Manga Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Reported by Craig Johnson 01-21-2007

Manga Romeo and Juliet published by SelfMadeHero is a reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic play in manga form. Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s most famous love story, unfurls in a dramatic manga setting, in which Verona becomes a street in the highly fashionable Shibuya district of Tokyo. The star-crossed lovers, touching in their youth and innocence, are caught up in a bitter feud between two Yakuza families (Japan’s ‘mafia’) whose rivalry erupts into violence and killing on the streets. Romeo, a rock star, is a Montague who falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet. They defy their parents and consummate their passion in secret. This is a story of love, revenge, violence and tragedy.

The book is one of the first full length manga book commissions in the UK using a UK manga artist, along with SelfMadeHero Manga Shakespeare title Hamlet, also published on the 1st March.


Editorial style

The series keeps true to the text of Shakespeare, but is specially abridged for use in the manga.



Editorial Team


Publisher Emma Hayley is the Director of SelfMadeHero, which is an imprint of Metro Media Ltd, based in central London. Emma has a background in magazine journalism and film PR. She worked as editorial manager for publishers Hobsons and Arcturus before setting up Metro Media with her business partner Jenny Ross four years ago.


Richard Appignanesi- Series Editor /Adapter

Richard Appignanesi graduated with a doctorate in classical art history. He was a founder and co-director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Co-operative and Icon Books where he originated the internationally acclaimed ‘Introducing..’ series. His own best selling titles written for that series include Freud, Postmodernism, and Existentialism. He is the author of the fiction trilogy Italia Perversa (Stalin’s Orphans, The Mosque, and Destroying America) and the recent novel Yukio Mishima’s report to the Emperor. He has served as curator of art exhibitions, university lecturer, and conference organiser for the British Council. He is currently associate editor of the art and culture journal Third Text and reviews editor of the policy and futures studies journal Futures. What do Existentialists Believe? In the new Granta series,2006, is his most recent book.



Nick de Somogyi – Textual Consultant

Nick de Somogyi was educated at Dulwich College and Pembroke College Cambridge, where he gained his doctorate, and now works as a freelance writer and researcher, as a genealogist at the College of Arms, and as a contributing editor to New Theatre Quarterly. He is the founding editor of the Globe Quartos series, and was the visiting curator at Shakespeare’s Globe 2003-6. His publications include Shakespeare’s Theatre of War(1998), Jokermen and Thieves: Bob Dylan and the Ballad Tradition (1986), and as editor The Little Book of Ware Poems(1999), and (from 2001) the Shakespeare Folios series for Nick Hern Books. His work has included contributions to the Open University (1995) and Carlton Television (2000), BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and the National Portrait Gallery (2006).



Illustrator
Sonia Leong is a professional illustrator specialising in the Anime/ Manga style and comic artwork. She is a core member of Sweatdop Studios, the leading UK comic collaborative. She has printed several comics, exhibited artwork in prestigious venues (London County Hall, London Cartoon Museum, Japanese Embassy), provided product demonstrations (on behalf of Copic, Letraset and Wacom), and regularly presents workshops on manga creation. Her artwork has featured in several manga-related publications, events, websites and magazines internationally. Sonia’s competition achievements include Winner in NEO Magazine’s 2005 Manga Competition, Joint Judge for the Character Design category of the International Manga and Anime Festival 2005, and 2nd place winner of Tokyopop’s first Rising Stars of Manga competition. Her work is appearing in a forthcoming British movie, Popcorn.



Series Overview
Future SelfMadeHero titles will include The Tempest and Richard III (Autumn 2007), with plans to publish Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.



Alongside Manga Shakespeare, SelfMadeHero will launch its Classical Eye series later this year, featuring other classics in graphic novel form. The first titles include The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, adapted by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal, and Kafka’s The Trial, adapted by David Zane Mairowitz and Chantal Montellier. Other titles planned include Edgar Allan Poe’s Nevermore, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.