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Few stories are as renowned as William Shakespeare’s classic tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, but that famous story is being flipped on its head with the old west-themed fantasy adventure graphic novel Romeo vs. Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure from Gemstone Publishing. Romeo vs. Juliet is the next graphic novel entry in the acclaimed Kill Shakespeare series from the team of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anthony Del Col, artist Stefan Tosheff, and letterer Becca Carey, and you can get your exclusive first look at the new trailer for Romeo Vs. Juliet in the video above!
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Romeo vs. Juliet is told through five acts and picks up after their first infamous encounter. Now Juliet is a warrior-for-hire and is trying to protect a small nunnery from invading forces. That will lead to a collision with her former flame Romeo, and that leads us to Juliet’s big secret, as she is expecting a child but isn’t sure if Romeo is the father or if it’s Hamlet.
ComicBook had the chance to speak to Anthony all about the series, including why it was perfect for a Western vibe, why he loves exploring the worlds of Shakespeare, and what it was like shaking up such a classic story. First, we had to talk about the trailer, asking if there’s anything readers and viewers should know about it.
“One of my favorite parts of any project is helping to create the trailer (in this case working with trailer designer David Howard). It allows me to drill down the project to its essence and gets me even more excited about something I’ve already created,” Del Col said. “I hope it gets viewers interested as well!”
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As for why he keeps coming back to Shakespeare, Del Col said it’s all about the characters he was able to create over the course of so many stories.
“To quote the Bard himself, ‘All the world’s a stage… and the greatest characters were created by me, William Shakespeare.’ Okay, that might not be a direct quote, but let’s go with it,” Del Col said. “There’s a reason Shakespeare is still put on a pedestal and performed by the greatest actors four hundred years after this death: he created the greatest characters ever. As a storyteller, one of the hardest things to do is create compelling and three-dimensional characters. I love working on Romeo vs. Juliet and Kill Shakespeare because I’m automatically given these great characters and get to put them into the sandbox and create new stories and directions for them. As a Shakespeare fanboy, what can be better?”
The original story ends with the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet, but that’s obviously not the case here, and it opens up a number of possibilities about how their lives might play out if they survived.
“If anyone is asked to reference a love story, the tale of these two star-crossed lovers is automatically the first one that comes to mind. Hell, even Taylor Swift has written a song about it (which I love!). It created the template for a tragic romance that is still used to this day. I find Juliet and Romeo to be very fascinating characters, full of quirks and contradictions,” Del Col said. “What I enjoyed in creating Romeo vs. Juliet is giving Juliet a “sequel”: what would she be like if she survived the tomb scene with Romeo? What would she think about Romeo? About love? And to throw in a love triangle (and a pregnancy) makes it even more exciting for me – and the reader, I think.”
The question then becomes, why a Western? “I was trying to figure out what my next story would be and an image popped into my head: a high noon-style showdown between Juliet and Romeo. Both in pain, both determined to kill the other one, but both with great reluctance. It was a ‘lightbulb moment’ for me and I immediately got excited and started building the story around that – a border town, a nunnery, a magical mystery and a ‘Magnificent Shakespeare Seven’ crew of characters to add to the mix,” Del Col said. “I find the Western genre fascinating and think it’s perfect for a Shakespearean tale, which often includes climactic showdowns and sparring between characters.”
The story is told in five acts like the original play, and Anthony and Stefan had quite a time taking these characters and throwing them into very different circumstances.
“Romeo vs. Juliet is a ‘Magnificent Shakespeare Seven’ in that the main character, Juliet, has to rally together a team to aid her to defend the border town nunnery,” Del Col said. “The most enjoyable (and sometimes frustrating) part of the process was determining who would make the cut and join her motley crew. I loved getting back the character designs from Stefan and seeing the characters come to life through his work.”
Romeo vs. Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure will hit stores on April 22nd, and you can find the official description below.
The world’s most famous lovers are now sworn enemies dueling to the death! In this Shakespearean Western, warrior-for-hire (and pregnant) Juliet Capulet is hired to protect a border town nunnery from the evil forces led by her ex Romeo. As they prepare, she reluctantly reunites with her old allies, including Hamlet, Othello, Puck (a “Magnificent Shakespeare Seven”) but they soon discover something rotten in the state of the nunnery and a magical force that dreams are made on… all while Juliet must determine if the father of her child is Hamlet… or the man she must kill, Romeo.
Pulitzer Prize-winner writer Anthony Del Col (Luke Cage: Everyman, I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp) and artist Stefan Tosheff bring reboot Kill Shakespeare with this fantasy Western that’s tailor-made for fans of Neil Gaiman, Fables and Lore Olympus.”
What did you think of the trailer, and will you be checking out the graphic novel? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things comics and graphic novels with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
