The first is that, with this overly cautious hand-holding, they’re never going to learn. But there are two problems with that idea. Perhaps the feeling is that younger readers aren’t as accomplished reading images. I didn’t need a line of text telling me “He gets an idea!” Before, it was charming to see Owly with a lightbulb over his head, showing he got an idea.
Now, a bird sitting on a bowl of seed says “Hey! It’s a big bowl of seed!” Bugs in a jar say “Help! We’re trapped!” Narration boxes tell us what we’re seeing and what Owly’s thinking. In the original story, when communication was needed, there were pictograms that conveyed meaning, but most of the time, Runton’s cartooning was sufficient. Every animal, every character, except for Owly, now has word balloons. What did disturb me was the addition of dialogue. And that makes the work more approachable and likely to achieve a wider reach, since there are those who won’t read a black-and-white comic. The book is now in color, which looks great. The puffball-with-giant-eyes look of the title character hasn’t changed in Owly: The Way Home, but a lot else has.
So Owly is now being reprinted by Graphic (Scholastic). There are many more markets, including the ever-growing kids’ comics audience, and a lot more options for publishing. The comic business has come a long way since then. It was unique for being wordless and adorable, far from the then-usual material for an indy comic company and creator. The first book, The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer, was originally published in 2004, fifteen years ago. I’ve adored Andy Runton’s Owly since I saw it over a decade ago.
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