The Dresden Files

Welcome to the Jungle

A Graphic Novel

“Monsters can hide behind a pleasant face. They can hide there for years.” - Harry Dresden

Welcome to the Jungle is the second chronological story in The Dresden Files and the first graphic novel story in the timeline. This is an original story created for the graphic novel format. It is fun to read and see the action, the artwork, and the artist interpretations of the characters of Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy, and others.

I’m glad that these graphic novel stories exist to bring us a different flavor and pace to the series. This is a full on spoiler filled review of Welcome to the Jungle. This story takes place prior the events in Book One - Storm Front.

Chapter One - The Setup

We start off with Harry Dresden battling some sort of demon and taking care of it, only to get a call from Chicago PD that they need his advice on a case right now at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Dresden drives over in his VW Beetle and meets up with Carmichael. We get some insight into Carmichael’s and Dresden’s relationship as they banter back and forth, they don’t like each other much.

Sometime has passed since the last story, A Restoration of Faith, as Harry is now an independent private investigator and has already established a working relationship with Chicago PD as he is now a consultant for them. Officer Murphy is now Lieutenant Murphy and they have worked together previously.

There has been a murder at the Zoo, a security guard has been brutally murdered. The working theory is that one of the gorilla’s did it. However, there are some holes in the story and Dresden was called in for a consult. Seeing the victim’s body, Harry uses his wizard sight to see the victim’s last moments. Dresden believes something supernatural is the cause and is given 24 hours to find out what happened.

Dresden walks through crime scene and starts to question Zoo employees. They are hesitant to talk to him as they believe that he thinks the gorilla, Moe, did it and that the Moe will be put down if found guilty.

Harry befriends the gorilla expert, Dr. Reese, and they try to brainstorm to find out what happened. Having to go work on something else, Dr. Reese leaves and tells Dresden he can talk with his assistant Will. As Dresden waits for Will, he wonders if he can trust Reese as he has trust issues. Here we get a flashback from Harry Dresden’s past. Harry had a mentor, Justin Demorne, who betrayed him and tried to kill him. This is a key plot point for the series, so it was good to see it visually in the graphic novel story.

A woman enters the room and they start talking and Dresden surmises that this is Will, which she is and Will is short for Willamena. They start to talk and then a lion enters the room and it has glowing eyes. Harry recognizes this and knows that the lion is under the influence of a binding spell and is sent to attack him. Dresden and Will try to escape the lion and end up trapping the lion in an empty room. But they turn around and find more lions, tigers, and cougars with the green eyes behind them in the hallway.

Chapter Two - The Suspect

Harry and Will are attacked by possessed lions and tigers!

Harry and Will try and escape this new threat but are unable to. Will hides while Harry uses some of his magic to fight them off, but there are too many of them. Harry pulls the fire alarm which turn the fire sprinklers on. The noise and the water breaks the spell and the cats wander off. Harry and Will go outside to see if there are other cats that have escaped. They make their way to the office of Dr. Watson as Harry has a suspicion that she might be involved somehow. They break into her office and Harry senses that dark magic has been used there. He finds some cups with some unreadable language on them and what looks to be blood on them. Harry takes one and they leave.

They run into Dr. Watson on their way out of the Zoo and Harry and Watson dance around that Harry knows she’s up to something and will stop her, while Watson insinuates that she will kill him and Will. They part ways with the promise they will meet up again.

Harry doesn’t have enough evidence to go the police so he heads home to consult Bob. When they arrive home, Will and Harry talk about how Harry uses magic. Will is unsure about the use of magic, but Harry understands why as the general population of people doesn’t believe either. Harry goes into his office which is in a room in the basement. He consults with Bob the skull. Bob is a skull that has a spirit living inside. Bob is ancient and has “forgotten more about magic than I’ve ever learned, except that he hasn’t forgotten anything. Ever.” Harry shows Bob the cup and Bob recognizes the writing as ancient Hecate and that the blood is probably from a lion. Bob tells Harry that it looks like Watson is going to create an Ascension ritual, a powerful act of drawing magical energy into oneself to transform into a being of terrible power.

Harry realizes that Watson is probably going to enact the ritual soon, so he grabs a gun and then he and Will head back to the Zoo to stop her. They get in the Beetle and there is a giant black dog with glowing eyes in the back seat that attacks them.

Chapter Three - Time To Balance The Books

Harry and Will are able to kick the demon dog out of the car and drive off, but the dog starts to chase them down. As the dog chases them down in traffic and starts to endanger citizens, Harry pulls of the main roads and steps out to confront the dog and uses his Fuego spell to burn it to a crisp and kills the dog.

They head back to the Zoo to go back to Watson’s office and try and find some more evidence. But the office has just been burned down by an arsonist and Harry is a potential suspect as he broke in to the office earlier. Murphy meets Harry and they talk about the case and that Harry is working on solving it. Murphy is impatient as her bosses are pushing for an arrest and answers. Harry gives Murphy the cup he found in Watson’s office.

Harry and Will head back to Dr. Reese’s office but find him in his office and he has been murdered. Moe the gorilla witnessed the killing of his friend and he is upset. Will is able to calm him down. Harry inspects the body and finds a hair under the nails of Reese. Harry uses Reese’s hair and glasses to use a tracking spell to find the killer, who he assumes to be Watson. Watson took some of Reese’s blood to use for her ritual. Harry tells Will to call the police after he leaves to find the killer.

Harry follows the trail left by the killer that is revealed by the spell and it leads him to Undertown, which is under Chicago. Harry finds Watson preparing her ritual, but her back is turned to him. He uses the element of surprise to blast her with magic from his blasting rod. Harry thinks he’s got her, but she is still breathing, and then Watson steps out of the shadows behind him. But then it’s revealed that Watson has two sisters and all three are there and surround him to kill him.

Chapter Four - Welcome To The Jungle

Harry Dresden uses his blasting rod to try and take the Watson sisters out, but they are powerful and shrug off his attacks. Harry gets resourceful and knocks over a cement pillar on top of one of the sisters, killing her. He then uses his magic to pick up a big piece of cement from the destroyed pillar to throw it at the cauldron which disrupts and destroys the Ascension Ritual that they were going to use to make themselves all powerful.. The remaining Watson sisters are now more angry with Harry and have a plan to seek revenge on him. One of the sisters takes off back to the Zoo while the other grabs Harry from behind and has him pinned against a wall without his staff or blasting rod. But Harry uses his gun at close range to shoot and kill the Watson sister trying to kill him. Harry then takes off again following the tracking spell that is still in effect.

Harry is led back to the Zoo and to Reese’s office. The last Watson sister has Will captive and is threatening her revenge by killing her slowly while Harry watches. Harry is worn out from the previous battle and doesn’t have much magic left in him. But Harry is smart and cunning, he discreetly opens Moe the gorilla’s cage and Moe attacks the last Watson sister and Will is able to escape from her grasp. Moe takes his revenge on Watson and kills her.

Harry and Will get medical treatment and Harry talks with Murphy about the case and they are able to get evidence that Watson killed Reese and the case is closed.

I think that this original story which serves as a prequel to the first novel, Storm Front, is a great introduction to the series and the graphic novel format does it justice. It was overall a quick read but didn’t seem too short or not fleshed out enough. I think the art was well done and represents the characters well as well as Harry’s apartment and the Blue Beetle. Overall it was a good read and I recommend it to those that are Dresden Files fans!

Next up is Book One of The Dresden Files - Storm Front!