First Page of Issue #3 of The Tide of Blood
Yesterday we posted the cover for The Tide of Blood #3. Today we're going to do something different by posting the first page of the issue - with lettering.The issue begins with a significant character (hint: his name is in the title...) in hiding as as fool at a bar. What happens when he is discovered by two mysterious figures?The artwork is by Andy Belanger and coloured by Shari Hess.
Cover for Issue #3 (to be released next Wednesday)!
We have just received word from IDW Publishing (our publisher, obviously) and Diamond Comics (our distributor) that Issue #3 of The Tide of Blood (titled "Darkness Which the Blind Do See") is being released next Wednesday (the 24th of April). It's a fitting release day as it's the day after the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth/death (April 23rd).Here is the cover for Issue #3, created by our series artist Andy Belanger:
The write-up for Previews magazine for the issue is the following:"With Hamlet in the clutches of Lady Macbeth, Juliet and Romeo grapple with the island’s powers - and their past - to save him and themselves. But another, even greater, threat has entered the stage: Prospero, the mad wizard whose dominion over the island promises a deadly end for our heroes."Look for it next week at all comic book shops and online!
Issue #2 Artwork
Here are four pages of art from The Tide of Blood #2 ("To Hold Up a Mirror to Nature"). All artwork is by Andy Belanger, with colouring duties by Shari Chankhamma. The issue is released next Wednesday - March 27th, 2013.
Mirrors galore! Galore Mirrors! (Issue #2 Cover)
On Friday (the Ides of March) I posted the first page of Issue #2 of The Tide of Blood. Allow me to take a step back and feature another piece of art from the issue - the cover image!Created by Andy Belanger, it's a cover that nicely hints at the peril that the characters will undertake on Prospero's Island in this issue. And it also gives the reader a clue of the story point in the reflection created throughout.
Props to Andy for this awesome cover, and for the team at IDW (namely Chris Mowry) for also adding to the mirror effect with the logo and blurb.Look for Issue #2 at comic book shops next week - Wed, Mar 27th!And here is the original art piece.
Beware the Ides of March (preview of first page of Issue #2)
Soothsayer:Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:What man is that?
Brutus:A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
So goes one of Shakespeare's most popular lines. And yes, today is The Ides of March (the 15th of March). To recognize this day, I am posting a preview of the first page of our The Tide of Blood Issue #2 ("To Hold the Mirror Up to Nature"), which will be released in comic book shops March 27th. The art is, of course, by Andy Belanger, and features Miranda leading the group (Juliet and Romeo on this page) onto Prospero's Island.
Caption Contest!
We ran a successful Caption Contest last week so we figured we'd do it again this week!Leave a caption for the image here either on this site, our Facebook page, or our Twitter account, and we will randomly select two winners this week to win autographed copies of Issue #1 of The Tide of Blood.This is an image from Issue #1 of the series, a moment in which Romeo, Lysander and other members of the Prodigal forces are on the look-out. What do they see?
Caption Contest!
Over the next couple of weeks we'll be running a few CAPTION CONTESTS to give followers the opportunity to win autographed copies of our upcoming Issue #1 of The Tide of Blood (due out Wed, Feb 20th in North America).Here is this week's photo, of Richard III attacking Shakespeare (I figured that it would be appropriate, given the recent discovery of Richard 3's remains), near the end of our Volume 2. Please leave a caption here, on our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, and we will randomly select two winners on Wednesday to receive copies.
First Page Preview of The Tide of Blood #1
Here is the artwork for Page #1 of The Tide of Blood mini-series, debuting later this month (either the 20th or 27th, depending on when they are shipped). The issue starts off with this page, the beginning of a dream sequence that will set the tone for the rest of the series...Amazing art by Andy Belanger, as always (see his layouts and inked versions of the page here). As well, it's a great introduction to our amazing new colourist, Shari Chankhamma, who was discovered by Andy and Becky Cloonan and is doing fantastic work in the new series (her colours in Issue #2 are off-the-charts!).
Glimpse at the process behind Andy B's artwork
With Issue #1 of The Tide of Blood being released later this month (either the 20th or 27th) I thought it would be cool to tease out previews of our first page. But what's cool about this is that it gives a really cool insight into how our amazing artist Andy B works.Featured below are two pages - the original thumbnails sketch for Page 1 of the series. I wanted to post the interim step - the penciled version of the page - but for some reason Photoshop wouldn't open up the file properly.So here are the pages. Tomorrow I'll post the coloured version of Page 1.
Check out Andy B's amazing variant cover for Issue #1!
Last week we gave you a sneak peek of our Cover A for the first issue of Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood. Today we present our variant cover, created by series artist Andy Belanger - and it's amazing!Heavily influenced by the covers of Hellboy artist Mike Mignola, Andy has put together a visual treat that highlights the dangers of Prospero's island (the setting of our new series) as well as the main characters of Romeo, Hamlet and Juliet.
This cover is available as a retail incentive cover, which means that they are rare - if you can get your hands on one then do so immediately. We will also have a limited number of issue with this cover available at comic conventions this spring (but don't tell anyone that...).
Preview Pages from Issue #1 of The Tide of Blood
Here are a number of (non-lettered) pages from the first issue of The Tide of Blood. Entitled "The Winter of Our Discontent", the issue finds Romeo, Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and the rest of the Prodigals defending their newfound freedom from opposing forces but then discover a greater danger - the wizard Prospero's goal to destroy the entire world.The artwork is by Andy Belanger, with colours by Shari Chankhamma.You can access the two covers for the issue here (Simon Davis' Cover A) and here (Andy Belanger's retailer incentive cover).
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.
Anthony and Kagan appear at BookFest Windsor this Thursday
Conor and I attended last year's BookFest Windsor event and quite enjoyed it and we were thrilled to be asked to return again this year. Conor will be in Halifax for Hal-Con and a one-week engagement of our stage show but I will be able to return to Windsor this year to take part.
And this year I'm bringing with me a new traveling mate - Kagan McLeod!
Kagan and I are speaking this Thursday from 4-5pm at the Joy Family Theatre, moderated by Shawn Cousineau of the local comic book shop Rogues Gallery Comics. It should be a great talk about comics, graphic novels, illustration, Kill Shakespeare and everything else. If you're in the Windsor area come and check it out. I may even try to get Kagan to talk about his love of hip-hop (he sat on a panel at New York Comic-Con last weekend with members of Run DMC).We are also doing a talk on Friday at Kagan's alma mater, Walkerville Collegiate.You can find out more about our session at Bookfest Windsor here.
KS art in offices!
Fan David Peterson from the Burbank Public Library, who won an auction at the American Library Association Annual Conference back in June in Anaheim, emailed me recently to show me that he has proudly placed Andy's piece of artwork up on his office wall. As he writes:"I wonder what effect upon my work productivity that I face from having Richard III looking directly at me all day long?"
Thanks for sending us the photo, David!
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
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.
Merchandise now available online!
After receiving many requests over the last couple of months, we have now answered... Our ShakesGeare merchandise is now available online!
These t-shirts have been available at comic conventions over the last couple of months but we are now super-excited to have them available for purchase - just in time for Christmas! You can access the merch site by clicking the image above.
Shakespeare takes down Marlowe!
Well, at least in illustration form...At our signing at L.A. Mood Comics yesterday in London, ON we chatted with Steven J. Tiampo, a fan of ours who asked Andy Belanger to craft a very interesting illustration this past FanExpo in August. An image of Shakespeare killing Marlowe with a knife in a bar-room brawl! It's an amazing request and a great final product - and here it is!:
Andy B is always looking to do interesting sketches like this so if you're looking for a great Christmas gift you can reach out to us and get him to tailor something for you!