If you are looking for a fun literature inspired graphic novel/ comic, then look no further than Kill Shakespeare: A Sea of Troubles. I heard about this from Isabella at Magnificent Octopus and then forgot all about it until the other day when she posted about the second book in the series.
Imagine a world where Shakespeare’s characters are real people and the Bard himself is thought of as God. There is a prophecy about Hamlet and depending on whose side you are on he is going to either kill Shakespeare and obtain the magic quill, the source of Shakespeare’s power, or, he will overthrow the oppressive reign of Richard III and bring the power and glory of Shakespeare to the world.
This is a world in which Lady Macbeth is a powerful witch and in cahoots with Richard and Juliet is leader of the rebellion with her trusty companions Falstaff and Othello. Iago of course plays both sides. Hamlet arrives in Britain from Denmark after inadvertently killing Polonius. He travels by ship with his faithful friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who die when the ship is attacked by pirates. Hamlet survives because he falls overboard.
When Hamlet washes ashore he is picked up by Richard who twists things around and makes him believe that in helping Richard kill Shakespeare, Hamlet will be doing a great thing and as a reward, Richard will raise Hamlet’s father from the dead. Hamlet, wishy-washy as ever, sort of agrees, obviously having no worries about a zombie father.
So off they go to find Shakespeare. But Hamlet manages to get himself separated from Richard’s men and is “captured” by Falstaff. When Hamlet meets the hottie Joan-of-Arc-like Juliet, sparks fly. Of course he has to decide whose side he is going to be on. And of course, he can’t decide until the end.
It was a fun romp with several minor Shakespeare characters appearing, a brothel called “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and an inn called “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and an occasional Shakespeare quote or paraphrase. I enjoyed it enough to request the next volume from the library. I should have it in time for the weekend.
Sounds interesting, thanks for sharing!
This sounds like great fun; I’m adding it to my list! (Having just thoroughly enjoyed the first two volumes of another fairly new graphic series, Chew.)
Sounds like a really fun and entertaining read!
Someone clearly had a lot of fun with this! I always regret having never seen The Reduced Shakespeare Company, who run through the Bard’s hits in the course of a couple of hours. It’s supposed to be hilarious, and I can imagine it is.
misanthropologist, you bet!
BuriedinPrint, ok, now I’m going to have to go look up Chew!
Kathleen, it was very entertaining.
Litlove, the creators did have a lot of fun and for the most part it doesn’t come off as trying too hard. Reduced Shakespeare sounds like a hoot!
Excellent! Just added it to my wish list. Potted Potter is also on my wish list–it would be great fun to see with the kids.
This sounds like fun–do you think it matters if I’ve not read all the plays? Maybe this would be a fun introduction and I probably know enough in a generic way to get the jokes. I’ll have to see if my library has it too–graphic novels are sort of fun!
Wow, thanks for the kind words. I’m one of the co-writers and to answer the question regarding “how much Shakespeare do I need to know?” both Anthony (the other co-writer) and I had high-school English level Shakey — so if you have some general familiarity with the Bard you’ll have tons of fun. We even have fans who had NEVER read the Bard and enjoyed Kill Shakespeare. If you have any comments you can ping us on FB or Twitter. We’re always happy to talk literature, Shakespeare and comics!
Cheers,
Conor
Nathalie, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
Danielle, I don’t think you have to have read the plays but it helps to be familiar with the various characters and plots. and I agree, graphic novels can be lots of fun
Conor, thanks for the comment and thanks to you and Anthony for writing such a fun and wonderfully literary comic!
This sounds like so much fun!
Jenclair, I thought it was a fun way to spend an afternoon