The Big Picture

Rachel Smythe is working on an exciting new project called Rachel Smythe Presents, in partnership with Penguin Random House and Del Rey, which aims to celebrate other creators who work based on mythology. Hades and Persephone have enduring popularity because their myth allows for versatile retelling, from a beautiful feminist story to a tragic romance, and their relationship offers endless possibilities for exploration and interpretation. Smythe’s approach to adaptation has evolved over time, becoming more liberal and focusing on honoring the spirit of the stories rather than creating a beat-for-beat retelling. She enjoys introducing mechanics and exploring new aspects of the myth that add depth and context to the narrative.

Since hitting webcomic platform Webtoon in 2018, Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus has captured the hearts of readers all around the world, winning the Eisner award for Best Webcomic twice in a row. The series follows the meeting, courtship, and eventual marriage of Hades and Persephone, told through characteristically bright imagery, and comedic storytelling that is never afraid to broach heavier, darker topics. The series also puts a spin on the classical myth, exploring Hades and particularly Persephone’s inner lives with greater depth, and adding in a fair share of angst alongside the (very) slow-burn romance.

During a NYCC roundtable with Collider’s Arezou Amin, Smythe talked about the enduring popularity of the Hades and Persephone myth, why she chose to make her Olympus ultra-modern, and her new publishing imprint, Rachel Smythe Presents. She also talks about the ending of the long-running webcomic, and reveals the story arc she never got to write.

COLLIDER: What is your big exciting news?

RACHEL SMYTHE: So I’m working on an exciting new project, an imprint with Penguin Random House and Del Rey, and Inklore, and it’s called Rachel Smythe Presents. And what it is, is it’s basically celebrating other creators who do work based on mythology, and help bring their stories to life. It’s really exciting and I can’t wait to get started.

So other creators touching on mythology, do you mean mythology outside of the Greco-Roman pantheon, from anywhere basically?

SMYTHE: Yes. At this stage, it’s a very early beginnings. So, we haven’t made those complete decisions yet. But yeah, it could be Greek mythology, but mythology in general, that’s what we’re going for.

I love that. What is it do you think about Hades and Persephone that keep people coming back to this trope, to this story? Because I’m obviously a very big fan of them as a couple, of this trope, kind of relationship. So what do you think it is about them?

I think with Hades and Persepone, particularly with the source material, it really lends itself to adaptation. There’s a lot of things that you can infer from reading it. I don’t want to do the stories a disservice by saying that they’re not detailed, because of course they are, but they prioritize different things because they’re from a different time. It’s very versatile in terms of retelling. There’s a lot of ways you could take it, ways to interpret it. It’s a beautiful feminist story about a mother facing bureaucracy and misogyny and patriarchy and getting her daughter back. So that’s a great story.

But it’s also, it can be like a tragic romance. It’s very, very dynamic. There’s a lot you can do with it. Personally, going back to my childhood, I remember reading about it and being like, “what was her day like? What was Persephone’s day like? What did they do? Where did they go? What did they talk about? Where’s the closet? How big is it? What are her outfits like? Did they like each other? Didn’t they like each other? Maybe they liked each other later” and there’s just, there’s a lot you can do. It’s really fun. Even if I had to do it over it differently, I’d be like, “yeah, again, but different.” I love the stories. It’s great.

Image via Rachel Smythe

In the five or so years that you have been working on Lore Olympus, have you found anything in your approach to adaptation that has changed since you first set out on it?

SMYTHE: One of the things about mythology is that it does really lend itself to creating a structure to a story, because having a whole new story can be very daunting. And I think in the beginning I really leaned on that, but I think going forward, I was like, “actually I can be much more liberal with it.” Because after all, I never intended Lore Olympus to be a beat for beat authentic retelling. It’s more like honoring the spirit of things, if you will.

But there’s things like, for example, Hades when he’s in the Underworld, when Persephone goes there, when she eats the pomegranate seeds, or sometimes it’s just like eating the food there causes you to stay there, and I’m like, “well, why is Hades different in this case? How does he just go there? How is he just fine?” So it was really interesting for me to build in some mechanics into the story that would show what happened to him when he went there, how come he’s tied there? So that was really interesting to explore. And also revisiting what would happen when eating the seeds, and how that affects Persephone in terms of story. So I think in terms of adaptation, it’s really fun to try out something new because everyone knows the original stories.

And for me, what’s fun about it is I really love the idea of people seeing something that I’ve made, and learning about Greek mythology, and then going and checking it out the same way that I did with Disney’s Hercules, which is not completely faithful to the original stories, but Disney’s not going to have Zeus running around having affairs and stuff like that, it’s not family friendly, or like the planets aligning, and all that kind of thing. But I watched it, enjoyed it and then learned about the source material, and I think that’s a great thing.

One of the things I love about Lore Olympus is it is unafraid to tackle heavy topics. So obviously, that comes with its own challenge. But were there any arcs or beats or moments that aren’t inherently tough to tackle that you personally found unexpectedly tricky?

SMYTHE: What is difficult in terms of storytelling, I don’t know if this is a direct answer, but this is something that I do struggle with is you have to keep the story interesting and fresh, especially when it’s like a long format story. And of course, you have to do lots of cliffhangers and things to entice people to come back. One of the things is introducing new stories and threads, and then later on, resolving them and like tying them up in a way that’s like elegant and satisfying to people and thematically correct. So I think that’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Because I’ve always, in terms of the end of Lore Olympus, I’ve always known what that was going to look like. But with a long format story, you have to refine it over time, because sometimes you reach a point and you’re like, “this no longer makes sense to me and I don’t think it’s actually as satisfying as I thought it was going to be.” And I think with endings, you really have to try your very best for people because I’m like, “this is what people will remember a lot about the series” and I’ve put so much effort into the end of mine and it’s taken a lot out of me to do. But I’m like, yes, it’s good, I worked really hard on it, but it’s like one of the biggest challenges of my life.

Image via Rachel Smythe

I’m curious about the creative choice to have the realm of the gods be sort of a rough parallel to our present day. But then when they go to the mortal world, it’s the time period we think of when we think of mythology. I was just wondering what inspired that creative choice and that disconnect, or distinction, between the two?

SMYTHE: That’s a good question. I think for me, it’s a couple of factors. One is, obviously, I love Greek mythology so it feels like a missed moment to not have those ancient world references. I’m kind of having my cake and eating it too, because I get the fun of the modern world, but I also get to research all of like the historical fashion and buildings and play with those sorts of things. And I think in a way it can potentially help contextualize some of those more historical traditions and see how they might translate over into the modern setting.

But also, I think, you know, when you read these stories, there’s a few things that get brought up, like if a mortal were to see a god, they would die because it would be so spectacular. I think like, Semele literally, her body crumbles apart when she sees Zeus in his true form. So I think it’s interesting, if these mortals were to see the modern Olympus, they’d probably not understand what they were looking at. And I think it would be fair to say that the gods would not share technologies with the mortals in that way. So to me it make it makes sense.

No spoilers, obviously, but are there any stories or characters that you wanted to touch on that you haven’t yet, or that you just won’t have time to do before the end of the story?

SMYTHE: I think one of the things that I try to be conscious of is, I love all of my supporting characters equally and I wish that everyone else loved them too, but not everyone wants a massive side quest about different characters. And I do think it’s important to be like, “here’s the supporting characters, and this is what’s happening to them because they help enrich the story and give a bit of breathing room.” But it’s a definite balance of learning when to draw that line of when people are like, “I don’t know who these characters are and I don’t really want to participate with them right now”, but it’s fine. You like what you like. [Laughs]

I think one of the things that I would have done had it made sense, there’s kind of no easy way to put it in at this point, was there was supposed to be an expedition to Poseidon’s ocean world and they want me to do some stuff in the ocean world. But there’s no good place to fit it in, but I’m like never say never.

Image via Rachel Smythe

A spin-off!

SMYTHE: A spin-off for sure! I could always come back and do it later on. But it was just something where I was like, “oh, yeah, I don’t know. It throws off the pacing.” We never got to go to the Ocean Kingdom and see what it’s like. And it’s very chaotic. It’s just, nobody’s doing the dishes, nobody’s doing laundry, but everyone’s very chilled out.

You’ve talked about having the light moments before all of the heartbreak, which I think exemplifies Lore Olympus like we’re laughing and then we’re crying. What is your trick? Because I know there’s not one trick to managing that give and take that balance between the two.

SMYTHE: I think it’s a cultural thing to do with New Zealand. We’re very like, “you gotta laugh in the face of evil.” A lot of our jokes are dark, we’ll be like, “we’re having a terrible day ha ha” kind of thing. So I think we really understand levity where I’m from, and it just feels like a very natural thing to do where sometimes something bad will happen. And I think in an effort to balance it out, we’ll find a way to laugh at it. So I think that is just something that comes very naturally to me. I think there are times when I’m like, “is this appropriate to put a joke in here?” Because I don’t want to be insensitive. But for me personally, I feel like I always manage everything with humor. And I think that works for other people. But yeah, levity is hard. It’s a hard balance for sure. Have I always made the right call? I’m not sure but I do try.

You can read Lore Olympus on Webtoon now.