Book of the Week: Watership Down

An incredible graphic novel adaptation of the Richard Adams classic!

Two weeks ago I wrote about Animal Castle—a book about lowly animals taking on their powerful oppressors. I bought that book on a whim while at a comic shop and it really paid off. In that same trip, I also bought this brand new version of Watership Down. I guess I was really in the mood for dark and serious fuzzy animal books that day.

A number of months back I was scrolling through Instagram and the algorithms showed me a beautiful pencil drawing of a couple of rabbits. It led me to the profile of artist Joe Sutphin who I found out was working on a graphic novel adaptation of Watership Down with James Sturm. I instantly fell in love with his work and followed the progress of the book ever since.

The book came out about a month ago so it is pretty new. I like to think that I am fairly well connected to comic news outlets online, but I have not seen any promotion for this book from any outlets, which is a shame, because this is one fantastic book.

In case you are not familiar with Watership Down—the novel or the movie—let me quickly sum up the plot. A small group of rabbits break off and leave their own warren after one of the rabbits has a prophetic vision of a grim future. Together they set off to find a new home and have to face a number of odds along the way, including a militaristic warren that tries to enslave any rabbit that come anywhere near their designated property.

One of the most frequent topics of conversation surrounding Watership Down is the amount of violence in what is supposed to be a kids movie. It is a very bloody movie as the two warrens go to war. This book doesn’t get quite as bloody, but it retains all the intensity of the battle and doesn’t shy away from depicting the action. If violence against animals is a trigger for you, it may be best to skip this (and same with Animal Castle)

I have a lot of comic adaptations of classic literature. I love seeing the different interpretations of the characters and scenes. However, there are two problems I usually have with pretty much every adaption:

First, they are way too short. It always seems like comic publishers want to widdle a whole book into 60 to 120 pages. This means greatly reworking the plot and leaving out so much contents so that all we are left with are the main story beats with minimal development.

At 377 pages, this book has so much room to breathe. The story unfolds naturally and never does it feel cramped or rushed to save space. Yes, there are parts that are skipped and characters that are missing, but the brillinace of James Sturm’s adaptation is that everything that is missing is compensated by a greater importance on what really matters in the story, and that is the heart of the characters and the end goal of the journey. This adaptation never loses its focus.

The second thing that ofter irks me about adaptations is that the overbearing use of narration to compensate for skipping pages of content. You can see this commonly in the vintage Classics Illustrated comics. Sometimes this is done because the narrator is the main character, but it still makes for a dense and uneven read. To my surprise and delight, there is actually no narration in this book at all. Everything is told through dialogue and panel flow thanks to the winning partnership of Sturm and Sutphin. The collaboration is so aparent; neither the art nor the writing takes importance over the other. They are in perfect unison.

Unlike Animal Castle in which many of the animals are heavily anthropomorphised, even wearing human clothes, all of the animals in Watership Down are strictly animals in their physical appearances. Sutphin does a remarkable job making each rabbit distinct in both design as well as expression. There are a lot of characters in this book, but never are you questioning which rabbit is speaking. It is essential to this story that these animals remain animals, but it is also essential that they can portray human emotions. Joe did all of that and it is a pretty incredible feat if you think about it.

One of my favourite parts of the book is anytime Dandelion the storyteller recounts a tale about El-ahrairah. Sutphin changes his style ever so slightly to draw out a bit more surealism in his art. This indicates that the scene isn’t taking place in the real world, but also to highlight the fact that it is a fable, exaggerated to make a point. It is a great effect.

James Sturm is also a great cartoonist. I have his books America and Market Day and I love them, but he wasn’t the right fit to illustrate this book and he knew it. I don’t know the circumstance that brought these two guys together, but I am glad it happened.

This review has been all about the adaptation of the story, but the story itself is also incredible. It is a story of survival and the importance of faith and fellowship through times of trial. It is a story about staying true to your values and using them to help others. It is a story about sacrifice and making hard choices so that others can flourish. And at the same time, it is a story about the animal kingdom, survival of the fittests, and the circle of life. It is a story that every person can relate to on some level, and if you can’t, you are not reading the story the right way.

This book retains a few of the features of the original novel, including the map at the beginning and the glossery of terms at the back. The glossery is important because the rabbits all have a made up vocabulary that is used throughout the book. However, this adaptation does not include any of the footnotes which are very handy to explain these word as you go. Adult readers can figure out their meanings from context, but I would imagine that younger readers may find it a challange. The footnotes throughout the book would help guide a young reader through those words, because they may not realize there is a glossery at the end.

That is just a minor nitpick and certainly not a reason to refrain from reading it. This may be my favourite book I’ve read this year. It should be in every school library and needs to reach as many people as possible. Superheroes still rule the comic world, so this one may have a hard time gaining traction, so please check it out and spread the word. This is a good book.

WATERSHIP DOWN
(w) Richard Adams, James Sturm
(a) Joe Sutphin
Ten Speed Graphic
October 17, 2023
978-1-9848-5720-0