So OiNK cartoonist Kev F Sutherland’s Kickstarter was a success and now his Shakespeare Comic is out there in the wild. A large-format, 32-page colour comic with samples of seven adaptations of some of William Shakespeare’s most-loved works. First impressions are good. It’s bright, it’s colourful, looks like a lot of fun and all printed on great quality paper, belying the fact it’ll only cost you four quid. The cover certainly catches the attention, right?
The cynical reviewer or social media commentator might see this as a marketing ploy, each strip a sample of one of Kev’s graphic novels. They’re only a few pages long and will suddenly just stop, but Kev has been very clear all along that this comic was going to be a sampler. Instead of trying to decide which one of his Shakespeare books you’ll buy first, you can spend a little less and try them all out in one neat little package. So did I come away wanting to read more?
“The story so far: Punk rocker Joe Hamlet learns his dad was killed by his Uncle Claud, he’s just mistakenly stabbed Ophelia’s dad, Polonius, and no one’s taking it well…”
Hamlet Prince of Denmark Street
The first thing I noticed was that the art style is looser than Kev’s more detailed work in OiNK, in the full-colour strips anyway. There are two that were originally published in black and white (now coloured) which are a bit more like what I was expecting. That’s not to say his other strips aren’t fun. They took a bit of getting used to but once I did I appreciated how the style lent itself more to the fast and frenetic retellings of these classic tales. The amount of story he can fit into four pages testament to this.
For example, I really enjoyed Romeo and Juliet. Kev takes some of the well known lines from the play, ones that’ll be easily understood by kids and intersperses them with modern language for a laugh. These also sum up bigger chunks of the classic text, speeding up the story. I’ll admit I’ve not read much Shakespeare so a lot of this is new to me, so I think any child who might be reading these in school will get a bigger kick out of them. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them, I really did, I just know those familiar with the plays will get more of the knowing nods and spoof moments than I did.
I particularly chuckled at Midsummer Night’s Dream Team, which sets the play in a heist movie. The four-page sample here doesn’t really reflect that aspect of the graphic novel but it does have a classic movie nightclub vibe to it which I loved. The back and forth between the characters using classic prose and those that don’t is the best use of this comedic style in the whole comic. The way Boots pharmacy and a “nookie room” are slipped in here really did make me laugh!
The way some of the Shakespearean-type characters’ facial expressions react to these modern interpretations are fantastic and it’s also one of the best-looking strips (it’s one of those more detailed black and white ones with new punchy colour). The use of the nightclub setting also allows Kev to have people singing along to songs, the lyrics of which are classic verses from the play. Put all of this together and it’s probably the best example of what Kev is doing with this series of graphic novels and it’d be top of my list to purchase as a result.
Two brand new books are also sampled, namely King Lear and Twelfth Thing, which retells Twefth Night as another movie trope, the monster flick. Although, the sample used doesn’t actually include any monsters, strangely enough. This does make for a funny line at the end though, when it plugs the book so that you can “read the bits with monsters in”. Rounding things off are comic versions of Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard The Third, a funny character who you’d swear was an original Kev F creation!
I have to say it was a bit of a shock to see the word “pished” and a couple of characters smoking in a children’s comic. Saying that, given the original material this is based on I doubt it would appeal to primary school kids. But for those young teens beginning to read Shakespeare in English class this could be just the tonic they need to make it through the sometimes heavy text. It could also help them more easily understand the original stories, so they could end up enjoying the plays more than they otherwise would have.
One lovely addition here is actually an advert. Kev teaches comics masterclasses across the UK and Ireland, something you’ll often see him promoting on his socials. The advert he’s produced for these is a funny strip in its own right (and looks a lot more like Kev’s OiNK work into the bargain), but more than that it shows you just how fantastic these classes could be for the kids at your own child’s school. I wish I’d had something like these when I was young. I’ve included the page here because I think they sound wonderful.
Shakespeare Comic is available now from Kev’s online shop for only £4 plus postage. It’s just about as original a comic as you’re likely to read and I’m positive that if any of your children are reading Shakespeare at school they’ll find a lot to love in Kev’s books, never mind the positive effect they could have on their learning. This way, they can also try them all out first.
To finish on, a personal highlight from the comic. On the inside back cover (and also included as an A3 poster) is a map of the UK showing where each of the main characters from the plays were based. Also included (in roughly the right spots) are Kev’s illustrations of the Kickstarter backers and, well…
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