Kill Shakespeare – Past is Prologue: Juliet #1
Written by Conor McCreery
Art by Corin Howell
Colors by Shari Chankahamma
Letters by Chris Mowry
Standard Cover by Simon Davis
Subscription Cover by Adam Gorham and Shari Chankahamma
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 5, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

Few comics turn the literary world into their own playground like this one, folks. In Kill Shakespeare – Past is Prologue: Juliet #1 the reader gets a dose of what happens when you deify a playwright. This is not your parent’s Shakespeare; not in any way, shape, or form.

Kill Shakespeare #5
The Tide Of Blood
Written by Conor McCreery & Anthony Del Col
Illustrated by Andy Belanger
Colored by Shari Chankhamma
Lettered by Chris Mowry
Cover by Simon Davis
IDW Publishing
Release Date: August 28, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood #5 written by Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col and illustrated by Andy Belanger is the final installment in this latest series from IDW. With the culmination of the events from the previous four issues, how does this series end? Well, I’ll give you a hint: in true Shakespearean fashion, it’s tragic.

I’m going to skip my normal synopsis of the issue, as so much happened within the 27 allotted pages that trying to mention anything at all would give too much away; and believe me, you wouldn’t want that. Instead, I’m going to move right to the part in which I offer unabashed praise for McCreery and Del Col’s story as a whole. Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood has been an incredible series with a wide assortment of clever and unique twists to Shakespeare’s tragedies. They’ve added extra heart and revelations about the characters that weren’t necessarily focused on in the first series, but helped to make this addition stand on its own. While a few things are left unfinished — which is fine because, you know, sequels and what not — issue number five provides an intense conclusion to the mini-series with enough closure to leave me satisfied.