Kill Shakespeare: First Folio by Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery & Andy Belanger

Nothing screams “this was written by men” more than having Juliet Capulet (lately of Romeo & Juliet) assure Othello that he is not a villain. Lol, like hell. Iago may be just as much a bad guy as Othello, but Desdemona is still dead! Murdered for no reason! Even if she’d been cuckolding her husband publicly with the entire court, that’s still no excuse for violence, much less murder. Women are people, not possessions! Having a woman who tried to kill herself for love tell a domestic abuser that he’s not the bad guy is a Sure Jan of the highest order.

That said, this is an interesting take on the Shakespearean canon, sort of a Fables but with characters from the Bard’s oeuvre instead of Mother Goose’s. I love a good pastiche, and given my own ambivalence regarding William Shakespeare, figured that any title with the imperative to destroy him (obviously not a literal directive as the man has been dead for yoinks) had to be relevant to my specific interests. I enjoy Shakespeare as a poet, and admire his storytelling choices — including the adaptation of stories far older than he is for fresh new audiences — but I really don’t care for his script writing. His scripts feel more and more antique with each passing decade, and it weirds me out that people outside of England profess a belief in the masterfulness of his words. Slavish devotion to the Bard in the 21st century feels artificial and pretentious, especially without shared cultural touchstones.

So I went into reading this book feeling pretty open-minded about the reuse of his admittedly interesting stories and characters, especially without the dreary language. Well, mostly without: there’s still the odd quotation included, but those almost entirely make sense and serve as nice callbacks to the originals. Essentially, Prince Hamlet has survived the disastrous play he’s staged, but his mother Queen Gertrude and uncle King Claudius have exiled him for the unwitting killing of Polonius. Torn between wanting to avenge his father and guilt at what his quest so far has wrought, he boards a ship with his faithful companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Alas, their ship is besieged by pirates. Next thing you know, Hamlet’s washed ashore on the beaches of Illyria, where signs and portents have brought its king, Richard III, to find and proclaim him its Shadow King. Richard tells Hamlet that his coming was prophesied, that his role as Shadow King means he’ll be able to find their maker, Bill Shakespeare, and confront him. Hamlet shies back from the idea of murder but Richard assures him that no killing need be involved. Hamlet only has to return with Shakespeare’s quill to help restore peace and prosperity to Illyria once more. In return, Richard will use his own mystical powers to return Hamlet’s father from the dead.

Meanwhile, suicide survivor Juliet has raised a rebel army to overthrow Richard’s tyrannical rule. With Othello and Falstaff at her side as advisors, she’s inspiring the nation to throw off the king’s crushing yoke. But when their paths cross Hamlet’s, loyalties become tangled and missions confused, as everyone tries to discern truth from fiction while still searching for Shakespeare, their God and creator who has seemingly forsaken them.

This is a gonzo ride through a great number of Shakespeare’s plays that will definitely amuse anyone who enjoys the Bard without taking him too seriously. The First Folio collects the first two volumes of the comic book, making this edition excellent value for money. It’s fun, and there are a lot of interesting ideas, but there are also a lot of questions raised that I don’t think are answered as well as they should be. Perhaps those answers come in future volumes, but I do still think it’s weird that Shakespeare is such a dope and that Hamlet is the only person capable of finding him.

My only real complaint about Andy Belanger’s art was how difficult it was to differentiate between Hamlet and Iago before the latter was injured. This was particularly exasperating when the two shared scenes and even panels: I appreciate that their similarities were acknowledged in the afterword, but thought it was weird to have two main characters be skinny brunet men in near-identical clothing. Make one a blond or a redhead, who cares? If they both must have brown hair, at least clothe them in different colors or more obviously contrasting styles? Spending time trying to tell the difference between the two really throws the reader out of the story.

I don’t think I’ll be continuing with this title, but do recommend it for anyone who’s ever wanted Hamlet + Juliet Capulet fanfiction. Oh, and Falstaff rocked, but honestly, when doesn’t he?

Kill Shakespeare: First Folio by Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery & Andy Belanger was published today October 8 2024 by Gemstone Publishing and is available from all good booksellers, including