Confession: I read Manga Hamlet before actual Hamlet.

Okay so I had already seen the play a couple of times before, but still.

Manga Shakespeare is really good.

The dialogue is original Shakespeare in abridged form.

The graphics capture the characters authentically.

But it’s all in modern Japan.

You get “Romeo, rock idol and son of Lord Montague”. You get “Macbeth, a great warlord, who desires to rule as king in a future world of post-nuclear mutation”.

While I love to read Shakespeare, I prefer to see it, and Manga Shakespeare is a step in that direction – the joys of live theatre captured in illustrated form.

Just read them. They’re fabulous.