Starred Review Having kicked off the recent outpouring of graphic-format Beowulf adaptations, Hinds now contributes to the similarly enthusiastic flood of graphic-format Shakespeare adaptations with an excellent rendition of one of the bard’s great tragedies. Using splash pages that open up the settings, washes of otherworldly colors, grotesquely expressive faces right out of William Blake, and figural work much improved from his previous effort, Hinds occasionally attains a visual poetry that marked the painful betrayals, the epic scope of the battles, and Lear’s seething madness. Even abridged (with helpful endnotes about many of the excised passages), the story and language here can seem intimidatingly dense, but the artwork keeps the exposition moving, and comic-book sound effects (“thwok!”) and expletives (“unh . . .”) paradoxically add a gritty realism. The most effective parts of the book are the dramatic ones, and most memorable are the grisly eye-plucking scene, a supernaturally eerie storm scene, and two cracking good sword duels. For powerful drama with quality art, this adaptation is the one to choose. Grades 7-10. --Jesse Karp
Product Description
A taut adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterwork by Gareth Hinds — the standard-bearer of graphic-novel retellings of literary classics.
In a graceful adaptation, Gareth Hinds transforms Shakespeare’s timeless tale of pride and defiance, loyalty and ambition, betrayal and revenge into graphic-novel format, packing it with visual drama and providing accessible notes. This artful edition — like an extraordinary stage performance — offers a striking new perspective on one of the most powerful and beloved tragedies in the English language. Incorporating excerpts from the bard’s own language, Gareth Hinds’s inventive format opens the experience of KING LEAR to students and fans of graphic literature.
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Starred Review Having kicked off the recent outpouring of graphic-format Beowulf adaptations, Hinds now contributes to the similarly enthusiastic flood of graphic-format Shakespeare adaptations with an excellent rendition of one of the bard’s great tragedies. Using splash pages that open up the settings, washes of otherworldly colors, grotesquely expressive faces right out of William Blake, and figural work much improved from his previous effort, Hinds occasionally attains a visual poetry that marked the painful betrayals, the epic scope of the battles, and Lear’s seething madness. Even abridged (with helpful endnotes about many of the excised passages), the story and language here can seem intimidatingly dense, but the artwork keeps the exposition moving, and comic-book sound effects (“thwok!”) and expletives (“unh . . .”) paradoxically add a gritty realism. The most effective parts of the book are the dramatic ones, and most memorable are the grisly eye-plucking scene, a supernaturally eerie storm scene, and two cracking good sword duels. For powerful drama with quality art, this adaptation is the one to choose. Grades 7-10. --Jesse Karp
Product Description
A taut adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterwork by Gareth Hinds — the standard-bearer of graphic-novel retellings of literary classics.
In a graceful adaptation, Gareth Hinds transforms Shakespeare’s timeless tale of pride and defiance, loyalty and ambition, betrayal and revenge into graphic-novel format, packing it with visual drama and providing accessible notes. This artful edition — like an extraordinary stage performance — offers a striking new perspective on one of the most powerful and beloved tragedies in the English language. Incorporating excerpts from the bard’s own language, Gareth Hinds’s inventive format opens the experience of KING LEAR to students and fans of graphic literature.