This brilliant work is by American comic book artist Jesse Lonergan and launched in August 2025. With 300 pages of intricately detailed world building, DROME is quite the achievement.
With sparse dialogue, it’s a visually-driven narrative that explores a mysterious world dominated by deities, heroic figures, elemental beings, and a warring world.
The Mayhem and Equilibrium in DROME
“First, there was nothing. Then there is life. And an endless cycle of violence begins. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess emerges to teach a language of peace. Civilization takes root. The champions of Order reign. But Chaos has a champion of its own.”
We’ve covered Lonergan’s brilliant HEDRA (2020) previously, which was a 48-page exploration of abstract art, sci-fi concepts, and being cool as hell.
This time around Lonergan has been much more ambitious. Again, this is a 300-page work. The hardback version we got is quite the thing to behold, big, bulky, and packed with relentless artistic flourishes that are often remarkable.
There is a narrative at play, too, with a central demigoddess character emerging at the behest of deities to save a violent world from itself.
You get themes of disorder, love, and violence. Lonergan depicts a very unstable world with misguided politics and communities bumbling their way through existence. And violence is the prevailing theme, one which the demigoddess tries to control.
All set across five chapters:
- Blue
- Red
- Yellow
- Form
- Spirit
Considering some individual pages as a piece of art, you get a mixture of dazzling abstractions along the lines of Hilma af Klint.
Then there are the more playful pieces along the lines of Japanese Manga, action packed and full of frenzy.
It’s already considered as potential graphic novel of the year by many online critics. There is a lingering snobby attitude towards comics from a sect of society, that they’re “for kids” and socially awkward adults and all that.
This is a silly and ignorant attitude as DROME has incredible artistic integrity.
It’s also just a quite brilliant artistic achievement, with Lonergan showcasing what’s in store for the future. More of this, with dramatically advanced narratives over the experimental HEDRA, and all the better for it.
DROME is incredible and will have pride of place on our bookshelf.
Notes From Jesse Lonergan
Lonergan was born in California, raised in Saudi Arabia, then Vermont back in the US, and also spent two years in Turkmenistan teaching English.
All these experiences fuelled his work, which he began in 2000 by completing Flower and Fade. It’s his award-winning work HEDRA that really put him on the map and fans have been waiting for the follow-up for five years.
Well, next step for him is his next work! We can also imagine the likes of DROME being adapted into a TV series or film. Make it happen, someone.
Anyway, if you’re intrigued by this work he’s active on social media, including BlueSky, and posts some fancy pants stuff on Instagram.
