Customer Reviews

King Lear

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I am a theatre arts instructor and I feel that this book is an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's plays. I feel, as do many other people in my field, that the plays of William Shakespeare are meant to be seen as opposed to read. The comic book format gives you the best of both worlds. I have given this book to students who claim not to be able to understand Shakespeare and they literally tear through this book. Very high marks as far as this Professor is concerned!!!

In translating Shakespeare to comic book form Ian Pollock must interpet stage direction and consider character development as a director might. To read Shakespeare is to miss both the aural experience and the visual, and necessaraly each players interpretation of his/her role. This comic book format helps replace some of that which is lost. Pollock's interpretation is excellent, and his illustrative style captures the ugliness of Lear very well. One does long for beauty in his illustrations from time to time, but on the whole his interpretation works. What is most facinating perhaps is pollock's appeal to children. The visual ellement helps illucidate the text and make difficult scenes intelligable to children. Middle School aged children will have little difficulty understanding and being facinated by this rich and wonderful play

When I was a kid we had Illustrated Classics on the Comics page.

Even the Bible.

This is not that old pompous and dull and really dumb Illustrated Classics

This is King Lear, integrally, and real.

The death of Cordelia is as effective here as anywhere else. Is it Will or is it Ian.

Or both?

Read this book. It is not a waste. Do not look down upon it in your pretensions. It is like great theatre in your hand. Do not be embarrassed. Do not be ashamed. This book gets it across, and carries as much of the text as you will find anywhere else outside of King Lear (Arden Shakespeare) or The Oxford Shakespeare: The History of King Lear (The Oxford Shakespeare), and it brings it with a driving force, a living power, straight to the heart and the mind.

So the characters appear to be caricatures, with Edmund especially a rather Karloff Frankenstein demeanor, but with the eloquence as originally written by Shelley. Will wrote them rather as caricatures, yet compelling. Read this book. It will be a great comfort, a revelation, a great friend. And greatly informative for our own curious times.

The introduction itself is brilliant and worth the small price of admission. You find herein all that is within Lear, and more. A brilliant supplement to your essential King Lear (Norton Critical Editions) and The Tragedy of King Lear (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) in any case! Hide it within those tomes in class; bring it alone to bed afterwards! Learn here Lear.

Reading Shakespeare in class is drearily routine. The teacher picks on some students, they monotone through it, class is over, the students retain nothing and go read Sparknotes. Or she would rent a made-for-cable version for the class to fall asleep while appearing to watch.

Reading King Lear by yourself is hardly any easier, as almost every character is named for some English province and the sisters have male names (Regan is an American President and Goneril sounds like a Mesopotamian demon-god, so only Cordelia is recognizably female.)

Enter Pollock. His scratchy cartooons of almost Peanuts-ian simplisity succeed in getting across the basic picture: We have Fat Balding King Guy (Lear) Tall King Guy (Albany) and his Short Queen (Goneril), Short King Guy (Cornwall) and his Tall Queen (Regan), some guy in an unmistakable Clown Costume (Fool) and finally our Vampire-esque Villan (Edmund). The sisters have big lips and even bigger hair, making up for the masculine names. At times, it just looks like talking heads spouting jibberish at each other, but every production of Shakespeare is guilty of this to some extent. Besides, most students read Lear for the plot, and the handy preface explains most of that motif/characterization/deeper meaning stuff they need for the essay. Plus, which would you rather sit down with, a comic book or a study guide?