My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have often thought about the routes that people take towards a text. By this, I mean the routes that people come towards the original story; the way we can experience something, let’s say an Enid Blyton, for example, in a thousand different shapes before ever experiencing the original story itself. In thinking about this, I came to the following decisions: that I did not mind how people came towards a text, I just minded that they came. Experience a story however you want and interact with it, understand it, live it in a thousand different ways. Come towards a story from any angle that you like and in any way that works for you. Just come. And we will welcome you on the journey and we will welcome you when you arrive to the heart of it.

All of this is a roundabout way of telling you that I have not read A Wizard of Earthsea and indeed, I have not read much of Ursula K Le Guin’s in general. I am, however, impressionistically aware of who she is and what she does. Can I say that? Does that make sense? I suppose I have so I shall hope that it does and I will not edit the sentence. I think that if you are involved in literature then there are authors you know without knowing. That wait for you to find them. That are ready to be found.

And so to this graphic novel which adapts a book I have not read but caught my eye because of Fordham’s crisp, elegant work elsewhere. I have enjoyed his To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel very much and I am beguiled by the thought of his The Great Gatsby: The Graphic Novel and Brave New World: A Graphic Novel and so A Wizard of Earthsea was, when I had a spare book token seeking a home, my inevitable purchase.

It’s clear that Fordham knows his stuff. I appreciated his ability to stand back from a frame, to let the art speak for itself and for the story to work without being crowded and stifled by additional fuss. You know the sort of thing. Too much text. Too much explanation. I am delighted by creatives who trust their audience to do the work. There’s some stunningly elegant sequences here where the visuals power forward and pull you into a breathless, honest, heartfelt space where anything can happen.

However, this wasn’t perfect for me. It’s very close but there were problems in the palette for me: there are some panels which are very, very dark and difficult to read. It’s a difficult thing, this. I see the point and the intent here (and indeed, the legitimacy of the act) but equally, there’s a difficulty in having a very dark panel come across on the page. It becomes more pronounced when several of them occur in quick succession, not just in terms of visual accessibility but also in terms of storytelling. How does one buy into the story, how does one understand it (especially if you’re unfamiliar with the original) if you simply can’t see what’s happening.

So close to brilliant, this. The clarity and intent here is enormously appealing and when Fordham goes to town, there are moments which become something rather special. It’s very close to brilliant and indeed, I’d recommend it in a heartbeat because it’s a classy piece of work which delivers something deeply satisfying and remarkably bold in scope and it trusts, entirely, the intensely eloquent source text. But then there’s that murkiness on the page, that gloomy edge to the palette, and I have to admit that held me back from fully buying into it.

***

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