MASTER Media Links
PRESS:"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bard?" - Comic Book Resources, February 8th, 2010."A Comic Treatment for the Bard" - The Irish Times, January 6th, 2010."Why Are Two Canadians Out To Kill Shakespeare?" - Publishers Weekly, July 28th, 2009BLOGS:"Speculator's Corner - What's Hot to Trot" - Bleedingcool.com"New Comic Series - Kill Shakespeare" - The Shakespeare Post."Kill Shakespeare" - Lodestar Theatre Company."Kill Shakespeare: A Comic Jab and Literary Punch" - OneMetal.com"Kill Shakespeare: A Comic Jab and Literary Punch" - What Is Techno Again?"Kill Shakespeare in 2010" - Sequential: Canada's comix news and culture."Preview: Kill Shakespeare" - Bleeding Cool"Kill Shakespeare" - All Things All Things"Kill Bill: Willy D. Shakes to Get Graphic Novel Treatment with a Twist!" - EN/SANE"Kill Shakespeare" - Superpouvoir (for all our French fans)"What's New" - Graphic Novel Reporter (we're about half-way down)
We're not only a good read, we might make you some ducats!
Bleedingcool.com tells everyone that "Kill Shakespeare" #1 is more than just an "unfailable" concept, it also might be a great book to buy if you're hoping for a title that will increase in value as it sits in its mylar jacket.
A very nice vote of confidence if we do say so ourselves (and we do....)
Read all about our "speculative value" here.
Issue #1, Page 2 - From Thumbnails to Final Colours
Many people that we speak to are fascinated by the artistic process behind the creation of a comic book. As we move forward we'd like to shed some light into said process for everyone, using our first issue as an example.
Step 1: The Thumbnails
After reading through the script, artist Andy Belanger interprets the story and roughly sketches out what the panels will look like and what will happen. This is very rough and mainly focuses on the action and the placement of the characters and any lettering/word bubbles.
Step 2: The Penciling and Inking
Andy will then pencil the panels in detail, focusing on the characters and backgrounds. For this particular series Andy is placing a great deal of emphasis upon the backgrounds for each panel, as evidenced on this page. He then goes through the page and inks it - places the shadows, emphasis on the lines, etc.
Step 3: The Colouring
Our colourist Ian Herring now takes over and takes a scanned copy of the penciled and inked page and, using Adobe Photoshop, adds colour to the page.
All in, this is a very labor-intensive process. As you can see with these results, though, it's well worth it!
Shakespeare is alive - and emailing
Earlier this morning comic book retailers in North America received an email from an individual they long thought dead... William Shakespeare.
In promoting Kill Shakespeare we have come up with some pretty cool ideas and hooks and we figured that rather than sending out a boring, bland email letting retailers know about our title that we would make it a bit more interesting. Hell, if I received an email from William Shakespeare it would make me interested in opening it up.
Thus far we've had some pretty good feedback. Thanks to our web wizard Michael Ball for Initiate Marketing for helping us put this email together.
All the world's a stage...
Oh, the things you'll do to get people excited about your story...
Earlier this week Conor and I were sitting down with an individual interested in helping us out with promoting our comic book series. We did the meet-and-greet and then he offhandedly joked about the fact that he thought we would perform some of the book for him. Conor and I looked at one-another, unsure of what to do. So we did what any two budding showmen would do...
We acted out the first issue for him...
I quickly jumped onto the ground, pretending to be Hamlet washed up on the beach, while Conor became a bird, then a witch, then an emperor, and we promptly led him through the first act of our story. I think that the waitress at the posh hotel bar was thrown off a bit but I believe we won over the crowd. In fact, I believe that Conor should be eligible for a support actor nomination for his performance, especially that of the witches...
And our review the next day? "I didn't think you would actually act out some of the first issue like you did - HYSTERICAL!"
Oh, the things you'll do to sell a comic book...
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."
"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"!...
Going Postal...
The past week has been spent sending out our first wave of marketing materials to comic book retailers. Conor and I mailed out letters to 390 U.S. retail stores last week and are sending out more in the next 24 hours.
Will it work? Well, earlier today we received a great email from Ralph DiBernardo of Jetpack Comics (Rochester, N.H.), who stated, "In an age when everyone thinks email marketing is the way, I applaud you for taking the time to create interesting letterhead & envelope... Thanks again for hitting us old school. It absolutely worked." To hear that made our day - and now we're off to stuff some more envelopes and continue our quest to turn this into a successful comic book series...
The Long Road to Retailers...
This week we are prepping our direct marketing campaign to North American comic book retailers. As a new title with upcoming talent it's crucial to spread the word and we've devised a pretty cool campaign to make as many retailers aware of us and Kill Shakespeare as possible.
Two excellent young interns have started to work with us. Mike Klassen, from Sheridan College, and Charlie Jay (above), from Ryerson, have brought theirs skills and talents to the Kill Shakespeare team. They have been spending the last week or two putting together a great deal of data for us and will be helping us out over the next few months. If you are someone who may have the slightest interest in K.S., you'll probably hear from them sometime/some how...
More details on our campaign as we move forward with it.
Official Previews Ad is Released
The official Previews ad for the first issue of KILL SHAKESPEARE, which is released to comic book retailers throughout North America, has been released this past week. Featuring artwork by Andy Belanger and cover artist Kagan McLeod, the ad displays the two covers available for the first issue as well two pages from the book.
When I first received this artwork I got an immediate call from artist Andy B, telling us how excited he was to see it. Even Conor, who will admit that he often doesn't take the time to celebrate milestones properly, became super-excited about the upcoming release when he first looked at it.
The logo is a temporary one - we've just finished work on a revised version that is exciting everyone in Andy B's studio. The design of the ad was created by the inhouse team at IDW Publishing. Thanks to our editor Tom Waltz and IDW E-I-C Chris Ryall for overseeing this. (And for those that might catch them, I'm not sure who to blame for the punctuation errors... normally I blame Conor but I'm not sure about it this time...)
For those that don't know, Previews is the monthly catalogue/listing of all titles that are available to be stocked. The February issue highlights those that will be released in April.
For retailers, the ad is on Page 263 and the Ordering Code is #FEB10 0959.
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...
OneMetal.com: "A Comic Jab and Literary Punch"
A great mention of KILL SHAKESPEARE by Stephanie Carmichael at OneMetal.com...You can find the article here.
Kill Shakespeare: A Comic Jab and Literary Punch
Prep your best Shakespearian insults, because this April debuts a new IDW Publishing series with a twist on the old Bard. Introducing Kill Shakespeare, a comic from co-creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery and artist Andy B. (Zuda’s “Bottle of Awesome,” DC’s Wildstorm, Devil’s Due).Famous tragic, historical, and comedic characters—such as Hamlet, Juliet, Falstaff, Othello, and Puck—race against villainous counterparts like Richard III, Lady Macbeth, and Iago in their hunt to save (or kill) magician William Shakespeare. Described as “a cross between Fables, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Northlanders,” the comic reimagines Shakespeare’s most notable characters and delivers its weight in action, drama, and blood-drenched violence.For more information and behind-the-scenes updates, visit www.killshakespeare.com … thou jarring malmsey-nosed haggard!
Kill Shakespeare Teaser Trailer
The teaser trailer for KILL SHAKESPEARE, created by Vaughn Joseph at MassiveNuMedia...Enjoy!
"Why Are Two Canadians Out to Kill Shakespeare?"
An article by Calvid Reid at Publisher's Weekly (July 28/09):"If you’re a fan of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Bill Willingham’s Fables, there’s a good chance you’ll be hooked on Kill Shakespeare, a new comics series coming from IDW next year and easily one of the more exciting new projects bouncing around this year’s Comic-con International..."
Read the article here.
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