Theseus and the Minotaur by Yvan Pommaux

There's a lot of detail in these images look at King Aegeus's throne room, for instance, with the murals on the walls and careful engravings around the base of the throne. Pommaux's art is beautiful, with gentle, soft lines. The little footnotes explaining how to pronounce all of the Greek names is a nice touch too, and I like the index of characters, map, and tips and questions at the back of the book. These are the big moments of 'Theseus and the Minotaur,' and Pommaux lingers without dragging to a halt. Pommaux's rendition of its twisting corridors makes it feel genuinely hard to find one's way through, and likewise, the battle against the Minotaur gets a good chunk to burst to life.

Pommaux moves through the story at an even pace with this being a visual medium, it's nice to see him take several pages just to show Theseus and company moving through the labyrinth. In fact, the added tweak from Pommaux on having Ariadne's fate being the reason for not changing the black sails (most renditions I encountered had Theseus simply forget, often due to partying) is a good addition and makes both characters' ends a little richer and more palatable. Neither are shining moments for Theseus, and it's nice that Pommaux doesn't ignore these critical moments for Theseus's saga. He deftly glosses over the more adult nature of Theseus's origin (like how both Poseidon and King Aegeus are his father), but also faces head on some of the darker moments of the story, like Aegeus's death or Ariadne's abandonment. It would have been easy to make this book twice as long and include more of Theseus's adventures, but Pommaux has wisely zoomed in on the most famous Theseus story. Pommaux's retelling of Theseus's story works well, focusing on his early days and his fight with the Minotaur of Crete.

Theseus and the Minotaur by Yvan Pommaux