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Hamlet
Richly imagined, this is an audaciously brilliant tour de force from the creator of the graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The play's the thing. Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king! Denmark is in turmoil. The palace is seething with treachery, suspicion and intrigue. On a mission to avenge his father's murder, Prince Hamlet tries to claw free of the moral decay all around him. But in the ever-deepening nest of plots, of plays within plays, nothing is what it seems. Doubt and betrayal torment the Prince until he is propelled into a spiral of unstoppable violence. In this sumptuous staging of Shakespeare's enigmatic play on the page, Nicki Greenberg has created an extraordinary visual feast that sweeps up all in its path as the drama intensifies both on stage and off. An astounding work - unique, gripping and, as ever, tragic.
440 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
5 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Nicki Greenberg
30 books15 followersNicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator with a special interest in sequential art narrative - a fancy way of describing comics.
Nicki's first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old, and sold more than 380,000 copies. Since then, she has devoted most of her ink to comics, but has also written and illustrated fiction and non-fiction books for children.
At seventeen, Nicki fell in love with The Great Gatsby. Almost ten years later, she set out to pay tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by interpreting it in comic art form. It took more than six years to complete this enormous labour of love.
This mad undertaking was followed by three years' passionate work on Shakespeare's Hamlet, which was finally staged on the page in 2010.
Nicki lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family, their poodle and two bad cats. In her spare time she works as a lawyer.
Nicki's first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old, and sold more than 380,000 copies. Since then, she has devoted most of her ink to comics, but has also written and illustrated fiction and non-fiction books for children.
At seventeen, Nicki fell in love with The Great Gatsby. Almost ten years later, she set out to pay tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by interpreting it in comic art form. It took more than six years to complete this enormous labour of love.
This mad undertaking was followed by three years' passionate work on Shakespeare's Hamlet, which was finally staged on the page in 2010.
Nicki lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family, their poodle and two bad cats. In her spare time she works as a lawyer.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 27, 2020
An absolutely gorgeous 'staging' of the play. I love all of Greenberg's little creatures and the way that she uses colour especially against the black backgrounds, it's just incredible.
July 15, 2023
Read for uni
May 13, 2025
Such cute illustrations and what a big fuck u to high brow culture and literature. Studied in uni
May 14, 2021
This sumptuous production of the play is phenomenal. Nicki Greenberg’s graphic novel is a work of art which adds a great deal to Shakespeare’s words.
All the characters have tails which express their emotions as much as their faces and each is uniquely drawn to complement their personality.
Hamlet’s head is an ink blot. Polonius is a dancing, gibbering monkey. Ophelia is fox-like. Queen Gertrude has three rows of breasts, although their low position makes them udder-like. When Hamlet says “were she ten times our mother,” he imagines five rows of breasts on a Rorschach ink blot. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spend much of their time as conjoined twins and more than once Hamlet wrenches the two apart.
Characters’ swords and daggers end in ink nibs or paint brushes and kill with ink. When someone dies they are reduced to a puddle of ink in which their face floats, hence Horatio cradles Hamlet’s face, not his head, when he dies. In the culmination of Hamlet’s tirade to Ophelia (III.1) he wrenches off her face and flings it away. As Ophelia blindly feels for and finds her face she opines in a clever pun:
When Claudius and Polonius reappear to discuss and berate the two, Ophelia drips, bit by bit, into a puddle of sorrow. In the last scene, Horatio’s tears and cradling of Hamlet’s face say infinitely more than his words of sorrow.
This is cleverly followed by the arrival of a flight of ravens – Prince Fortinbras of Norway and his entourage.
The backgrounds are meticulously rendered to set the scene. Clockwork cogs decorate the main hall of the castle because “time is out of joint”. In Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy (III.1), he takes off his face and it spins with vacant eyes in multiple cogs before zig-zagging wildly just out of reach. When Ophelia sings and dances in her madness, the cogs become as warped as her mind.
Botanical references are strewn throughout. Ophelia hands flowers to the King, Queen and Laertes as each plant grows riotously across the page (IV.5). What she actually passes to each character is a broken, dripping, ink rendering, nothing like the garden she has plucked it from. She often drags a string of carnivorous plants with her, which are in danger of eating her alive and dramatically highlight Ophelia’s plight.
Earlier, Hamlet’s “unweeded garden/ That grows to seed” (I.2) are depicted as thistles on which he cuts his hand. Later “Denmark’s a prison” for Hamlet and thistles grow as the bars (II.2). When Hamlet tells his mother not to “spread the compost on the weeds/ To make them ranker” (III.4) morning glory and safflower grow along the bottom of the page. The final illustration is a botanical of Ophelia’s flowers, which includes the thistle, nettle and other weeds that grow among Hamlet’s tormented words.
As well as pen and ink, Greenberg uses beautiful collage. Each scene begins with a stage with collage curtains pulled back to show the action. A double page prior displays a tableau with much of the background rendered in collage. As in a textual version of the play the list of players explains their connections for those new to the story and Greenberg provides a unique way of listing acknowledgements through the Supporting Cast and Crew at the end.
The only problem with the book is its size – Quarto and 3.5cm thick. It is very heavy and not made for easy carrying or reading in bed. As long as you’ve got a table handy, this work of art is worth its weight.
A version of this review first appeared in Fiction Focus magazine 2011 vol.25, no.1, p.5.
All the characters have tails which express their emotions as much as their faces and each is uniquely drawn to complement their personality.
Hamlet’s head is an ink blot. Polonius is a dancing, gibbering monkey. Ophelia is fox-like. Queen Gertrude has three rows of breasts, although their low position makes them udder-like. When Hamlet says “were she ten times our mother,” he imagines five rows of breasts on a Rorschach ink blot. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spend much of their time as conjoined twins and more than once Hamlet wrenches the two apart.
Characters’ swords and daggers end in ink nibs or paint brushes and kill with ink. When someone dies they are reduced to a puddle of ink in which their face floats, hence Horatio cradles Hamlet’s face, not his head, when he dies. In the culmination of Hamlet’s tirade to Ophelia (III.1) he wrenches off her face and flings it away. As Ophelia blindly feels for and finds her face she opines in a clever pun:
"O woe is me –
T’have seen what I have seen,
see what I see!" (Act III Sc.1)
When Claudius and Polonius reappear to discuss and berate the two, Ophelia drips, bit by bit, into a puddle of sorrow. In the last scene, Horatio’s tears and cradling of Hamlet’s face say infinitely more than his words of sorrow.
"Now cracks a noble heart.
Good night sweet prince,
And flights of angels sling thee to thy rest." (Act V Sc.2)
This is cleverly followed by the arrival of a flight of ravens – Prince Fortinbras of Norway and his entourage.
The backgrounds are meticulously rendered to set the scene. Clockwork cogs decorate the main hall of the castle because “time is out of joint”. In Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy (III.1), he takes off his face and it spins with vacant eyes in multiple cogs before zig-zagging wildly just out of reach. When Ophelia sings and dances in her madness, the cogs become as warped as her mind.
Botanical references are strewn throughout. Ophelia hands flowers to the King, Queen and Laertes as each plant grows riotously across the page (IV.5). What she actually passes to each character is a broken, dripping, ink rendering, nothing like the garden she has plucked it from. She often drags a string of carnivorous plants with her, which are in danger of eating her alive and dramatically highlight Ophelia’s plight.
Earlier, Hamlet’s “unweeded garden/ That grows to seed” (I.2) are depicted as thistles on which he cuts his hand. Later “Denmark’s a prison” for Hamlet and thistles grow as the bars (II.2). When Hamlet tells his mother not to “spread the compost on the weeds/ To make them ranker” (III.4) morning glory and safflower grow along the bottom of the page. The final illustration is a botanical of Ophelia’s flowers, which includes the thistle, nettle and other weeds that grow among Hamlet’s tormented words.
As well as pen and ink, Greenberg uses beautiful collage. Each scene begins with a stage with collage curtains pulled back to show the action. A double page prior displays a tableau with much of the background rendered in collage. As in a textual version of the play the list of players explains their connections for those new to the story and Greenberg provides a unique way of listing acknowledgements through the Supporting Cast and Crew at the end.
The only problem with the book is its size – Quarto and 3.5cm thick. It is very heavy and not made for easy carrying or reading in bed. As long as you’ve got a table handy, this work of art is worth its weight.
A version of this review first appeared in Fiction Focus magazine 2011 vol.25, no.1, p.5.
abandoned-didn-t-finish
May 4, 2014I think reading Metamaus just before ruined me for this. It's just too hard to wade through all the text on each page without actually being distracted by the pictures. Yet Shakespeare's text, while certainly understandable even to the modern ear, requires quite a bit of focus. Also Greenberg's lettering is horrible! It's like she didn't think the lettering was important. Often while reading Metamaus I'd read about the lawsuits Spiegelman had brought for things like reproducing his work at the wrong scale (or whatever) and think, wow this guy is a control freak; but you know what? He really knew what he was doing. He left no detail unturned. Not so many comics can live up to that. I wanted to be more interested in this than I was... I will always check out Greenberg's work anyway.
October 12, 2014
Nicki Greenberg's somewhat surreal 'staging' of Hamlet in graphic novel form. She incorporates many little Elizabethan theatre jokes like asides to the audience, and also off stage antics with the acting troupe which are small black ink blots. It's definitely strange, but has some amazing art to illustrate complex Elizabethan psychology and culture.
July 12, 2014
Having never seen a performance of it, I have to say the illustrations/visual staging of this text really helped me understand the action of the story and some of the motivation of the characters. The illustrations are beautiful.
June 28, 2021
A stunning graphic version of William Shakespeare's tragedy - Hamlet. A masterpiece in its own right - which occupies a central place on my book shelves.
February 19, 2015
This is the best way for me to read Shakespeare. Because, I feel like I should read the plays, but I don't enjoy them. So this is a good alternative.
September 2, 2015
A version of Hamlet were everyone is a cute little inkblot animal! I believe that all the text is taken straight from the original play.
August 31, 2016
I thought it would help me understandShakespeare, but it just confused me more!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews