The Shakespearean Social Network
I was reading another rave review of The Social Network, this time on HollywoodReporter.com. The film is garnering fantastic reviews and I'd like to state that it's one of the best film marketing campaigns I've seen. Everything - from the haunting trailer to the posters.. Great work.The Hollywood Reporter uses this expression: "The Social Network has as its protagonist a character drawn in a Shakespearean mode, a high-achieving individual who carries within him the seeds of his own destruction." A great description and so I sat down last night for a couple minutes and put together this mock-up poster, using our own Shakespearean character (Hamlet) as a subject...
I hope you like it...
"I just purchased my second comic book in over 25 years..."
We were contacted a week ago by Nathaniel "Q" Quintana, who hosts the show Entertainment for the Rest of Us, which I appeared on recently. It's a radio show that looks at all forms of entertainment - films, television, music, theatre, etc - without the pretension of many other shows. I had a blast on the show back in August and look forward to appearing again.
We received the following email from Nathaniel (or "Q", as he likes to be called), which really made Conor and I smile. It's notes like these that make us really happy that we're doing what we're doing. There are so many difficult spots on the journey that to receive something like this is fantastic. Q's email reads:***Anthony, I just purchased my second comic book in over 25 years. I picked up issue #5 for Kill Shakespeare yesterday and read it right away as soon as I got home. I am really enjoying what you and Conor are doing. It is a wonderful book and I'm hooked. I can't wait to see the film once you guys produce it. On a side note I also purchased my 3rd comic book ever last night. Based on our conversation during the show. You talked a lot about Y The Last Man. So while the Mrs. and I were out last night we went to Borders just to look around, I wanted to pick up book 1 of Walking Dead, but they were out. So I picked up Y and started reading it. When it was time to go I told the wife I have to buy this book, so we did. I just finished it this morning and I am headed back to buy more. Thank you so much for reintroducing me to the world of comics and graphic novels. The work that you, Conor and Andy are doing has brought me back to a place of joy. I forgot how much I enjoyed the art form and the visual story telling of comic. I am not sure I would have found this joy, if it wasn't for you reaching out to us to help promote your fantastic work. Thank you! Ciao,'Q'aka - Nathaniel J. QuintanaCo-hostEntertainment for the Rest of Us
STICK FIGURE HAMLET
Yes, this site has the ENTIRE tragedy drawn entirely in stick figures.Now we ask, can you really have ANY more fun with the Bard than a stick-ginger Hamlet? (yes, correct the answer WAS Kill Shakespeare, but this is a close second).ENJOY!
Chatting with the boys.
Us, do media? No....Ok, yes... we sat down with the lovely Andrew Ardizzi at FanExpo in Toronto last weekend. Andrew is a general all-around renaissance man and both a senior reporter at Humber college as well as a reporter for COMIC BOOK DAILY!So it was our good fortune to get to sit down with him and chat about FanExpo, drawing horses, and Kill Shakespeare.Listen here! (Yep, that's an order...)
WHAT? Another shameless plug for a talented guy we know?
As you know, we here at the Kill Shakespeare team are shameless self-promoters, but as you are hopefully starting to learn we are also working at shamelessly promoting other SUPER-DUPER talented people that we get to meet in this wonderful world of comics.
Enter Nimit Malavia. A good friend of our cover artist Kagan Mcleod, and in some ways a kindrid creative spirit.
Nimit is one of the most talented illustrators we have had the privielege of meeting and he's also an A-1 guy. I mean, who else would take oodles of photos of US (although, lets face it, we are pretty handsome).
You've seen a few examples of his work in the post but to get more check out his website here or his flicker account here.And next show you're at make sure you stop by and see him, say the Kill Shakespeare boys say "hello". It probably won't get you a discount on that print of his you love, but hey, it can't hurt...
KILL SHAKESPEARE GETS SOME LOVE ON "NATIONAL READ A COMIC IN PUBLIC DAY"
We here on the Kill Shakespeare team are big fans of comics. Not just the super-hero books (tho' we love those too) but the notion that there is a comic for EVERYONE .And one of the ways to show that to people is to read comics -- in public.
I know, I know -- its a scary idea. And, I''ll admit that occasionally the Wednesday books stay in my bag on the TTC in favour of the latest issue of WIRED or a "proper" book -- but the time has come to stand up and unite.Or rather, unknown to me until the day OF, the time ALREADY came.Yes it was National Read A Comic In Public Day on August 28th, and by all accounts it was a screaming success. Some very cool people we have met before in San Francisco were part of the event, and it was spearheaded by Brian Hibbs the accomplished author of Tilting at Windmills (one of the best collections of comic-related essays ever) and owner of the very excellent Comix Experience.So a tip of the hat to Brian, and to everyone AROUND THE GLOBE who went out and read a comic in public, and hopefully inspired someone new to try out this awesome medium of ours.
Graphic Novel Reporter Grills us!
We've always hoped that Kill Shakespeare becomes the sort of comic that people who don't usually read comics can pick up and enjoy. And part of that is getting educators and librarians to see both the value of Kill Shakespeare AND the value of comics as a unique medium that not only spans both literature and art, but also introduces a level of complexity in forcing the reader to work out how those two pieces inform each other.John Hogan is the editor of the very excellent Graphic Novel Reporter who, as part of Bookreporter.com, has an audience that spills nicely into those teachers and librarians.So enjoy our little chat with John, learn about who Anthony DESPERATELY wants to play Hamlet, and watch me use words that I probably don't actually understand ('contextualization?', really Conor?).All the reporter-y goodness can be found here.
An addition to the Kill Shakespeare family!
It takes a lot of people to make Kill Shakespeare a success. Some are obvious, Andy B. for art, Ian for colours, Kagan on covers... but that only touches the tip of the ice-berg. There are literally dozens of people who are helping to support Kill Shakespeare and recently one of our faves experienced a pretty fantastic milestone.Jethro Bushenbaum is the KSE accountant - he's talented, he's super cool (the coolest accountant EVER) and now -- he's a DAD!
So, it is our honour to officially welcome the SUPER-cute Henin Bushenbaum to the Kill Shakespeare world ('cause her folks already did a fine job of doing the OFFICIAL-official introduction to the WHOLE world a little while back).As you can see from the pics below she's already ridiculously adorable (erasing Papa's fears of perhaps having an "ugly baby" -- cause we all know how much THOSE suck!)
And as a little aside did you know that a Hennin (extra 'n') was a popular conical-style hat worn in medeival times and also in early colonial America?No you did not, and neither did I until Henin came along... see she's teaching us already!
Another shameless plug for local cartoonists
Because we like spreading the word about the weird and wonderful things that local T-dot cartoonists are getting up to we bring you s0omething that qualifies on all accounts -- MILLER & MULLET.If you love vaudeville humour mixed with a certain amount of human suffering, terrifying imagery, pratfalls, and are not afraid of clowns then this may be your next fave web-comic.There is also a web-series but I haven't been watching that yet - although I'm gonna guess it'll be kinda surreal.ENJOY - this link will get you started with the comic.
A Shamleless plug for a new friend!
The Kill Shakespeare boys love the sense of community in the comic world and so we're going to make a more concerted effort of introducing you to some of the young hungry creators we're meeting.
Richard Fairgray is an incredibly cool guy and a neat story. When we met him he was busy shoving a pen into his eye-socket... no, he isn't a Jim Rose devotee but a comics creator. It just so happens that Richard is almost 100-percent blind.Has he let that stop him? Hell no. In his native New Zealand he's a well-regarded comics writer AND artist (yeah, I feel humbled. Richard can't see and he's ten-times the artist I am). And he also has a cool new project called Blastosaurus that is getting some Hollywood love. It's sorta TMNT but with dinosaurs, a young idealistic boys and, well, blasters...Anyway his personal story makes him stand-out even more, but checking out his work I'm sure you'll agree his work succeeds on its own merit. Besides who can't like a dude who has a graphic-novel based on one of film's most famous legends - the Wilhelm Scream!
An EPIC, EPIC of KILL SHAKESPEAREAN EPICNESS - in four parts (To borrow from Scott Pilgrim) .
The ENTIRE Kill Shakespeare team (including that 'wascally wabbit' Andy) take part in a mammoth interview with Joe Wilcox at Oddly Together.Joe is a great journalist with year's of experience - it may be the first time we've been questioned by a guy who also cover's Microsoft's earnings.There are four parts to the awesomeness -- each one bite-sized and tasty.
Act 1 -- Enjoy as Andy gets to be the pitchman for the first time in a live interview. Thrill to how he says the series is about Shakespeare's characters playing with themselves. Gasp as Anthony and Conor reveal themselves to be Bert and Ernie on acid (those aren't two pillows....)
Act II -- Anthony gets us on track and explains what the heck this series is actually about. And he explains how Kimberly Cox may still be trying to kill us.
Act III - This was a real, real treat -- a WORLD-EXCLUSIVE sneak preview of art for issues #5, 6 and beyond. If you are a Kill Shakespeare devotee (as we know you are) you wanna check this clip out for sure!Act IV - We get philosophical here and ask a big question for Bardolators: Was Hamlet a suicide-case? Did he actually LET himself be killed in the play? And does that make him one big fat coward???All told we had a great time chatting with Joe, and we really hope you enjoy the interviews as much as we did making them!
Anthony is breaking hearts!
As many of you know our poor Mr. Del Col is somewhat bashful (somewhat coquettishly so) about his clean-cut good looks. We here at the Kill Shakespeare team take a great deal of joy in teasing him about being "the best-looking man in comics". But it seems we aren't the only ones who've noticed him...
Click through for a rather... visceral account of Del Col and his hotness (make sure you e-mail him about it to tease him --- just a little).NOTE: some of the descriptive language in this post MAY not be suitable for the younger members of our audience...DOUBLE NOTE: I think it's really nice that someone digs Anthony so much. So "sheeplikeme" PLEASE come and visit us. We'll be at FanExpo in August. Come up and say hi and get a picture with Anthony, he's super sweet and poses expertly for pictures...
Is our Hamlet similar to Lost's Jack Shephard?
Our interview from April with Sohaib from Fictional Frontiers has gone live this week (click on the link to go to the interview). Other than the fact that Conor was cut off because of cell phone problems (perhaps it was the construction that you hear in the background), it was one of the interesting and thought-provoking interview we've done thus far. Sohaib pulled out the big guns when he asked me to compare our Hamlet to the Jack Shephard character from Lost (the show had not finished when the interview was done). It was a challenging question but after I finished the interview a dozen other thoughts came to me (this always happens, doesn't it?)...
Sohaib runs a very insightful and analytical show about pop culture, not only discussing the latest news but going deeper to analyze stories, characters and the plot elements of everything. We hope to be on the show with him again sometime very soon!
Just Wiki us!
We are now bonafide! Fan Mark Wickson has put together a Wikipedia page for Kill Shakespeare and it looks pretty good. Mark did a solid job of gathering links and information about us and compiled it together. Feel free to hop onto the page (click the image below) and add any other pertinent information. Which means, I guess, that Conor and I should probably do the same ourselves...
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...
"Very cool or be a total bust"
We've been getting some mentions by bloggers who have been flipping through this month's Preview magazine and highlighting some interesting choices. It's always encouraging to see Kill Shakespeare as one of the titles noted. A very interesting discussion about us took place on the Comics and... Other Imaginary Tales blog (you can check out the link by clicking on the logo). Their discussion points were:
Jim: This will either be very cool or be a total bust. The premise sounds good enough for me to sign up to check it out. I would love to see a preview of this series.Lee: Since we both liked Helen Killer, I’m betting we’ll like this too. But you’re right, it’s either going to be great or suck. Really really suck! There isn’t a lot of middle ground for this type of book.
That seems to be the overall theme - we will either be great, or suck. At least it's generating that sort of discussion. We're slightly nervous to see what the reaction will be but for the most part confident that we've created as strong a story and series as possible. Here's hoping that people don't think we "really really suck"!...
Will Shakespeare Nuts Geek out on K.S.?
Just saw that Duane at the Shakespeare Geek has posted some KILL SHAKESPEARE stuff (including our trailer). We look forward to starting up debates moving forward about whether Shakespeare would be interested in doing comic books - or be rolling over in his grave at the moment. We're of the opinion that if Shakey were alive today he'd probably be working closely with Stan Lee on some really cool stuff...
As Daune write: "Apparently they’ve got something else in mind altogether! This might be a little over the top for some of the readers, but I think it could be great fun... As a purist I think the whole thing would self destruct – I think Hamlet wouldn’t be able to stand Falstaff and neither of them would give Juliet a second glance. And I suspect that Iago and Richard would probably kill each other. But we’ll just have to see how it plays out!"
Check out the link here...
