been trying to hunker down and work on what the themes will be and what I’m trying to say with it. It is a romance, but what else could it be? What can we do for people that will pull them in and make them excited and make them feel seen? So that is also a very fun prospect of it.”
Aside from working on the two new projects, Smythe is also involved in Inklore’s graphic novel program Rachel Smythe Presents… which is aimed at fostering and publishing new talent. Announced in October 2023, Smythe described the goal of the program was to
“…celebrate creators who are passionate about mythology & help them to bring their own reimaginings to life.”
Lore Olympus was the work that put the Rachel Smythe on the map – a gorgeous and engrossing reinterpretation of the Greek myth The Abduction of Persephone. It ran from March 2018 through to June 2024 as a weekly Webtoon series. It has wowed critics, won multiple Eisner, Harvey, and Ringo Awards, attracted a fan following, and become a champion of the webtoon vertical scroll format. The series was rereleased in hardcover print editions from 2021, first from Penguin Random House subsidiary imprint Del Rey, then rereleased from the company’s newly formed Inklore Books imprint – which explicitly focuses on publishing adult work in the manga, manwha, and graphic novel space. Inklore formally launched this year.
