MANGA MACBETH

A recent issue of The Council Chronicle, the newsletter of the National Council of Teachers of English, carries a full-page ad from Classic Comics, extolling the forthcoming array of “graphic novel” interpretations of Shakespeare’s Henry V and Macbeth, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, some of which have arrived at comic book versions elsewhere ere now. A manga version of Macbeth, for instance, just crossed my desk from Amulet Books, apparently a division of Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Adapting a play to graphic novel form is the easiest sort of revamping:  the speeches are already written, and the action blocked. The only creative hurdle to get over is length: presumably, the graphic novel version requires some abridgement of the original. In the case of the Amulet Macbeth, however, several other modifications have taken place: the action is now set in what appears to be ancient samurai Japan, and MacDuff is a fearsome warrior with four arms. The Bard would blanch.