Though not a huge comic fan myself, I’m always curious when a new comic / Shakespeare adaptation pops up. I’ve seen my share of graphic novels and “Manga Shakespeare,” and the Kill Shakespeare series has certainly had its share of the spotlight lately. Then there’s the classic, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books.
So here we have new entry Prince of Cats, a “hip hop” retelling of the obvious (Romeo and Juliet, just in case it’s not obvious — Prince of Cats is something that Mercutio calls Tybalt). I’m about as far from “street” as they come, so I’m not sure how much of an opinion I get on this sort of thing. Mostly because I don’t know how much it takes itself seriously and how much is a play on the classic “blacksploitation” flicks of old.
As always I’m interested in the source material, and how much survives. From the screenshots found in the article I see gems like these:
“Sheeeeit, where’s Tybalt?”
and
“Indeed, knave! Redeem thy kicks for thy skin.”
Interesting. I’ll leave it up to other more “culturally sensitive” folks to tell me what I’m supposed to think of this project. I didn’t want to ignore it just because I don’t know what to say about it.
One question, though — why is that one dude wearing his hat down over his face? He looks like a character straight out of Fat Albert.