Shakespeare is still alive... in the world of comic books

Abstract

Perhaps the graphic novel creator Neil Gaiman could be regarded as a nowadays Shakespeare. The vast majority of the contemporary communication is based on visual inputs, one particular format of image-based text is the graphic novel which raised great interest over the last decade. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are the works which this dissertation will take in exam. The Sandman is a comic book series by Neil Gaiman published by DC Comics which is composed by 75 issues. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the issues contained in Dream Country, the third trade paperback collection of the comic book series and it concerns the premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, here The Sandman's version of reality and Shakespeare's play are merged and interact with one another and the dissertation will focus most of all on the link between these two differents works and the vision which Gaiman has of Shakespeare as an author. Moreover, the dissertation will analyze The Tempest, included in The Wake, the tenth collection of The Sandman. Also in this issue Shakespeare is an active character of Gaiman’s graphic novel. Throughout the reading of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and the comparison with Shakespeare’s works, the dissertation will link this two different authors and genres, proving how Shakespeare could be modern and how useful could revising his works under other perspectives which add something new for the reader.