Three-Panel Plays, part 15

It's all about love in today's installment of Three-Panel Plays! 

Poor old Mercutio and Tybalt didn't make the cut. GET IT? "CUT"? HAHAHAHAH.... sorry, it's a Monday morning, that's the best I can do.

See how I managed to distill all the controversy surrounding varying feminist/misogynist interpretations of The Taming of the Shrew by adding a question mark to the last panel? That's efficiency for you. It says: "Draw your own conclusions, because I'm too lazy to do so."

Stop by again on Wednesday when I'll be taking a look at The Tempest and Timon of Athens! If you've always wanted to know what happens in Timon of Athens, but you've never seen a production (because it's hardly every performed) and you've got better things to do than actually read the play, or even the Wikipedia summary, you'll want to see this.

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 14

A double-dose of history in today's Three-Panel Plays!

Richard II got the full Tickle Brain treatment last year. You can see all my Richard II material, including a scene-by-scene stick-figure version of the entire play, here.

Remember: Richard III is not the sequel to Richard II. In between the two are seven different Henry plays. So the final score is Henry 7, Richard 2. Henry wins on aggregate!

Join us again on Monday, when we will be taking a look at two very different romances, with Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew!

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 13

Another Wednesday, another set of Three-Panel Plays. Today, a tragedy and a... OK, nobody really knows what Pericles is supposed to be. Comedy, romance, problem-play. Take your pick.

I'm not a huge fan of Othello, but Emilia is easily one of my favorite characters in the canon. In every performance that I've seen, Emilia has always been positively electric in the final scene, calling out Othello for being an idiot and Iago for being a total scumbag. "Villainy, villainy, villainy! I think upon it, I think. I smell it. O villainy!" You go, Emilia. 

I was lucky enough to see a production of Pericles at the Stratford Festival, which remains the only time I have see the play. It was a totally confusing mish-mash of melodrama and scene changes, but it was also quite a lot of fun. I'll have to track down the BBC TV production and take another look at it. 

Tune in again on Friday, when we'll have a brace of Richards, with the second and third of that name showing up. 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 12

Up to a full dozen of Three-Panel Plays now, with two more comedies.

I am well aware of my limitations as an artist, but I'm still unfathomably pleased with how Bottom eventually turned out. I went through several stick-figure donkey-head drafts, with most of them looking like a demented rabbit or particularly ill-favored rat. 

I've previously taken issue with Claudio in this strip. I mean, OK, you can't really blame a guy for being a gullible idiot, but that hardly excuses his behavior at the wedding. 

Check back on Wednesday, when I'll be reducing Othello and the ever-popular Pericles, Prince of Tyre to their barest elements!

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 11

We're on the downward slope of the Three Panel Plays! Only sixteen left to go!

More on Portia's cross-dressing here and here.

....aah! I just realized I left Nerissa out of that cross-dressing comic. Don't worry, I'll go back and add her in. Poor Nerissa - perennial second banana, and she ends up with that jerk, Gratiano.

Falstaff and the buck basket made a cameo apperance in last year's Christmas cartoon. Because grown men hiding in baskets never ceases to be amusing.

Tune in again on Monday for another pair of comedies: A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing! Apart from Macbeth, all of the "M" plays are comedies. Well, if you think Measure for Measure is funny, that is...

See all Three Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 10

We've finally reached the halfway point of my Three-Panel Plays series! Gosh, that Shakespeare fellow wasn't half prolific, was he? Anyways, 20 down, 18 to go...

Pictured: grisly corpses of Duncan and Banquo. Not pictured: grisly corpses of everyone else. 

It's a comedy, folks. Honestly. Although I did leave out the bit about the severed head. You can read more on that here.

"M" is a very popular letter in Shakespeare's titles. Join us again on Friday, when we'll be taking a very brief look at The Merchant of Venice and The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 9

A tragedy and a comedy feature in today's Three Panel Plays. 

I'm always surprised by the body count at the end of Lear. I know it's a tragedy, but for some reason I never instinctively associate it with massive amounts of death, like I do Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. And yet, at the end of the play, there are ten corpses, plus a pair of enfranchised eyeballs. That's some serious tragedy. 

"Guys, let's swear not to have anything to do with women for the next three years."
"Hey look! Women!"
"......"

Coming up on Wednesday: murder and mayhem in Macbeth, followed by sex and corruption in Measure for Measure! It's like an HBO marathon. 

See all Three-Panel Plays here!

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. 

20140221-S-KingJohn3Panels.jpg

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!