TEENAGE SATAN!
We're very fortunate to know the talented and lovely Marsha Cooke - one of our favourite people in the world of comics. Well, Marsha has given us ANOTHER reason to worship at her temple of awesomeness as she, Stephanie Buscema and Candis Cooke have come together to create the awesome looking Teenage Satan!Check out the trailer below (and because Marsha is so bad-ass, she challenged mighty Warner by using Martin Solveig's "Hello" as this clip's original score. But after 17,000 views they made her pull it down. I get it, but BEWARE Warner - Teenage Satan has you on a list!)I'm also a little jealous that Marsha already has an entire suite of often web-games ready to go... just reminds me we really need get ourselves in gear on that front).Enjoy!
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
The comic cover contest imbroligio
First of all let me apologize, and take responsibility, for the ill-will being felt here. I was the one who set up the contest and I was the one who screwed up.I need to make a mea culpa as we had two posts on our site that said opposite things. As several of you have pointed out in the original post we did say the comic cover contest would be "decided by the vote of the fans".In the post that accompanied the announcement of the five finalists (BEFORE VOTING OPENED) the language was changed to: "and we want you, the fan, to HELP us choose who gets the coveted win."I get why you guys and gals are pissed - if you vote for something and feel your vote doesn't matter then "why on earth did these a$$wipes hold a vote?"It didn't occur to me (and I wish it had) to set up a SEPARATE POST to make sure people saw the contest rules had changed BEFORE VOTING OPENED. At least then you could have chosen not to vote if you felt the voting system was unfair.So again, I made a mistake, and I want to apologize.Now I want to explain WHY the change was made - it was for two reasons:1) Because our social marketing advisor told us that, sadly, FB and Twitter contests are often "gamed". Instead of the contest being decided by a group of critical feedback it becomes about spamming, bots or other tactics.This held a lot of weight with us because we feel we LOST a contest like this (to get tens of thousands in financing from a Canadian entrepreneurship foundation) after a rival's vote totals soared by a couple of thousand in just a minute or so. Clearly bots were involved and while the award was given, the organizers had told us they were going to be scrapping the format.Now, I'm not saying that is what happened here, I think we had a fair contest, I don't think we saw any bots being used or anything like that -- but we were worried we might.2) The SECOND reason was more business concerned. Our publisher wanted a say in what went on the front of the cover. They didn't make the final decision, but they wanted to have their input.I realize had I made sure this was explained earlier none of this would have happened. So, again, my apologies.We did make sure that the vote was weighted towards the votes (and in fact the two covers that had the most support finished 1-2). As I mentioned on FB once I saw this huge gap between two of the covers and the remaining three I asked IDW if we could perhaps do TWO alternate covers and declare the contest a tie. But, because retailers had already made their orders on a two-cover issue IDW said no.I do want to remind everyone that ALL the work will be published in issue #11. I have also contacted our runner-up, Allyssa Pirone, about a future cover or pin-up when the second series is launched.Again, I want to apologize if this contest left fans of Kill Shakespeare and Allyssa feeling disempowered and/or lied to.Conor(And just to show that this wasn't a "What the creators say, went" decision - I organized the contest and the cover I voted for finished a distant third.)
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").
Second printing!
We have been contacted by a number of retail stores (comic book stores, independent book stores, specialty theatre shops, etc.) over the last two months, telling us that they are out of stock of our graphic novel and would like to re-order copies for customers that have been looking to buy copies. Their orders were delayed and put on back-order.No more!We have just discovered that IDW has done a second printing our graphic novel and these should be ready to be shipped this week! So wait no more - additional copies are on their way!
And yes, this means that sales for the book are going quite well. Thanks to all of the retailers and buyers who have been patient and we look forward to you getting more copies.
Lovable Badass - Ian Herring!
Many of you probably have no idea that on the Kill Shakespeare team there are several passionate basketball fans (though we're die-often being Raps fans). Perhaps the most passionate is our colourist Ian Herring.Ian is an exceptional artist in his own right (fans have seen his work in the bonus gallery of the trade paperback -- his is the awesome King Richard/Hamlet mash-up), and he was recently invited to be part of a phenomenal event organized by another Kill Shakespeare friend, Steve Manale.The event, "Lovable Badass, Artists on Artest" was a multi-media ode to Ron Artest one of the most unusual and candid athletes of our generation.
Ian's piece looks into the future; showing Artest relaxing during his post-playing days and eating his favourite cereal (Froot Loops). Apparently Ron-Ron is interested in buying Ian's work -- so huge kudos to one of the oft under-appreciated members of Kill Shakespeare.We love ya Ian!POSTSCRIPT: The event was a huge success -- you can read one of the MANY pieces of coverage here. And to me, what was even more interesting is that many of the artists who took place had no idea who Ron Artest was before they were invited to join the project.But "Tru Warrier" is such an interesting figure that after a few minutes of Googling him everybody wanted in. So, for those of you who are saying "Ron, who?" look him up, he's fascinating. OR for a primer check out Manale's work here. (it's the last of 23 photos from the event, so scroll left to see the rest).And the sharp eyed readers will notice another member of the Kill Shakespeare team featured in one of those links. I offer as a bounty a signed copy of #8 for the first person who tells us who it is, and what they made for the exhibition!Keep taking those open jumpers everyone!
Sneek Peak at some art from Issue #8
With issue #8 now less than a week away we thought some of you might like to see a little snippet of what is in store.So without further ado a quick look "behind the curtain" of what is in store for you in Issue #8!
So first we'll give you a little look at how the process for issue #8 unfolded.On the left we have the pencils for the first page of the issue. You can see here that Andy will add more shading to some elements of the page right from the get go.On the right we have the inks. Here you can see how a lot of what is penciled ends up actually being shadows (the group of refugees at the back of the panel).And then below... we see what it looks like in all of its coloured and inked glory!
On Page 5 we were in the middle of something very different. We wanted to juxtapose Othello's past with Iago with his current relationship. We also wanted to set the stage for Othello to do some soul-searching about his erstwhile commrade-at-arms as well as his own role in the death of his love Desdemona.But Anthony really wanted to avoid using any dialogue in the flashbacks? So how could we make what was happening clear?It took canny panel design by Andy to make the past scenes "pop" subtly (after issue #7 we wanted to tone down some of the visual work - to give this issue its own identity), and GREAT colour design by Andy and our colourist Ian Herring (who rarely gets enough credit for his work in the book).You can judge for yourself how well we did. Even without text you can tell which story is which (present and past) and what is happening in each story as well. A really masterful job is done by our art team and we are lucky to have them. The neat thing is while this is a variation of a theme (we did a similar flashback in issue #1 and again in issue #7) this manages to be wholly its own animal. This allows each issue to really have its own personality.
Dear University Students: forget studying -- curl up with a good graphic novel
A couple of weeks ago Anthony and I were interviewed by The Cord, our Alma mater's student newspaper. It was a great chat and we were able to speak to how much our education at Wilfrid Laurier University served us in this project.Well, now we have gone viral in the student world as the Canadian University Press (the only student press co-op on the continent) has picked up the story.
So to all of you students busily studying in your dorm-rooms, or perhaps preparing for an "ironic" toga-party (as if - we all know that all toga parties are free of irony), we hope you take a minute or two to enjoy something with REAL educational value.And hey, maybe your English prof will dig it too...
KilL Shakespeare Love Match?
Well it seems like we had a possible love match at the Kill Shakespeare launch the other night.Now this is NOT meant to embarrass anyone but meant to maybe connect two people who would like to be connected.The following as appeared on Craigslist "Missed Connections" page.It's from a Man to a woman. The guy is 31.I saw you at the Kill Shakespeare Comicbook signing from across the room last night, we locked eyes quite a few times and smiled - yet neither of uswanted to say hello. We were with our own friends.You're tall, asian, with a beautiful smile. Write me if you read this! I'd love to meet you.The link to the ad is here.Hopefully this is the start of something beautiful!
WE'RE NEW YORK TIMES-WORTHY!
We received a VERY pleasant surprise in our Google Alerts folder the other day, a notice that the New York Times had mentioned the series.
"Hmm," we thought. "Perhaps some intrepid reporter has found out about the series and tossed us in a larger story about the Bard and his relevance in today's society. Maybe someone in NYC is mounting an 'edgy' staging' of one of Shakey's plays?"But no, it was even better than that -- we're a NEW YORK FREAKIN' TIMES GIFT GUIDE recommendation.Click here to see what has us all hot and bothered... and again thanks to all of our supporters for buying the comics and now the trades which have given us the legitimacy to get people like the Times interested!
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!
The Art of Kill Shakespeare in New York!
Officially announced today via press releases is our art show in New York beginning just over a week from today. Running from November 5th - 9th at Chair and the Maiden in New York is The Art of Kill Shakespeare, an exhibition of the work by Andy Belanger and Kagan McLeod for our series.
You can read the press release here.This gallery showing is the hub for our book launch efforts in two weeks' time and we will be having a reception on Friday the 5th and then again on Tuesday the 9th. The latter will actually feature copies of the book available for sale.Andy has been doing such a fantastic job on this series and we're proud to see him receive this, his first gallery showing. He's quite excited about the venture and anyone that takes a look at the art work will really be impressed.Chair and the Maiden is a great new gallery on New York's trendy Christopher Street. Run by John D'Abu and David Zelikovsky, it has featured a wide range of shows and is currently finishing off a run by Shari Belafonte. They also run the great organization Fund Art Now, which is a foundation created to promote global discourse on important issues through art. I highly recommend you check out the organization by clicking the image below.We've thoroughly enjoyed working with them thus far and look forward to the show! More details will be announced in the next week or so leading up to the event!
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...
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!
Kill Shakespeare fan art!
The supremely talented Jibola Fagbamiye is a Nigerian-Canadian artist who blends traditional art from his childhood in Africa with iconic hip-hop and 70's soul images.He also loves comics and, fortunately for us, is a Kill Shakespeare fan. So that led Jibola to whip up the AMAZING fan art that you can see below.
For more of his work, and a chance to find out about his next Toronto shows swing by his web-site.Thanks Jibola, we here at Kill Shakespeare salute you (and will soon be fighting it out for the right to hang this on our walls!).We always love seeing fan art, so please send it off to us at lendmeyourears@killshakespeare.com
Going comic shopping in Van-City
The Kill Shakespeare team had a chance to hit the left coast recently and while the trip had us talking to mobile-ap developers, catching films at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and of course eating at White Spot, we also found time to meet some of the local comics merchants and talk to them about Kill Shakespeare.
First, we stopped off at Gotham Collectibles (2676 W 4th Ave - love those evil Cats!) in the ever trendier Kitsilano neighbourhood. Gotham is run by the "she-looks-way-too-young-to-be-running-her-own-business-Monique".Monique is passionate about bringing more women and girls into comics and has big plans to support Kill Shakespeare when the trade debuts on November 9th.Gotham is a small store but jam packed with comics, toys, collectibles, general goth-y fun and my (Conor's) favourite BEARBRICKS!For those of you who don't know these tiny little Japanese toys are designed by some of the top graf artists in the world and also include cute little bears based on some of the horror worlds most notorious characters. So I decided to pick up one that looked like Gizmo from Gremlins.
Gotham is a new store, but with the passionate staff there and the tons and tons of cool stuff you can tell its going to be a great place to buy your favourite stuff.So if you live in Vancouver make sure you head down to this gem and get to know Monique and support her store.
Then I headed over to downtown Vancouver to check out one of the classic Vancouver shops for comics, Golden Age Collectibles (852 Granville Ave). Golden Age is right in the heart of the theatre district, we actually checked out the store while we were waiting to see an Italian film at VIFF.Golden Age is a big, two-level store that is filled to the brim with comics, graphic novels and indie titles from across B.C. and the country.I chatted with Misty and Hank who both told me they were looking forward to checking out Kill Shakespeare when it becomes a trade and said that they have several customers who have the title as part of their pull list.
For those of you who like an open, airy, clean comics shopping experience then Golden Age is going to be your new favourite shop (if it isn't already). And Hank and Misty really know their stuff so they'll be able to find you your next favourite title - so don't be afraid to ask.
As you can see they also pay proper homage to my fave Canadian comic (aside from perhaps Essex County) with a gigantic Scott Pilgrim mural, so they already had my attention when I walked in the door.So there you have it, two totally different, but equally awesome comic shops that you need to search out if you live in Vancouver or if you are a comics fan who finds yourself visting this world class city.And if you haven't been to Vancouver you really want to get out there - between the mountains, the ocean and the amazing night life you can't do much better.