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Othello
O Beware, my lord, of jealousy: it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
So cautions the villainous Iago, and the stage is set for the illusion and deception that results from his festering envy. "Othello" is Shakespeare's timeless tale of sexual passion, mistrust, and murder. It is freshly illuminated in this new comic book format, as full-color panels picture Othello's tortured suspicions, and readers see both sides of the renowned double meaning in Shakespeare's verse.
Every line of dialogue from the First Folio edition of the play has been preserved and illustrated. Creating the unsettling perception that "nothing is but what is not," Argentine artist Oscar Zarate evokes Othello's deterioration in watercolors, inks, and colored pencils that keep pace with the agitated action, and accelerate the tension to the pitch of a live performance.
Illustrated by Oscar Zarate.
So cautions the villainous Iago, and the stage is set for the illusion and deception that results from his festering envy. "Othello" is Shakespeare's timeless tale of sexual passion, mistrust, and murder. It is freshly illuminated in this new comic book format, as full-color panels picture Othello's tortured suspicions, and readers see both sides of the renowned double meaning in Shakespeare's verse.
Every line of dialogue from the First Folio edition of the play has been preserved and illustrated. Creating the unsettling perception that "nothing is but what is not," Argentine artist Oscar Zarate evokes Othello's deterioration in watercolors, inks, and colored pencils that keep pace with the agitated action, and accelerate the tension to the pitch of a live performance.
Illustrated by Oscar Zarate.
136 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1994
3 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Zárate
61 books23 followersOscar Zárate (born 1942) is an Argentine comic book artist and illustrator. Zarate studied architecture and had a successful career in advertising in Argentina. He moved to Europe in 1971 and began to work in earnest as an illustrator. He has drawn for the UK comics magazine Crisis. In the Introducing... and ...For Beginners book series he illustrated texts written by Richard Appignanesi, Alexei Sayle, Dylan Evans, J P McEvoy, Angus Gellatly and Rupert Woodfin. He is perhaps best known in the United States as the artist for the graphic novel A Small Killing written by Alan Moore, the a full length story about a once idealistic advertising executive haunted by his boyhood self.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 5, 2017
The whole play in the form of a graphic novel, although it makes this shakespear play more accessible to younger people I personally found it to be a lot of hard to understand incoherent babble, by act ii I lost interest and skipped to the end.
January 18, 2016
Woah. Othello moves from a really reasonable human to an unreasonable human in a few scenes flat. Iago the devil!
April 16, 2013
Instead of writing an analysis of this wonderful graphic novel adaptation of Othello that features illustrations by Oscar Zarate, I will include a short essay that I had written for one of my classes while I was a student at Middle Tennessee State University. It is a short analysis of page 59 that I wrote for my Literature and Film class, which I wrote on September 14, 2003.
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Page 59 of the graphic novel Othello takes place near the beginning of Act 3: Scene 2. Here, Othello questions Iago concerning whether or not Casio had been talking with Desdemona, Othello's wife. On the same page, Desdemona asks Othello to forgive Cassio and give him his job back as lieutenant.
What I find interesting about this page is the layout of the page. I admire the the addition of the two statues, which adds to the scenery in addition to the plot.
The statue in the third panel (also featured in the fourth panel on the previous page) takes up most of the panel. The statue's hands are holding a snake. In the lower left corner are both Iago and Othello who are talking. Othello asks Iago if he had just seen Cassiso with his wife to which Cassio denies. He then goes on to say, "I cannot think it that he would sneak away so guilt-like." Clearly here, the statue seems to personify the lie that Iago is spewing from his mouth just as some species of snakes will shoot venom from their mouth. This green color of statue is typically associated with envy. With background knowledge of Iago's jealousy of Cassio, one would say that this statue represents Iago.
In the next panel, Desdemona tells Othello about talking with Cassio, referring to him as, "a man that languishes in (Othello's) displeasure." The statue in this panel does not take up a significant amount of space; however, it is shaded mostly in blue. The face of the statue is the only element seen and its head it tilted to the left as if in shame or sorrow. Iago seems to be smiling in the background as he watches over Othello's conversation with Desdemona. The statue personifies the audience response to the situation. To Othello, it seem as though there is an ulterior motive behind her wish to have Cassio reinstated. However, the audience knows that Iago, who is smiling in the corner, is up to something more sinister. The audience, like that of the statue, just hides its head in shame.
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Page 59 of the graphic novel Othello takes place near the beginning of Act 3: Scene 2. Here, Othello questions Iago concerning whether or not Casio had been talking with Desdemona, Othello's wife. On the same page, Desdemona asks Othello to forgive Cassio and give him his job back as lieutenant.
What I find interesting about this page is the layout of the page. I admire the the addition of the two statues, which adds to the scenery in addition to the plot.
The statue in the third panel (also featured in the fourth panel on the previous page) takes up most of the panel. The statue's hands are holding a snake. In the lower left corner are both Iago and Othello who are talking. Othello asks Iago if he had just seen Cassiso with his wife to which Cassio denies. He then goes on to say, "I cannot think it that he would sneak away so guilt-like." Clearly here, the statue seems to personify the lie that Iago is spewing from his mouth just as some species of snakes will shoot venom from their mouth. This green color of statue is typically associated with envy. With background knowledge of Iago's jealousy of Cassio, one would say that this statue represents Iago.
In the next panel, Desdemona tells Othello about talking with Cassio, referring to him as, "a man that languishes in (Othello's) displeasure." The statue in this panel does not take up a significant amount of space; however, it is shaded mostly in blue. The face of the statue is the only element seen and its head it tilted to the left as if in shame or sorrow. Iago seems to be smiling in the background as he watches over Othello's conversation with Desdemona. The statue personifies the audience response to the situation. To Othello, it seem as though there is an ulterior motive behind her wish to have Cassio reinstated. However, the audience knows that Iago, who is smiling in the corner, is up to something more sinister. The audience, like that of the statue, just hides its head in shame.
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December 13, 2025
Strangely and eerily illustrated.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews