Eden just isn't the same without Adam.

In the Bible, Adam and Eve are made, they name the beasts, and then there's that incident with the apple. But you have to figure the archetypal naturist couple had to do more than that with their lives before trying out that nifty new recipe for fruit salad.

And in The Lost Books of Eve, they did. In this comic-book series, which fills in the gaps in their story without directly contradicting anything you'll find in Genesis, Adam and Eve explore a bit of the world before Adam mysteriously disappears.

So Eve sets out to find her missing husband, with the questionable help of Nakash, a colorful frilled serpent unlike any serpent you'll find today, and Asherah, a horned cherubim and guardian angel of sorts who abandons her post at Eden's borders to accompany Eve on her quest. Of course, Asherah has far more knowledge of the world outside the garden, so she appropriately garbs Eve in a fig-leaf bikini (Eve, in this pre-apple stage, is still ignorant of her own perky nakedness) before setting out into the pre-human world.

The world is not empty, however. There are demons and angels of various sorts, some of whom are attempting to set up their own hierarchy in defiance of God, led by the mighty Zeus. And there's also the architect of Adam's abduction, pale-skinned Lilith -- and believe me, he really should have told Eve he'd been married before.

Eve, of course, proves far more resourceful than she ever could have imagined, had she stayed within the safe confines of the garden. She even turns out to have a few wicked ninja skills, which prove of good use against Lilith's golems.

Volume one of The Lost Books of Eve is a slim collection that gets the story off to a solid and intriguing start. It is interesting to see how writer/artist Josh Howard weaves his tale through the framework of Genesis without crossing any controversial biblical lines. Even a final conversation between God and Lucifer in the garden is handled in an intelligent manner that shouldn't ruffle anyone's theological feathers.

The art is cute and well drawn, and even though the heroine spends a large chunk of the book in the nude, there's nothing here that should offend anyone. I am really looking forward to seeing where this journey goes from here.