William Shakespeare

Few figures from history have made the leap to sequential art quite like William Shakespeare, whose comic book presence stretches all the way back to a 1907 Platinum Age debut in Life — making him one of the longest-running "characters" in the medium's entire history, with a catalog spanning an astonishing 118 years. He turns up most frequently in the pages of Judge Dredd Megazine and Judge, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joe Dredd, Christopher Marlowe, and a cast of future-law enforcers — a wildly eclectic company that speaks to just how versatile and endlessly reinterpretable the Bard has proven across genres and eras. With 33 catalog appearances, a key issue to his name, and roots in Fleetway Publications' irreverent British tradition, this is a Shakespeare who's traveled far beyond the classroom and into some genuinely unexpected corners of comics history. For collectors who love the strange, the surprising, and the surprisingly long-lived, he's absolutely worth tracking down.