Prelims for Tony Stark as Hamlet

Joe Rubinstein, who helped me restart my Shakespeare Project commissions with his collaboration on my Romeo & Juliet piece, was corresponding with me recently, but I really didn't have a solid idea for a new Shakespeare project yet. I mentioned that I had a rough idea for Captain Britain as Henry V. He wrote back and said we should think about it a bit more. Then, a short time later, he sent me the first sketch of a very melancholy Tony Stark holding his helmet as if it were Yorick's skull, and asked me what I thought.



Now, one of my original "commissions" (actually a con sketch by Butch Guice) posed Superman as Hamlet. Since I was commissioning these pictures to use as decorative insets in a college research paper, I chose Superman because of the character's fame and the humorous reaction (primarily from professors who were not, as far as I knew, well versed in comic book lore) I thought it would evoke.



Previously, I had not thought to revisit the same scene from a play for which I already had a commission, in fact I openly resisted it, but this new idea seemed to be headed in a more serious direction than the original. I had to admit that l liked what I saw.



Joe wrote and asked what kind of changes or additions I wanted and one of the first things I thought of was using Ultron's head for Yorick's skull. Now, Ultron is not normally a character I would consider a fellow of "infinite jest," but visually it worked for me (one of the more memorable Avengers moments for me as a kid was from one an old Buscema issue that showed, as an epilogue, a kid finding Ultron's dismembered head and kicking it around like a toy). The main thing I wanted to add was Horatio, the only person Hamlet really trusts, and I decided that Rhodey would fill the role quite nicely.



As a lark, I added in in one of my letters, in parenthesis, "Other cast members not appearing in this scene: His uncle the King is Iron Monger? His mother is… drawing a blank here, Jocasta? Pepper is Ophelia? His father, the ghost, is Don Heck??? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are (un)dead, maybe?" I guess Joe didn't see the "not appearing in this scene" bit, and added all those figures in the next prelim he sent me, including a ghostly outline I surmised to be Don Heck standing directly behind Tony. I was immediately struck by the image as it created something akin to a movie poster.



At first, I thought it was too bad we would have to lose those characters (darn it, they aren't in the scene!) because I thought the image was rather striking. Then, I thought of those old Avengers covers with the floating heads and, after an email or two back and forth with Joe, he sent me the third prelim. I looked at it and knew that it was the look we had been searching for. He then sent a tighter fourth prelim and I made a few last suggestions even though I thought I was, perhaps, starting to get in the way of Joe's artistic vision. He then sent me what I believe will be the final pencil art before he lays on the inks and I am now waiting anxiously to see how the finished product turns out.