Book Review: The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, adapted and illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (2021)

 

The cover of K. Woodman-Maynard's graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, 2021.

Woodman-Maynard's speech bubbles help to characterize the square Tom Buchanan, and the playful, vivacious Daisy.

On January 1, 2021, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby entered the public domain, meaning that anyone is now free to adapt the novel however they choose to do so, without getting approval from the Fitzgerald estate. One of the earliest new adaptations to be released is K. Woodman-Maynard’s graphic novel adaptation, published on January 5^th by Candlewick Press.

The Great Gatsby is Woodman-Maynard’s first graphic novel, and she does a fantastic job of translating Fitzgerald’s timeless novel into the graphic novel format. Gatsby is an excellent candidate for the graphic novel treatment, as Fitzgerald’s language throughout the book is full of colors. Of course, there’s the famous green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, as well as Gatsby’s pink suit, his yellow car, and the “yellow cocktail music” that plays at his parties.

Nick searches for Gatsby as the champagne flows. (That's Jordan Baker in the background.)

Woodman-Maynard’s medium for her Gatsby graphic novel is watercolor and digital media, and her vibrant colors pop off the page. Her version of Gatsby is a treat to look at. The attention to detail is superb—pay attention to the character’s speech bubbles, and you’ll see that everything Tom Buchanan says is in a square bubble, perfect for his tiny, square mind, while everything Daisy says has tendrils and curlicues that occasionally ensnare the other characters. It’s a perfect visual illustration of her seductiveness.

An example of how Nick's narration sometimes appears.

Nick Carraway’s narration appears in creative ways throughout the book—on clouds, on the sides of buildings, stretching across a landscape. This is an elegant and visually stimulating way to present the novel’s narration without relying on huge blocks of text intruding into the book.

Gatsby's car, with its' gold top hat hood ornament. Pretty snazzy, old sport.

Throughout the book are little “Easter eggs” for Gatsby fans to pore over. For example, the hood ornament on Gatsby’s car is a tiny gold top hat—a reference to Gatsby’s epigraph poem “The Gold-Hatted Lover.”

While Woodman-Maynard’s use of color is bold, she makes the dramatic choice to show the hapless George Wilson without any color at all. It’s a great decision, and makes Wilson stand out from the other characters.

I couldn’t help but compare Woodman-Maynard’s adaptation to the officially sanctioned Gatsby graphic novel, with illustrations by Aya Morton, adapted by Fred Fordham, that came out in June of 2020. (I reviewed that adaptation here.) Woodman-Maynard has made more dramatic editorial choices than Fordham did, and for that reason, I found Woodman-Maynard’s to be a more successful adaptation.

In my original review of the Fordham/Morton version, I praised Fordham’s adaptation of the text. But now that I’ve read Woodman-Maynard’s, I think Fordham left in too much narration. I know, that sounds like heresy, considering how beautiful Fitzgerald’s prose is. But an adaptation will always be someone’s version of the original text—it will always be different from the source. If you want all the language of the novel, go read the novel. Woodman-Maynard succeeds in creating a graphic novel that has narrative drive that isn’t overly reliant on Fitzgerald’s narration. In doing so, she has made a tight narrative even tighter.

Woodman-Maynard also succeeds in differentiating the characters more than Morton did. In Woodman-Maynard’s version, Tom Buchanan becomes the hulking person he’s described as in the novel, as he towers over all the other characters.

Woodman-Maynard also chooses to make some of Fitzgerald’s metaphors literal—Daisy and Jordan are literally hovering in the air when we first see them. In Fitzgerald’s words, they “were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.” For me, those moments were never distracting or intrusive, they just added to the atmosphere of the book. There’s something slightly unreal about Gatsby to begin with—this isn’t a novel that’s all about naturalism.

If you’re looking for a new way to experience The Great Gatsby, pick up K. Woodman-Maynard’s graphic novel adaptation. Chances are you’ll find something new you’ve never noticed before.