A Wizard of Earthsea (Graphic Novel)

Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred Fordham

★★★★★

A painting, either watercolor or a similar style. Seen from above, a lone figure stands on a sandy beach, holding a staff. His shadow stretches back toward the ocean, toward the bottom of the image, widening and losing its shape as it crosses the line of foam and falls on the blue-green water beyond it. The land and sea are almost, but not quite, evenly split, with a curving line of wet sand running across the middle of the cover.A rare find: A great adaptation of a great book.

Fred Fordham’s watercolor-style art is absolutely gorgeous. The adaptation plays to the medium’s strengths, allowing the visuals to tell the story when possible, keeping Ursula K. Le Guin’s prose when needed. Wide seascapes, rocky coasts, forested landscapes, people (not whitewashed!) and dragons…

There’s a preview featuring the first few pages and a few of the seascapes at Fordham’s website.

The printing is a bit dark for some scenes set at night or in dimly lit rooms (of which there are a lot, some pivotal). The first time through, I could barely see what was going on in the scene where Ged first summons the shadow in Ogion’s house. So you’ll want to read it by sunlight or with an actual reading lamp, not just ambient room lighting. (This isn’t a problem with the digital edition, though I suppose that might depend on your device’s display!)

More info at A Wizard of Earthsea (Graphic Novel).