Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy, 262 pages.
ABRAMS (Abrams ComicArts), 2020. $23.
Language: R (87 swears, 2 “f”); Mature Content: R; Violence: R
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
In 2025, America is not the amazing place it used to be -- communities close themselves off for safety, only leaving when they have to. But not all those spreading harm and fear are deterred by a locked gate. As the world around Lauren and her family becomes more violent and unpredictable, she tries to prepare them for the hardships coming -- unfortunately, some are not willing to listen until it is too late.
While the premise initially caught my attention, I quickly lost interest because of the rough illustrations. The talent of illustrators in making beautiful panels to tell a story is often my favorite part of graphic novels, so I was disappointed to discover I wasn’t enjoying that aspect of Parable of the Sower. These rough illustrations were not only unaesthetically pleasing, they also hindered the story by making it difficult to understand who was doing and saying what, which quickly lead me into confusion. I suggest reading Octavia E. Butler’s original work instead. The mature content rating is for nudity, sex, and mentions of rape and prostitution; the violence rating is for death, suicide, child abuse, drug use, arson, murder, and implied cannibalism.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I adored the concept of this graphic novel but I felt like the execution needed work. The artwork is fine but the overall narrative arc needs some fine tuning.

An excellent way to introduce a classic science fiction story to new readers.
The illustrator is able to show the dystopian horrors of this world superbly with drawings that take the intense imagery that Octavia E. Butler crafted and amplify it tenfold. The artwork helps the fragmented nature of the story- that can cause an issue for readers of the original, to flow seamlessly from scene to scene, making the passage of time easy to follow.
The story itself is adapted faithfully from the original novel. I am eager to see if a second instalment will be made for the book's sequel.

I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Due to this, the art in my EPUB was unfinished and therefore I do not feel comfortable giving the book 5 stars as I cannot vouch for the quality of the artwork to be consistent throughout the novel. However, I will revisit this when the book is released on the 14th of January 2020.

Anyone who hasn't read Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler's weirdly prescient start to the Earthseed duology, is now officially out of excuses. Butler's stunning prose is matched with dreamy, engaging art in this graphic novel adaption. Lauren Olamina, a young black girl in the suburbs of LA, survives last stage capitalism,. the destruction of her home, and the dangers of the road while creating her own religion and forging new bonds. A beautiful tribute to the cruelty and resilience of humanity.

This wasnt for me. I really disliked the style of the artwork and this made it very difficult to follow the story. I am interested in this author but I think I had better read the prose version instead. This one was simply not for me.

Parable of the Sower was a fantastic graphic novel! It follows Lauren, the protagonist, as she goes on a journey to find a better place to live after her family dies. Octavia Butler does a wonderful job at building a world filled with economic, social, and environmental upheaval. The story was incredibly interesting and engaging, and I cannot wait to see the final published copy because the black and white sketches were super hard to follow. Actually, I hate to say this, but I think this was the worst art I’ve seen in a graphic novel – but please do not take my word for granted; I am still a newbie to the graphic novel realm. Thank you NetGalley and Abrams ComicArts for this eARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This graphic novel was my introduction to Octavia Butler. Yes, I have heard her name many times but have never read her work. I knew her work was dark and heavy so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get familiar with Parable of the Sower. The graphic novel has imagery which makes it easier to follow along with the story. I can't really rate the images because the ARC I received is mainly rough sketches. But if the finished product is like the vivid cover that attracted me to this story I'm sure it will be amazing. This graphic novel presents this powerful story in an easy to read format for people like me who can get distracted during a long tale.

Interesting enough this story takes place in the very near future. And well, I certainly hope the near future is not as violent and bleak. Since I never read the original I'm not sure if the journal entries were in it, but I love the style of the journal entry narration here.

I recieved an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free graphic novel.*

Octavia E. Butler is a force to be reckoned with if you are into sci-fi. "Parable of the Sower", originally a novel published in 1993, takes place in a post-climate-change U.S. where poverty and violence reign. This dystopia was adapted into a graphic novel, which makes absolute sense.

The story is well done. Our protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina is a black girl who can sense other people's emotions. She leaves the village she grew up in after losing her entire family, travelling north, looking for water, shelter and a new life. She believes that the only thing that can save humankind might be space travel and she founds a new religion, called Earthseed. It is a very touching tale of a resilient young woman giving hope to others in an utterly hopeless world.

The graphic novel has a very rough black-and-white style which is both impressive and confusing. I found it hard to differentiate between different characters or really understand what the panels were showing besides terrifying faces. I also had trouble reading the text, but that might have been an issue with both my PC and my eyes.

If you are into dystopias and would like to experience a classic as a graphic novel, pick this one up.

Four Stars because I the graphic novel style was too much for me.

I received a copy of Parable of the Sower from Abrams ComicArts through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Parable of the Sower is one of my favorite books and it translates really well to the graphic novel format. I loved Lauren's journal entries.
This is such an important story and I'm thrilled at the idea of it finding a wider audience.

Parable of the Sower: Graphic Novel
by Octavia E. Butler,
adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

This is a tricky one to review. On the one hand, there is the stellar story behind this adaption. Butler was a master of the field, weaving powerful prose with profound ideas to create something transcendent, at times.
The Parable of the Sower novel is deep, and compelling, and important.

It is a story of humanity in danger, of faith and creed and hope. It is about race and love and humanity. It is a story worth reading, for anyone.

The idea of a graphic novel adaptation is a good one. I like graphic novels. It can be tricky, though, to adapt books to visual form (just like to movies) because you can't do everything. You have to balance the words and the pictures, so some words get left out. Obviously, it can work, as the comics creators behind this one created a wonderful award-winning adaptation of Kindred.

But judging that success is wholly dependent upon the art, and the art in this eARC is not finished. I assume so, anyway, because these are sketches, The faces aren't drawn at all in some panels, with the guidelines there to show where eyes, mouth etc. go. Some characters are fully drawn in, but many are barely ghosts. There is no coloring at all.

So I can't judge the art. I'm sure it will be fine when it's done, but it's not done, so I can only judge the verbal adaptation: the cuts and changes made to fit a novel to a graphic format.

And that is all pretty smooth. It works to focus on the dialog, mostly. It can be hard in some scenes, without the accompanying art, to know who is talking to whom. The action can be hard to follow as well.

But the characters come through. The narrative beats hit, and the story works, which is to be expected, since this is Octavia Butler's story.

I just wish I could see how it works as a graphic novel.

Thank you to Octavia E. Butler (author), Damian Duffy (illustrator), ABRAMS, AbramsComicsArt, and NetGalley for allowing me the extreme pleasure of access to an advanced reader copy of “Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” for an honest review.

This graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower was quite a surprise when I opened it. I've never recieved an ARC that was in such a rough draft format as this one arrived, so I'm going to do my best to cover this as openly and honestly as I can (while adding some notes of supposition given that there are five months to publication and it will be shored up by then, likely).

I deeply love that Lauren's narrative of this story remains her journal entries and that the journal entries are on every page, and every piece of narration is backgrounded my the image of it being written on lined paper (though I'm deeply questioning the few sheets that were three-hole punched?), as it kept you in the frame of mine it was written down and being told in that writing no matter what you saw in the comic boxes and dialogue bubbles format.

The art on the front cover, which stormed into my heart and demanded I request this adaption, is the only piece of art in the whole graphic novel that is complete. Everything between that gorgeous front cover and the end is serious of very rough sketches, all of which are in black and white. Several faces all still bear the lines of their symmetry, and most things don't have much background. This made it very hard to distinguish characters from each other and if I hadn't read Parable of the Sower in print two weeks earlier, I don't think I would have been able to even guess who they were.

I was very moved by getting to see the big groups together. It's easy to blend the idea of that many into a lump in your head, but seeing just how many people the group collected, and how many were settling at the end brought that even more home to me than reading the novel did.

Star rating for current art, but very likely to become a 4/5 once completed. No complaints aside from not knowing how to judge the art scale yet.

I am struck by the beauty of this work, as well as the power of the narrative. Octavia E. Butler's work is represented well in this graphic novel adaptation. Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel would make a welcome addition to classroom and personal libraries. This is the second adapation of Butler's novels I have had the opportunity to read, and a welcome reason to return to her original work.

The images are wonderful, and the work is thoughtful. More than that, this is a powerful testament to the moral nature and social themes of Butler's writing. Highly recommended.

This ARC is hard to review.

I love Octavia Butler's Earthseed books, of which Parable of the Sower is the first. People have praised Butler time and time again for her prescient depiction of 2020s America and her hopeful Afrofuturist science fiction philosophy. Seriously, read those books.

This graphic novel is a faithful adaptation, and some artistic choices, like the voiceover boxes being the lined paper of Lauren Olamina's journal, already capture the protagonist's inner life well. BUT, it's hard to judge this ARC well because the art isn't anywhere close to done. There are a few panels here and there where Lauren's face is fully lined and shaded, but most of this advance copy is rough sketches. And I mean rough--it was hard to tell what most of the characters looked like besides Lauren, or even what was happening in some action scenes. That being said, what I DID see of the art was lovely, and the paneling choices themselves were pleasing. Once the book is released in January, I can see this rating going up to 5 stars. But for now, it's hard to extrapolate the end product from what I have.

Although this ARC has inconsistent art (still having some sketches, some outlines, some almost complete art) it is still as riveting as the original.

The distillation of the text into graphic novel sized bites and images is excellent. The art that is there, even the sketches, are full of movement and life.

This story has not only stood the test of time, but become more relevant with time. With a Netflix series on the horizon for this world, I anticipate the novel AND this graphic novel having a resurgence. Well worth adding to a GN collection in a middle school, high school, university, or public library.

Having enjoyed a biography on Octavia Butler about three years ago, I've been intending to look up some of her work ever since, but for one reason or another never got around to it, so when this one came up for consideration on Net Galley, I jumped at the chance. It's a graphic novel, so I figured it would be a relatively quick read, and the fact that this version is 276 pages long didn't daunt me, even though the print book itself is only about 75 pages longer! Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

The first and most obvious problem was the unfinished nature graphics. An understandably huge part of a graphic novel is the graphics, but these looked like the artist had rough-sketched the images and then forgot to complete them, and no colorist ever came along to notice, The result is that every page is rough-sketched - as in, for example, there are no faces on many of the characters, or the face has the cross marking showing where the face center line and the eyes will be, or the entire panel has several overlaid outlines for characters and scenery, like it was rough-sketched out and then never cleaned up!

Initially, I had no idea if this was intentional, or if the comic is still a work in progress. Usually, if that's the case, there's something to indicate that, and at least a few of the panels are done to completion. After a search I did find a small note on one page indicating that it was a work in progress and that it's a combination of sketches, inks, and final art, but all of the art was in exactly the same state with no finished color panels anywhere to be seen. This isn't intended to be published until next January, so why not simply wait until more of it is done and send it out for review later - when we can see what the finished product will be like?! I've never seen a comic book sent out for review in this state. Never.

If that was the only problem, that would be one thing, but for me the story itself wasn't entertaining and wasn't very smart in places either. Set in the mid 2020's, the story focuses on a community in which resides Lauren Oya Olamina (Loo? Being originally from Britain, I couldn't take her seriously with those initials, but I let that slide). Lauren starts her own religion which sounds more like a real cult in that it advocates that humans - with no resources and no plan - leave Earth and settle on some other planet. Why that would make more sense than simply using the exorbitant cost of such a space flight to fix Earth seems to have been ignored, but since I haven't read that far (and Butler never did write that third part of what was intended to be a trilogy), it's hard to say. At this point I have no plans to read any further than the fifty percent of this that I made it through!

I couldn't tell from the rough drawings (which went all the way through the book - I skimmed to check) if this was an entirely African American or a mixed community. I assume it was mixed because there seems to have been an issue later with outside people they encounter not deeming mixed-race couples to be kosher, although again how that back-sliding occurred, I can't say. Nor can I tell who the people were who were breaking in - they were just outsiders, described vaguely as homeless, which begs the question as to why this community had so little charity. I know they didn't have much for themselves, but they did all right, yet never once did they seem to feel the need to try and help any of the outsiders who were clearly desperate enough to break in.

The biggest problem for me was how idiotic these people seemed to be inside the community. Despite continually harping on the danger posed by outsiders, it's only after people start breaking in and stealing that this ever-present threat of people breaking-in and stealing becomes an action item on their agenda! They start minimal patrols of two people, and even then these patrols don't use the guns they're issued. What's the point of the guns and all the target practice exactly, if you're never going to fire them, not even in warning?!

So yes, this community struck me as being exceedingly dumb. Apparently they have several keys to the gate, but they seem as lax in keeping an eye on the keys as Star Trek crews typically are in keeping an eye on the shuttle bay, leading to shuttles being routinely purloined. So no one keeps an eye on those keys either, and it really doesn't matter anyway because people can clearly get in without them. What happens eventually (so I understand, although I didn't read that far) is that the community predictably fails, and a hoard of refugees start a trek to the north, where conditions are apparently better. Why it took so long, I do not know!

This novel was written in the nineties and while Butler got climate change correct, she somehow seemed to think that everything: not just the environment, but the government, the military, the police, and whatever, would fail catastrophically within a quarter century. The military and government are never mentioned - not in the fifty percent of this that I could stand to read. The police are mentioned as a private organization which it's not worth the time and cost to call on anyway. For me the author failed to show how all of this could remotely come about in so short a time. We're just left with the unsupported claim that it did, and this is how things are now in this story. I need a little bit more depth for my fiction than this offered.

Consequently I cannot commend this as a worthy read, and especially not with such scrappy graphics and without even a page or two of samples of the finished product. This really ought to have been held back a month or two longer so that some pages at least could have been finished.

This was my first introduction to Butler's work, but I'll definitely be back for more. Her unique take on a dystopian America still feels futuristic, even though it's set in 2024 and was written in 1993. I decided to give this graphic novel adaptation a try since I thought the story would lend itself well to this form - there's so much intense imagery described. The story was incredible - both tragic and hopeful - as a young woman does all she can to survive during intensely threatening times. She decides to form her own religion called Earthseed, which she uses to propel her towards a safer future where God is trusted and relied upon fully. Despite some truly brutal descriptions of violence and death, there is still an inspiring purity to this text. Full disclosure: the ARC I was provided with by the publisher didn't have the final artwork included, so I don't feel like I can truly judge what the art will look like once the project is complete. However, overall, I felt this book was a great alternative to classic dystopian novels. The grit and heart of Butler's writing won me over completely.

This is an excellent and detail-oriented adaptation of Butler's classic Parable of the Sower. Like the recent release of her novel Kindred in the same format, it omits very little of the original dialogue and internal thoughts of the protagonists, and captures the fear and excitement that the novel so beautifully balances.

Why read a graphic novel adaptation of a novel? For the same reason, one watches a movie adaptation of a novel. It adds a different aspect to the story. Often, if successful, such an adaptation can breathe new life to a story and flesh out things that were not as significant. This graphic novel tells the story of Butler's apocalyptic vision of the future in plain inked drawings, sometimes leaving characters in shadows and not fully illustrated. The story is broken down piece by piece in comic strip panels which highlight the pain and despair of Butler's novel which portrays a civilization which caved in on itself, with looters everywhere, and people wandering desperately up and down freeways looking for something anything cause it's all they have. The God Is change philosophy is offered in notebook-like tidbits that feels like a natural pet of the story. Overall, quite a worthwhile introduction to Butler's work.

This graphic novel is completely different to any others that I’ve read, I enjoyed the storyline, however the artwork distracted me from the plot quite a lot. It’s not the style which I most enjoy.

Interesting graphic novel adaptation of the Parable of the Sower. The art in this early draft was very sketchy, so it's hard to remark on that element, but it does seem to capture the haunting quality of Butler's original text.