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!
The newest member of the Kill Shakespeare team
One of the things that I love to do when watching a film created by Pixar (Toy Story 3, Up!, Ratatouille) is to watch the entire closing credits. Pixar creates such a cool, friendly environment for everyone to work in and this extends to the actual credits of each film. They list every member of the team - from the director to the programmers to the janitors and secretaries. What they also do is list the names of any babies that have been born to members of the team during the course of production for each film.So in that vein, I'd like to introduce the latest member of the Kill Shakespeare team... Lucie Elspeth Carmen Fleming!
Lucie's parents, Sharon and Ted Fleming (aka "Shed") are key members of our financial team and good friends. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon yesterday with them - and Lucie - and she is so cute and adorable!Welcome to the Kill Shakespeare team, Lucie!
He even makes mysterious phone calls to radio call-in shows...
Earlier this week we profiled our Canadian PR firm, MDG & Associates. Today we'd like to focus on the people that make us look good Stateside, Smith Publicity, led by Dan Smith. We were recommended to Smith PR by Debby de Groot at MDG and we've been working well with them since April.Lonnie McCullough, our publicist at the company, has been a Godsend for us thus far. He netted perhaps our biggest media coup - an interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation - in mid-May. This hit has led to a huge increase in awareness for our project. We also joked that, as an actor, he disguised his voice and pretended to be people from various parts of the country during the interview to ask us the challenging questions...Lonnie is now focused on our November release and contacting major mainstream press. He's great a pushing different angles - playing up the literary nature, the sex angle, the business side. We've set aside some big targets for him for this fall and we think he'll be able to hit them all - and then some!
One of our core strategies from the outset has been a major focus on publicity and with people like Smith Publicity, as well as MDG & Associates, we've been able to gather a lot of steam and sell our our first two issues!
(And if you ever talk to Dan, ask him about the tailoring of his pants...)
Introducing Kinson...
This past weekend at TCAF we met a number of aspiring artists. One of the most talented was a young man by the name of Kinson, who stopped by the booth to check out Kill Shakespeare, which he had heard about. I turned the tables on him and rather than having Andy put together a sketch for him, he did a sketch for us. Notice his manga sensibility. Please find it below.
Celebrate Free Comic Book Day by Killing Shakespeare...
After two really successful signings in the last two weeks we go for the Triple Crown with a signing this upcoming Saturday at Toronto's Silver Snail comic book shop (367 Queen Street West). The idea of turning Kill Shakespeare into a comic book was spawned at this store, as it was while Conor was there that we came up with the idea of making the story a comic book. It is thus a grand circle by returning there for a signing.From what we understand Kill Shakespeare #1 is actually sold out at the Silver Snail but copies will be made available that day so show up between the hours of 1-5 to meet with myself, Conor, Andy and perhaps even Kagan!
All hail Andy B!
There is some glorious news on the Kill Shakespeare front. Artist Andy Belanger (Andy B. to his friends and enemies) has been nominated for a Joe Shuster Award.For those of you who are unaware the Shuster awards are the top level of recognition for Canadian comic talent. Andy is in the running for "Best Webcomic" for his incredible strips "Bottle of Awesome" and "Raising Hell".We also want to give a shout out to K.S. friends Cameron Stewart (up for "Best Artist"), Francis Manapul (also "Best Artist"), Ty Templeton (nominated as "Best Writer") and Karl Kerschel ("Best Webcomic").The Shuster awards are given out June 5th in Toronto. Next year we'll be there to grab a few of our own!
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bard?
We were contacted by Jeff Renaud from ComicBookResources.com a couple weeks ago. Jeff had found out about K.S. through this month's Preview magazine and wanted to do an article about us. You can find the article here.
It's a pretty good interview - Conor and I had fun answering the questions. Some highlights:
"Hailed as an epic adventure that pits Shakespeare's greatest heroes against his most frightening villains, what's not to love about IDW's upcoming new series "Kill Shakespeare?"
"C: It's weird, we see Shakespeare as high culture now but he's the ultimate James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. I think it's because we tend to get a bit lost in the "beautiful" language."
"A: We've been very careful to be true and respectful to not only Hamlet's character but also each of the Shakespeare characters that we incorporate into our story. This is the foundation that we use to grow each character. What we have done differently is altered the direct path that led them to this moment. For instance, in our story Juliet survived her ordeal with Romeo - he died - and has been living the last half-dozen years with the anguish from that moment and has grown into a stronger young woman and leader."
"C: Well, you will see Puck. I'll give that one away for free. But he's not necessarily a "good fellow." Sorry, I couldn't resist. As for introducing other characters, well, everyone in the comic has a Shakespearean origin, so you'll see a lot of names you might recognize."
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