Three-Panel Plays, part 8

The Three-Panel Plays have finally made it past the Henries! Let's get to work summarizing the rest of the canon now, shall we?

Antony is holding Caesar's bloody robe in that second panel. My "bloody robe" drawing skills need work. 

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Just for fun, here is an alliterative summary of King John:

Plantagenet Pisses off Pope.
Pesky Prince Plummets Prematurely.
Plantagenet Poisoned by Priest. 

Stop by again on Monday, when we will be taking a look at King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost! 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 7

More Three-Panel Plays today! These are the last ones to have any Henries in them, I promise you.

OK, so I had to cheat on this one. I just couldn't summarize the enormous political complexities of Henry VI, part 3 in just three panels. So I added two more. That was enough.

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Tudor-style hats are hard to draw. I would like everyone to know that. 

On Friday, we go Roman for a moment with Julius Caesar, then switch back to Plantagenets - early Plantagenets, this time - with King John.

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Three-Panel Plays, part 6

The latest installment of my Three-Panel Play series takes a look at two of the three Henry VIs. It turns out they're not really that complicated. Not really. 

White for York. Red for Lancaster. Remember that.

Poor old Henry IV never gets a break. Also, for those of you keeping track, this is the play from which we get the famous quote: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers!"

Next up on Wednesday, the final part of Henry VI and Henry VIII! No more Henries after that, I promise you.

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

What 'Tis To Love (Valentine's Day Special)

I was debating how to celebrate Valentine's Day on this blog, given that it is, as we know it today anyways, a crassly commercial holiday that potentially generates a huge amount of emotional baggage. However, love is, by most accounts, a wonderful thing, and below is a video clip compilation of one of my favorite bits of love-related Shakespeare from As You Like It.

Some background first... If you've never seen As You Like It, this is what you need to know to understand this scene:

Got all that? Good. Here's a compilation of various video productions of As You Like It, specifically the last bit of Act 5, Scene 2.

0:00 - As You Like it, 1936, Elisabeth Bergner, Laurence Olivier, Richard Ainley, Joan White
2:33 - BBC Shakespeare, 1978, Helen Mirren, Brian Stirner, Maynard Williams, Victoria Puncknett
4:56 - As You Like It, 2006, Bryce Dallas Howard, David Oyelowo, Alex Wyndham, Jade Jefferies
7:02 - Shakespeare's Globe, 2009, Naomi Frederick, Jack Laskey, Michael Benz, Jade Williams

That's love, I suppose: confused, mistaken, heartfelt, frustrated, chaotic, poetical, unrequited, and totally deluded. 

Anyways... Happy Valentine's Day! I'll be back on Monday with some more Three-Panel Plays for you.

 

NOTE: One of the clips is owned by the BBC, and thus the video may be blocked in some countries. I will eventually figure out which one it is (presumably the BBC Shakespeare clip) and try to put up a video without it.

Three-Panel Plays, part 5

I continue our lightning-fast journey through the history plays in today's installment of Three-Panel Plays!

That's Justice Shallow and Mistress Quickly, partying with Falstaff in the first panel. "Falstaff parties" is a recurring motif in these plays.

The trouble with drawing stick-figure archers is that you have to be very clear which sticks are the arms, as opposed to the arrow sticks and the bowstring sticks. If you get them mixed up, nobody will know what is going on. Ah, the subtleties of my "craft"...

Next up, we delve into the Henry VI plays! Yes, it's Wars of the Roses time! 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 4

I take my scissors to the most famous Shakespeare play of all in this installment of Three-Panel Plays!

I mean, that's basically it, right? Did I leave out anything important?

NOTE: I have received several concerned e-mails from eagle-eyed readers about this panel, and yes, "revenge" is a verb as well as a noun. As Shakespeare himself wrote: "If thou didst ever thy dear father love, revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."

However, that does not excuse my writing "Halmet" instead of "Hamlet" in one of the panels. Thanks to Mary FT for catching that!

The sequel to Richard II. I am itching to complete the octalogy of history plays, but it's going to take me a while. There are just so many of them. 

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Three-Panel Plays, part 3

It's time for some more "editing with extreme prejudice" in the third installment of my Three-Panel Plays series! 

Oh no, it's Coriolanus again. I'm pretty sure we're all very familiar with Coriolanus now, thank you very much. 

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Cymbeline is such a busy play that I had to chop out 90% of it to make it fit in three panels. I'm now itching to do a full-length guide to Cymbeline, because it's an adorable play that deserves more than three panels and I love it. 

Stop by on Monday to see how I handle Hamlet and Henry IV, part 1 ! 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 2

The second installment of my Three-Panel-Play series mercilessly abbreviates two comedies.

As You Like It is deceptively hard to capture in only three panels. I apologize for my ludicrous hatchet job. I also apologize for leaving Sylvius and Phebe out of the last panel: there was only space for three happy couples, and even then they had to squish together.

Really, I could probably boil down all the Shakespearean comedies to "_______ and hijinks ensue". That covers most of them, don't you think?

Coming up on Friday: Coriolanus (again!) and Cymbeline. I'm already having palpitations about how I'm going to manage to distill Cymbeline into three panels...

See all Three-Panel Plays here!