Our newest fan: Stephen Holt!
Two weeks ago at the Pitch This! event at the Toronto Film Festival we met Stephen Holt, a New York journalist and television host who saw our pitch and ran up to us afterwards, raving about the idea and insisting that we would win. Well, Stephen was right and we did indeed win! And we sat down for an interview with him the next day (after bumping into him again at a screening of Black Swan) and chatting about our project, the Oscars, film, and life in general.(On a side note, Stephen is a writer on AwardsDaily.com, which is a site that I frequent a number of times a day between Sept 1st - Oscar night, giving me the inside goods on the Oscar campaigns and races. When I found out that Stephen worked on the site I was blown away!)Stephen has just posted a great article about us on his blog (you can access it by clicking on the photo of us below) and will shortly be posting a video interview with us as well.
Our supporting players: CYBF
Earlier today I did a video session for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, a great organization that supported us early with funding and mentorship. They wanted to film me talking about mentorship and how the CYBF has helped us out. Our mentor, Josh Howard, unfortunately was unable to join us but I talked about how he helped us out early on and how Sarah Hashem, our liaison, has also been an indispensable source of assistance.Below is a photo of Sarah Hashem, before I forced her to teach me salsa...
Conor Speaks at Word on the Street
On Sunday Conor sat on the panel about digital publishing at the Word on the Street panel. Entitled "The Big Issue: Magazines and Comic Books in the Digital Age", it was a lively discussion about the future of journalism, short stories and comic books moving forward. Moderated by Stuart Woods of Quill & Quire Magazine (Canada's top book review and news journal), it featured the editors of online publications TorontoLife.com and Joyland.The most interesting topic/question? Fonts.Thanks to everyone from Word on the Street as well as Sarah from MDG & Associates who made this happen (by 'pulling some strings'...).
The Shakespearean Social Network
I was reading another rave review of The Social Network, this time on HollywoodReporter.com. The film is garnering fantastic reviews and I'd like to state that it's one of the best film marketing campaigns I've seen. Everything - from the haunting trailer to the posters.. Great work.The Hollywood Reporter uses this expression: "The Social Network has as its protagonist a character drawn in a Shakespearean mode, a high-achieving individual who carries within him the seeds of his own destruction." A great description and so I sat down last night for a couple minutes and put together this mock-up poster, using our own Shakespearean character (Hamlet) as a subject...
I hope you like it...
Word!
Your fave Bardolaters are taking it to the mean streets of Toronto this weekend.Swing by The Word on the Street Festival on Sunday at 2:00 PM to check out Conor as a panelist on the Digital Drive stage. He'll be chatting with other "literature luminaries" about the future of books, magazines and comics in this the digital age.Plus, his photo on their webpage makes him look so darn professional - like a burly, red-headed Perry Mason!And for more info on the festival a link to the great blog post from which the image above was "borrowed".(Like how I wrote this whole thing in the third person as if you couldn't see I was the one responsible for the post?)
Behind the Scenes of our CTV News Interview (with link!)
Our first live television spot! Conor and I today made an appearance on CTV News Channel in Canada, interviewed by Jacqueline Milczarek about our experiences at the Telefilm Canada Pitch This! event and the success of our comic book series. It was the first time we've done an interview in a separate room (I wasn't sure where to look half the time - at the camera? At Conor? Somewhere else?). UPDATE!!! You can check out the video clip here!!!We're trying to find a direct link to the interview or to get the video to put on the site - we'll do so as soon as we can.In the meantime, check out these two behind-the-scenes photos taken from today...
"I just purchased my second comic book in over 25 years..."
We were contacted a week ago by Nathaniel "Q" Quintana, who hosts the show Entertainment for the Rest of Us, which I appeared on recently. It's a radio show that looks at all forms of entertainment - films, television, music, theatre, etc - without the pretension of many other shows. I had a blast on the show back in August and look forward to appearing again.
We received the following email from Nathaniel (or "Q", as he likes to be called), which really made Conor and I smile. It's notes like these that make us really happy that we're doing what we're doing. There are so many difficult spots on the journey that to receive something like this is fantastic. Q's email reads:***Anthony, I just purchased my second comic book in over 25 years. I picked up issue #5 for Kill Shakespeare yesterday and read it right away as soon as I got home. I am really enjoying what you and Conor are doing. It is a wonderful book and I'm hooked. I can't wait to see the film once you guys produce it. On a side note I also purchased my 3rd comic book ever last night. Based on our conversation during the show. You talked a lot about Y The Last Man. So while the Mrs. and I were out last night we went to Borders just to look around, I wanted to pick up book 1 of Walking Dead, but they were out. So I picked up Y and started reading it. When it was time to go I told the wife I have to buy this book, so we did. I just finished it this morning and I am headed back to buy more. Thank you so much for reintroducing me to the world of comics and graphic novels. The work that you, Conor and Andy are doing has brought me back to a place of joy. I forgot how much I enjoyed the art form and the visual story telling of comic. I am not sure I would have found this joy, if it wasn't for you reaching out to us to help promote your fantastic work. Thank you! Ciao,'Q'aka - Nathaniel J. QuintanaCo-hostEntertainment for the Rest of Us
How does one cash a novelty cheque?...
A number of people have been asking us about the novelty cheque that we received at the Pitch This! contest two days ago... Were we able to keep it?... How does one bring it home?... Can we cash it?... The answers are:1. Yes, we were able to keep the novelty cheque. When I won back in '06 for Outsourced, I turned around and the cheque was gone. So I made a point this year to ensure that the cheque remained right by us the entire time.2. Conor and I fought over who could bring it home (see photo below) and Conor, being Irish, fought dirty and was able to beat me in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors... So he took it home on his bike. Yes, his bike. See photo further below. He apparently was almost killed (he forgot to account for the wind resistance) and also passed some people on the street that were, at that exact moment, declaring that they had seen a lot of crazy things in the city (but this topped them all)...
"Shakespearean action flick wins Pitch This!"
Today was a HUGE day for Kill Shakespeare. Conor and I competed in the Telefilm Canada Pitch This! contest, taking place as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. We were one of six finalists selected to pitch a film project... and WE WON!!!
You can read a great article about us in CBC by clicking on the above photo.
This is a huge vote of confidence in our project and means that we are on the right track in looking to expand the project beyond the comic book medium.We'd like to commend the other team pitching their projects. Though we did not have an opportunity to see their full pitches we've heard good things about them.We'd like to thank Telefilm Canada for supporting this contest - it's a great one. The contest has been running for eleven years now and I've watched about seven of them (including four as a contestant - winner in '06!) and it's a great event. We'd also like to thank Erin Rypstra and Shant Srabian from the TIFF Industry Centre, who oversaw the competition. It was a first-class event and they should be commended. And thanks to the jury, who saw this as a project to be supported. We are doing our most to make this happen and become a very successful alumni of the competition.
Issue #5 - ComicBookResources Review
We haven't been reviewed by CBR since our first issue (one of our negative reviews) so it's great to see that they've covered Issue #5 and given it a very good review! The highlight quote:"Belanger’s art propels the tale into greater territory as he deftly flips between talking heads
, gruesome battle scenes, spectral visitors, and men in frocks. It feels like Belanger never offers us the same page layout. I appreciate his fresh variety of delivery. It keeps the pages of the book dynamic and the story feeling just that bit edgier than old Shakespeare has the right to feel."
Clips from The Lang & O'Leary Exchange
Thanks to everyone who reached out to us since our appearance last night on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. Not only did my family and friends check out the program but I also heard from long-lost acquaintances - it's great that so many people took the time to reach out to us!
I'm trying to see if I can get a copy of the video directly but in the meantime you should (I haven't verified this yet...) be able to check out the video here (our segment starts at around the 47:00 marker). Hopefully we'll be able to find the code to imbed it directly onto our site as well.
Compared to Sondheim...
Conor and I met with the very talented artist J-Bone to discuss something special (details to be announced in the future) and in the midst of our discussion the topic of composer Stephen Sondheim came up. We debated the merit of his work with one person being a huge fan of his, while another appreciating his body of work but noting some of his faults.
Within the next few hours our first review of Kill Shakespeare #5 was released and what are we compared to? Stephen Sondheim, of course (the exact quote is, "As Sondheim did with the Brothers Grimm when producing the musical Into The Woods, McCreery and Del Col mine and weave the various works of Shakespeare into this ambitious story.")! In his musical Into the Woods, Sonheim mashed up a number of fairy tales to form a new story, which is similar to Kill Shakespeare.The review, by Jason Rosas of BuzzFocus.com, was a very positive one, and can be found by clicking on the image of Sondheim.
Issue 5 Preview Pages
With the release of Issue #5 this week we wanted to reveal a number of the pages found in this issue. Although Andy B's artwork for the series has been very, very strong he really hits some high notes with this issue - as you can see below. We had a four page scene in which Hamlet faces ghosts of his past that we gave him carte blanche on - and he delivered in spades! Ian Herring's colouring work is also quite strong in this issue - and versatile. He goes from moonlit moments to fireside talks to the inside of a traveling cart.The images are below.
STICK FIGURE HAMLET
Yes, this site has the ENTIRE tragedy drawn entirely in stick figures.Now we ask, can you really have ANY more fun with the Bard than a stick-ginger Hamlet? (yes, correct the answer WAS Kill Shakespeare, but this is a close second).ENJOY!
Chatting with the boys.
Us, do media? No....Ok, yes... we sat down with the lovely Andrew Ardizzi at FanExpo in Toronto last weekend. Andrew is a general all-around renaissance man and both a senior reporter at Humber college as well as a reporter for COMIC BOOK DAILY!So it was our good fortune to get to sit down with him and chat about FanExpo, drawing horses, and Kill Shakespeare.Listen here! (Yep, that's an order...)
WHAT? Another shameless plug for a talented guy we know?
As you know, we here at the Kill Shakespeare team are shameless self-promoters, but as you are hopefully starting to learn we are also working at shamelessly promoting other SUPER-DUPER talented people that we get to meet in this wonderful world of comics.
Enter Nimit Malavia. A good friend of our cover artist Kagan Mcleod, and in some ways a kindrid creative spirit.
Nimit is one of the most talented illustrators we have had the privielege of meeting and he's also an A-1 guy. I mean, who else would take oodles of photos of US (although, lets face it, we are pretty handsome).
You've seen a few examples of his work in the post but to get more check out his website here or his flicker account here.And next show you're at make sure you stop by and see him, say the Kill Shakespeare boys say "hello". It probably won't get you a discount on that print of his you love, but hey, it can't hurt...
Visiting a Dragon...
Conor and I have been schedule to appear on CBC News Network's "The Lang and O'Leary Exchange" this upcoming Tuesday, September 7th. We will be discussing Kill Shakespeare in their "back to school" programming for the week. The airtime is 7pm EST.
For those that don't know, Kevin O'Leary is famous for his role on the CBC series Dragon's Den and ABC's version The Shark Tank, in which business people pitch their ideas and look for start-up capital. O'Leary is always the most difficult and blunt one but always entertaining - it's always about the bottom line for him, which I can appreciate. Amanda Lang is a veteran of Business News Network here in Canada and one of the smartest business commentators in the country. It'll be very interesting to see what we talk about on the show.Check us out!
Issue #5 - Page 1 process
A week prior to the release of Issue #5, attached is the process behind the creation of Page #1 of the issue. One day soon we will tape Andy as he goes through the thumbnail process (where he designs the pages) - the process is hilarious as he describes the action to us while reviewing.
KILL SHAKESPEARE GETS SOME LOVE ON "NATIONAL READ A COMIC IN PUBLIC DAY"
We here on the Kill Shakespeare team are big fans of comics. Not just the super-hero books (tho' we love those too) but the notion that there is a comic for EVERYONE .And one of the ways to show that to people is to read comics -- in public.
I know, I know -- its a scary idea. And, I''ll admit that occasionally the Wednesday books stay in my bag on the TTC in favour of the latest issue of WIRED or a "proper" book -- but the time has come to stand up and unite.Or rather, unknown to me until the day OF, the time ALREADY came.Yes it was National Read A Comic In Public Day on August 28th, and by all accounts it was a screaming success. Some very cool people we have met before in San Francisco were part of the event, and it was spearheaded by Brian Hibbs the accomplished author of Tilting at Windmills (one of the best collections of comic-related essays ever) and owner of the very excellent Comix Experience.So a tip of the hat to Brian, and to everyone AROUND THE GLOBE who went out and read a comic in public, and hopefully inspired someone new to try out this awesome medium of ours.
What should the caption be?
This is one of the funniest photos I've ever taken... I hope that you agree. But we're having problems - we'd like to come up with the best caption possible. We are now holding a Caption Contest - submit your ideas for the caption for this photo and you can win an autographed copy of Issue #5 (to be released Sept 8th)!
