A Cool Artistic Take On A Literary Classic: Reviewing K. Briggs’ ‘MacBeth’

Welcome to the table,

I love witches. Anyone who has come across my work has seen that come up time and time again. Shakespeare is a ton of fun, but the high school watered-down slog-fest of sitting through the collected works of the bard was boring. The only thing that kept me going was writing stories about the witches, and what they would be doing while all the nobles were off doing Shakespeare-ian things.

For those who are not aware of the story of Macbeth, it’s a tragedy that is focused around a Scottish general who encounters three witches who prophesy that he will become the king. He’s consumed by ambition and manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth, and embarks on a murderous path to secure the throne. As he succumbs to a little guilt and a lot of paranoia, Macbeth descends into a turbulent headspace, facing the consequences of his actions in a tale of ambition, betrayal, and supernatural forces that ultimately leads to his downfall.

It is not exactly a feel-good story, but it is also one that we have seen adapted or told time and time again.

So diving into K. Briggs‘ adaptation of Macbeth, I am not going to talk much about the story. It’s Macbeth, it’s published by Avery Hill, and it’s the story of Macbeth as I outlined above. It’s not a “retelling” or a “take on” it’s just Macbeth. And that is okay.

Where this work shines, though, is the artistry that was put into it. The whole thing feels like this really cool scrapbook notebook project that would be an amazing found object in some abandoned schoolhouse, years in the far-flung future.

Each character feels as if they are representative of someone in the real world, and the lettering is clean, even when the pages get chaotic. The whole thing feels intentional, even when it gets messy. It’s the kind of work I could see the super cool art teacher doing during lunch. It’s just a really telling of a classic story in a way that keeps you turning the page.

Fans of artbooks and Shakespeare are going to really like K. Briggs’ Macbeth. I’ve returned to it more than a few times since my second full readthrough just to wander the pages and catch small little offerings that are tucked into borders and backgrounds.

Each reading reveals more, and the magic that comes with that is not something you find too often with a story that is so well-known.

Until next time, hedgehogs make cool familiars.