Not To Be Missed!
The reviews are rolling in from Halifax for the Kill Shakespeare show and they are GOOD!
First, Kate Watson, of legendary weekly The Coast, gave the production a very strong review saying:I see over a 100 plays a year, and I'm predicting that Kill Shakespeare will stand out as one of the most memorable and entertaining of 2012.She raved about the cast provided by Lion's Den and Vile Passeist and then concluded by saying the show was "not to be missed".To read the full review click here.After that we got another great shout out from The Chronicle Herald. This is Halifax's largest daily newspaper. The Chronicle ended up giving us a feature length review. Not just on the theatre show (which Elissa Barnard called "marvellous"), but also on the whole concept.The Chronicle was also amazed at the work of Andy B.:Belanger’s illustrations are a beautiful and sometimes extraordinary art, especially when Hamlet must face his own demons in the hall of mirrors sequence.To read more of what the Chronicle, uh, chronicled click here.And remember, Haligonians, there are still three shows left to catch tonight and tomorrow night at 8 PM as well as a 2 PM matinee on Sunday.Thanks to everyone who has gone out to see the show so far, we really appreciate your support.
Kill Shakespeare is coming to HalCon and the stage!
Halifax has ALWAYS been one of our, if not our absolute, favourite shows on the schedule.
The combination of excellent organizers, a lively and interested crowd, and the hospitality Atlantic Canada is famous for makes it a winner in our books.This year we're going to be doing even more at HalCon than usual -- we're bringing the Kill Shakespeare stageshow!On Saturday at 3:45 PM Kill Shakespeare will be presented by the amazing Lion's Den Theatre in association with Vile Passeist. The two groups have banded together and have been rehearsing the show for almost a month.
Yes, a MONTH. And it isn't JUST because they'll be putting the show on at HalCon.Nope.No siree.You see THIS time around, Kill Shakespeare is going to step beyond the convention scene for THE FIRST TIME EVER.That's right, Kill Shakespeare is hitting the stage in downtown Halifax.
Kill Shakespeare at Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax):
Tickets $20, $15 for students and anyone with their HalCon pass.
October 30th - 8 PM. Opening Night: stay for drinks and snacks with the cast, director and co-writer!October 31st - 8 PM Halloween Madness: Costumed guests pay student rate. Free lootbags! November 1st - 8 PMNovember 2nd - 8 PMNovember 3rd – 8 PMNovember 4th – 2 PM Matinee, 8 PM Closing Night/Trivia: Free K.S. swag for winners!We hope all of our East Coast friends will be at HalCon and can catch the free show. We'd also love it if you tweet and post about the Bus Stop theatre run.Better yet, come out with your HalCon pass and get a $5 discount and bring a friend who missed HalCon to the show.This is our chance to prove that comic culture and Shakespeare mix like chocolate and peanut butter!See you soon!Conor
Andy Belanger gets the Star Treatment
Comic journalism, like comics themselves, sometimes doesn't get the credit it deserves.It also can see a sharp divide. Bloggers talk about the latest "capes" book while the "serious" journalists focus more on the sort of work you might see Adrian Tomine or Alison Bechdel put out.
So it was an extra pleasant surprise to read Keith Silva's amazing piece on our own Andy Belanger (with a nice helping of Andy's sweetheart Becky Cloonan) in the e-pages of Comics Bulletin. The story really embraces Andy's love of genre as well as personal storytelling.The feature length article takes a look at Andy's whole career - starting with the fact that Andy's Dad was Batman... no, seriously...
Keith has put together a wonderfully written piece that is a real credit to journalism and also surprised me by teaching me a few new things about our fave artist and partner.Enjoy the read!Conor
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTHONY!
Today, some thirty years ago more or less (well more, but whose REALLY counting?), Anthony Del Col came onto the scene.Please join me in wishing him a wonderfully happy birthday and here's hoping he survivies yet ANOTHER death defying stunt on his big day. The stout-hearted man has taken on sky-diving, bungie cord jumping, working with me, and now he's set to take on another daredevil adventure -- walking the EDGE of the CN TOWER!For a look at what Anthony is going to face watch a few minutes of this video -- I can't wait for the photo of Anthony sitting in thin air.Anthony, you're a great partner, but more importantly than that you bring joy to every room you walk into and a smile to every face.Have a great one - and here is a little birthday song for you!
Snail Trail!
Last weekend, on Saturday August 18th, Toronto's oldest comic shop - The Silver Snail - moved house.Sorta.
The Snail has been on the cusp of moving for several months as their old digs on 367 Queen West has been sold to be developed as condos (surprise, surprise). But because of slower than expected rennovations at their new home-to-be at 329 Yonge (in Yonge and Dundas Square) the store hasn't been able to move.But that didn't stop the Snail's new owners Mark and George from organizing a very cool
event that saw hundred of volunteers line up, side by side, from the old locale to the new one. Then this human chain moved over a 100 boxes and props from the old store to Yonge and Dundas square.Sure, there wasn't anyplace to PUT these boxes as the workers were still hammering and sawing away BUT that didn't matter because the boxes were actually filled with goodies that were then raffled off to all the helpers.The whole thing was covered by several media outlets giving our comic-friends some great buzz as they prepare to expand the Snail's legacy.
Yours truly got to be a marshall, which basically means I had to carry boxes across intersections... 'cause if a volunteer gets run over that's a tragedy, if a red-head gets whacked that's a Louie CK bit.Hope you're all enjoying the Expo! See you in a couple of hours.Conor
K.S. Friends, "Bad Kids Go To Hell", Bring Their Film To FanExpo
Going to conventions as much as we do you get the great opportunity to meet other creative entrepreneurs, and one of the real pleasures of the job is being able to share their work with your own fans and supporters.
So without further ado...One of the most interesting events that should be on top of your "things to do at FanExpo", is the Bad Kids Go To Hell screening.Based on the bestselling Bad Kids Go To Hell graphic novel, which is kinda a 'John Hughes meets Halloween' idea, the film is going to premiere at the FanExpo on Saturday night.You can meet Matt and "Bazza" the two creators of the book and film at Booth #802 (they are special guests of the Silver Snail) and see the film at 6:30 PM in room 715. Check the boys' newsletter for a special "Detention Slip" that can get you into the film.
Matt and Barry (Baz's REAL name) are great guys that we met when we first started promoting Kill Shakespeare - their comic-to-screen journey is one we're working hard to emulate - so for any of our fans who also loves a good old-fashioned 80's style sex and scare story you should make a point of checking out the Bad Kids journey.For a better taste - here is the trailer:
Anarchy in the U.K. - Kill Shakespeare style!
Hey all,We've been busy beavering ourselves across the U.K. as the latest stop of our cross the world comic tour. So far we've seen London, Bristol and Oxford with Stratford-Upon-Avon, Manchester and Leeds still to come.
We haven't had as much of a chance to see the country as we'd have liked. The shows and meetings have kept us pinned down (as well as a bit of jet lag those first couple of days) but we have managed to see Big Ben and the Parliment buildings and Anthony did a nice long walk one evening where he took in some of the sights of one of the great cities of the world.
We also were treated to a tour of Orbital Comics which is an amazing shop in the heart of London where we were interviewed by Chris for the store's podcast. We then went out with one of the other manager's Kyle where we sipped pints and chatted comics for hours -- eventually deciding that Reid Fleming - the World's Toughest Milk Man, American Flagg, and Power Man and Iron Fist are all well overdue to have cool movies.
The Bristol Comic Expo was a smaller show but was enthusiastically attended by all involved, despite the fact that the biggest soccer match in arguably 22 years was going down at the same time as the Sunday show.
We were a little bummed when we found out that the copies of Kill Shakespeare Volume 1 were not going to make it to the show in Bristol but the fans shocked us by still clamboring to buy the series even though they could only get Volume 2.We were also blown away by the number of amazing artists we met at the show. It seemed like everyone was landing a deal with Disney, or D.C., or image, or Random House. Clearly the U.K. is still churning out some of the best comic talent in the world.
After Bristol we've been fortunate enough to go to Oxford where we gave a talk at one of the local schools and then were treated to a great tour of the city by the amazing Katie Musgrave. Anthony also did his best master of disguise impression as he impersonated an Oxford student to sneak into C.S. Lewis' old college so he could take in the atmosphere that inspired one of the all time great fantasy series - The Chronicles of Narnia.Tonight we grab a few hours sleep and then we're off to the den of Shakespeare itself -- Stratford-Upon-Avon. We'll be meeting with reps from the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as people from the Shakespeare Birthright Trust -- both of them being excellent opportunities to win people over in helping us with our little plot of Bardicide (or they'll kick us out of the Bard's birthplace so fast our heads will spin... GRIN).
Until our next update - keep flying'em in the crates they ship'em in (as we've been told British World War I pilots liked to cheers each other -- apparently because the "crates" were more aerodynamic than the actual planes...).
Here come the Aussies to pillage TCAF, Viking-style!
TCAF is always one of our favourite events in the comic's calendar.(and if you haven't gone before then get yourself down to the Toronto Reference Library at Bloor and Yonge this weekend).It is one of the rare places where you can delve deeply into a host of creator owned books as well as read illustrated stories in pretty well any genre under the sun.Organizer Chris Butcher also does an amazing job of bringing in the sort of guests you won't find anywhere else. Guests from all over the world.
One of those exotic guests happens to come from Australia and he happens to know my soon to be sister-in-law, Allison, and so I'm super excited to get to shill for his arrival in Canada.Matt Taylor works in advertising back in Oz (so if you need to hire an amazing concept design firm go here), but he's also a rabid comics fan and creator.He's been crisis-crossing North America as part of the Caravan of Comics, an invasion of sorts of like-minded Aussies with keen wits and pens to match.Matt is a pretty funny dude and he's been kind enough to give the Kill Shakespeare universe a sneak-peak at his book, Lars the Viking.Lars is a perturbed lil' fellow who speaks entirely in verse and mostly is pretty ticked that all the good plundering days seem to have come to an end. It turns out that the Vikings may not be long for this world, and Lars isn't QUITE ready to accept sliding into the dustbin of history.(Oh, and Lars has a pet pig? Did I mention that? A pig who also goes on raids? Yep, a raiding-pig... sweet!)So please enjoy this little gift through K.S. and we hope all of you who are coming to TCAF this weekend will check out our Australian friends as well!Cheers,Conor
We guest blog on Reading With Pictures
Reading With Pictures is a fantastic site and resource for those who want to learn more about the medium of comics and especially for those who are looking to, or already to, teach comics in class.The two of us were honoured then when RWP asked us to contribute some guest blogs to the site.The first blog "Hamlet to Ham Sandwich" is up here. We hope you think it is an interesting take on why the comic medium deserves to be studied, why comics and Shakespeare are a great fit, as well as as why students of all ages respond so well to Shakespeare when he is presented in an accessible way (say, a certain graphic noel you may be familiar with?)Stay tuned as we should have more blogs up for RWP soon.Also we'd love it if you checked out the Kickstarter campaign for a fantastic new textbook that RWP is developing to help make teaching comics easier, and more rewarding than ever.(and some of the rewards for this campaign have GOT to be seen to be believed!)See you all in Dubai!
Pretty in Purple
With Anthony and Conor splitting up to do cross-country coverage of comic-con's (say that five times fast), the press has started to come trickling in.
For those fans newer to the whole Kill Shakespeare "thing" these interviews are a great way to get caught up on what the project is about, what we have done and where we are going for it.In Toronto, at the Fan Appreciation Show, Conor chatted with Adam Donaldson of Press+1 a new, and very slick site that delves into geek culture with reviews, interviews and commentary (they're also going to cover the Junos - Canada's music awards - which I think is pretty cool and innovative).You can check out the interview with Conor here (and leave comments on that snaZZY purple sweater below....).Next stop for the dynamic duo is the Shakespeare Association of America's meeting in Bahstahn, so if anyone has any advice on what to do and where to go this weekend let us know!As Don Draper's wife would say -- Bissous (or is that Zou be Zou be Zou?)
To all our Teacher friends, 'sup!
While Anthony was away in Seattle converting the masses to the joys of Bardicide, Conor was beavering away back in K.S. HQ on a new project that we've hinted at but will be announcing "for realsies" very soon.And while he was procrastinating by checking e-mail a really cool message came in.As many of you know we've got dreams that Kill Shakespeare will be picked up by school systems around the world as either a way to introduce people to the Bard's tropes and tricks or as a tool for deeper analysis of the plays.
So far we've been making steady headway (And later this week Anthony and Conor will both be in Boston for the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America) but the little e-mail we got was from noted academic reviewer Chris Wilson.
Chris is the top dog behind the awesome The Graphic Classroom -- a well-read site chock full of reviews and tools for teachers looking to bring graphic novels into the classroom.
Chris gave Kill Shakespeare a REALLY solid review and called it "highly recommended" for school classrooms.
For our teacher fans we hope this is something you can use to help justify bringing K.S. to your class, and for those of you who have teacher friends this is a fantastic link to help them discover our series, but more importantly graphic novels in general.
Thanks Chris!
Welcome to the Comic Book Laboratory
While Kill Shakespeare is a more than full-time job for Anthony and I, we aren't even close to the only people needed to get the thing out there to you fine readers.
Beyond Andy B.'s awesome art, Ian Herring's great colours, Kagan Mcleod's cool covers and the entire team of amazing people at IDW we also have a crack squad of interns -- all of whom aspire to their own careers in the arts in one flavour or another.So, we're VERY happy to be able to point you in the direction of mega-awesome intern Ben O'Brian's new website.Ben's Comic book laboratory contains Ben's j on-going comic work, several series of art projects (including a great one of Toronto cinema's marquees) and his stand-alone political cartoons.Ben also reviews films for several portals - so he is a real renaissance man -- please check out his work and leave some comments for one of our favourite people!
One-of-a-kind Kill Shakespeare swag!
When we were in Montreal at the Comic-Con we were lucky enough to come across many, many, excellent fans. But two stood out head and shoulders above the rest -- William Dziambor and the lovely Sonia Varin.The couple were new to the whole Kill Shakespeare "thing" but by the end of the Con they had stopped by to chat with us several times, bought the full series and also bought themselves some Kill Shakespeare t-shirts.So when Sonia contacted us this fall to try to find a unique Kill Shakespeare gift for William for Christmas we were somewhat stumped -- I mean they pretty much had most of our stuff.Then Sonia asked us "Well, what about a poster?" We had been wanting to make posters for some time but had struggled with what we should do -- as well as figuring out a way to do them at a low enough cost that they would make sense. Sonia didn't care, she said she would cover the cost of making a one-off poster and man, oh man, does it look good.
The poster turned out really well - Anthony and I almost couldn't bear to send it away. Thanks to Tyrone and the rest of the good people at Guerilla Printing for making the poster so quickly and so affordably.So what do you think everyone? Should we be making Kill Shakespeare posters? If so, what would you want them to be of?
More Great Art to Share with you
While the Kill Shakespeare team was searching for the right venue for the launch of our second trade paperback (thanks again to Balzac and our friends at Spearhead Brewing Co. and the Afghan Women's Catering Collective) we stumbled into Cafe Furbo which is a nice little place to grab a an espresso (or so I am told by people who drink coffee).
While we chatted with the owner, Kevin, we noticed some very creepy but intriguing art lining the walls of the cafe. As it turns out the work belongs to Mika Machida -- a friend of his daughter's.Mika is just 15 and she know what she want to be - an artist. Heck given these images she's already there.
So what do you think friends of Kill Shakespeare? Should we be looking to tap Ms. Machida for a cover or two for the third series of Kill Shakespeare?Couldn't you just see her doing a kick-ass rendition of the bloody mess that may be a certain famous Shakespearean character's island?
Even if you can't it's tough not to see that his young lady is a definite talent to keep an eye on.
ONE BIZARRE LIFE
One thing we like to do when we get a chance here in the Kill Shakespeare estates (and by estates we mean two painfully small apartment-y type things in the city of Toronto) is to pass on weird, wonderful and interesting work that people share with us at conventions.
Well, earlier this month, (last month by the time most of you see it) we were in Halifax and I struck up a fun conversation with an artist named Bruce Delo. Bruce asked if he could show me his comics and I said 'yes' (being the generally kind and generous soul that I am).So he passed me this bizarre little strip called Life Comix which I flipped through and it was really, really random.And I mean that mostly in a good way. Life Comix seems to be about a group of stoner friends who get up to all sorts of adventures, well they don't get up to a heck of a lot (they ARE stoners), but there is definitely a sweet undercurrent to everything in the strip which appealed to me (as did some of the most random moments like the centipede buddy or the "face-hands" that make apocalyptic predictions).So I told Bruce I'd toss it on our site and that hopefully he and I wouldn't be the only ones with the same odd sense of humour.Life Comix -- it may not be for everyone, but I think there's the seed of something here so I hope you check out his work, and Bruce I hope you keep at it!Enjoy!
Kill Shakespeare Secret Diaries
As we have mentioned we really get jazzed when we find out that teachers and students are using Kill Shakespeare as a way to explore the Bard.
One of our fave teachers is Deborah Altenbeck who teaches at an institute for gifted children in Essen, Germany. Deborah has been teaching Kill Shakespeare as part of one of her courses.Deborah has generated several cool lesson plans and walked the students through the first few issues of the series.
One of the homework assignments she gave to her class was to take a Kill Shakespeare character and write a "secret" diary for them. The results were a lot of fun and Deborah shared some of them with us and we wanted to pass them on to you.So here you go - this first entry is from Richard III's POV and is done by Luise (and remember English is the second, third or fourth language for these students).Dear diary,We’re gonna stop Shakespeare. He is an evil guy, I know that. And with Hamlet’s help we’re gonna kill him. I hate that Shakespeare guy so much! I also need Lady Macbeth. She’s somehow creepy and seems clever although she’s just a woman. I think I have to be careful with her. Everybody knows what she’d done to her husband. Some even say she killed the English king… If she killed a king once, she can kill one a second time. But I’m much cleverer than her. I mean she’s just a woman!The Syna wrote this diary from Lady M's perspective:Today, everything was just perfect! I persuaded my friendly and thankfully not very intelligent partner to accomplish my plan! I hope he won’t be too awkward, but hopefully, he will appreciate what I want him to do… But all in all, my plan is really delightful – it is just perfect! I really take pride in myself! One day, everything will be wonderful!And finally Jonathan got into the act, also as Richard:Dear diary, Today Hamlet finally got to my land. Yesterday, the stars shone in very strange colors and I hoped that it would mean that the prophecy will be fulfilled. This morning I found the Shadow King, Hamlet, at the beach. I'm very glad that now the prophecy will be fulfilled by him. The only thing I'm depressed about is that Hamlet doesn't want to hear anything about this prophecy and the fact that only he himself can kill Shakespeare. Yours, RichardFor our teacher friends Deborah has shared three of her lesson plans -- given that English is not her students first language I think that the content is probably appropriate for junior high school students. If you are interested let us know as we'd love to share these with you and spread ideas of how you can teach Shakespeare, and Kill Shakespeare, in fun ways.And as always we love to hear how teachers are teaching the Bard in their own classes.All the best,Conor and Anthony
PW loves ANDY B.
Publishers Weekly has long been a big supporter of Kill Shakespeare so it is a real pleasure to see them review the second trade collection - THE BLAST OF WAR.The review isn't a stroke job by any measure, but it does single out Andy B. for the fantastic work he put into the trade.Click here to read it.So cheers to Andy B. as he continues to receive the recognition he deserves!
Our first Cos-players!
For those of you in the "comics know" you know that nothing says a comic has made it like fans dressing up as your characters.
For those of you not in the know - that phenomena of having fans dress up is called "cos-play" (costume play). Kill Shakespeare has been humming along quite nicely but to date we hadn't had anyone so crazy about our concept that they were going to dress up as one (or more) of our characters.Well, that has all changed now because of the awesome sewing talents of Alicia Robichaud and the willing model that is her husband Ken.You see this year at HalCon Ken and Alicia decided to surprise the K.S. team by coming as Lady Macbeth and Richard!!!!I cannot emphasize how amazing it was that this happened. When I first saw them I actually didn't get what they were doing. I THOUGHT that Alicia's outfit looked a lot like Lady Macbeth's in issue #3 but surely nobody was going to take the time to dress like OUR comic.So my mind was pretty blown when Alicia and Ken told me exactly who they were. Andy was also super excited -- it's the first time his designs have been used for a costume and the amount of detail Alicia (who is also a talented photographer -- you can see her work here) put into the costumes is pretty mind-numbing. She even ordered her wig from China!So a hearty Kill Shakespeare salute to Alicia and Ken -- the husband and wife who stole out cos-play virginity.(not that we mind a bit).More photos below:
KILL SHAKESPEARE CRACKS WASHINGTON POST'S "MUST BE MADE INTO A MOVIE" LIST
As many of you know Anthony and I have been working hard at translating our baby to other mediums. Notably we've cast a longing glance at the film and TV industries.Well imagine our happy surprise when the Washington Post's Mike Cavna came knocking on our door and told us we'd made his list of the top 5 comics that need to move to the big (or little) screen.Mike's very fun article can be read here. I think he nailed five pretty amazing books that all of us would want to see on the air one day. Hey, who knows, maybe Anthony and I will show-run Sandman one day?
SOME ART FOR YOUR LONG WEEKEND - WELL, FOR CANADIANS ANYWAY (the long weekend, not the art).
It has been a big couple of days here in Kill Shakespeare land.Not only do we have the big Sundance news but I have some great art to share with you from the next generation of Canadian comic talent. AND, here in Canada, it's TURKEY day this weekend -- yep Canadian Thanksgiving is here! Gobble, gobble!(Alright, before I fall into a tryptophan induced coma, I want to share with you some REALLY cool stuff.)The pieces below were sent to us by the awesome comic club at the Ontario College of Art and Design. These lovely ladies and men are all enrolled in one sort of graphic art or another at OCAD, but they still find time to meet twice a month (usually the second Thursday) and share their comic creations as well as talk about the medium we all love.Andy and the ever-talented Ramon Perez went with me to chat with the club last year and in return they sent us their amazing work.Enjoy (click on the images to see them in all their full-sized glory).
