My film teacher in college introduced me to one of the basic concepts of storytelling: KISS, also known as "Keep It Simple, Stupid". Pan's Corner is pretty faithful to that principle, not forcing its character's to be funny but finding the funny in the character's own pre-existing concepts.

 And why preexisting? The characters of Pan's Corner are none other than the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology as they try to cope with modern times. The classical deities have been used and abused in several media, but what creator Nikita "Thayle" Malha brings to the table is a simple love for the original myths that shines through both the art and dialogues.

Pan's Corner is produced as a vertical comic strip, with few to no ties between each delivery. Pan, the goat-legged sylvan deity is the protagonist of the strip, but recurring co-protagonists are Dyonisius (aka Bacchus), god of wine and Artemis (aka Diana), goddess of the Moon and the hunt.

Now, the goddess Artemis in the original myths is the last character I would have expected to find in a comic strip, but her modern short-haired, sleeveless shirted and cargo pants-ed incarnation just works, and she's still the same angry bitch that can turn a man into a wolf just for seeing her naked.

The art is simple. Thin, closed lines and no coloring, shading or shadow contrast of any kind give the strip that air of simplicity that meshes well with the writing. The art style is consistent although there's always room for improvement, but more in the sense of tightening up details than correcting mistakes.

All in all, Pan's Corner is a deceptively simple read with humor that any mythology nerd (or anyone who has picked up even a children's version of the Greek myths) will enjoy. It might fly over the heads of readers looking for cheap humor, but changing anything for mass appeal would only tarnish this little gem of a comic.