Graphic Novel Review: Botanica Drama by Thom

Posted on August 28, 2025 at 6:11 am by Gene Ambaum

Botanica Drama by Thom. Pow Pow, 2023. 9782925114246. 244pp.

This is an entirely wordless, book-length graphic novel starring Death (aka XIII, according to the Dramatis Personae page at the back of the book) and his little friend Philomène, a flower (I think). They live together in a nice little town with a bunch of anthropomorphic animals, plants, and insects and such, under a sky filled with an anthropomorphic sun, moon, and planets. Death and his friend run a nice little cafe bakery. Everything is great until one day the sun parties too hard and doesn’t rise in the morning.

With the skies dark, tall beings emerge from their home under the earth. They’re hungry, plus the world is now a cold place. How can the citizens get the sun back up in the sky where it belongs?

I love Thom’s version of Death; he seems to love his friends despite his duties outside the bakery; with his constant, toothy smile, it’s really up to us to interpret how he’s feeling. (Death also appears in the other wordless graphic novel I’ve read by Thom, titled VII, which was also published by Pow Pow.)