Classic Comics Review: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Literary snobs might look down upon comic books, but Classics Illustrated is what got me into reading classic literature.  My dad had his childhood collection of classic comic books stored in a cabinet, so my brothers and I would read them on summer days when the electricity was out and weather was too bad to do anything outside.

Classic comic books can’t replace reading the original novel.  I’ve always known that.  But it’s probably better than just watching a movie, unless the movie is really true to the book and entertaining.

When my 8th grade English class read Romeo and Juliet, I had an advantage over most other students in the  class because I knew the story, thanks to this comic book.  Like any other 8th grader (except for the weirdos and the super-brains), I still struggled with the Shakespearean language, but I at least understood what was going on.

Just so you know, I used my advantage wisely.  I didn’t spoil the ending for anybody. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we didn’t call them SPOILERS.  If some snooty guy ruined the ending of a book that we were reading in class, we called it “helping.”  If they ruined a popular movie that had just come out, we beat them up.  Remember, I grew up before anti-bullying campaigns existed.  So did William Shakespeare.

It would have been tough to ruin a Shakespearean play during the Elizabethan Age because so many of his scripts were based on commonly-known stories.  Still, I’m sure someone tried to spoil it a different way, maybe by yelling out popular lines ahead of time or screaming “You suck!” at actors, even if they didn’t suck.

Haha!  Yelling at actors.  At any rate, here is a comic book review of Romeo and Juliet with no shaky cam.