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A Conversation with Joe Sutphin

ByZach Franzen

This past Saturday was the anniversary of the birth of Richard Adams, author of Story Warren favorite title, Watership Down. Many of you may know that our friend Joe Sutphin published a graphic novel version of this book back in 2023. We asked our own intrepid illustrator, Zach Franzen, to ask Joe a few questions about the project. Read to the end to find out what classic Joe is working on now!

Zach, Joe, and J. C. Smith at the Smith home in days of yore.

Zach: One of the things I’ve always loved about your sensibility is that it’s timeless—informed by classic book illustration. What was your first reaction when you were asked to illustrate Watership Down—a classic’s classic?

Joe: My first reaction was that I felt honored that James Sturm wanted to work with me, yet I felt very uncertain at the same time. This was not an illustrated novel being proposed, but hundreds of pages of sequential comics. Rabbits by the thousands and more landscapes than any I had ever drawn, combined. I knew it would be an undertaking like no other, and to this day I have not faced such a challenge.

Zach: Watership Down has always seemed like a wide funnel. At the topmost part, it’s a invitation about rabbits in nature who talk to one another, and at the bottom, narrow part it becomes a meditation on leadership, systems of control, and courage. What did you want to preserve about the book’s tone and atmosphere? Anything feel important?

Joe: James and I sought to preserve all of these details and more, while doing it through the lens of being huge fans of the work ourselves. We also had the constant, close collaboration of both of Richard’s daughters, Juliet and Ros, so we were also honoring their requests which are at heart the requests of the little girls who Richard first told this tale to many years ago.

Excerpted from Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, by Richard Adams; adapted by James Sturm and illustrated by Joe Sutphin; published Ten Speed Graphic, 2023

Zach: Which character was hardest to get right? Any come to mind?

Joe: Each character carried their own nuances. Some came quickly, while others took a bit of trial and error. The rabbits in Cowslip’s warren were trickier and took a few tries. Cowslip in particular may have taken more attempts than most other rabbits, as I tried to convey the corruption of regular human contact, mixed with the strangeness of a clan who has cut off connections to the past, the arts and even the intimacy of family and friendship.

Zach: How did you approach the English countryside? Does anything about it feel essential to the story? Like, what would happen if the story was plopped down in Arizona?

Joe: During our first group call with the Penguin/Ten Speed team and Juliet and Ros, James and I learned very fast that the story would absolutely be taking place in the actual countryside of Hampshire, where Richard explored as a young man. We were flown to Hampshire where we were guided through every actual location mentioned in the book, by illustrator Aldo Galli who was a close friend to Richard and is the most knowledgeable expert regarding the physical landscape of Watership Down. Richard’s daughters and their agent joined us on the treks, which took us from the actual site of the Sandleford Warren, the crossing of the Enborne and the Road, through Newtown churchyard, Newtown Commons, Cowslip’s Warren, both bridges and the site of the punt boat on the Test, the Crixa and the woods of Efrafa, the fields and the Roadless Arch, the deep woods of Echinswell, even a small lake on the estate of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Lane and Nuthanger Farm, and ultimately to the top of Watership Down and the Beech Hangar where there still exists a stump and offspring of the original Honeycomb Tree. We felt the wind and rain, smelled the rivers and mud and grass, and experienced the majesty of the Down from below and atop it. I even once got a bit greedy for a photo of the Test and dropped my phone into the river, then fell in myself!

Joe in his studio

Zach: How closely did you collaborate with the writer on panel layout?

Joe: James adapted and thumbnailed the entire book and was very generous in receiving my input and feedback. There were times where I had ideas for adjustments or a different way to tell a portion or scene, and James was great about incorporating those ideas into the story. We both talked daily about various decisions and ideas. It was a true collaboration.

Zach: If Richard Adams could see one page you illustrated, which would you want it to be?

Joe: Oh, I am not entirely sure. Maybe Hazel’s final scene, because it was never depicted correctly on film in his lifetime. I do have a lot of reassurance in the book we made, because of the lasting friendship I’ve gained in both Juliet and Ros (as well as their husbands, children and grandchildren). My wife Gina and I have spent quality time in England with both families, so it’s gone beyond simply making a book, and into honoring the legacy of a beautiful family, and generously being invited into that family and legacy. And Juliet and Ros have both told me that they wished their dad could have lived to have met me and seen the book. That’s a very special feeling and honor that I can’t put a price on.

Zach: You just finished edits on a Winnie the Pooh graphic novel (congrats), but you’ve also tackled A Christmas Carol and Pilgrim’s Progress. What shared qualities do books that endure have?

Joe: I think that each of these books is first, a really compelling story with very relatable characters and situations the reader can readily imagine themselves in, even if only in their imagination. They are stories with simple core ideas such as faith, hope and love, friendship and community and even the processes of redemption and growth of personal character. These are timeless themes that will always matter, no matter the current trend.

Zach Franzen
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