The First Shakespeare Anthology Kids Comic Is Launching On Kickstarter

Posted in: Comics | Tagged: A Midsummer Night's Dream, hamlet, kev f sutherland, kickstarter, King Lear, macbeth, Richard III, romeo and juliet, shakespeare, twelfth night

The First Shakespeare Anthology Kids Comic Is Launching On Kickstarter

A Shakespeare anthology kids comic with Macbeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, Romeo And Juliet, King Lear & Twelfth Night

Published Thu, 14 May 2026 05:43:13 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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At Bleeding Cool, we are massive fans of the comic book writer, artist, publisher, stand-up comedian, TV host, actor, producer, children's educator, diarist, convention organiser, and all-round Renaissance man, polymath Kev F Sutherland. And no, we have no idea why he doesn't have a table at Thought Bubble this year. Especially when he is launching something so suited to it with his new Shakespeare Comic. For years, alongside his Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre stage act, he has been writing and drawing modern-day (or at least nineteen-seventies) reworkings of Shakespeare plays as graphic novels with Findlay Macbeth, The Prince Of Denmark Street, and The Midsummer Night's Dream Team. He then had his biggest success, telling Richard The Third in the manner of Dav Pilkey's Dog Man, and has followed that with a bit more Bunny Vs Monkey in Romeo And Juliet, getting the school crowd. And with his new project, I seriously believe he might be the overnight success that has taken fifty years to get here.

Because he is serialising his Shakespeare graphic novels, as well as some new ones, in a Shakespeare Comic, created in the fashion of classic British kids comics, such as Beano, Dandy, Whizzer And Chips or more recently Phoenix Comics Weekly (which Bleeding Cool is also a massive fan of, which first published Bunny Vs Monkey and was delighted to discover it is now outselling the Beano through subscription alone).

And so, about to launch on Kickstarter (and in no danger of tripping any of their new rules) is the Shakespeare Comic #1, a 32-page full colour comic containing strips from all seven of Kev F's Shakespeare graphic novels, published and yet-to-come-out, with new material and an A2 pull-out poster of Shakespeare's Britain, which he will also add Kickstarter backers to, if they wish. You know, certain comic book conventions and comic stores could literally put themselves on the map if they did this.

Those new projects include a Dog Man/Bunny Vs Monkey take on King Lear, and a kaiju-monster take on Twelfth Night called Twelfth Thing. And his formerly black-and-white Prince Of Denmark Street and Midsummer Night's Dream Team, now in colour. It's just the one issue so far, but I see no reason why this couldn't be a nationally distributed comic, or picked up for subscription by DFC, or published through school classes and libraries to kids already starting to read their first Shakespeare. If I had had this when I was eleven, and starting to read Macbeth, it would have been a much more fun and easy way to start.

Kev F Sutherland has worked a lot for British comics, including The Beano, Dandy, Viz, Oink, The Funday Times, Toxic, Doctor Who Adventures/Magazine, Red Dwarf Smegazine, Zig And Zag Zogazine, Gladiators, Warrior, Zit, Blag, The Damage, Bloody Hell, UT, The Worm, Gas, Brain Damage, 2000AD, was a Marvel UK editor, and also worked on US titles such as Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider 2099, Star Trek and Werewolf By Night. And he put on the National UK Comic Conventions in Bristol, which twisted the compass of British comics to that city, and there have been major comic cons there ever since. And he goes around the country hosting comic book masterclasses in schools and libraries, where he not only gets kids to make their first comics but also publishes and promotes them, while recording their current cultural likes and dislikes. He knows more about what British kids want from pop culture and how it has changed than anyone I know. Thought Bubble should really bring him back. Maybe after they see the Shakespeare Comic in print. Those titles again…

1. Findlay Macbeth
2. The Prince Of Denmark Street
3. The Midsummer Night's Dream Team
4. Richard The Third
5. Romeo And Juliet
6. King Lear
7. Twelfth Thing

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