A Wizard of Earthsea

It is a long time since I read this classic fantasy of a young wizard, destined for greatness, growing to maturity through a series of trials. I do not remember it as the kind of novel that was waiting to be pictured or filmed. But here it is, more than fifty years later, as a graphic novel. Illustrator Fred Fordham, with the blessing of Ursula Le Guin’s son Theo, remaining faithful to the original storyline, offers his own imagining of setting, character, and incident. There are dramatic moments, it is true. Ged begins his wizarding career by conjuring up a fog that misleads invading raiders to their death. Later, proud and provoked by the taunts of a fellow novice wizard, he inadvertently summons a malignant shadow from the otherworld which threatens to haunt him for the rest of his life. And, on the way to his final confrontation with the shadow, he subdues a dragon. But these are incidental to a tale of his growing understanding of the world and how to live in it which is wrung slowly and at a cost from mystery and confusion. There is a point in this adaptation where another character says of Ged that he might ‘win through darkness to great dominion, even to kingship.’ Fordham seems to have taken this to heart, for so much in this retelling takes place in darkness, fog or mist, and, even when the sun shines, Fordham is happier in the shadows. Character’s faces, to which you might look for emotion and reaction, are cloaked or hard to read. It is a bold choice and I think I see the reason for it but it narrows Fordham’s scope. While he pursues his vision with admirable persistence and skill, and he is given a handsome production by Walker, it makes for a book that is not immediately arresting or comfortable to read. Possibly, it also makes it less inviting for younger teenagers.