This cartoon was written by Rachel Swirsky, the much-awarded science fiction writer who also collaborates with me writing the scripts to the Wings of Fire graphic novels. This, by the way, is the second Shakespeare-themed cartoon Rachel and I have done together; we did one about copyright almost a decade ago.
Rachel writes:
As a writer, a lot of discussions about what art “should” be or “should” say make me feel like an overheated cartoon tea kettle. Art should be lots of things, many of them contradictory. The solution for problems is very often (not always) to make space for more things, not limit our imaginative possibilities.
There’s a reason people love romantic tragedies. There’s also a reason people want to see stories about gay folks that have happy endings. We shouldn’t forbid one of those aesthetics, or demand that every piece of art sate them both (although it’s always nice when a piece of art can manage it!).
I was intimidated by drawing panel four, because it effectively required three different two-character scenes – tragic ending, happy ending, and audience – to fit together in one panel, hopefully in a way that makes sense to readers. (Rachel made it easier for me by writing very few words to go in that panel).
I think Rachel intended for an actual interdimensional rift to be on stage in panel four, but I thought making it an obvious piece of stage scenery would be funnier, and Rachel let me get away with making the change.
Panel four was the most intimidating, but panel three was the most work. I originally sketched out something similar to the final layout, with the characters facing the viewer. Then I thought “wow, that’s boring and lazy of me.” So I sketched the panel from a different angle:
I was happier with this for a while. But then I started having my doubts, and I shows both layouts to Rachel, who agreed with me: My second layout was more interesting looking, but the original layout had been funnier.
As often happens, a lot of details ended up hidden behind word balloons. But I still had fun drawing it!
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels.
PANEL 1
Three people stand on the stage of a theater. From the ladders and paint cans and junk strewn around, we can see that this isn’t a show, but preparation for a show.
A woman and a man yell angrily at each other, while a third person stands in the middle, holding a clipboard and looking exhausted.
WOMAN: Recasting Romeo and Juliet as lesbians is problematic! Gay people deserve happy endings too!
MAN: Romeo and Juliet is one of History’s Greatest Romances! Are you saying only cis-hets deserve enduring tragic beauty?
PANEL 2
A must closer shot shows the woman and man screaming with fury while the clipboard-holder facepalms.
WOMAN: It’s killing your gays!
MAN: Tragic beauty!
CLIPBOARD HOLDER: Look, let’s compromise.
PANEL 3
A shot of an audience, in dim lighting, watching a show. A woman looks wide-eyed and touched; the man next to her looks a bit annoyed and skeptical.
JULIET (speaking from off panel): Oh, happy dagger! This is thy sheath– But soft, through yonder breaks! A magic rift! I am– Wrested in twain–
MAN: Did… They just add an interdimensional rift to Romeo and Juliet?
WOMAN: Shhh!
PANEL 4
We are behind the same pair of audience members, looking over their shoulders at the brightly lit stage.
The stage has been divided in half by a prop shaped like a giant lightning bolt, which is hanging on wires from above. To the left of the lightning bolt, Romeo and Juliet are making out. To the right of the lightning bolt, Romeo and Juliet lie dead, Romeo with a poison bottle and Juliet with a dagger sticking out of her chest.
In the audience, the man’s annoyance has grown, while the woman is weeping and smiling.
MAKING OUT COUPLE: Mmmm! Mph!
MAN: What the hell?
WOMAN: It’s perfect!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is an outdated cartoonists’ term for unimportant details that are still fun.
PANEL 1
On the label of the paint can, a man is wincing away from some paint that’s dripped down onto the label.
The woman has a tattoo that says “2B 2B,” with a circle with a diagonal line on top of the second “2B.”
A newspaper lying on the floor, “The Daily Background,” has two headlines: “Coup In Denmark” and “Julius Seize Her.”
PANEL 3
Stuart Little – the anthropomorphic mouse character – is sitting in the audience in front of our focus characters.
Over a decade ago I saw a fringe festival show that turned Romeo and Juliet into a choose your own adventure. There were three choices in the show, each with only two options, and the audience voted via hand-raising for which choice they wanted.
The first choice was weather Romeo pursues Rosaline or Juliet. In the version I saw he tries to get with Rosaline, though Juliet still ended up playing a role in the story.
Unfortunately they didn’t give us the option to make it queer.
Great job Barry and Rachel.
Thanks, BCB!
That’s neat about the fringe festival show.
There’s also Romeo and/or Juliet, a choose-your-own adventure book that was a lot of fun (although I like the same author’s other Shakespearean choose your own adventure book, To Be Or Not To Be, better). I can’t remember if either book had any queer content, though.
Ryan North’s To Be or Not To Be did have queer content IIRC. Haven’t read Romeo and/or Juliet.