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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

December 9, 2011 by Angela Eastman 9 Comments

Comic Conversion: Witch & Wizard

Witch & Wizard | Novel: James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet / Grand Central Publishing | Manga: Svetlana Chmakova / Yen Press

One minute Whit Allgood is falling asleep in front of the TV, the next an army is breaking down his door, brandishing guns and dragging his sister Wisty out of her bed. But the biggest shock for Whit and Wisty comes when they’re accused of being a wizard and a witch by the New Order—the all new government that’s taken over the whole country—and are sentenced to death. As they struggle to survive in their jail cell, the siblings discover that they do have special powers, from telekinesis to bursting into flames. Even after they manage to break out, thanks to the help of a ghostly friend, Whit and Wisty still have to find their parents, and they might have to break back into jail to do it.

Witch & Wizard is one of the latest series to come out of the James Patterson novel mill, this time written in conjunction with Gabrielle Charbonnet. Though there was already a graphic novel adaptation from IDW, Yen Press decided to come out with their own version of the dystopian novel using artist Svetlana Chmakova, creator of Dramacon and Night School, to create Witch & Wizard: The Manga. Both versions of the story have their flaws, but one might be more worth your time than the other.

Let’s start with the novel. One good thing you can immediately say about Witch & Wizard is that it gets right into the action. The story has barely started before the New Order troops are breaking down the Allgoods’ door. It doesn’t slow down much from there, even when the siblings are locked in prison, as they deal with sadistic jailers and have to fight a pack of mad dogs for food and water. The short chapters (most only last 1 or 2 pages) help create the illusion that you are speeding through the book. But even with all the rapid action, the story can get pretty clunky at times. You’ll start the next chapter, and suddenly Whit and Wisty are somewhere else, or there’s someone new in the scene who wasn’t there before. And the short chapters, while helping you feel like the book is a fast read, hurt the overall smoothness of the longer, more dramatic scenes.

Whit and Wisty are certainly fun characters, with their wisecracks, determination, and magical powers. Wisty in particular has an entertaining, sarcastic tone. But unfortunately, it’s all surface. Though the story is in first person for both characters, you never feel like you get truly, deeply in their heads. Even when the story pauses for inner thoughts it’s pretty generic, like how awful or cool or sad something is. Then there is the villain, The One Who Is The One, who should be dark and terrifying… but for some reason, Patterson and Charbonnet have him spouting some of the weirdest lines. They range from awkward – “I can even shut your sister up!” – to just plain goofy – “TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS!” – and really diminish the fear readers should have of this all-powerful villain.

Now we come to Yen Press’s manga adaptation by Svetlana Chmakova. The visual aspect of the comic actually helps with the clunky-ness in the book. New character appearances are less sudden, and we see the transition from one place to another, so there’s no flipping back a page to see how Whit and Wisty suddenly got from point A to point B. Chmakova’s art also helps to brighten up some of the less-than-stellar character personalities. Sure, the villains are just as one-dimensional as in the novel, with their little dark beetle eyes, but other characters seem more human in her hands. Whit wears a blank look of shock when he discovers that Celia is a ghost, and Wisty’s range of expressions, from cartoonish excitement at living in a fancy department store to the dark, narrow-eyed look when she casts her angry spells, make this witch even more fun and exciting than her novel version.

Despite the pace of the original, cuts were needed to fit the whole story into a single graphic novel. We miss out on some interesting shows of magic, like when Wisty floats in her sleep, or Whit speeds himself up to handily defeat some guards. But the comic also does away with some bits I didn’t care for, most obviously The One’s horrible, cheesy lines. The One still isn’t as dark and foreboding as I would like (you can always go creepier) but at least his dialogue doesn’t make me cringe.

The Witch & Wizard novel has a lot of problems that I have a hard time overlooking. While the pacing is nice and quick, the novel persistently trips itself up with awkward breaks and sudden shifts in location. And the plot, while a decently done fight-the-power dystopian, can get repetitive, takes unnecessary turns, and ends so abruptly I’m honestly surprised Patterson and Charbonet didn’t add in a couple more chapters to smooth things out. Chmakova’s adaptation doesn’t escape the plot issues of the original, but in streamlining the plot to fit into a single graphic novel she manages to toss out some of the minor chinks, resulting in an easier flow. When you combine that with art that is much more expressive than Patterson’s prose, overall you get a more enjoyable read. It’s still not perfect, but Witch & Wizard the manga improves enough on the original to be worth your money.

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Filed Under: Comic Conversion, FEATURES Tagged With: graphic novel, manga, Novel, Teen Lit, Witch & Wizard, yen press

About Angela Eastman

Angela started reading manga in high school when she found Cardcaptor Sakura, and it's all gone downhill from there. Angela is an unrepentant bookworm, and aside from graphic novels loves children's stories, thick fantasy novels, classic literature and anything by Paulo Coelho. She also holds an MFA in writing for children. You can find more of Angela's writing at The Fandom Post, and on her blog. You can also find her on Twitter.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laur says

    December 9, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    Interesting! It really makes me wonder how much freedom Svetlana and Rem get when they’re adapting books. Do they create the comic script themselves or is it handed to them? I don’t think I know too much about novel-to-comic adaptations so I apologize if this comment is slightly off-topic

    Reply
    • Angela Eastman says

      December 10, 2011 at 8:44 am

      I’m actually not sure how that works myself, but it’d be interesting to find out. I’m even wondering how much say, if any, James Patterson has in the adaptation.

      Reply
  2. Michelle Smith says

    December 9, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    What a nifty column! I talked about the Witch and Wizard manga in a recent Off the Shelf column, so it’s interesting to see that it was actually an improvement over the novel!

    Reply
    • Angela Eastman says

      December 10, 2011 at 8:47 am

      Thank you! And that was neat to see; normally adaptations cut out my favorite bits, but this seemed to slice out the parts I disliked the most.

      Reply
  3. lovelyduckie says

    December 12, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    I kind of wish Nightschool had continued instead…

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Manga Bookshelf | Welcome new columnists! says:
    December 9, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    […] art adaptations. She began this week with James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet’s Witch & Wizard, adapted by Svetlana Chmakova for Yen […]

    Reply
  2. Links: Simply the best « Good Comics for Kids says:
    December 12, 2011 at 6:41 am

    […] in which she compares graphic novels with their source material. Up first: James Patterson’s Witch & Wizard, which has two comic-book adaptations on the American […]

    Reply
  3. J-Comi launches English beta « MangaBlog says:
    December 12, 2011 at 8:16 am

    […] will write a column titled Comic Conversion about graphic novel adaptations—she kicks it off with a look at Witch & Wizard—and Paul Beasi, who will write about Japanese […]

    Reply
  4. Manga: Yotsuba&! Volume 11, Witch & Wizard Volume 2 « Diary of a Bookworm says:
    August 27, 2012 at 8:15 am

    […] I took a look at volume 1 of this adaptation of a YA dystopian novel in my first installment of Comic Conversion on Manga Bookshelf, where I noted the quick, constant action that pulls you pretty easily through […]

    Reply


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