Simon & Schuster The Good Earth (Graphic Adaptation)

I have read both the novel and this comic book, and it stays faithful to the novel. The dialogue and the narration are taken directly from the novel. "Graphic", in this sense does not mean graphic sex and violence, but it means it is a comic book style, as in "graphic arts". "Adaptation" means that is it not work for word, but summarized. However, the artist stuck with the true plot and did not deviate. However, I would not recommend this for young children, because even though it is a comic book, there are adult situations that are in the novel: The Protagonist, Wang Lung does take a second wife, who is a prostitute. In his old age, he takes a young, pretty slave girl to be his concubine. She is barely 18 (if that). There is also slavery and infanticide. Wang Lung also buys opium to give to his Uncle and Aunt for the purpose of getting them addicted so they will not be a threat to him. These things are also in the novel. The actual novel was written by a woman who grew up in China as the daughter of missionaries, so she wrote what she saw: slavery, opium, infanticide, polygamy, starvation, etc. These were part of the world she live in and her novel was intended for adults. I would say it is not appropriate for children younger than middle school.

Libro superbonito, teniendo en cuenta que es una adaptación gráfica de la novela. Se adapta muy bien a la versión original.

Storytelling and pace of the story is very good in this graphic novel. Artwork and coloring is average.

評者は理系の人間で、この歳（８７）になるまで、パール・バックの小説「大地」の存在は知っていたが読んだことはなかった。今回この本を手にして、その英語の読み易さに感激した。小説の時代背景は、評者の生存時代とオーバーラップする部分もあり、西欧（＋日本）と中国との関係を、中国人がどのようにとらえていたかを（バックの目を通して）窺い知ることが出来る。中国の現在の発展とその将来を占う上でも興味深いと思う。この小説が日中戦争（１９３７）前に出版されていたことは驚きである。ペーパーバックで扱い易く、印刷、バインディング共に良好である。コストパフォーマンスの良い本と云える。

The Good Earth is my all time favorite book. I also read the other two books in the trilogy with Sons coming in a very close second. I also watched the MGM adaptation which was mostly faithful to the book enough not to detract or irritate the viewer. So naturally, when I discovered the graphic novel, I had to snatch it right up. I admit, I've never been much of a comic book reader or ever really gotten into graphic novels, but I understood that the graphic novel would be condensed, allowing the pictures to fill in for descriptive passages in the book. But I still felt like this was excessively widdled down from the original so that it felt more like a shadow of the original book. Dumbed down and shaved off to where it was patronizing to the reader. There was one particular edit that really annoyed me. In the book, while Wang Lung was in the southern city scaping a meager living before the oncoming army threw a wrench into everything, Wang Lung, in desperation considers selling his daughter to the rich house to flee and return home. He asks O'lan if she were beaten. Which O'lan replies, "Every day I was beaten." So he tries another tactic, thinking his daughter may grow up to be pretty and have a kinder fate, and asks, "Were the pretty slaves beaten?" O'lan replies, "Aye, beaten or carried to a man's bed as was the whim." In the graphic novel, the second question was left off entirely but not O'lan's reply to it. So she ended up answering his first question with the second answer only. And the reason why this is a problem is it strongly implies O'lan had been raped as a slave, where the book made it fairly obvious that she was never regarded by anyone in the house except to be ordered about. This edit basically creates a giant plot device where none before it existed. My next complaint was in the art style itself. I was excited over the prospect of having imagery to accompany the books. If Pearl S. Buck has a flaw as a writer, she's not particularly good at describing things in any clear way. So I was unfortunately disappointed that the artwork seemed to be just as lacking in color and detail as her descriptions. Plain blue background panels and crude renderings that didn't look remotely human. Even characters that were supposed to be beautiful in the novel looked strange or grotesque. Even Lotus who stole Wang Lung's heart midway through the novel didn't look human... she barely even had features. She looked like some child's doll made of canvas and straw But i won't say i was completely unimpressed. At times, he did convey through pictures what was in the narrative so that words needn't be used. But after the huge trim of interesting and very important scenes and details, it felt more like a children's book. I suppose that might be the intent, but you're paying the price of an adult novel. So bear that in mind. Would I recommend this? You might enjoy it if manga and graphic novels are your bag, and you never read the book. But if you're a fan of the novel, you may find it to be a weak version.