You've read about him in books, you've seen him on television, now Harry Dresden's in the funny papers. OK, graphic novels, but I had to say it.

Welcome to the Jungle is a collaborative effort between Jim Butcher, author of the ongoing Dresden Files series of novels, and artist Ardian Syaf. In my opinion, based on my reading of the urban fantasy book series, most of the characters look more like what I expected in this graphic novel version than they do in the televised one.

Except, surprisingly, Harry himself.

Our story opens with a murder at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. A zookeeper is found outside the gorilla house, mutilated. All fingers point to Moe the gorilla. The only folks coming to Moe's defense are Harry and the gorilla's custodians.

Harry, the magical detective, has got to solve the case before the police decide to put the gorilla down. His case is hindered by uncooperative zookeepers and what appear to be animals possessed by demons.

Regardless of whether the story is simply written or enhanced by illustrations, Butcher's wry humor comes through in the prose. Syaf's renderings are well done as well, and they definitely resemble the images of the characters I had in my mind. Syaf is a talented illustrator, one who is very much worthy of keeping an eye on.