Kill Shakespeare in San Francisco!
Conor, Andy B and I are heading off to San Francisco tomorrow (Wednesday) to take part in this year's WonderCon. At the show we will be officially launching the series and doing some signings. We are also overseeing a panel discussion on Sunday, with the following information:What Would Shakespeare Do?With both epic and personal tales of adventure, violence, romance, lust, and drama, today's comic book stories bear many similarities to the tales of William Shakespeare. The creators of IDW Publishing's Kill Shakespeare debut their new series and debate—with other creators and academics—how relevant Shakespeare still is in today's comic book world. Would the Bard be rolling over in his grave at the thought of Hamlet rubbing shoulders with Batman and Buffy, or would he be working alongside Stan Lee creating a new flock of "true believers"? Room 220 - 2:30 - 3:30
If you're at WonderCon stop by the IDW booth to chat and find out more about Kill Shakespeare!
Wizard Con Winners!
We attended the Toronto Wizard Comic-Con this past weekend and we were very fortunate to have 20 copies of Kill Shakespeare #1 with us. IDW Publishing had give us a limited number of preview copies to hand out to lucky contest winners over the span of the three days. Every hour or so an announcement would be made and contestants would answer a trivia question revolving around Shakespeare or comics (IDW-centric). Samples questions were:1. Name three Shakespeare characters that start with the letter "H".2. What G.I. Joe character does not speak?3. How many witches are in the play Macbeth? (This seems like an obvious answer but it's not...)4. What Shakespeare character has the most lines in a play that is NOT named after him/her?Photos of some of the winners are below. Thanks to all of the contestants, Wizard, and AnnaMaria from IDW!
Issue 1 - Cover Art
Here is the cover art for Issue #1 (without preview blurbs). Cover A (Kagan McLeod):
Cover B (Andy Belanger):
Retailer Incentive Cover (Kagan McLeod):
Our first radio interview together...
Earlier today Conor and I were interviewed on Toronto's CIUT 89.5FM, talking about Kill Shakespeare as well as the upcoming Toronto Wizard Comic-Con. Take 5, hosted by Dave Peterson, it was a fun twenty minutes of conversation about the Kill Shakespeare concept, the comic book industry in general, anticipated academic reaction to the comic book series, the upcoming Wizard Con, and our panel on Friday afternoon.
Thanks to Dave Peterson, who was a very skilled and polished host (asked us some very good questions that kept the conversation alive). Thanks to Crystal Luxmore, who helped to co-ordinate the interview. And thanks to everyone who listened - my email and Facebook boxes were filled with well-wishes from the interview.It was a great warm-up for future media interviews!
Preview Issue #1 at the Toronto Wizard Comic-Con!
The Kill Shakespeare team will be appearing at the Toronto Wizard Comic-Con from March 26-28th. On Friday, March 26th at 2pm we will be overseeing a panel discussion entitled "The Comic's The Thing?", in which we will discuss comics, Shakespeare, and give a preview of Issue #1.
Conor and I will be sitting on the panel along with artist Andy Belanger, Shakespearean scholar Ted McGee (University of Waterloo) and artist Cameron Stewart. For more information, check out the website here.
Conor at the Silver Snail
Last November we took a stroll by the Silver Snail in downtown Toronto, Canada, to film a clip for our website. In this clip Conor talks about his love of comic books and the influences behind the Kill Shakespeare series.Conor used to work at the Silver Snail a number of years ago and it was during that time that we really began to realize how many great stories are being told in comics. That triggered the idea of putting Kill Shakespeare together as a comic book series... and here are, a few weeks away from the release of the first issue!
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!
Congrats to IDW!
It was officially announced today - our publisher, IDW, has gained "premier" status with Diamond Comic Distributors. As the IDW press release states, they are, "the first company to do so since the system was established in 1996." This will mean increased visibility for the company, better placement in Previews magazine, and an even stronger market share moving forward.
Congrats to everyone at IDW, including - but not limited to - Ted, Greg, Chris, Alan, AnnaMaria, Tom, Marci, Robbie and Jeff. We look forward to becoming one of the flagship brands under this new arrangement!
Retailer Profile: Librairie Astro (Montreal)
One of the retailers that really showed a fantastic level of enthusiasm for Kill Shakespeare has been Librairie Astro in Montreal, Quebec. Ray, one of the great employees there, immediately sent out an email to all of his customers, urging them to pre-order the first issue - and nearly sold out everything with that one email! Who says that Shakespeare isn't well-known in La Belle Province!
Thanks to Ray and everyone at Librairie Astro and we look forward to stopping by the visiting the next time we are in Montreal!
Retailer Profile: Friendly Neighborhood Comics (Bellingham, MA)
As we've been talking to comic book retailers in the last two months we've started to realize how devoted a lot of them are to their customers and the comic art form. We've gotten very positive reaction from a lot of them and look forward to working with them closely over the next year to entertain and excite their customers!
One retailer that stood out was Friendly Neighborhood Comics, based in Bellingham, MA. They were one of the most excited retailers for Kill Shakespeare and owner Ernie sent out an email posting to customers (which helped to spur additional presales of the first issue). Ernie has been putting together some interesting events for customers, including a really fun Ladies Night they use to bring in new audiences (and their big promos for the new Twilight graphic novel should do wonders for that!...).Thanks to Ernie and everyone at Friendly Neighborhood Comics - we look forward to doing whatever we can to help you out!
An interesting sequel to Macbeth
We were contacted recently by author/professor Tania Roxborogh from New Zealand, who had found out about Kill Shakespeare and are looking forward to reading the series when it's released there. Tania has also told us about a book trilogy that she has embarked upon - a follow-up story to Macbeth called Banquo's Son.
The book is described as, "an epic tale of love, loss and revenge set amidst the turmoil of Scotland after Macbeth" and features Banquo's son Fleance returning to his homeland ten years after his father's death. Sounds like something that any fan of Macbeth would love to check out!
You can check out Tania's blog here and read some of the first pages of the book here.
Kudos to Kagan
It was announced this past Thursday that illustrator Kagan McLeod, who is doing the covers for Kill Shakespeare, was an award-winner at the 31st annual Best of Newspaper Design Creative Competition. Kagan has done some great work for Canada's National Post the last few years and this award is a reflection of the great work that he does there.
We will be releasing Kagan's covers for the first two issues shortly, and then Issue #3 after that. Two of the illustrations that brought him the awards are below.
Playoff beards?
Upon entering the studio yesterday I noticed an interesting fact... With the growth of colourist Ian Herring's beard, all of the Kill Shakespeare team except one are now sprouting (playoff) beards...
I'm starting to fell pressure to grow one myself... But... will... resist...
Happy Birthday to colourist Ian
Yesterday (March 5th) was the birthday of our colourist, Ian Herring. It also doubled as the beginning of work on Issue #4 ("So Wise So Young Never Do Live Long") so Conor and I were able to head to the studio and visit them, bring some cupcakes, go over and make any final revisions to Issue #3, and begin the work on Issue #4.
(Please note in the photo above that, with his beard, Ian is trying to channel the look of Kenneth Branagh - and even the way he holds the cupcake is how Sir Kenneth would hold a skull...)Thanks to Ian for all of his work on Kill Shakespeare thus far - we've seen some great colouring work from him thus far and the new issues he's working on are even better!
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...
This should be on the side of a rock band van...
Here is another preview of the process behind Kill Shakespeare. Page 14 of Issue #1 was a fun page for us to watch as it moved from thumbnails to final colours. We left it open for artist Andy Belanger to work his magic and he came back with something pretty psychedelic, colourful - and something that could appear on the side of a Grateful Dead van...
- Comic art doubling as a rock and roll poster?
Kudos to Andy B and Ian Herring for some great work on this page. This page was previewed in a recent article on ComicBookResources.
The Bard is Best
Last Wednesday (February 24th) I was given the opportunity to present a speech to the Toronto University Health Network Toastmasters Club. I served as a 'target speaker' that members evaluated in an Evaluation Contest. What was the topic of my speech? William Shakespeare, of course - and why he should be considered the greatest writer (and entertainer) of all-time.
- Always hoping for Powerpoint slides...
The basis of my argument was this:
1. Shakespeare created the greatest characters of all-time. Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Lady Macbeth, Richard III, Falstaff, etc. Go down the list and even if you haven't seen or read the play, you know the characters. The greatest characters of all-time.
2. Shakespeare created the greatest stories of all-time. Strip away the language and get to the core of his stories. The Bard had everything in his plays – kinetic action and adventure, extremely bloody violence, war, poetry, love, romance, drama, double-crossing, cross-dressing… The greatest stories of all-time.
3. Shakespeare created production that appealed to all audiences. Today he is thought of intellectual and high-brow. Back when he presented his productions they appealed to the royalty in their own private booths and the common folk who would pay a couple ducats to stand in the mud and be entertained. If Shakespeare were alive today he would write not only plays but be a filmmaker, a video game designer, a comic book illustrator and a mobile content developer.
In summary, Shakespeare is not only the greatest writer of all-time, but the greatest entertainer.
The speech went over well and I look forward to the opportunity to present it again sometime soon. Thanks to the members of the UHN Toastmasters for being a great audience and to Peter Shewchenko, a Hall-of-Fame speaker himself to give me the opportunity to persuade another audience of the Bard's powers.
One of our first (and biggest) international fans
Conor and I received a fantastic email earlier this week from Deborah Altenbeck, a current English and Art student from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Deborah had found out about Kill Shakespeare through an online search and wanted to find out more about the project. Deborah is currently working on a paper about the rise of graphic novels and may use Kill Shakespeare as a case study.
More importantly, she has helped us out by referring us to some comic book stores in Germany and is starting to spread the word.
It's these sorts of interactions that make the hours and hours of work and effort worthwhile. Thank you very much for your enthusiasm, Deborah - we love to hear from people like you.
I just called... to say...
Conor, myself and our interns have been hunkered down by their phones (or computers via Skype) the last few days calling as many retailers in North America as possible. Most retailers are placing their orders for April issues in the next week or so and we're calling to introduce ourselves, Kill Shakespeare, and to see if they've received any of our correspondence (emails, letters, etc.).
Thus far the reaction has been quite positive - those that have heard of Kill Shakespeare are quite excited about it. It's been a lot of fun, as well - we've chatted with some really interesting people and gotten great ideas on how we can help them sell more books.
If you are a retailer and are reading this, I hope you've already received a call... If not, please let us know - we'd love to chat with you!