IDW Publishing has announced the return of Kill Shakespeare in June with The Mask of Night, a four-issue pirate adventure from series creators Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery and Andy Belanger.

Debuting in April 2010, Kill Shakespeare is an epic adventure in which Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, Romeo and Puck search for William Shakespeare, a reclusive wizard believed to have the ability to help them in their fight against evil forces led by Richard III, Lady Macbeth and Iago.

The initial 12-issue miniseries inspired a 2013 sequel, The Tide of Blood, and a Kickstarter-funded board game, which is scheduled to arrive in May.

In The Mask of Night, Hamlet, Juliet, Othello and Shakespeare become pawns in a game of survival between the masked pirate Captain Cesario, his first mate Viola and Titus Adronicus' warship the Lavinia.

"Not only does it include characters from our previous books but [it] incorporates one of Shakespeare's most famous heroines, Viola, who we have refashioned into one of the coolest female pirates ever," Del Col said in a statement. "I think fans -- both new and old -- are going to find this homage to classic pirate tales a real treat."As the cast of characters ties in to the board game, IDW Games is offering all four issues of The Mask of Knight to anyone who backs the Kickstarter campaign at the game level.