A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 1, Scene 3

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

THE STORY SO FAR: King Lear retires from politics and divides his kingdom up between his three daughters. However, when his youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to play a game of "Let's Flatter Dad Outrageously", Lear banishes her and splits her territory up between her two sisters. He then goes to stay with his eldest daughter, Goneril. 

So, this is a really short and boring scene. Don't blame me. Blame Shakespeare.

We get the first inklings here that Lear is not exactly the best house guest. He smacks around Goneril's servants and his entourage of knights are rowdy and presumably not wiping their boots on the mat when they come indoors. So naturally Goneril devises a strategy to "encourage" him to leave.

This is also the first time we meet Oswald, Goneril's steward. He's a self-important toady who will spend the rest of the play getting beaten up and delivering messages to people. I like him. Don't ask me why.

That would normally be all for today, but yesterday my Three-Panel Plays were featured on io9.com. I have to admit - not being a particularly savvy web denizen - I had never been to io9.com before, but this is what happened once the post featuring my work "went live" over there:

I hasten to add that my computer didn't really explode, but I have been overwhelmed by the response (especially all my friends who told me "You're on io9? That's, like, huge!" and made me feel like an uncultured savage for not knowing what that meant.)

So, many thanks to Robert Gonzalez over at io9 for giving my little webcomic a major airing! It's been surreal. 

Tune in on Wednesday to see just how bad a houseguest Lear can be!

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6