Vote for Kill Shakespeare!
Conor and I have been nominated by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation for their 2010 Chairman's Awards. As a nominee, we are also eligible for their CYBF People's Choice Award. Running from Nov 2 - 19th, we are competing against a number of other Canadian startups that have received funding from CYBF.So what can you do? Well, simply click on the image below and vote for us. Click on our checkbox, then scroll down the finalize the vote.
Vote for us! No attack ads guaranteed!
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!
Babies Love Kill Shakespeare!
It turns out that some of our posts of babies with Kill Shakespeare get some of the biggest hits, so how could I resist putting another one here. I'd like to present little Jude Dowd, aka Elwood P. Isn't he so cute?
How to Train the Dragon!
This past weekend Andy and I made our way to Guelph, Ontario to take part in a signing at The Dragon Comics. It was great to share some space with some great Canadian artists such as Eric Kim, Richard Pace, Ray Fawkes, Ross Campbell and Dale Keown. It was also great to make some new fans and hang out with some friends from the Guelph region.The Dragon is a great comic book store with a great staff - from Jenn (the big boss) to Amy (the manager) to Teresa to Robert to Calum (hereafter referred to as Shia)... We also did separate podcasts (which will be posted online sometime soon) and I flipped the format by interviewing Jenn and then Shia...Another highlight was meeting Andy's dad, who came by to present us our shiny new banner. It looks fantastic! Special thanks to Ian Herring for helping with the design of this.Thanks to everyone that turned out - I hope you enjoy our photos!...
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...
We few, we lucky few...
Happy St. Crispin's Day to everyone! The scene of a great battle which led to one of the best speeches ever created - by Mr. Shakespeare of course.And, of course, Mr. Branagh's take on the speech...
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
Issue #6 Artwork - Preview Pages
Issue #6 is being released next week - October 27th - so in anticipation of this we are releasing artwork for the issue today for people to take a look at. This was an issue that took Andy a lot of time to complete mainly because of the large number of crowd scenes - but in the end it was definitely worth it! It's an issue that features stirring speeches (very Shakespearean), violence (Shakespearean), some friendship (Shakespearean) and a very, very interesting ending...
Trick or Treat in Guelph!
While Conor attends the Halifax Comic-Con, Andy and I will be taking part in a signing at Dragon Comics in Guelph, Ontario. We're just one of many comic creators that will be at the store that day, including some other top Canadian talents such as Ray Fawkes, Ross Campbell, Dale Keown and Richard Pace. You can find out more about the event at this link.It also gives me an opportunity to visit my sister as she lives in Guelph, so I'm looking forward to that.You have a chance to hang out with us, get signed copies of our series, check out Issue #6 (which is being released October 27th) and, more importantly, find out about Andy's big Halloween party taking place later that night in Toronto. Andy throws perhaps the greatest Halloween parties in the city so be sure to check it out.
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.
Sneak Peek at Spider-Man Musical!
One of the highlights of our trip to New York Comic-Con did not actually take place at the Con. On Friday we had the exclusive privilege of meeting Julie Taymor (Broadway's The Lion King, films Frida, Titus and Across the Universe) at the Foxwoods Theatre where she is in the midst of rehearsals for the musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. With a book by Ms. Taymor and Glen Berger and music by U2's Bono and The Edge, it's a highly anticipated production years in the making (including a reported inflated budget of $50M, huge compared to even most Broadway musicals) .
Ms. Taymor was gracious enough to give myself, Andy and Conor a walk-through of some of the intentions of the production. We were not able to stick around for the tech rehearsal but the set designs that we were able to see were amazing. Andy immediately declared "Ditko!" when we saw them - they are heavily influenced by Steve Ditko's designs.
The other cool thing is the acrobatic work that they are aiming to do with the production. Spider-Man (to be played by British musician Reeve Carney) will be actually flying with a series of ropes and will actually be able to fly to the balcony. I found it very Cirque du Soleil and really impressed me. If they're able to pull off what they aim to do it'll be quite the spectacle.
As a huge fan of musicals I'm looking forward to the production to see what the final product will be like. In the interim, perhaps I should begin to brainstorm ideas for a Kill Shakespeare musical...
"Comics That You'll Feel Smarter for Reading"
On our Google Alerts earlier today I saw that we were mentioned on a cool blog with a very unique listing: "Comics That You'll Feel Smarter for Reading". It's on a blog called On the Subject of Being Awesome, which apparently is run by Matthew Funk out of Oregon. It lists Kill Shakespeare as #10 on the list, which also includes such great titles as Watchmen, Daytripper and Chew. Wow. Great company to be included in. Click on the graphic to link to the list.
Thanks for enjoying the series, Matthew. We'll keep writing 'em and hopefully we can eventually match the intelligence of our readers...
Issue #6 Cover Released!
Issue #6 of our series, "Lend Me Your Ears", is released later this month (Wed, Oct 27th). In anticipation of this, we are releasing the official cover image for the issue done by, of course, Kagan McLeod. Kagan's put together some great covers but I personally think that this is one of the best, if not the best. The image captures the spirit of rebellion that permeates the entire issue and thrusts our story forward.Click on the image for a larger version.
Empire State of Mind this weekend!
Conor, Andy and I will be attending the New York Comic-Con this upcoming weekend to do some signings and check out some cool new stuff in the comic and pop culture world. It'll be great to be there again - it was at least year's event (in February, 2009) that Conor and I first pitched Kill Shakespeare to a number of publishers, IDW included. I still remember the grins on the faces of Greg Goldstein and Chris Ryall as we pitched them the idea, as they immediately grasped the potential of the series.If you're in the New York area please come out and visit us - we'd love to meet you!
TIGHTS ALERT! TIGHTS ALERT!
Alright, this is a TOTAL look "behind the curtain", but here is a sneak peek at the Cover for issue #8.
The only reason I put this out there is because HAMLET IS WEARING TIGHTS! This breaks EVERY rule Anthony has set down. I have it on good authority thast Anthony and his "anti-tight" squad of loose pants wearing Ninjas are going to stage a dawn raid at Casa Mcleod and force Hamlet into a pair of breeches and boots. But I wanted you, the loving Kill Shakespeare public to have a chance to see this rare occurance.(oh, and this may be the only time you see those cool pennants and spears in the background in the clouds. Do you like'em? Should they stay? Let us know!)UPDATE: Uh, yeah well sure you can't actually SEE the pennants ans spears because this is just a thumbnail, but if you COULD would you want them to stay or go, you know, conceptually speaking...
M.C. Del Col, Yo!
No, it isn't the latest white-rap superstar (that would actually be Kill Shakespeare's cover artist Kagan McLeod who has won more than his fair share of accolades at Hip-Hop Karaoke), it is the role Anthony Del Col will be taking on this Monday.
Anthony will be serving as the Master of Ceremony's at a book launch in Toronto at the Lula Lounge. Anthony will be leading the launch festivities for the Toronto debut of Chris Benjamin's first novel Drive By Saviours.The book has already garned RAVE reviews and if you are a fan of intelligent literature (and of course you are, you read Kill Shakespeare) and you live in the Toronto area head to the event for a fantastic night of readings, music, performances and DEL COL!(oh and give Chris a hard time -- he's a Habs fan).WHAT: Drive By Saviours Book launchWHEN: October 4th, 2010WHERE: Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas St. W)TIME: 8:00-11:30 PM
Stephen Holt Strikes Again!
Our brand-new best friend Stephen Holt has added to his collection of Kill Shakespeare media. This time its in the form of two videos he has posted on his YouTube channel.
Stephen is a passionate cinephile and blogs foir AwardsDaily.com (the site Anthony uses to get the egde on the competition in his Hollywood movie league). We met him at TIFF and he very kindly (and correctly as it turned out) said he thought we would win PITCH THIS! He also does a popular public access show in NYC and agreed to chat with us!You can surf into his channel (unless you get to see his show nin NYC) to watch the first part of the video here and the second part here!We had a great time and we talked about things in this interview that we have NEVER been asked!