William Shakespeare

The Tragedie of Macbeth William Shakespeare

"This is a superb production..." - Pat Mills (Marshal Law, Charley's War, Slaine) Shakespeare died 400 years ago this year and no story captures the mysticism and brutality of Scottish history quite like 'Macbeth'. This graphic novel aims to tell the darkest version yet of this tale of witchcraft, murder, manipulation and unbridled ambition... When we first meet Macbeth he is a hero, he has fought valiantly for his country and saved Scotland from invasion by land and sea. But a mysterious encounter with three witches, who claim to see his future on the throne, spurs his interest in being king. This sets in motion a spiral of evil as Macbeth pushes destiny and descends ever deeper into the abyss. Basing his drawings on Prague Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece Scottish artist Stewart Kenneth Moore has 'done double' by documenting a stage performance in Prague by illustrating it against the starkest memories, places and myths of his homeland. Based on an adapted version of the play, the pacing of the panels and scene setting serves to clarify aspects of the play that can be hard to understand on the stage. In addition the thirty page script, adapted by PSC, is reproduced at the back of the book. Shakespeare loosely based Macbeth on actual events. The witchcraft in this story is almost certainly based on 'Newes from Scotland' a London pamphlet on the Berwick Witch trials. Extracts from this pamphlet are included in this book for comparison. It is the opinion of the artist that 'Newes from Scotland' and Macbeth, to a degree, share the same political subtext, only in Shakepeare's case it comes with a dose of subtle irony. This 114 page book began as a 'Twitter' challenge to illustrate Macbeth in just 28 days in 2016. See - #28DayGraphicNovel 'This is a superb production. The stark black and white style is so sympathetic to the story. And the self-imposed tight deadline is a great idea because deadlines are at the heart of Anglo-American comics and we need them to make our graphic dreams come true.' - Pat Mills (Marshal Law, Charley's War, Slaine)