Graphic Novel Review: You probably didn’t read HARPY by EPHK, but you should have

Harpy

Cartoonist: EPHK
Publisher: Living the Line
Publication Date: September 2025

There’s a certain type of graphic novel that I can take one look at and immediately identify as very much my type of thing. The new graphic novel Harpy by cartoonist EPHK is very much one of those books. There’s just something about the aesthetic, character design, book design, and whatever else that reads as a comic I will likely enjoy. And now having reading all 300 pages of Harpy over the holidays, I’m happy to report that my gut reaction was right.

I’ll get into specifically what about this book worked, but first some background about Harpy and its creator, who was previously unknown to me. As per the Image Comics website, EPHK is a Paris-born cartoonist who grew up splitting time between France and Canada. His background in tattoo art gave him opportunities to spend time across four continents, and while living in Hong Kong in 2010, he started publishing underground comics and art books.

At some point, he also gathered a whopping 45,000 Instagram followers, presumably through posting his pin-up art, which must have grabbed all those other people the same way seeing a preview of Harpy grabbed me. Speaking of Harpy, the concept of the book is perhaps born out of its creators globetrotting. The protagonist is living in a near future version of Cape Town, South Africa, circa 2064, where she is a police detective given to profanity. A new case — and her family roots — eventually bring her to Hong Kong.

The feeling that this book was taking place within the context of a richly-imagined global future was one of the things that reeled me in from the start. Cape Town is a fascinating setting to imagine in 2064, and this book uses it well, with glimpses at everything from how meals are ordered (and ordered…and ordered) to the local slang. The setting isn’t belabored or anything, but it adds quite a bit to the story. Whether this was intended or not, I don’t know, but it felt like a choice aimed at letting you know you were going into a story that very much has its own personality. 

More familiarly, Harpy is at its core a sci-fi noir, selectively taking the tropes of two genres and blending them with EPHK’s finally honed aesthetic, which looks like a renowned global graffiti artist who study tattoo art and watched a lot of Adult Swim. And while EPHK clearly has a talent for splashy pin-up art, this book is densely laid out, making it actually read longer than the already substantial page count would seem to indicate. But that’s a good thing, because the characters and world are so well-realized, you’ll want to spend as much time in it as you can.

The last thing that I really enjoyed about Harpy is perhaps the hardest to write about, at least without spoiling surprises, so I’ll be careful. But it’s no stretch to say that I thought Harpy had some of the better (and best-earned) revelations of any book I read last year. I knew from the start that a noir starring a detective was going to have some hidden revelations, and yet I still enjoyed them when they came.

Looking ahead, there is more comics work from EPHK on the way imminently, which is a good thing. Harpy seemed to fly under the radar for most comics folks last year. It landed late in the year from the boutique publisher, Living the Line. The artist’s next project, however, is an Image Comics series, dubbed Tigress Island and penned by Patrick Kindlon. The book looks fun, with a first issue slated to drop in March (check it out here), and while many worthy comics can struggle to find an audience for any number of reasons, I think there’s a scenario wherein Harpy will continue to pick up readers by word of mouth, and it absolutely deserves it.

Harpy is out now via Living the Line

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