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!
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).
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).
Issue #12 Official Pages
Earlier this week we posted the first page of Issue #12 (due out next Wed, Aug 17th). Here are three other pages from the issue.
And in case you missed it, here is Page #1 again...
Page 1 of our FINAL ISSUE Revealed!
It is now one week until the release of our final issue (for now). In the days leading up to it we will be releasing individual pages for preview purposes and today we start with our first page.For this one we - and artist Andy Belanger - were inspired by the classic Hamlet-holding-a-skull pose ("Horatio, I knew him well."). It's a pretty cool look and sets the tone for our issue.
Cover Art for Issue #12
Our twelfth (and final for our current run) issue will be released in just over a week-and-a-half, August 17th. In anticipation of this, we will be releasing artwork from the issue leading up to it.Today we feature the two covers for Issue #12. Cover A is a fantastic image of Shakespeare wielding the magical quill. It's quite simple and effective, and designed by cover artist Kagan McLeod.
The second cover (Cover B) is created by KS artist Andy Belanger. Andy spent a week working on it and it was inspired by James Bond posters, namely Live and Let Die. It features all of the main characters and is a really cool concept. Andy has also released a limited edition print of this poster - if you'd like one please contact us and we can arrange for it.
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?
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
Issue #11 Artwork
After the fantastic work by Andy Belanger (pencils and ink) and Ian Herring (colours) - as well as the lettering by Chris Mowry - in our Issue #10, it might be tough to top it for our next issue, due out this week. Well, I'll let you and all of the readers be the judge of that, but I think that the artwork in this issue is just as strong!Here are some early images from the issue (Issue #11: Once More Unto the Breach). You can also check out a preview of the first six pages of the issue at this link.
Issue #11 Covers
Our Issue #11 is being released next week (Wednesday, May 25th) and in anticipation of this, we will be releasing images from the issue over the next week...First off, let's take a look at the two covers for this issue. The first is another fantastic cover by our artist Kagan McLeod, who had fun working with the concept of theatrical masks.
Earlier this year we held a Cover Contest, encouraging new comic artists their first opportunity to get their art in this issue. The eventual winner was Alex Perkins, a Toronto-based artist who put together a great cover with a very cool mood to it.
Becka's t-shirt art
One of the unheralded members of our team is the fantastic artist Becka Kinzie. For most of the series she has worked with colourist Ian Herring to do some of the most laborious elements of the process - flatting and some other colouring prep work. She has done a great job at it so it's great that in Issue #10, released today, we were able to feature some artwork that she did.
You can check out her blog here.As well, she did a doodle of a photo she was in with artist Andy and a number of other artists at the recent Toronto Comic-Con Fan Appreciation. Here is the sketch, and below is the original...
Issue #10 - Sneak Peak at Pages!
Kill Shakespeare artist Andy Belanger has done some phenomenal work thus far on the series and received great notice and reviews. He continually strives to make each issue better than the last and the results has been amazing. With Issue #10, to be released next Wednesday, he has outdone himself.This issue features increased drama and the death of a major character. It also involves epic battle scenes and for these Andy took a great deal of attention and care into the final product. He has been able to illustrate battle scenes that feature hundreds of soldiers battling - and yet, in each scene, he was able to find the human drama amidst the chaos.We will be releasing select images over the next week leading up the release of the issue and today will launch one of the images here.
Issue #10 Cover
Issue #10 is being released next week (Wed, Apr 20th) to commemorate the birth/death anniversary of Mr. Shakespeare. He died on his birthday, April 23rd... Amazing, isn't it?This issue is a riveting one with lots of drama, epic battles and the death of a major character. The cover, created by Kagan McLeod, reflects this. It's one of the series' best!
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").
Issue #9 Artwork
Issue #9 ("Is That a Dagger I See Before Me?") is released next Wednesday, February 23rd. In anticipation of that, we are releasing various pages and images from the book. All artwork is by Andy Belanger, with colours by Ian Herring.
Issue #9 Cover Art!
After a near two-month space between issues, we are really happy that Issue #9 will be released next week - Wednesday, February 23rd. In addition to continuing upon the final-page meeting with a once-thought-dead Romeo, it will also feature the first appearance of... William Shakespeare!Here is the cover art for the issue - a great cover by Kagan McLeod. Check out the detail he put into the scribbles on the wall.
Look for the issue at comic book stores next week!
Reprint of Issue #1!
We had many people last spring/summer approach us about purchasing the first issue of Kill Shakespeare as soon as the first two issues were sold out. There was a lot of demand and a lot of disappointment with IDW was unable to do a reprint. However, that is no longer - next Wednesday (the 16th) IDW will be issuing a reprint of our Issue #1!As part of a new Hundred Penny initiative (yes, issues available for only one dollar!), IDW Publishing is reissuing the first issues of some of their most popular series for those that missed them the first time around. We are excited to be considered one of those titles and look forward to garnering a number of new readers in the process!Here is the actual cover of the 100 Penny reissue (cover by Andy Belanger) - click for a larger version:
BBC: "A Controversial New Comic"
We were profiled on BBC World Service's The Strand yesterday. The Strand is a daily arts and culture radio show that goes out worldwide with a HUGE listenership (is that a word?...). It was a fun interview (conducted at the CBC studios back in December) that discusses the creation of the project, our interpretation of the characters, the response from academics and scholars, and some fun things about the project.You can listen to the interview by clicking on The Strand logo (it's the fourth chapter of the show).
The BBC website has also posted a number of photos from the comic book. You can check out their slide show (with interesting captions) by clicking on the BBC World Service logo below. I'm not really sure where they got the Ryan Gosling bit from, though - perhaps they saw the Stephen Holt interview earlier this month?
