Joe Sutphin

I am always skeptical of adaptations of books I love, but this graphic novel version of Watership Down is, simply, brilliant. Beautifully done, carefully adapted: a complete delight.

I remember being very bored when I read the overlong original novel back in 1985, and the animated movie did nothing to improve my opinion of the story. But this graphic novel adaptation finally made me care about these rabbits and their desire to start a new life of liberty away from oppressive regimes and deadly predators.

It's a thick adaptation -- and heavy enough to give me a little back strain when I tried to read it while walking -- but the plot has been distilled down to the exciting show more bits and the art is lovely, managing to distinguish most of the large cast of rabbits from each other while still letting them look like real rabbits. show less

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley. Content warning for death, violence, and allusions to sexual assault.)

-- 4.5 stars --

If you knew me, you'd know how wild it is that I've reached the ripe old age of 46 without reading WATERSHIP DOWN. I've always been a voracious reader and an "animal person," and, especially as a middle schooler, I absolutely devoured stories about animals, particularly anthropomorphized ones (THE SECRET OF NIMH and CHARLOTTE'S WEB are show more favorites). I guess the title gave off strong World War vibes (and, to be fair, it is widely regarded as an allegory for WWII), and I've just never been that into military history. And at 478 pages, it's also a pretty big time commitment for an adult who doesn't have as much time to read as she'd like. Which is all to say that the graphic novel seemed like the perfect entry point into the 'verse of Watership Down.

Before diving in, I brushed up on the basics via Wikipedia and, from what I can see, the graphic novel feels like a rather faithful adaptation. The graphic novel follows the same structure as the novel, from The Journey, to Watership Down, Efrafa, and Hazel-rah. Some of the more ancillary characters are combined or omitted altogether, and only several of the El-ahrairah stories - the folklore of the rabbits - make the cut.

Even with the reduced cast of characters, it's sometimes hard to keep all the rabbits straight. Illustrator Joe Sutphin does a commendable job differentiating between most of the main characters (Bigwig is especially striking), but things do get a little confusing when you add Cowslips's and the Efrafa warrens.

The artwork is simply charming and Sutphin makes it impossible not to fall in love with Hazel, Fiver, Dandelion, Bigwig, Kehaar, and the rest. The rabbit's culture - language, mythology, proverbs, and traditions - is drawn with love and care. Admittedly I haven't spent much time considering the story's parallels to WWII, though I appreciated the lessons about friendship and living in harmony with the natural world (and most notably the Western world's inability to do so).

Something that I didn't expect: much of the story's plot revolves around the Watership Down warren's efforts to procure does for breeding purposes. (Or, put in more noble terms, so that their warren will survive past the current generation.) The founding members are all bucks, and they quickly realize that their efforts will be fleeting without a new generation to take over the warren. They talk about "stealing" does from Efrafa, which reeks of sex trafficking, but it eventually becomes clear that they only intend to rescue those females who will leave with them willingly. Efrafa's leadership, on the other hand, is an authoritarian state that retains its citizens with force, including the threat of death for runaways and traitors. There's even a scene where Hyzenthlay - one of the would-be escapees - asks Bigwig if the does who join Watership Down can "mate with who we choose," heavily implying that they are raped on the regular in Efrafa. It's disappointing that these themes aren't really elaborated upon - but then again, there's an interesting section in the Wikipedia entry about criticisms of gender roles in the book:

[L]iterary critic Jane Resh Thomas said Watership Down "draws upon ... an anti-feminist social tradition which, removed from the usual human context and imposed upon rabbits, is eerie in its clarity". Thomas also called it a "splendid story" in which "anti-feminist bias ... damages the novel in only a minor way".

In terms of adaptations, WATERSHIP DOWN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL is about as good as it gets; I definitely want to check out the novel(s) and animated movie as well. But the source material definitely isn't without its issues. show less

Public Domain Pooh!

A wonderful adaptation of A. A. Milne's seminal children's book has all the best lines of dialogue and absolutely adorable art.

I love the choice of letting the pictures tell the story instead of trying to shove in all of Milne's text (delightful though it is) into ponderous caption boxes.

I'll definitely be putting this on my Christmas wish-list, because I want a paper copy to sit on my bookshelf that I can pick up and admire whenever I want.

And now we have an abundance of show more riches when it comes to Pooh graphic novels. I'm hard pressed to decide which I prefer between this and Travis Dandro's 2024 adaptation. This has the advantage of color and a classic appearance while Dandro's black-and-white art has a charming quirkiness and more dynamic layouts. Let's call it a tie, and I'm the winner.

Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com. show less