Even though it doesn't have any sweeping week-long Shakespeare-related series of strips, I'm quite fond of Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on your Nose.
What it may lack in scope it more than makes up for with its sharp, focused use of Shakespeare.
For example, in one of the first strips in the volume, Jason is asking Paige if she needs any help with her homework. First, he asks about Math. Then he asks about Science. Then it becomes evident that he's already "helped" her with her English homework:
I just love the idea that he was trying to sabotage her homework by saying something about the great Elizabethan dramatist Chet Shakespeare.
The next strip we'll look at doesn't seem very Shakespearean . . . but give it a chance. Jason has written his mom a mushy card, trying to butter her up so she'll do something he wants. But he accidentally left it in Eileen Jacobson's book.
It's the "Zounds!" that connects us to Shakespeare. After all, he uses the word over twenty times in his plays.
And if you didn't think that was particularly Shakespearean, try this strip. Jason's friends are mocking him—and using Shakespeare to do so:
I don't often see the sonnets used in Shakespeare-related comic strips. But Amend is versatile (as is, I suppose, Jason). Sonnet XVIII finds its way in here:
And, finally, here's a nicely subtle Shakespeare reference:
At first, I misread that as "Nice try, Oliver," and I thought it was somehow a joke related to Oliver Twist, who is notoriously served bad food. But, no. Andy is saying "Nice try, Olivier," indicating that Peter's performance may be equal to the acting prowess of one of the most well-known Shakespearean actors, but she's not buying it.
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