Patricia Briggs has really been feeling the love for her Mercy Thompson series lately. With Bone Crossed released in hardcover earlier this year combined with her first Mercy Thompson graphic novel - Mercy fans have plenty of reasons to become giddy. For myself, I'm not really a comic book person, but I am a dedicated fangirl of Mercy and couldn't wait to catch a glimpse of her adventures in full-color.Homecoming is basically an origin story for Mercy Thompson: how she meets both Adam and Stefan and how she lands the mechanic position at Zee's shop. Although it is a stand-alone story, unless you've already had the privileged of reading Mercy's other adventures, Homecoming may not feel as robust as the others. It's fun, it's fast but I did miss the trademark Mercy narration. Several little details of Mercy's life are revealed that only long-standing Mercy fans will appreciate the significance of - little things like how Mercy gets her cat.As for the artwork itself: Beautiful and suitably shadowy yet very powerful. Though it was a little jarring to see how often Mercy herself changed. I know there were multiple artists working on this book, but since she is the title character, I would have expected a little more continuity with her character at least. But that said, her action scenes were fabulous. Consequently, I had buckets of fun matching up my mental picture of Mercy's gang with the artists' rendering. Adam and Zee were just as I pictured, but I was a little disappointed with Stefan as a '80s grunge rocker. Not really the way I pictured the mystery machine driving vampire.On a side note, Patricia Briggs and the artists of Homecoming did choose not to shy away (at all) from the shape-shifting side of Mercy's life - which to be honest, I'm happy with because Mercy herself is never really concerned about whether she is clothed or not. But gentle readers be warned: there are several panels of Mercy naked which might be off-putting. The artwork is stylized and the important parts are usually covered, but it is all still quite clear, which may keep the book out of the hands of Mercy's younger fans.Homecoming was a fabulous fast-paced action story and an efficient reminder of why I love the Mercy Thompson series so much. I do wish it had been longer, but I understand the format is more suited to quick action and less dialogue. Thank heavens we have Silver Borne coming in March 2010. ( )

Let's take a step back into the world of Mercy Thompson. This graphic novel sets the scene for the rest of the novels as it is a prequel and tells of Mercy first coming to Washington. Mercy is a walker, a magical being who can shapeshift into a coyote. She travels to Washington for a job interview to work in a school. The interview doesn't turn out quite as planned and she somehow manages to get involved in a gang war between two rival packs of werewolves.

Her mother is also posing a problem as she thinks Mercy is ruining her life and she is determined to sort Mercy out once and for all. We see how she meets Zee, Stefan and Adam for the first time. We also see how she first begins working at the garage which Zee later sells to her. There is also an interview with Briggs at the end which was really interesting as well as some character sketches.

I liked the style after I got used to it. There was quite a lot of nudity which Briggs felt apprioriate for Mercy changing shape. I have put in a couple of pictures of the strips to give you an idea of the artwork. The story was interesting and I hope Briggs decides to do some more graphic novels to expand on the existing novels. ( )

While I did like the look at Mercy's life before the series' start (particularly how she got her job, met Adam, etc.), I was disappointed by the artwork. I know it's probably useless to be annoyed by the depiction of Mercy with the curves of a 50s pinup, but it still irritates the crap outta me... ( )

Mercy Thompson Homecoming is the graphic novel that acts as something of an origins story for Mercy Thompson. I thought they did a good job with it. Some characters did not look at all as I envisioned them: Stefan, Uncle Mike, Adam Hauptman. And it was awfully pat that Mercy meets all of the key characters in essentially the same time period (everyone except Tony the cop and Warren). There are some possible continuity errors: the novels give the impression that Siebold Adelbertsmiter just paid protection money to the vampires so that he didn't have to interact with them, yet here they are getting a car fixed at his garage, which was Mercy's deal when she took over the garage, being unable to afford the monthly premiums. Second, Stefan pegs immediately that she's a walker and makes it clear to another vampire (and various others) that she's not human, yet in the novels, this is something he's kept hidden from the other vampires. Third, at the end of this graphic novel, Adam points out that he's moving into the McMansion directly behind Mercy's newly rented trailor, but the novels suggest that he had the place built some time after she'd already been living there. These are all mere quibbles. I liked the style, and the storyline fit Mercy's character. And it's a very quick read, followed by an interview that involves a certain amount of backpatting between Patricia Briggs and David Lawrence (the writer who adapted the story to comic book format). ( )

This functions as a sort of prequel to the Mercy Thompson series, but it's a graphic novel. I liked the idea of it but found the drawings of Mercy oversexualized for my tastes, and if she was continously shown nude changing between changes, how come no one else was...
Still the story worked and the idea of a graphic novel (aka cartoon for grown ups) appeals to me. This is not as good as Maus (then again, what is) but I'd be curious to see what else they do with this. Worth exploring. Worth keeping if you are a teenage boy :) ( )