WHAT A RIDE!

Finally....Wow. What a ride that was. The path to get Juliet from our brain to your eyes has been a far crazier and more rewarding one than I could ever have imagined.We sent off the final issue to the Printer's this Friday -- almost a full year after the first pages were drawn. If you had told me it was going to take us a YEAR to get four issues done -- I would have laughed in your face. No WAY. The book was totally written by November, this thing was going to go off without a hitch.Ha. What was that they say about "best laid plans....?"Somehow, in-between that first page and last Friday, there's been numerous family illnesses, two floods, one team member who had to leave, a busted up car, more trips to Cons than I can count, and 100 pages (And counting - don't worry, we have a bad-ass back-up story for the trade) of the best work we've done on Kill Shakespeare so far.I want to thank Corin Howell, our incredible inker and penciler who had to juggle the family illness, the busted up car and one of the floods alongside the on-going work she's been doing for BOOM! and IDW AND the incredible stuff she's done for us. Corin, you're ability to nail all the biggest emotional moments, the beautiful backgrounds you've littered the book with, and your good nature and amazing laugh have made this journey a pleasure. KS will ALWAYS miss Andy Belanger, but you've proven to be more than worthy of being his successor.Alex Lillie and Shari Chankahamma -- what a tag team. We'd worked with Shari before on Tide and Mask, and so I was SO excited when we got her back for Juliet, and then SO devastated when we lost her half-way through to a dream opportunity that she HAD to say yes too. Into the void stepped Alex. You can't possibly believe this, but this is ALEX'S  FIRST MAJOR COLOURING JOB IN COMICS!!! To be thrown into a series that has the depth of mythology as KS, and halfway into a book, is incredibly hard, yet Alex was amazing. I think you'll agree that hers was an incredible rookie season.I also have to thank Simon David and Adam Gorham, our exceptional cover-artists. Simon did work for us on Tide of Blood (the iconic Skull, and, perhaps my fave of all time, the bloody Prospero emerging from a book), and being able to hand him all four covers was a dream. He churned out four more brilliant covers -- including what be my NEW favourite, his chilling take on Issue #4...Adam is also SORT of new to the KS family. Those with keen eyes will have spotted his work here and there before, but this was the first time we could get him for a full run, and he did not disappoint. His issue #1 cover is one of the best things I think he's ever done. It kills me that we can only have one cover for the trade... because there is so much good stuff in here.Toby Malone has a credit you don't see a ton in comics -- Story Editor, but he was invaluable in shaping the tale. His knowledge of Shakespeare is peerless, and there is more than one reference to the Bard that originated in his nimble brain. He also constantly had me thinking about how to best deliver the story concisely and with maximum emotion. He's a real talent - and any writer would do well to work with him.I also HAVE to thank the team at IDW -- Tom Waltz our fearless editor, who helped keep us on track story-wise, and was there when I was freaking out when we lost Shari, Corin had to go to be by her Father's side, and the roof of my house threatened to collapse.  When I found out we weren't getting Chris Mowry, the letterer for the first four KS volumes, I'll admit, I was nervous. Shawn Lee took those nerves, made them a cup of tea, and tucked'em in with a good book. Shawn's lettering is instinctive, insightful, and never ever obscures the artist's work. That's the true mark of a great letterer -- knowing that the "image is the thing." Shawn, I'm a believer.Last, but not least, I need to thank my partner in crime - Anthony Del Col. We started committing Bardicde way back in 2008, and now almost a decade later we're still going strong (or at least WE think so). I'm so grateful that Anthony was willing to give me a chance to take KS in this direction. It would have been easy for him to have felt threatened, or wanted to control things, but that's not the kind of guy he is. All he cares about is good story, and once we figured out what THIS ONE was, he supported me whole-heartedly (The "Cassio" twist is a direct result of Anthony challenging me to take the story to a better place.)Thanks Anthony. I'm blessed to get to tell stories with you.Actually, the REAL last but not list are you, the readers. When we first dreamed-up Kill Shakespeare we had no idea if we could find an audience or not, and then you came into our lives. We're on the seventh printing of Volume 1, we've been able to take our little baby from the page to the stage, to the board (game), and now to TV. Without you folks reading, commenting, challenging us, we would never have come even half this far. I hope you find Juliet an excellent addition to the canon. At the end of the day we're here to serve you.  Lots of love,Conor

Issue #12 is off to the presses!

Just a couple of hours ago we officially signed off on the twelfth issue of our series.  Yes, Issue #12.  Our final one.  It's off to those magical people in Korea who will now put the issue together for us and ship it out later this month for arrival in comic book stores in the first week in August.

It's an amazing feeling to see the issue complete... yet at the same time a bit of sadness as it's the end of this run. I can't say anything at this point but this won't be the last issue of Kill Shakespeare, potentially, maybe, hopefully...There are so many awesome people to thank for completing this issue, especially Andy Belanger and Ian Herring, who have put together an amazing finale.  However, I'd like to take the time to thank Chris Mowry, who went above-and-beyond the call of duty on this issue to get it done.  Chris has been the letterer for a majority of the issues in the series and he's really done a great job.  I really wish the Harvey Awards voters could have recognized him earlier this week with their nominations.  For this issue he practically pulled all-nighters to get it done and we owe him a big thanks for this.And so we wait to see the final product in our hands...

Our editor doubles as PR rep

Just found an online video interview with our editor at IDW Publishing, Tom Waltz.  It's a brief clip in which he's asked about the upcoming series "Kill Shakespeare"...

I unfortunately can't imbed the video file onto this site but you can check out the video by clicking on the Comics Continuum logo...

Official Previews Ad is Released

The official Previews ad for the first issue of KILL SHAKESPEARE, which is released to comic book retailers throughout North America, has been released this past week.  Featuring artwork by Andy Belanger and cover artist Kagan McLeod, the ad displays the two covers available for the first issue as well two pages from the book.

When I first received this artwork I got an immediate call from artist Andy B, telling us how excited he was to see it.  Even Conor, who will admit that he often doesn't take the time to celebrate milestones properly, became super-excited about the upcoming release when he first looked at it.

The logo is a temporary one - we've just finished work on a revised version that is exciting everyone in Andy B's studio.  The design of the ad was created by the inhouse team at IDW Publishing.  Thanks to our editor Tom Waltz and IDW E-I-C Chris Ryall for overseeing this.  (And for those that might catch them, I'm not sure who to blame for the punctuation errors... normally I blame Conor but I'm not sure about it this time...)

For those that don't know, Previews is the monthly catalogue/listing of all titles that are available to be stocked.  The February issue highlights those that will be released in April.

For retailers, the ad is on Page 263 and the Ordering Code is #FEB10 0959.