You’ve checked out our interview from Wondercon – now it’s time to take a look at Kill Shakespeare #1, from IDW Publishing!
KILL SHAKESPEARE #1
Written by Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col
Drawn by Andy Belanger
SC, 32 pgs, FC, SRP: $3.99
COVER A: Kagan McLeod
COVER B: Andy Belanger
What Fables does for fairy tales, Kill Shakespeare does with the greatest writer of all time. This dark take on the Bard pits his greatest heroes (Hamlet, Juliet, Othello Falstaff) against his most menacing villains (Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Iago) in an epic adventure to find and kill a reclusive wizard named William Shakespeare. This debut- featuring a full 32-page story-will change the way you look at Shakespeare forever.
Check behind the jump for my thoughts.
The idea of modern “adaptations” to classics is not something no one has attempted before – we have Fables (as mentioned in the solicit) and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which have their differences from the original tales but still manage to make up excellent stories… and then we have Greek Street, which tries too hard to represent the stories that it is changing so they can be “retold” but ends up being a clustercuss of a tale in the end. The question I pose as the opening to my review is: is Kill Shakespeare a Fables, or is it a Greek Street?
Admittedly, from my perspective the book is somewhere in the middle. After the first issue I’m curious enough to go forward but still a tad bit wary on how the execution will be. The story begins with some changes to the original mythos in order to set up characters, and at the half way point of the issue I found myself with a general frown on my face. As I moved forward and read the last 15 or so pages, though, my opinion changed as this is where the plot truly reveals itself. The idea that the characters, Hamlet specifically, need to find their creator and kill him i definitely an interesting plot point, although why they hate him so much is yet to be determined. However, it is really by the end of the issue that the mash up of tales is apparent, and it works very well.
I must say, though – McCreery and Del Col certainly do know their Shakespeare, and that’s what ultimately gives me faith in the title. I fact checked Kill Shakespeare right next to a copy of the story and (aside from obvious dialogue changes as I imagine they didn’t want to write in Shakespearean english the entire comic), it’s fairly accurate. It’s very easy for someone to overlook details of an original tale in order to tell a story, but up until the moment where they change Hamlet’s destiny it is the story of Hamlet, and that’s something that I appreciate. Throw in the artistic know-how of Andy Belanger, who clearly takes his time with both characters and backgrounds, and you’ve got a nice comic right here. Belanger does a really great job of not phoning in any details, with full shadings marked and clearly developed faces in the backgrounds. I can think of quite a few artists who don’t try as hard with the background characters as they do with the characters we focus on, and it’s always nice to see an artist interested in fully developing his scenes.
So the beginning of the book is a bit washy for me, but I do enjoy where the end of the issue ends up. I guess my main problem was it took too long to get to “the point,” and as a Shakespeare fan I am willing to allow characters to change goals and positions versus entire stories being changed (i.e the odd scene before Hamlet is sent away – what is that dog?), which threw me off. Really, once Hamlet ends up on King Richard’s island and everyone begins to talk of murder and quills, I enjoyed it more. It’s not quite Fables or LOG, but it sure is headed in that right direction.
Final Verdict: 7.4 – Buy
