One of the benefits of having a break from school that surrounds a major gift-giving holiday is that, if you’re anything like me, you end up with lots of new books and and more free time to read them in than you get during most of the year. Being home with my family also means going to more movies and having access to netflix on a large tv instead of a worn out laptop that likes to overheat. So I’ve consumed a lot of media in the time that I’ve been home, and since I’ve still got almost a week before I head back north I’ve got almost a week to continue reading and watching tv and lots of free time to write about these things.
I’m going to start with three graphic novels I picked up over the holidays, all of which are adaptations of novels I read and love, and all of which have a rich history of adaptation. These are A Wrinkle in Time, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Hobbit.
Adapting novels into comic form is difficult, and there are some common pitfalls I’ve observed. It’s easy to want to stay too close to the original text, not just using the story but the word for word dialogue and even the narration penned by the author. This desire to stay true to the original is in some ways admirable (the other end of the spectrum offers adaptations that are almost unrecognizable, and I tend not to appreciate that), but it often keeps graphic novel adaptations from having a life of their own. Comic are not prose, and they have different strengths. Treating a graphic novel like an illustrated version of the prose is not going to use the strengths of the comic form.
This was something The Hobbit, a 1989 comic adapted by Charles Dixon and illustrated David Wenzel, struggled with. Text was overcrowded and the story relied too much on narration and dialogue to move the story forward. The illustrations, though artfully done with pen and watercolor, failed to create the sense of movement that ought to carry a reader through the scenes. It felt like an illustrated novel, not like a comic. Further disconnect was caused by the placement of the text, which felt like it had been dropped on top of illustrations instead of the two acting as an integrated whole. Overall, despite being a pretty book with nice illustrations and a story that I loved, I found the graphic novel to be disappointing.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, adapted by Eric Shanower and illustrated by Skottie Young, was a happy surprise. I grew up reading L. Frank Baum’s series of novels, and though I’ve seen plenty of adaptations I’ve never seen one so loyal to the original story. Pairing that with beautiful and lively illustrations and breathtaking coloring (props to colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu), this book was a gem. The only place I thought the book fell flat was in the dialogue, which felt a little overworked and didn’t match the playfulness of the artwork. My guess is that the formality of the language was an attempt to stay true to the century old dialect of the original book, and that creates a dilemma for me. On the one hand, I really appreciate that this book captures the whimsical and fantastic story that Baum wrote and stays true to that story, when so many adaptations have lost those roots, relying on the 1939 film as reference. On the other hand, the dialogue felt stiff and didn’t always match the artwork. I think I would have liked to see the adaptor take more liberty with the dialogue and relax it to sound more natural to the modern ear. All in all it was a fun read totally deserving of the Eisner awards it won. I look forward to seeing more in the series. If Marvel continues publishing books like this, I may be buying more of their works.
Last for today is Hope Larson’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. I was truly impressed by this adaptation, which is fluid and natural, true to the novel but capable of standing on it’s own feet. The characters were beautifully designed and wonderfully expressive and believable. Everything I loved about the novel was there; all of the emotions I felt, my fondness for the characters, the magic of Meg’s journey. I identified deeply with that character when I was younger, and I’ve been hyper critical of adaptations that failed to do justice to books I love. Maybe I’m relaxing as I grow, but I think Hope Larson did a fantastic job of bringing this story to life in comic form.
Next up: More discussion of adaptation with The Hobbit (the movie this time), the Lord of the Rings, Lego, and how I found my way out of creative writing and into film.