Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night
Author: Anthony Del Col
Publisher: IDW
Rating: WARTY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by the author. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is sometimes reward aplenty!
This graphic novel appears to be mainly Hamlet & Juliet (given the cast), with some Othello thrown in, but considering the immense amount of blood-letting and violence, it was far more like Titus Andronicus than ever it was like any other Shakespeare play.
I wasn't able to follow it. For one thing, The language was wrong, with expressions from different eras getting mixed together such as, for example, one sentence which read: "You hold thy belly"! Say what?
There was - in my ARC - no title page or preliminary pages giving writer/artist/publisher, or other information. It appeared to start in the middle of a story, which made it look like pages were missing, or like this was a continuation from a previous volume which I've not read. Which of those it was, I have no idea.
I tried to get into the story and follow it, but it was nonsensical to me. There was no story as such, that I could discern. It was just an endless fight, either verbally between crew (it was set on a pirate ship being pursued by a ship of cannibals, apparently) or violently with swords, cudgels, daggers, etc. The character's idea of a good exchange was to attack someone and preferably end the 'conversation' by ripping out their heart and stamping on it.
It wasn't interesting or intelligible and I cannot recommend it. Letting Shakespearean characters run rampant outside the confines of their particular play, and interact with each other is a great idea, but that wasn't evident in this particular work.
