Exclusive Preview: ‘Kill Shakespeare’ #1!

This week, IDW releases "Kill Shakespeare" #1, a series from writers Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col and artist Andy Belanger that's being touted as "Fables," but with Shakespeare's heroes and villains instead of the fairy-tale standards. And that's an idea I can totally get behind.

Admittedly, even as far as comic book high concepts go, Richard III and the witches from "Macbeth" roping Hamlet into a plot to assassinate "the wizard-god Shakespeare" and steal his all-powerful quill is about as silly as it gets but it's silly in a great way, and. Like Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (my favorite piece of Shakespearean fan-fiction), it's something that's not afraid to have some fun with the characters that have been kicking around Western literature for 500 years. And like Stoppard's play, McCreery, Del Col and Belanger have made something that's a hoot. Of course, on the one hand, "R&G Are Dead" gets a little darker and becomes a commentary on fatalism and the nature of fiction at the end, which isn't where "Kill Shakespeare" looks like it's heading.

But on the other hand, "Kill Shakespeare" features four pages of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fighting pirates (which happens offstage between Acts IV and V of the play), and that is awesome.

So awesome, in fact, that ComicsAlliance has an exclusive look at the four-page sequence after the jump! So if the phrase "Hamlet Fights Pirates" intrigues you, check it out below!

"Kill Shakespeare" hits shelves on Wednesday, April 14 from IDW with a price tag of $3.99. If you'd like to find out more--including information about the promised Hamlet/Falstaff/Juliet/Romeo/Puck team-up -- check out the creative team's website at KillShakespeare.com!