Comic Sunday #3: Les Miserables and Pride & Prejudice in Manga!

Comic Sundays are an American newspaper tradition where new comic strips are published weekly. At Becoming Books this tradition will continue focusing on comic strips, comics and graphic novels appealing to young adult and adult audiences.

Les Miserables – Pride & Prejudice 

Les Miserables Adapted by Crystal Silvermoon and Stacy King; Art by SunNeko Lee

336 pages / Black & White 

Pride & Prejudice Adapted by: Stacy King; Art by Po Tse

376 pages / Black & White

MangaClassics.com / Udon Entertainment and Morpheus Animation: August 12, 2014

Sampler copy provided by the publisher. – Opinions are my own, review policy here.

Storytelling:

I've never read manga before so this was a learning experience for me. Luckily, the inside of the sampler provides instructions on how to navigate the frames, which is basically the direct opposite of comic reading structure. 

The preview of Les Miserables is 33 pages and follows the decent of Fantine. This is a great introduction to Hugo's literary classic, especially for young readers or those (like myself) who are intimidated by the massive novel. The storytelling is on point and definitely carried through the emotions from the novel.

The Pride & Prejudice sampler is only eight pages and follows Bingley and Darcey at the public ball. The storytelling is interesting because in this scene it appears Elizabeth is tearfully distraught by Darcey's indifference. I have not encountered this version of emotions in Austen's original novel or other retellings. I'm very curious to see how it pans out since it's such a short sampler. But the artwork... oh, the artwork... 

Artwork:

The artwork for both samplers is expressive with traditional Japanese cartoonist trends and a nod to the period settings in which the stories take place. I definitely favored Po Tse's drawings for Pride & Prejudice which are whimsical and feature frame backgrounds that remind me of fairytales. The publisher refers to the artwork in the style of "lush shoujo". Manga fans probably know what this means a lot better than I do...ekk. :/

The artwork for Les Mis by SunNeko Lee may not be as dreamy but carries a hard work load of showing adult content re-envisioned for a youth audience. This is especially true for the telling of Fantine's decent. The frames are telling and filled with emotion as the reader navigates the topic with care.  

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Yay or Nay? 

Yay! I'm really excited about this line of manga from Manga Classics. I think it's an amazing way to introduce literary classics to middle grade, young adults and adults alike! If you're already a manga fan then I definitely recommend it. Future titles to be released in winter 2014 will include The Scarlet Letter, Emma and Great Expectations.