Letters from Germany!

Kill Shakespeare continues to spread around the globe and through schools.We just received this e-mail from a pair of German University students who are studying Kill Shakespeare in one of their seminar courses.Dear Anthony and Conor!Deborah Altenbeck is our teacher in English and we had the topic of Shakespeare.In our English lesson we read your comics and we really enjoyed it! It was so exciting and interesting to see how people deal with Shakespeare in another way.We were surprised how detailed you know each  character!In issue four for example we first had problems to understand the complexity but after reading it several times we were very interested how the situation between Othello an Iago is going to develop. And after finding out about Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor we were amused that you also brought the aspects and background information from this play.Best wishes, Antonia and SynaWe love it when we get feedback from our fans, especially international ones - so please if you have any thoughts or comments on the series get a hold of us at lendusyourears@killshakespeare.comAll the best,Conor and Anthony

WORD!

The sun was shining, fans of the written word were laughing and comparing notes on their favourite authors, exotic meats and vegetables were grilling... it was definitely a great Sunday to be at Word on the Street.And so the Kill Shakespeare team braved this paradise (though we somehow forgot to grab any Tiny Tom donuts -- for shame, what we're we thinking?) to do our second  presentation at WOTS - which is a huge honour for us. We love getting the chance to mingle with so many readers and we especially appreciate the chance to try to open people's eyes to the humble comic book.In fact for next year I'm hoping to convince WOTS to give us and a few other creators a panel with some sort of provocative title ("You're dumb if you're not reading comics" ?) in order to really shake up the notion that comics are for kids.But that's enough of my little sideline passion.This post is really about thanking Nicola at WOTS for organizing the event and getting the K.S. boys a panel. And it is about thanking the people who came to hear us speak (standing room only!), and it is about appreciating the passion and energy the entire festival brought to the day. For those of you have not been to a WOTS it is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and the one in Toronto was easily the busiest I'd ever seen. And you don't even have to be in Toronto to enjoy the fun. The Toronto WOTS is held in conjunction with events across the country, including one in Halifax where our dear friend Chris Benjamin was a guest of honour.It's a great venue for hearing readings, picking up cool books, getting discounted magazine subscriptions (as my fiancee may have done) and mingling. It's also a great venue for kids so we invite all our fans to come down next year to join the party at Queen's Park - and come support the "comics are literature too" movement we'll be trying to drum up.As for the panel itself? Well, first off, we were scheduled to present at the "This is Not the Shakespeare Stage" -- perhaps the greatest literary omen since the 'Ides of March' (although I think our day worked out a LITTLE better than Caesar's). Once we got there we were greeted by a large and enthusiastic crowd and received a wonderful intro from the festival organizers.Then Anthony and I spent an hour going through the "ins and outs" of writing and drawing comics (poor Andy was in NYC and couldn't join us) and providing tips about how to become a creative entrepreneur. As I mentioned above the crowd was fantastic, especially Scott who graciously volunteered to be a guinea pig and talk through a comic book he was working on that had stalled.We also found time to plug the excellent Kate Beaton and her work Hark, A Vagrant!, to do a little high-fashion runway modelling, and to be COMPLETELY charmed by two adorable moppets in the front row who answered more questions than all the adults in the tent combined.At the end there was nothing left to do but treat the crowd to a brief sneak-preview of "Kill Shakespeare: The Musical" (starring the Bear from 'A Winter's Tale', naturally). We were told it was the first time that someone had ended a WOTS presentation with a soft-shoe routine.We hope that all of you who attended ended up gaining some value from our presentation, and please we'd love to hear feedback so that we can continue to improve our talks. We'd be honoured if something we said or did inspired your own creative spirits.All the best, and thanks again Toronto for the best Word on the Street yet!A smattering of the many photos the lovely Crystal Luxmore, the aforementioned fiancee, took of the day are below.

Anthony preparing to launch into "Kill Shakespeare: The Musical"

Your chance to own some AWESOME Kill Shakespeare Art

Many of you have commented on the amazing colouring work in Kill Shakespeare and as most of you know the man behind this key part of the comic is Ian Herring.What you may NOT know is that Ian is an accomplished artist in his own right. Yes our boy Ian is far more than "just" a colourist.Some of you may have read about the piece he did for "Loveable Badass" the art show dedicated to NBA star Ron Artest (and that Ron-Ron was interested in owning it himself).Well Ian is contributing more art to the Kill Shakespeare cause -- he will have one of the guest pin-ups in our second trade "The Blast of War".But first you can get a print of his AWESOME piece for the first trade by clicking here.To see more of his work, including his awesome homage to both TMNT and Star Fox click here (also check out his awesome CosmoApe).

Just a test

So I'm trying something out here people. Do me a favour and those of you with QR readers help us make sure this code actually takes you to the first issue's online home.

A little product placement for our little book

San Diego Comic-Con becomes a bigger and bigger deal for the "mainstream" media all the time.Earlier this week CTV did a story on San Diego and the record crowds that gathered to attend that Geek-a-palooza. But part of the story focused on an event that's we'll be attending this fall - the Halifax Comic Con!Jen Lambe, who heads up the organizing committee for HalCon, was interviewed by CTV to comment on the rise of Geek culture. And Jen, a big fan of our work, got them to shoot the lead-in to the interview with her reading our book.It made enough of an impression that my fiancee's mother e-mailed us to say she had seen it -- and right now she's living in Dryden, Ontario which is a couple of hours north of Thunder Bay (so it looks like we're going regional, baby!)A big thanks to Jen for giving us another great plug on National T.V.! It means a lot to us that our fans support the book the way you do. So thanks to all of you.Click on the link below to see the lovely Ms. Lambe!CTV Live at 5

A sneak peak at the second trade.

We've been working hard to get an awesome second collection out to you and we're pleased to announce that a new creative team has come on board to put together a back-up story for the second trade.We won't spoil anything for you but the sketch above was part of the pitch that our guest artist brought to us, and I am sure you'll agree that he (or she) did a FANTASTIC job.Stay tuned for more announcements about this cool new expansion to the Kill Shakespeare universe.

Ve are big in Chermany!

(Deborah forgive me for my teasing...)So, one of the best things about Kill Shakespeare, to me at least, is knowing that teachers and educators are finding it interesting.So it was with GREAT excitement that I saw this e-mail in my inbox the other day. It was from Deborah Altenbeck a German graduate student who is a BIG fan of Kill Shakespeare. She had been hoping to do a paper on us and wrote to me to provide an update.The e-mail started off a LITTLE depressingly:I apologize for not keeping in touch. I was very busy doing my final exams and my final paper for the university. But I'm through with everything now. Unfortunately I couldn't write one of my research papers on Kill Shakespeare as I've originally planned, but I was forced to write it on a different topic. Crap.So much for our inaugural German language paper. But as I read the e-mail I realized what Deborah HAD done was way, WAY, cooler.However, I am still working for the Institution for gifted children and still teach the Shakespeare course and I thought I should let you know what we're doing... ...A few lessons ago we finally started on the Comics Section. I assigned the various main characters from Kill Shakespeare to individual students and they made posters, researching information on:1. which play they are from2. their alignment (good ----- bad)3. a description4. a strength5. a weakness6. 5 adjectives to describe the character7. family tree8. a famous quotation9. pictures from the internetand I provided them with character artwork that I found on your website.When we were all finished, posters were presented to the group so that everyone knew each character. I attached some photos of the results. So I wanted to share with you, our fans, some of those photos so you can see how Kill Shakespeare is being used to help kids get into the Bard in a whole different way.As you can imagine this makes Anthony, Andy and I enormously proud of our work and it is something special to think that our little comic has made it across the sea.Going forward Deborah says she plans to read the whole series to her class and hope to put together a teaching guide for Kill Shakespeare.So a big Danke to Deborah. You have made our week.Conor

PS: The second coolest thing about her Shakespeare unit besides the fact it used Kill Shakespeare? The fact that she had the students do in-character job interviews. Can you imagine Hamlethaving to try to land a gig as an air-traffic controller?Interviewer: "So, Mr. Hamlet. Can you provide me some examples of times when you were under a great deal of pressure and we're able to make snap decisions?"Hamlet: ....Interviewer: Mr. Hamlet?Hamlet:...Interviewer: Mr. Hamlet, are you awake?Hamlet:...Interviewer: Mr. Hamlet!Hamlet ... yes.Interviewer: Well then, can you answer me the question, please. Can you think of an example of when you successfully made a quick decision?Hamlet: ...Hamlet:...Hamlet:....  Maybe?

Stars of HeroesCon!

I just wanted to take a couple of moments now that the crush of HeroesCon is over and bring you up-to-date on some of the coolest people and things I saw in Charlotte.Teenage Satan: This insidiously amazing idea percolated from the unholy trio of Stephanie Buscema, Marsha Cooke and Candis Cooke. Uh, Satan? In high-school? Yes please! (and these ladies are already scaring the system, the corporate muck-a-mucks made them take down their first trailer).Ninjasaurus: Written and drawn by my doppelganger, Jason Horn, this web-comic asks what would happen if a dinosaur trained in the blacks arts of Ninjitsu? The answer: Lots of fighting (but surprisingly little biting).All City Studios: I never got a chance to chat with John Hairston, the man who does this amazing work, but his Galactus, Panda's and Shanti Babba-inspired work speaks for itself. If not for a very real fear of being murdered by my fiancee, and a total lack of funds, one of these babies woulda been mine.Richard Case: A fantastic comic artist who now works primarily in video games, Richard is probably best known for his work on Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol. He gave us this awesome sketchbook and was an all-around amazing guy.Jackie Lewis, Noelle Giffin, Jen Keith, Laura Truxillo: These were four lovely ladies we met who are all either in art-school, or just finishing who are working on their own projects. Check out this new talent and see what the next wave of female illustrators and comic artists is up to!

TEENAGE SATAN!

We're very fortunate to know the talented and lovely Marsha Cooke - one of our favourite people in the world of comics. Well, Marsha has given us ANOTHER reason to worship at her temple of awesomeness as she, Stephanie Buscema and Candis Cooke have come together to create the awesome looking Teenage Satan!Check out the trailer below (and because Marsha is so bad-ass, she challenged mighty Warner by using Martin Solveig's "Hello" as this clip's original score. But after 17,000 views they made her pull it down. I get it, but BEWARE Warner - Teenage Satan has you on a list!)I'm also a little jealous that Marsha already has an entire suite of often web-games ready to go... just reminds me we really need get ourselves in gear on that front).Enjoy!

Life too boring? Maybe a zombie apocalypse will help.

Hey all,Just taking a moment before we head off to Heroes Con to give a nod of the head to David Bishop one of the great guys behind the Renerd and Talking Dead podcasts and a web-comic creator of some note. As you can probably guess from one of the titles of those podcasts Dave is a zombie fan - a BIG zombie fan. Therefore it is no surprise that his webcomic Stranger is an interesting entry into the genre.It's early yet so I can't tell you TOO much about how Dave plans to make his zombie tale distinctly different, but I know we have a stuffed bear to reckon with.And Sean.Poor Sean.What I like most is the fact that David is very willing to let the art speak for itself. The first few pages of Stranger have no dialogue - we just get a growing horrific sense of how large the zombie horde in this world is - and how quickly they can mass.For the Kill Shakespeare fan who's been waiiting (in vain) for Zombie Iago I hope Stranger helps fill your insatiable lust for brains... braaaains....Conor

The comic cover contest imbroligio

First of all let me apologize, and take responsibility, for the ill-will being felt here.  I was the one who set up the contest and I was the one who screwed up.I need to make a mea culpa as we had two posts on our site that said opposite things.  As several of you have pointed out in the original post we did say the comic cover contest would be "decided by the vote of the fans".In the post that accompanied the announcement of the five finalists (BEFORE VOTING OPENED) the language was changed to: "and we want you, the fan, to HELP us choose who gets the coveted win."I get why you guys and gals are pissed - if you vote for something and feel your vote doesn't matter then "why on earth did these a$$wipes hold a vote?"It didn't occur to me (and I wish it had) to set up a SEPARATE POST to make sure people saw the contest rules had changed BEFORE VOTING OPENED. At least then you could have chosen not to vote if you felt the voting system was unfair.So again, I made a mistake, and I want to apologize.Now I want to explain WHY the change was made - it was for two reasons:1) Because our social marketing advisor told us that, sadly, FB and Twitter contests are often "gamed". Instead of the contest being decided by a group of critical feedback it becomes about spamming, bots or other tactics.This held a lot of weight with us because we feel we LOST a contest like this (to get tens of thousands in financing from a Canadian entrepreneurship foundation) after a rival's vote totals soared by a couple of thousand in just a minute or so. Clearly bots were involved and while the award was given, the organizers had told us they were going to be scrapping the format.Now, I'm not saying that is what happened here, I think we had a fair contest, I don't think we saw any bots being used or anything like that -- but we were worried we might.2) The SECOND reason was more business concerned. Our publisher wanted a say in what went on the front of the cover. They didn't make the final decision, but they wanted to have their input.I realize had I made sure this was explained earlier none of this would have happened. So, again, my apologies.We did make sure that the vote was weighted towards the votes (and in fact the two covers that had the most support finished 1-2). As I mentioned on FB once I saw this huge gap between two of the covers and the remaining three I asked IDW if we could perhaps do TWO alternate covers and declare the contest a tie. But, because retailers had already made their orders on a two-cover issue IDW said no.I do want to remind everyone that ALL the work will be published in issue #11. I have also contacted our runner-up, Allyssa Pirone, about a future cover or pin-up when the second series is launched.Again, I want to apologize if this contest left fans of Kill Shakespeare and Allyssa feeling disempowered and/or lied to.Conor(And just to show that this wasn't a "What the creators say, went" decision - I organized the contest and the cover I voted for finished a distant third.)

SPOTLIGHT - KAGAN MCLEOD

While most of the Kill Shakespeare team are money-grubbing, attention seeking whores gentlemen, one member of our team toils away quietly alone in a tiny little room -  he comes up neither for food nor water and is suckled only by the milk of his own artistic merits...Yes, Kagan Mcelod is one odd dude...But he is one oddly talented dude as well - having a resume that would fill this post and beyond. Suffice it to say if Kagan is not THE most in demand commercial illustrator for newspapers, magazines and the web in North America he is on the very short list  of those who are.So, it was a pleasant surprise when Kagan sent a carrier pigeon my way. In the little beast's claws were a lock of Kagan's hair (his usual way of communicating to the outside world that he still lives) and a CD.Overcome with curiosity I plunged the CD into my computer and was amazed to see the contents.This most secretive of artists was giving us, the hoi polloi, an unvarnished glimpse into his creative process.WARNING, SPOILER ALERT, WARNING!The images below will give you a pretty damn good idea of what the cover for issue #12 is going to look like. So DON'T go any farther if you want to be left completely surprised and dazzled by the incredible journey into the illustrative arts that Mr. Mcleod has planned for you.(Now that we've got rid of those pansies we can continue).Now, of course this is just the TIP of the issue #12 iceberg. Kagan has a lot more in store for this design, and because I don't want to TOTALLY be the Grinch I'm going to stop this here... but we'll go more in depth once the cover is a LITTLE closer to being released for real.Now if you'll excuse me I have to go clean Kagan's cage...

The finalists have been chosen

By now I hope most of you have heard of the cover contest we are running for issue #11. Since Anthony and I are newbies to the world of comics we wanted to give someone else a chance to break in.So we opened up a cover-design contest across North America and the entries flowed in. We've now narrowed down our five favourites - and we want you, the fan, to help us choose who gets the coveted win.So cruise on over to our FB page and vote by "liking" the cover (or covers) you think deserve the crown.Below our some more of the finalists (though not all, we want to keep SOME suspense) as well as our favourite "honourable mention").

We X'D in public!

Recently the Kill Shakespeare lads headed to London Ontario to support a great event - Comic Book Literacy Day.While we were there we were fortunate enough to be interviewed by Jaynel White from 106.9 "The X".Click here to head to The X where you can listen to the interview.Thanks to Jaynel, and the whole London Library crew for putting together a day that was beyond fantastic.

Kill Shakespeare helping to slay illiteracy!

The Kill Shakespeare team is heading back to London!

The Kill Shakespeare boys are on the move again - this time for a GREAT cause. We're going to be part of a FANTASTIC comic line-up for Comic Book Literacy Dayat the London Central Library (251 Dundas Street).The whole event goes down on March 16th, 2011.Andy, Anthony and Conor will be part of a panel between 7 and 8 PM to discuss why comics are not just for kids. We'll be joined by SUPER librarian Scott Robins, and long-time comics enthusiast Mathew Foy.You can also catch us at HEROES (186 Dundas) where we will be signing from 5-6:30 PM.Some of the other great guests at the event include J.Bone (who you know for tons of different work with D.C., but love best for his back-up story in the first Kill Shakespeare trade), Scott Chantler (creator of the excellent Two Generals), cartoonist extraordinaire Diana Tamblyn, and heavyweight main-stream rock stars Stuart and Kathryn Immonen.So please take some time during your March Break to come out and have fun at this fantastic event!

Kill Shakespeare wants you to get your first break in comics!

Anthony and I are often a little humbled by how friendly the comic world has been to us - two neophytes.Whether it's the incomparable Arvid Nelson giving us story tips, the brilliant Mike Carey, John Layman or Bryan Glass writing us great blurbs or Ty Templeton and Darwyn Cooke serving as mentors we have constantly been made to feel "just as worthy" as the men and women who have been doing this MUCH longer than we have.And so we want to pay it forward.We want YOU to get your first break in comics!It's the FIRST KILL SHAKESPEARE COVER CONTEST! WHAT: We want YOUR ART to grace the cover of Kill Shakespeare #11. And we're teaming up with some of the greatest comic shops in North America to make it happen.The winner's design will be the alternate cover for Kill Shakespeare #11, while four runners-up will be featured in print. All other finalists will get some on-line love.WHO: Anyone who does not already have a professional comic credit can win (although anyone can enter).WHEN: What we need from you is a completed cover design by the "Ides of March" (March 15th) by 9:00 PM EST (6:00 PM PST).WHERE & HOW: You can enter at any of the following awesome comic shops.The Silver Snail (Toronto)Paradise Comics (Toronto)Midtown Comics (New York - Times Square location)Forbidden Planet (New York)Isotope - The Comic Book Lounge (San Francisco)Mission Comics and Art (San Francisco)Atomic City Comics (Philadelphia)Brave New Worlds (Philadelphia)Fat Jack's Comicrypt (Philadelphia)Golden Apple Comics (L.A.)Meltdown Comics (L.A.)Enter in person by giving them a copy of your work or by sending them your work (but please DO NOT mail, or e-mail your work without getting the o.k. from the store first). While you can submit a physical copy, the winners will need to have the designs digitally as high-res (300 DPI)  JPEG's as well.But for submission purposes a low-res JPEG is fine as well.The store that submits the winner will also get their logo on the cover. So make sure you represent for your fave city, state, country, or store!WHAT DO I DRAW?: Here is the PREVIEW blurb for issue #11 to give you some inspiration.

With one trusted friend dead and the Prodigal army in pieces, Hamlet must plunge back into the Globe Woods. But even if he survives this second trip into the mouth of madness, can Shakespeare’s fabled quill stop the horrific combined might of Richard III, the Black Guard, and Lady Macbeth’s foul magic?

SOME OTHER RULES STUFF:

• The Contest ends at 9 PM EST March 15^th, 2011.

• No purchase is required to enter.

• Only entrants without professional comic credits are eligible to win the contest.

• Each store will select up to three finalists.

• The final five finalists will be decided by the Kill Shakespeare creative team.

• The winner will be decided by a poll of Kill Shakespeare fans.

• The winner needs to be able to provide their design as a 300 DPI quality JPEG.

• All entries are property of Kill Shakespeare Entertainment.

• The sky is the limit. We'll be judging entries by how well they tell a story on the cover, how well the cover captures the "feel" of Kill Shakespeare and by how innovative and interesting the design is.

Good luck, and happy designing and drawing -- if you have any questions about how to enter drop me a line at muachado@killshakespeare.com

ANDY B. SET FREE

Yep, Andy B. escaped the chains of the drawing desk to do some media promo work. The always quote worthy Andy B. carries a big part of the Kill Shakespeare crew's latest podcast appearance.Andy and Conor chatted with the "All Your Basecast" folks about the series, the team's upcoming visit to London AND Andy's love of the city.Of course it wouldn't be a Belanger interview if he didn't stir it up a little -- so if you write or draw a "touchy-feely" indie comic.... you might want to hide.So, without further ado, click here to hear Andy B. let loose on the lovely Vanessa!(And for those of you who don't get the reference in the title of the Podcast, enjoy!)

Lovable Badass - Ian Herring!

Many of you probably have no idea that on the Kill Shakespeare team there are several passionate basketball fans (though we're die-often being Raps fans). Perhaps the most passionate is our colourist Ian Herring.Ian is an exceptional artist in his own right (fans have seen his work in the bonus gallery of the trade paperback -- his is the awesome King Richard/Hamlet mash-up), and he was recently invited to be part of a phenomenal event organized by another Kill Shakespeare friend, Steve Manale.The event, "Lovable Badass, Artists on Artest" was a multi-media ode to Ron Artest one of the most unusual and candid athletes of our generation.Ian's piece looks into the future; showing Artest relaxing during his post-playing days and eating his favourite cereal (Froot Loops). Apparently Ron-Ron is interested in buying Ian's work -- so huge kudos to one of the oft under-appreciated members of Kill Shakespeare.We love ya Ian!POSTSCRIPT: The event was a huge success -- you can read one of the MANY pieces of coverage here. And to me, what was even more interesting is that many of the artists who took place had no idea who Ron Artest was before they were invited to join the project.But "Tru Warrier" is such an interesting figure that after a few minutes of Googling him everybody wanted in. So, for those of you who are saying "Ron, who?" look him up, he's fascinating. OR for a primer check out Manale's work here. (it's the last of 23 photos from the event, so scroll left to see the rest).And the sharp eyed readers will notice another member of the Kill Shakespeare team featured in one of those links. I offer as a bounty  a signed copy of #8 for the first person who tells us who it is, and what they made for the exhibition!Keep taking those open jumpers everyone!

Sneek Peak at some art from Issue #8

With issue #8 now less than a week away we thought some of you might like to see a little snippet of what is in store.So without further ado a quick look "behind the curtain" of what is in store for you in Issue #8!So first we'll give you a little look at how the process for issue #8 unfolded.On the left we have the pencils for the first page of the issue. You can see here that Andy will add more shading to some elements of the page right from the get go.On the right we have the inks. Here you can see how a lot of what is penciled ends up actually being shadows (the group of refugees at the back of the panel).And then below... we see what it looks like in all of its coloured and inked glory!On Page 5 we were in the middle of something very different. We wanted to juxtapose Othello's past with Iago with his current relationship. We also wanted to set the stage for Othello to do some soul-searching about his erstwhile commrade-at-arms as well as his own role in the death of his love Desdemona.But Anthony really wanted to avoid using any dialogue in the flashbacks? So how could we make what was happening clear?It took canny panel design by Andy to make the past scenes "pop" subtly (after issue #7 we wanted to tone down some of the visual work - to give this issue its own identity), and GREAT colour design by Andy and our colourist Ian Herring (who rarely gets enough credit for his work in the book).You can judge for yourself how well we did. Even without text you can tell which story is which (present and past) and what is happening in each story as well. A really masterful job is done by our art team and we are lucky to have them. The neat thing is while this is a variation of a theme (we did a similar flashback in issue #1 and again in issue #7) this manages to be wholly its own animal. This allows each issue to really have its own personality.

Dear University Students: forget studying -- curl up with a good graphic novel

A couple of weeks ago Anthony and I were interviewed by The Cord, our Alma mater's student newspaper. It was a great chat and we were able to speak to how much our education at Wilfrid Laurier University served us in this project.Well, now we have gone viral in the student world as the Canadian University Press (the only student press co-op on the continent) has picked up the story.So to all of you students busily studying in your dorm-rooms, or perhaps preparing for an "ironic" toga-party (as if - we all know that all toga parties are free of irony), we hope you take a minute or two to enjoy something with REAL educational value.And hey, maybe your English prof will dig it too...