The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher and Ardian Syaf

Harry Dresden is a professional Wizard living in Chicago. Not someone who does kid's parties, an actual wizard. He's even in the phone book, but that seems to get him as many invites to do parties as anything else. But he does work for the Chicago PD as a supernatural consultant, which is where much of his money comes from.

Now, his cop friend Karrin Murphy calls him in on a case at the Lincoln Park Zoo. A security guard there was mauled, supposedly by a huge male gorilla named Moe. Harry agrees to investigate, but none of the other animal park keepers are willing to talk to him, or even tell him much, and Harry doesn't know why. The only one who seems even a little bit friendly is Dana Watson, a vet from London here to draw blood from Moe for some tests. She tells him that the other keepers are sure that the city wants to kill Moe and let him take the blame for what happened- the other keepers are rallying around Dr. Reese in his efforts to save Moe.

Harry thanks her for the information, and goes to see Dr. Reese, who comes out angry and blustering, until Harry tells him he doesn't think Moe killed the man. This deflates Dr. Reese, who offers Harry a beer and talks with him about Moe. When he has to go, Harry stays there drinking and looking at Moe until he is interrupted by Will, Dr. Reese's assistant.

Will, short for Willamena, is carrying a load of papers, which she drops when she sees Harry. He helps her clean them up, only to be interrupted by Moe, who is agitated. Why? Well, a huge male lion with glowing green eyes is at the door, and it begins attacking Harry and Will. Harry manages to get it imprisoned in a closet with a metal door- and that's when the rest of the pride show up, along with unrelated big cat species, all with the same glowing green eyes.

Harry knows this means that someone is controlling them, and he and will must make a very fast escape without being killed by the cats. It's harder than it sounds, but eventually they get away by setting off the fire alarms and water sprayers, which startle the cats enough to jolt them out of the mental control. Afterwards, Harry and Will make their escape, and Harry tracks down his best suspect: Dr. Watson. He breaks into her office, where he finds jars of something- six of them, and enough magical traces to know she was casting spells in there.

Harry takes home one of the jars to Bob, his skull that contains a spirit of intellect, and Will to his home as well. He leaves her with Mister and goes down to consult with Bob. There, he learns that the jars are full of blood, and are covered on the inside with crosses- symbols of Hecate in her position as Goddess of the Crossroads. She is served by Hags, magical creatures of the Nevernever, and the animal blood in the jars is used by them to undergo a rite of transformation-into a Goddess themselves.

Now it's up to Harry to deal with the Hags. But that won't be easy considering how big and tough they are. And the only way to kill one is to hit it hard over and over and over again until it finally goes down. But when Harry follows its trail and finds not one Hag, but three, how will he survive the confrontation? Will there be justice for the murdered guard and for Moe?

Wow. As soon as I saw these graphic novels in the bookstore, a primitive thought formed in my brain- "Harry Dresden? Must. Have." And I certainly wasn't disappointed when I got them home and read them as quickly as possible. And this particular comic came with a bonus; Pictures of and discussions about Harry by Jim Butcher. I learned lots of stuff I didn't know before about Harry, like that he's 6'9! Yeesh, that's tall! And he's not buff, but wiry- although he's drawn in pretty excellent shape.

Jim Butcher has given his approval to the art, saying that this is what Harry and the others look like in his head- and that's good enough for me. I also loved that this series shows Mister, which the TV series did not. And how big he is. Yeah, he's only in a few panels, but I still loved seeing him. This book was the perfect storm of Harry Dresden- the story was wonderful and the character designs out of this world- but since the story was written by Jim Butcher himself, how could you go wrong?

I loved this graphic novel. I loved it a lot, and I already bought the second one in the series, which novelizes the first book in the Dresden Files series, Storm Front. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of this series and more graphic novels from this company, Dabel Brothers. This is one series to watch. Highly recommended.