ABSTRACT
Any attempt of elaborating a convincing representation of Polonius, the royal councilor in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and at the same time supporting it by means of pictures and speech bubbles must be seen as a tough task, since it combines a summary of the multiple perspectives shared by the critique and the artist's interpretation of the source text, both reworked in static and sequential frames. The study of a character in a play may in itself be a complex activity, since it must take into account a long critical tradition in which the work is frequently ressignified and reinterpreted. Concerning intersemiotic translation to comics, important choices should be made to adapt the play to a limited number of frames and speech bubbles without spoiling either the plot or the previous character representation. This study analyses comics adaptations of Shakespeare's Hamlet elaborated by Grant and Mandrake, Vieceli, East Press and Srbek & Shibao, aiming at comparing a selection of textual and extra-textual information, the extract selection done by the comics artists and the establishment of additions that whether changed, deleted or highlighted some specific aspects of Polonius and his role as a subordinate person.
Keywords:
adaptations of Hamlet; comics; Polonius
