Ian Pollock's Illustrated King Lear

IAN POLLOCK’S ILLUSTRATED KING LEAR: William Shakespeare & Ian Pollock: Workman: Nonfiction: 139 pages

Ian Pollock’s illustrated rendition of William Shakespeare’s classic play, King Lear, was first published in the 1980s. With the popular rise of graphic novels, Pollock's work was reprinted in 2006 and marketed (appropriately) as a graphic novel. The text is the complete, unabridged play, but the illustrated edition provides the dialogue in speech bubbles attached to each character in typical graphic novel or comic book fashion.

I often struggle with graphic novel formats, but I actually enjoyed the graphic novel version of the play more than the plain text version. Since plays were written with the intention of being visually represented rather than being read straight through like novels, the illustrations and speech bubbles clarify and enhance the story. Pollock’s drawings are eerie and surreal, adding a fantastic depth and mood to Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

MBC