Prince of Cats
Staff Reviews
Romeo and Juliet, retold from Tybalt's perspective, chopped and screwed with hip-hop and samurai flicks. In a stealthily alt-historical 80s NYC, Prince of Cats's characters code-switch in and out of a Shakespearean register that matches the original's tone and style perfectly, even when one of the characters is giving tips on how to eat a bomb-pop suggestively. Wimberly's drawings are lively and kinetic, featuring simple linework and color that belie a total mastery of composition and form. This is both my favorite Shakespeare adaptation and one of my all-time favorite comics.
Description
PRINCE OF CATS is the B side to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, played at an eighties block party in a NY where underground sword dueling blossomed alongside hip-hop, punk, disco, and no wave. It's a deconstruction of Romeo and Juliet's romantic meta narrative focussing on the minor players with Tybalt at the center. RONALD WIMBERLY's critically-acclaimed first work, returns with a new cover.
