The Little Prince (Joann Sfar), Graphic novel adaptation



This classic has been translated into just about every language you can think of, from original French to Martian (just venturing a guess). It has now crossed another communication barrier, into the world of comic art.
As a graphic novel, Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry’s ‘The Little Prince’ received a really fantastic treatment. It should be noted that the Saint-Exup?ry drew the original art,which was pretty amazing. So readers should try NOT to compare against it, lest they may lessen the experience. It is a different beast, treat it as such.
When I first mentioned that I would read this, I got a couple bizarre looks from friends. “Wasn’t the Little Prince already basically a graphic novel?” was the most common question asked. These were obviously people who have either no clue (love you guys!) or never read the book. An illustrated novella.. That was the term you folks were looking for.
Joann Sfar’s graphic novel redux holds true to the original. The tale of a man lost in the desert, his airplane has broken down and repairs are underway. While working, a mysterious boy arrives and befriends him.
The boy claims to be from a small planet, where only he lives. He has three volcanoes and a flower to keep him company.
Due to some personal decisions, the boy decides to leave his world and see what else is out there. He visits other planets, each of which is populated only by a single adult. Each adult is stuck in a life that has no beginning or end, and in each case seemingly pointless. Excellent commentary, feel free to read into it.
I have always loved this book… Is the boy crazy, is the pilot crazy? Does the boy even exist? Are each of the adults, (and the boy) nothing more than aspects of the pilot’s subconscious? Do the adults ever get dislodged from their ruts? Does the sheep eat the flower? Does the flower forgive the boy?
These are some of the questions I have always asked myself.. will leave them all out there, hopefully the universe will answer them for me.
Or even better, a little prince can come from the stars an visit me at my humdrum job. I will ask him myself.
This is a page showing the planet the boy visits where the adult is always drunk. It always makes me very sad.
Fans of the original story should check this out. The art work is complex, but rough. The story arc covers all the aspects of the original, solidly enough that it took a physical comparison of the two books for me to find any minor differences.

Comments

  1. CarinaSeptember 9, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    I enjoyed it, too! I read it for the first time in high school french class, and didn't really like it that much. But when I re-read it as an adult, and when I read this version, I enjoyed it much more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. erisianSeptember 10, 2010 at 11:52 AM

    i do not remember much about french class, but i would not be surprised if it was the first place i saw it. seems to be a very common statement, like it is required reading for beginning language folks :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. CarinaSeptember 10, 2010 at 12:26 PM

    I think so! It doesn't help that, since French is technically an official language up here, we have to take it until at least the end of grade 9 - and I took it all the way through grade 12. Yuck.

    ReplyDelete
  4. erisianSeptember 12, 2010 at 11:49 AM

    i made it through a whole year of it. at this point i remember very few things, such as "i play tennis"

    ReplyDelete

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