Julie Taymor talks up Kill Shakespeare on The Colbert Report!
The clip from last night's The Colbert Report in which Julie Taymor talks up Kill Shakespeare is now available online!
For American viewers you can see the clip at this link to the ColbertNation website.For Canadian viewers you can check it out on The Comedy Networks' website here.
Julie Taymor on The Colbert Report!
I was just flipping the channels and saw that Julie Taymor was being interviewed on The Colbert Report. And as they talk about The Tempest and then Spider-Man Colbert asks a silly question about what Shakespeare character would be the best superhero... And she begins to tell him about our series!More information - and a link to the segment - tomorrow!
A tough choice: IAGO vs. PUCK
Yesterday's challenge was not much of one for the Moor... Othello wiped the floor with Cassius, defeating him on Facebook and Twitter. He advances to the next round to square off against Richard (that should be a good match).Today we have two of Shakespeare's most popular characters... The grand conspirator himself, Iago, against that most mischievous of characters, Puck. Both have their strengths and their weaknesses... And who will people vote for?As always, let us know who should/would in a battle between the two - email us, post a message on this website, on Facebook, or on Twitter!
SHAKESPEAREAN DEADLIEST WARRIOR: OTHELLO vs. CASSIUS
Yesterday's RICHARD III vs. BEATRICE battle started out as a landslide for Richard but Beatrice eventually started to garner more votes until it became pretty close... But not close enough! Richard III lives to see another round, against the winner of today's match-up... Othello and Cassius (from Julius Caesar)!Both are strong military men. Can Cassius' strategic cunning defeat the brute strength of the Moor? We'll let YOU decide! Let us know via email, Facebook or Twitter!
Round 1: Hamlet and Don John
Well, we had a small upset in Friday's showdown... Despite the predictions by many that Coriolanus would cruise to a victory and, in fact, possibly go all the way, the general was bested by that old fool, Falstaff. It was a very close battle and the fool won by one vote.Continuing first round action, today we have two characters that have been highlighted in our comic series... Hamlet and Don John. Who of these two would/should win in a fight? Vote here, on Facebook, or Twitter!
Round 1: Falstaff vs. Coriolanus
After a great kick-off to our SHAKESPEAREAN DEADLIEST WARRIOR tournament yesterday, we are happy to reveal that the winner of the Prospero/Tamora showdown, by quite a landslide, was... Prospero! He now moves on to square off against the winner of the...And in today's match-up, we find the following - a fool and a general. Falstaff versus Coriolanus. Now it may seem that Coriolanus is an obvious winner but don't let the fool's girth fool you - he's actually quite smarter than he looks. This should be a good matchup.
Vote on this website below in the comments section, on our Facebook page, or our Twitter account.
PROSPERO vs. TAMORA
Our first match-up features...
You can vote on who you think would/should win a battle between these two (don't forget to include not only strength but wit, cunning, strategy, etc.) You can vote on this website by placing a comment below, our Facebook page, or reaching out to us on Twitter... Cast your vote today (winner announced first thing tomorrow).If you missed it, our SHAKESPEAREAN DEADLIEST WARRIOR tournament was announced last week with groupings yesterday...
Deadliest Warrior Brackets!
Thanks to everyone who suggested characters to enter into our SHAKESPEAREAN DEADLIEST WARRIOR tournament. We have a great number of suggestions via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. There were some great suggestions over a wide spectrum - everything from Prospero and Titus to Ariel and the Bear from A Midwinter's Tale (spoiler alert: the Bear is a finalist...).I would like to officially announce the final brackets for the tournament. It is:
As you can see, it'll be a tough tournament to find out how is the consensus popular character in Shakespeare's works. Will the uber-popular Iago be able to make it out of the first round? Will Juliet destroy the half-man, half-beast Caliban? And will Lady Macbeth be able to square off against The Bear (from A Midwinter's Tale)?Voting begins tomorrow - every week day will see another match-up that you can vote on (and win prizes)!
Who is your favourite Shakespeare character?
Announced last week, we will be running a SHAKESPEAREAN DEADLIEST WARRIOR beginning later this week which will pit some of the Bard's top characters in a tournament to figure out who is the most popular. Voting will be done by our fans and followers on this website, Twitter and Facebook.
We have already placed HAMLET, JULIET, OTHELLO, LADY MACBETH, IAGO, RICHARD III, FALSTAFF, PUCK, DON JOHN and TAMORA into the contest. There are six (6) other slots open so we'd like YOU to suggest who should be included. Thus far we've received opinions such as Coriolanus, Prospero, Beatrice and/or Benedick, and the bear from Midwinter's Tale(...). Please leave a comment with your suggestion here or on our other social media sites and check in with us on Wednesday as everything begins!
Who is the Greatest Shakespeare Character?
Starting next week we are beginning our version of Shakespearean Deadliest Warrior... A chance for our fans and followers on this site, Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere to raise their voices and tell us who the greatest Shakespeare character of all-time is - and win prizes in the process!
We will running the tournament in a round of sixteen bracket format and each day people will be able to vote on the particular pairing. Before this, however, we will be asking you what characters should be listed in the Sweet Sixteen. We will include the major ones that we've included in our story thus far (Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, Lady Macbeth, Richard III, Iago, Puck, Don John, Tamora) but that leaves six slots open. The tournament will run for the next four weeks until the final winner is declared.WHO DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE MIX? Tell us here - or on Facebook or Twitter! And look for the announcement of the final brackets next week and when voting will begin!
EATSLEEPGEEK says: "Kill Shakespeare: 'All the Goodness of the Bard, none of the suck'"
With the first trade starting to proliferate across stores (comic shops have had it for one or two Wednesdays depending on their locale, and bookstores join in the fun this Tuesday), we're starting to see reviews that come from areas that are less comic-focused.While EATSLEEPGEEK certainly knows their comics they are more of a general pop-culture site - so it is great to see that they too think there is a little bit of awesome to be had within the comics pages.It's also one of the better critiques of the art -- and Andy and Ian both come through with flying colours (appropriate for Ian, no?)So click here for the review, and pass it on to some friends you know who may still be on the fence on the series.
More Photos from the Gallery
For those of you who couldn't make it we continue our photo essay from the gallery show we had here in NY at the Chair and the Maiden gallery.
These photos were taken by the lovely and talented George Goss, a local photo-journalist who just so happened to be covering another event down the road.
It's always rewarding when we get to meet new people through this adventure and George was a fantastic example of that. I mean how many people would just poke their head in, say hi, and start snapping pics for us?
All in all this is just another example of why we have been having SO much fun with this project and why we are looking forward to our Toronto Book Launch where we can rub elbows with family and fans from the T-dot (and also friends who hate what we are up to but are too polite to say so....).
So see you all on the 16th at 918 Bathurst - doors open at 6:00 PM and the fun and food will last until 8:30 or so.
I (heart) Hal-Con.
Well, Hal-Con was a blast!I've had the good fortune to get to attend comic conventions this year in San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Toronto and book events in NY (and soon Miami) and I can't imagine a more lovely group of people than the ones at the Halifax Convention.
Friendly people, passionate about their loves, a good mix of sci-fi, fantasy, comics, gaming and other fun geek-y pastimes and truly interested fans. I had one amazing conversation after another.I also wanted to give a shout out to the organizers of Hal-Con who took on the enromous task of resurrecting a long-dead convention (the last one was 15 years ago). They did it with style, with astonishingly few misteps for their first time out of the gate and with grace, humour and a real enjoyment for all the genres they were featuring.And they also raised over $2,500 for local causes at a chairty auction - including a MIND-blowing $300 for a signed poster of Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Castle). Fillion also called in to the show to help win one of the Geeks vs Nerds debates....
Wait, what IS Geeks vs Nerds you ask? Well I am happy you did.This fantastic live show pits panels of "Geeks" vs "Nerds" against each other, arguing topics like "whose the least effective military force? Stormtroopers, or Star-Trek redshirts?" Or "Who is the best smuggler in the universe? Han Solo or Mal Reynolds?" Or even the more business case orientated -- "Who is the better second in command? Vader or Spock?"I got to argue on behalf of the Stormtroopers arguoing that while yes, they have a tragic targeting issue, they were still way better to have then the redshirts, who after all, spend all their on-screen time dying as soon as they materialze on to whatever planet or ship they've been sent to. I'd call them cannon-fodder, but that'd be an insult to cannon-fodder.I'm trying to get the show out to Fan-Expo next year, so Toronto fans -- you NEED to check this out! I'mhoping for a Donald vs Daffy Duck debate as well as a Man in Black(Dread Pirate Roberts) vs Zorro... but that's just me...There were also some INCREDIBLE fan efforts, from the dozens upon dozens of brilliant costumes to a massive replica of the Alexei Leonov - the main ship from 2010. This was done by Robert LePine and it was crazy-good!
Enjoy these photos from the show -- and make sure you check out the Hal-Con site for more. And if you are looking for an excuse to travel to Canada's Ocean Playground -- this is a good one.I'll post some more on this soon, with a few links to some new talents I met who I hope you might be interested in.
Toronto Launch Party!
As we prepare to head out to New York later this week for our gallery show and a couple signings, we are also prepping for the launch of the trade paperback here in our hometown of Toronto. To celebrate everything that we've been able to accomplish, and to thank all of those that have assisted us along the way, we'd like to throw a party here in Toronto!The Toronto launch party for Kill Shakespeare Volume 1: A Sea of Troubles will be on the evening of Tuesday, November 16th from 6-10pm at 918 Bathurst Centre. An old Buddhist temple, it has now been converted to an arts and media centre, run by some old friends of mine, Sean Lehane and Jeff Wright.
(Click on the photo for a closer look at the invitation.)Details for the event are TBA but it will involve a gallery of the original art work from the series, food, beverages, books available for sale and a great theatrical event - we're going to host a Shakespearean Tournament of Champions which will have all of the Bard's greatest characters battling each other - and the audience will play a role in deciding who fights! More information on this will come in the next week or so but this should be a great event.So all friends, Romans and countrymen in the Toronto area are invited to attend and celebrate all of our success thus far - and more to come!
SEE THE VICTORY!
Its finally up!You can now watch Conor and Anthony's award winning Pitch This! presentation. This is what won us the big, fake, novelty cheque!Also, there are several other great pitches on the video, especially The Fringe, Brobots and 50 Proof (which I found really funny, but maybe I was in the minority).So click here to watch the whole thing. Or jump straight ahead to the 32 minute mark to see us do our stuff (use the full screen version, because the pop-up window isn't cropped too well).They also had to edit out a bit where our video didn't run (which is too bad because we had a couple of good awkward one-liners as we waited in growing horror).Anyway tell us what you think, and tell us which PITCH you would have voted for -- aside from us of course...
We few, we lucky few...
Happy St. Crispin's Day to everyone! The scene of a great battle which led to one of the best speeches ever created - by Mr. Shakespeare of course.And, of course, Mr. Branagh's take on the speech...
Kill Shakespeare invades Hal-Con!
Make your Halloween EXTRA spooky by seeing Kill Shakespeare co-creator Conor McCreery in the flesh in Halifax.While Andy and Anthony dazzle'em in Guelph at The Dragon, Conor will be at The Lord Nelson Hotel (1515 South Park Street, Halifax, NS) as part of the Halifax Comic-Con, Canada's largest comics convention East of MontrealConor will be at the show all three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). On Saturday he will host two panels in the Regency Ballroom at 9:00 and 11:30 AM and a special Q&A singing at 3:45 PM in the Georgian Lounge.Conor will also be available throughout Sunday for signings in the Lounge.We hope to see all the East Coast Prodigals out in force!
Empire State of Mind this weekend!
Conor, Andy and I will be attending the New York Comic-Con this upcoming weekend to do some signings and check out some cool new stuff in the comic and pop culture world. It'll be great to be there again - it was at least year's event (in February, 2009) that Conor and I first pitched Kill Shakespeare to a number of publishers, IDW included. I still remember the grins on the faces of Greg Goldstein and Chris Ryall as we pitched them the idea, as they immediately grasped the potential of the series.If you're in the New York area please come out and visit us - we'd love to meet you!
TIGHTS ALERT! TIGHTS ALERT!
Alright, this is a TOTAL look "behind the curtain", but here is a sneak peek at the Cover for issue #8.
The only reason I put this out there is because HAMLET IS WEARING TIGHTS! This breaks EVERY rule Anthony has set down. I have it on good authority thast Anthony and his "anti-tight" squad of loose pants wearing Ninjas are going to stage a dawn raid at Casa Mcleod and force Hamlet into a pair of breeches and boots. But I wanted you, the loving Kill Shakespeare public to have a chance to see this rare occurance.(oh, and this may be the only time you see those cool pennants and spears in the background in the clouds. Do you like'em? Should they stay? Let us know!)UPDATE: Uh, yeah well sure you can't actually SEE the pennants ans spears because this is just a thumbnail, but if you COULD would you want them to stay or go, you know, conceptually speaking...