Secret characters, side quests and pure, zany fun, Ryan North's new book Romeo and/or Juliet is a "chooseable-path adventure book" for readers itching to rewrite the Bard's most famous play. There are over 100 endings and countless original storylines (and one unoriginal storyline) — from a time travel crossover with Back to the Future to poorly planned homicide and robot fights. The book also features artwork by 90 of North's fellow comic superstars, including Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson and Chip Zdarsky.

North amassed a cult following with his webcomic Dinosaur Comics, which he created while finishing a computer science degree. His first Shakespeare-inspired chooseable-path adventure book To Be or Not To Be broke Kickstarter records when it launched. In his own words, the Eisner Award-winning artist describes the making of Romeo and/or Juliet.

"I think people think Shakespeare is boring and stuffy and that comes from the fact that we read them in high school. These plays become homework and it's not as fun as it could be. But these plays were made for entertainment; there are murders and fight scenes. Putting it in this format makes it inherently fun in a way a regular book doesn't.
I think on the surface you'd think no one would like this. Shakespeare's great, but he's not super popular all the time. Books where you choose what happens next are fun, but not on the leading edge of literature. I feel like combining those two things is a lot of fun because you get a sense of breaking the rules. I was worried about Shakespeare scholars saying, 'Who are you to wreck Shakespeare this way?' But the response I've gotten from those people has been positive. I realised that I'm not destroying the original copies of Romeo and Juliet — if anything it just attracts people to the original plays. It's also fun because when you're playing as the characters and make choices for them, you start to realise, 'Oh that's why the characters make these choices.' I understand Romeo and Juliet a lot better after playing this book."

"When I read Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid and died, it always felt bad. I thought, 'I'm so bad at reading that I just lost at a book.' I wanted to make the endings special and something you look forward to. The thing about bringing in different artists is that they each bring in their own style to the book. Juliet drawn by Kate Beaton looks different from Juliet drawn by Noelle Stevenson. I love variations on a theme and I feel like it turns the book into this pocket art gallery, where you get illustrations by different people. I did Dinosaur Comics with the same pictures for 13 years. Variations on a theme is right up my alley."

"They're not all happy endings. These are teens making bad decisions and, in Shakespeare, there are lots of ways to screw up and die. People are walking around biting thumbs and having sword fights in the streets. But hopefully when you do die, you have a good time doing it. The book doesn't punish you for dying. I can guarantee a satisfying death.

"To me, a satisfying ending is where the character achieves some goal or they just do something really awesome. I guess what I'm hoping for with every ending is that you want to pass that book over to your buddy and say, 'Holy crap, did you see what I did here? That was so cool.' It's that instinct to show off, is what I'm shooting for. That works in a book like this because when you're making choices as a reader, you're taking ownership of those choices. You get something really fun and really cool. You as a reader have earned and unlocked it in a way straight prose has made all the choices for you. There's no sense of I did this, I made this happen."