Watership Down: The Graphic Novel

by Richard Adams, James Sturm (Adapted by), Joe Sutphin (Illustrator)

Overview

A beautiful and faithful graphic novel adaptation of Richard Adams’s beloved story of a group of rabbits on an epic journey in search of home.

“Every rabbit that stays behind is in great danger. We will welcome any rabbit who joins us.”

Watership Down is a classic tale of survival, hope, courage, and friendship that has delighted and inspired readers around the world for more than fifty years. Masterfully adapted by award-winning author James Sturm and gorgeously illustrated by bestselling artist Joe Sutphin, this spectacular graphic novel will delight old fans and inspire new ones, bringing the joy of Watership Down to a new generation of readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984857194
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	26,148
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	10 Years

About the Author

Richard Adams (May 9, 1920–December 24, 2016), an English veteran of World War II, originally told the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, who insisted he publish it as a book. It became an instant classic, selling over a million copies in both the United Kingdom and the United States, winning both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972. His other books include Shardik, Maia, Tales from Watership Down, The Girl in a Swing, and The Plague Dogs.

James Sturm’s graphic novels include Off Season, The Golem’s Mighty Swing, and Market Day; he co-authored the popular instructional series for children Adventures in Cartooning with Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost. Winner of two Eisner Awards, Sturm co-founded the Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger and The Center for Cartoon Studies, where he currently serves as director.

Joe Sutphin is an illustrator of books for kids such as Helen Taylor’s Little Pilgrim’s Progress, Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga, and the New York Times bestseller Word of Mouse by James Patterson. His love of nature, and of the living creatures in the fields and woods around his home, has informed his art for much of his life. Joe lives in a barn in Ohio with his wife, Gina, and a bunch of cats.

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

This action-packed graphic adaptation by Sturm (Off Season) and Sutphin (the Wingfeather Saga series) of Adams’s epic novel maintains the existential gravitas of the original while artistically rendering its wild English countryside and memorable cohort of lean, scrappy rabbits. When Fiver has a vision of a field covered in blood, his brother Hazel leads a group of young bucks away from their warren. On their heroic journey, they encounter rivers, dogs, injuries, cars, and many different types of lapine society—from a group that relies on humans for food and looks the other way when rabbits end up in snares, to Efrafa, a powerful warren that rules with an iron paw. Joined along the way by various defectors, Hazel and crew come into their own, eventually establishing and defending their own colony. Their mythology, which includes a sun god and a black rabbit representing “fear and darkness... and death,” guides them and fuels their bravery. The art manages to be both melancholic and dynamic, just like the tone of Adams’s novel. Sturm and Sutphin effectively convey a world as fraught and complicated as the human realm, yet entirely its own. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

01/12/2024

Gr 6 Up—Watership Down first entered the popular imagination as Richard Adams's dense adventure novel about a group of rabbits establishing a new warren, deftly combining societal critique, rousing battle stories, religious myth-making, and rudimentary leporine linguistics. Illustrated adaptations to date have included an impressionistic, eerie 1970s film and a dry, naturalistic miniseries in 2018. In this, its first iteration as a luscious graphic novel, Sturm and Sutphin seem intent on almost documentary adherence to the original. Mystic rabbit Fiver has a terrible vision of his warren's destruction, and along with brave Hazel and a few others, leaves in search of safer climes. They briefly join a group of rabbits who are drugged in their den and easily harvested by humans, cleverly procure does from a farm, and find themselves in brutal battle with General Woundwort, the authoritarian leader of a militaristic warren. Sturm's and Sutphin's work revels in the natural world: woods, fields, rivers and underground habitats flowing into one intoxicating, verdant dream. However, in its heavy emphasis on the original's complex plot, the characters' identities and relationships begin to blur and the story's conclusion feels somewhat predetermined rather than hard-won. In an effort to be completely faithful to the original, this beautiful adaptation never quite finds its own voice. VERDICT Beautiful and deliberate, this graphic adaptation retells the original story with impressive, exhaustive faithfulness.—Emilia Packard

School Library Journal

Wonderful for those seeking re-entry to the forests and meadows of Watership Down, this version is also ideal for those who have yet to step foot in them.”—The Wall Street Journal

“This graphic novel version features outstanding art, with the rabbits drawn in such an appealing and distinctive way . . . a gripping page-turner of an adventure.”—Boing Boing

“Whether you’re an old fan or a new one, this is the book to read.”—Betsy Bird, School Library Journal

“An immersive, breathtaking visual experience that carries readers through all the danger and beauty of this literary classic. Mark my words: this version of Watership Down will be just as influential as the original.”—Nate Powell, award-winning cartoonist of the March trilogy and Save It for Later

“An absolute masterpiece. Whether or not you’ve read the original, you will be pulled into this visually mind-blowing story that was created with so much care and heart. Graphic novel adaptations are notoriously difficult to do, but I will point to Watership Down as a beacon for how it should be done.”—Tillie Walden, creator of Clementine

“The artwork captures what the book is attempting: to give the reader the vertigo of seeing animals we are acculturated to view as harmless while at the same time seeing the tension, peril, and depravity that we pretend we don’t see in ourselves.”—Russell Moore, Christianity Today

“[This] faithful adaptation will delight fans of Richard Adams’s original book, but is also a great way to introduce younger audiences to the tale.”—Geeks of Doom

“There are gorgeous panels here, full of light and delicacy, and two predominant tones—the green brightness of the world above, and the grey hues of an underworld that all rabbits call home. Sturm and Sutphin also manage the incredibly difficult task of bringing these personalities to life. . . . This is a worthy addition to the bookshelves of anyone who has loved Watership Down.”—Broken Frontier

“James Sturm and Joe Sutphin have managed to draw out the heart of this classic, brilliantly adapting it into the graphic novel form. A wonderful way for new readers to discover the story and for hardened fans to reconnect with Fiver, Hazel, Bigwig, and the gang.”—Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022–2024
 
“Watership Down is my favorite book, and I consider it to be one of the very greatest books of all time.”—SF Said, author of Varjak Paw and Tyger

“Every page of this adaptation is a loving tribute to Richard Adams’s masterpiece. I’ve walked the real Watership Down and can honestly say that Joe Sutphin’s gorgeous illustrations are the next best thing to being there.”—Andrew Peterson, author of The Wingfeather Saga

“This action-packed graphic adaptation . . . of Adams’s epic novel maintains the existential gravitas of the original while artistically rendering its wild English countryside and memorable cohort of lean, scrappy rabbits . . . The art manages to be both melancholic and dynamic, just like the tone of Adams’s novel. Sturm and Sutphin effectively convey a world as fraught and complicated as the human realm, yet entirely its own.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher