You might imagine that on a Venn diagram illustrating people who read comics and people who enjoy Shakespeare, the area of intersection would be slight. You would, of course, be mistaken. After all, many comic fans grew up on the high-falutin' prose of Stan Lee, who modelled the dialogue of characters like Thor on a cod American take-off of the Stratford bard.
Then in the late 80s, a new breed of comic was spawned by Neil Gaiman's Sandman which stole themes and even characters from all kinds of classic literature and used them to a variety of ends, some dazzling, others less so. (Don't start me.) Arguably Sandman created a whole new audience for comics - not just goths, but "serious" readers. Other books soon followed suit, notably Bill Willingham's Fables which brought us dark, adult interpretations of classic fairy tale characters, and recently Mike Carey's The Unwritten, which involves the creator of a fictional Harry Potter-esque hero and the son he may have based that character upon.
All of which brings us to Kill Shakespeare, a comic with such an inspired high concept pitch, you can't believe no one's done it before. The Bard's greatest creations - including Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Richard III and Lady Macbeth - are pitched against each other in a thrilling quest to locate a legendary wizard with a magic quill. Whosoever possesses that quill will have power over all their domain. The wizard they seek? William Shakespeare.
With such excellent characters at their disposal, writers Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery are obviously going to have a blast. When Macbeth's witches prophesy that a "shadow king" will be the one to take Shakey down, Richard III hires Iago to befriend the reluctant prince Hamlet and steer him towards his destiny. The resistance, meanwhile, led by Juliet and Othello, believe the godlike Shakespeare will be the one to finally free them from Richard's tyranny... but they too are counting on Hamlet's help. Hamlet, of course, is fiction's greatest ditherer, and also, quite possibly, two odds short of a bodkin, considering all the wild hallucinations he keeps having. Add to this Lady MacBeth, whose passionate seduction of Richard gave me slight cause for concern (since "if he cannot prove a lover, he's determined to prove a villain") until I realised her scheming extends much further than just Richard's bedchamber.
Kill Shakespeare is packed with bloodthirsty battles, dark magic, bawdy comedy, brutal betrayal, lust, sex and murder... just like the very best of the bard. The nod to Tarantino in the title is appropriate, but this is much less self-consciously cool than anything from the Geek King himself. The dialogue, though faithful to its source material and packed with sly references, doesn't try too hard to meet its maker. Andy Belanger's art strikes the perfect balance between cartoon and realism, ably handling detailed, multi-panel pages and chunky tracts of text, while colourist Ian Herring uses the full pallet - something that's often reserved solely for superhero adventures in comic book land, while books of this kind often restrict themselves to pastels or shades. It's a knowing move which demonstrates what all the creators understand well - not only was Stan Lee the 20th Century Will Shakespeare... but Shakespeare was, in his own hyperbolic, crowd-pleasing way, the Stan Lee of his day.
Volume 1 of Kill Shakespeare (collecting the first six issues) is available to buy now, and I'd recommend it to comic fans and literary types alike. If you do exist in the aforementioned Venn intersection, it's an absolute must.
Looking for more comic reviews? Check out Comics On The Ration, the new(ish) blog for comic fans feeding their addiction on a budget from Rob Wells and Paul Rainey, featuring occasional contributions by Steve Miller and myself. (I'll be reviewing Rick Remender's Punisher there shortly.) Add it to your blog list!
