Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part One

Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part One is Robert Mandell's and Sean Lam's interpretation of the classic science-fiction novel by Larry Niven which has sparked some 20 sequels, including 12 detailing the Man-Kzin Wars.  For my original review of the novel, Ringworld, click here.  Since I started this blog, I've reviewed 70 comics and just that one novel.  I've read 20 novels in that time, but I decided to focus on comics, in particular new comics.  I do review older comics, like this one, and I'm kinda' in a bind.   I just spent a ton of money ordering and pre-ordering comics, so I'm skint.  Ringworld: The Graphic Novel only covers the first half of Ringworld, so I'll have to put off reading the second half for some time, which is too bad, because I love this graphic novel.

I generally don't like graphic-novel adaptations of classic stories.  There have been a few exceptions, like The People of Sparks, Artemis Fowl and Will Eisner's short adaptation of Moby Dick.  Ringworld is arguably better than all of them, but it suffers from being in black and white.  While I enjoy comics in color, about a third or a forth of the comics I read are in black and white.  Comics are drawn in black and white, and colored using Adobe or other programs, and almost never by the original artist.  I have a lot of respect for colorists, and I have even more respect for the rare comic artist like Jimmie Robinson who colors his own comics, but it's usually the illustrator who gets his or her name on the cover of the book.  Robert Mandell, who authored the adaptation, only gets a mention on the inside cover.  I don't know exactly how detailed he was in adapting this novel, but he arguably had the hardest and most important job on the project.

I know a lot of people don't like this adaptation, but you have to look at this adaptation as a gift from Mandell, Lam, and everyone else to Larry Niven fans and Ringworld fans, and it's a wonderful gift.  Sure, it's only paperback/manga sized, and it's not in color, but accepting it for what it is, you can enjoy it and have fun.  Heck, out of all the bad reviews I read of this book, a third of them complain that it's not in color, a third of them complain that it's too small, and a third complain that they meant to buy the original novel.  Do your research before buying books because when you don't, you only set yourself up for disappointment.