Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Gianni De Luca, shakespeare
Gianni De Luca's Shakespeare In Comics, Finally Back In English
Shakespeare In Comics is a new graphic novel volume that will collect all three adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies by Raoul Traverso and Gianni De Luca.
Shakespeare In Comics is a new graphic novel volume that will collect all three adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies by the late comic book creators Raoul Traverso and Gianni De Luca for the Catholic weekly newspaper Il Giornalino from 1975 and 1976. The Tempest, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet will be collected in the chronological order in which they were drawn and serialized, and will finally be translated back into English for the first time since their creation which began fifty years ago. The colour films have been lost but Gianni De Luca's heirs still possess all the original art and have provided the publisher Passenger Press with faithful scans of the black and white line pages.
The customary fragmentation of the comic book page into panels and tiers progressively disappeared through the works. The last of the three adaptations, Romeo and Juliet, is entirely composed of double splash pages to mirror the theatrical stage, with the characters repeated within the same page, showing their progression through space as well as time.
The volume that will collect the three stories, will be accompanied by plenty of critical backmatter including an introduction to the works edited by Paul Gravett, will be approximately 160 pages in 36 x 25.5 cm large format and will be printed in Pantone Teal on ivory paper.
Initially, Traverso condensed and simplified the original English texts for young readers. Shakespeare expert Ronan Paterson will combine those original dialogues by carrying out a very interesting recovery never attempted so far with the works of De Luca.
The volume will be printed on 120 g ivory paper and printed with pantone 5463C. The canvas paper cover will have a dutch binding for 160 pages (120 comic pages that will collect THE TEMPEST, HAMLET and finally ROMEO AND JULIET plus various articles and essays).
Shakespeare In Comics containing The Tempest, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet will go on sale on the 25th of June, 2023. The first 200 orders will have a limited print signed by the the artist's daughter Laura De Luca.