Percy Shelley is the first of the two-part Shelley comic series by David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave chronicling the escapades of English poet and playboy Percy Bysshe Shelley from 1811 to 1814. It is succeeded by Mary Shelley - out in English this April.

It’s hard to like Percy: he’s a cad, financially irresponsible, and aloof – often drawn with his eyes closed. He’s lecherous: “Damn, 16! She doesn’t look it!” But he has verve: “Come, let’s live our lives like a story!” He’s spontaneous, cheeky, and capable of grand gestures – he distributes his Declaration of Rights through bottles cast at sea.

For me, the comic comes to life with Harriet’s narration. From Casanave’s idyllic Scottish hovel, Harriet writes to her father. She’s eloquent and funny and starts translating Sophie Cottin’s scandalous novel of adultery Claire d’Albe. Of the heroine, Harriet writes: “Infatuated, tormented, the formerly happy young girl dies of hopeless heartache. Is it not wonderful, Daddy?” It’s a tragic foreshadowing of Harriet’s own life.

Percy is portrayed best when working. The sequence in which he sits in the window composing “To the Moonbeam” while moths madden the candle flames evokes the thoughtful nature of a poet’s work, giving a grace and gravity to Percy.

My favourite sequence introduces Mary Godwin. Through smoggy London, Mary passes disembowelled livestock on her way to the graveyard. There she lies on her mother’s tomb reading aloud from Matthew Lewis’s gothic-screamer The Monk. She loses her bookmark. There’s blood on her dress. She chats to her dead mother. It’s a funny anticipation of Frankenstein.

Casanave’s luscious artwork reminds me of Hergé, and his rendering of John Constable’s Flatford Mill suggests a hidden layer of humour.

At around 70 pages, Percy Shelley is a short, quick, lighthearted read for those interested in English Romantic poets. Too short, perhaps. It does not have the plot complexity of a graphic novel, but it did inspire me to re-read some of Shelley’s poems – and that is surely the point.

Many thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy. I look forward to Mary Shelley.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

Of course - Mary Shelley by David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave

The Secret Garden, reimagined by Maud Begon as a graphic novel