Congrats to Toronto's newest Comic Book Store!
These days it seems as though many comic book shops are closing down, whether it's because owners are moving on, decreasing sales, or lower margins. So it's refreshing when new comic shops open up - and there's one in our very own backyard of Toronto.Two weeks ago The Dragon Lady, a top comic shop that our artist Andy Belanger visits every Wednesday, closed down. In its ashes a new store - and gallery - has risen. Run by the uber-busy Kevin Boyd and Joe Kilmartin (the manager of the Dragon Lady), the two (along with Toronto Cartoonists' Workshop owner Sean Menard) have teamed up to start up the Comic Book Lounge & Gallery, located a block away from the old Dragon Lady location. They had a "soft launch" last night and I swung by to visit. It's a cool spot that perhaps we can even use for future launch parties.You can check out their website here.
Congrats to Kevin, Joe and Sean - and everyone else involved - for following their passion and making things happen (did I just quote from the theme song of Flashdance?...)!
ShakesGeare in Australia!
Late last week I received an email from a university friend, Mo Bhamani, who now resides in Australia. Mo, in addition to being one of the funniest guys I know, is a fan of the series and wanted to show his support from the other side of the world. So on Australia Day (January 26th) we strutted around country (okay, Sydney) wearing one of our Kill Shakespeare t-shirts. Here are two shots of his outside the famous opera house...
If you're interested in purchasing some ShakesGeare for yourself, check out our store here.
What character(s) should we add?
We are currently investigating the possibility of continuing our series based on feedback and support. While we do so, we'd like to pose a question to our followers/fans/readers - what character(s) would you like to see in a continued or future series? We've thrown this question out into the social network sphere but would also like your opinion here. Would it be the wizard Prospero? The battling sweethearts Beatrice and Benedick? A little-known character? A well-known character? We're all ears...
What's the best beer to drink while reading Kill Shakespeare?
It's generally not my policy to post every review we find on Kill Shakespeare - there simply wouldn't be enough space and time for me to post everything. However, there was one posted yesterday that I thought quite funny...
The great iFanboy site has a regular column called Comic Shots. They describe is as such: Each week the iFanStaff passes along a tasty drink recipe and an even tastier comic book recommendation. The cocktail (or beer, or wine, or booze) and the comic can both be enjoyed independently, but they have a common theme and when served together they can make for the perfect reading experience.And this week it was Kill Shakespeare.And the drink? Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout by Rogue.Reviewer Ryan Haupt describes the drink and then gives it a good review. As for the book? As he says, "it... serves as a fine example of what can be accomplished with basic ingredients used in the right way."I'll let you enjoy the article - and perhaps the drink sometime...(Click on the image to read the review of the book and drink.)
Help Review us on Amazon!
Have you heard either of our first two graphic novels? Did you like either of them ? Did you not like them? (If you didn't, I'm not really sure why you're checking out this site...) In either case, we'd like to request your help and help post a review on Amazon.com!
It's quite simple - head onto any of the chief Amazon sites and quickly post a quick note on whether you liked the book(s) or not. It'll probably take a couple minutes but would be an IMMENSE help to us!For Volume 2, you can access the site the titles here: United States, Canada and U.K.For Volume 1, you can access the specific title sites here: United States, Canada and U.K.
Convention Schedule - First Half of 2012
It seems as though the fall convention season just ended... And here we are planning for the spring convention season to begin already!
We will post more information closer to the dates, but we are currently looking at attending a fair number of conventions over the next six months. Some we will be returning to, others will be our first time setting up. In all cases we're excited to be attending these conventions. I've said this in many interview but perhaps the best part of Kill Shakespeare is attending conventions and talking to readers, fans, those that like Shakespeare, those that hate Shakespeare, and everyone else.Look for us at the following shows (yes, it is a busy March & April for us):Mar 10-11 - FanExpo Toronto Comic-Con (Toronto)Mar 16-18 - WonderCon (Anaheim - normally held in San Francisco)Mar 30 - Apr 1 - Emerald City Comic-Con (Seattle)Apr 5 - 7 - Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference (Boston)Apr 13 - 15 - C2E2 - Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (Chicago)Apr 14 - 15 - Toronto Wizard Comic-Con (Toronto)Apr 21 - 22 - Boston Comic-Con (Boston)Apr 21 - 22 - Vancouver FanExpo (Vancouver) - not confirmed yetApr 27 - 29 - Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo (Calgary) - not confirmed yetMay 5 - 6 - Toronto Comics Arts Festival - TCAF (Toronto)May 19 - 20 - Kapow! Comic Convention (London, UK) - not confirmed yetWe are also exploring other shows to attend so if you have any suggestions please let us know!
One-of-a-kind Kill Shakespeare swag!
When we were in Montreal at the Comic-Con we were lucky enough to come across many, many, excellent fans. But two stood out head and shoulders above the rest -- William Dziambor and the lovely Sonia Varin.The couple were new to the whole Kill Shakespeare "thing" but by the end of the Con they had stopped by to chat with us several times, bought the full series and also bought themselves some Kill Shakespeare t-shirts.So when Sonia contacted us this fall to try to find a unique Kill Shakespeare gift for William for Christmas we were somewhat stumped -- I mean they pretty much had most of our stuff.Then Sonia asked us "Well, what about a poster?" We had been wanting to make posters for some time but had struggled with what we should do -- as well as figuring out a way to do them at a low enough cost that they would make sense. Sonia didn't care, she said she would cover the cost of making a one-off poster and man, oh man, does it look good.
The poster turned out really well - Anthony and I almost couldn't bear to send it away. Thanks to Tyrone and the rest of the good people at Guerilla Printing for making the poster so quickly and so affordably.So what do you think everyone? Should we be making Kill Shakespeare posters? If so, what would you want them to be of?
Hawaiian Students' Take on Falstaff
A number of months ago I was contacted by Lanaly Cabalo, a teacher from Roosevelt High School in Honolulu. She teaches a number of classes there and introduced some of her students to Kill Shakespeare this past semester and they - along with some other teachers - really took to it and did a number of papers and art projects on the series.
The artwork project above was done by Mehana Verdadero, a junior at the high school. She - quite obviously - really enjoys our take on Falstaff and wrote a paper on him as well. A snippet from her report:"Even though there are many great characters, Falstaff is one of the best. Why? Well, if you love comedy, then you will totally love him. He is the funniest character in all the King Henry plays and The Merry Wives of Windsor... Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col changed him into a man of faith and wisdom, but they didn’t change the fact that he is the funniest character... in their book “Kill Shakespeare.”We love receiving messages and images like this from teachers. So keep up the great work Ms. Cabalo, Mehana, and everyone else in the class. It was a pleasure creating the series and we loved hearing how much your class enjoyed it. And if we find ourselves in that part of the country we'd love to swing by and visit!UPDATE (Jan 4/11): Another student from the class - Simeon Crawford - sent their project to us - it's right here!:
ShakesGeare Available Online!
I hope that everyone had a great few days of holidays and are still in relaxation mode. And hey, I wouldn't be a good promoter if I didn't remind everyone that with that holiday money you got under the tree you can purchase t-shirts from our ShakesGeare lineup!
Click on the image above to check out the quickly-selling shirts that have out at the moment.
Happy Holidays!
As I stay inside my warm, cozy childhood home in Porcupine, Canada (yes, it's actually called Porcupine...) I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a fantastic holiday season! I'm so fortunate for all of the great things that have happened with Kill Shakespeare over the last twelve months - as well as many personal accomplishments - and I'm enjoying the relaxation found over the holidays. I hope that you do as well.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Kill Shakespeare!
More Great Art to Share with you
While the Kill Shakespeare team was searching for the right venue for the launch of our second trade paperback (thanks again to Balzac and our friends at Spearhead Brewing Co. and the Afghan Women's Catering Collective) we stumbled into Cafe Furbo which is a nice little place to grab a an espresso (or so I am told by people who drink coffee).
While we chatted with the owner, Kevin, we noticed some very creepy but intriguing art lining the walls of the cafe. As it turns out the work belongs to Mika Machida -- a friend of his daughter's.Mika is just 15 and she know what she want to be - an artist. Heck given these images she's already there.
So what do you think friends of Kill Shakespeare? Should we be looking to tap Ms. Machida for a cover or two for the third series of Kill Shakespeare?Couldn't you just see her doing a kick-ass rendition of the bloody mess that may be a certain famous Shakespearean character's island?
Even if you can't it's tough not to see that his young lady is a definite talent to keep an eye on.
IFC says "Adapt Kill Shakespeare!"
As Conor and I are deeply immersed in the screenwriting of the film version of Kill Shakespeare, it's always great when independent sources (fans, readers, media) talk to us about adapting our project for the screen. It's great to talk about casting possibilities, changes to the story, the hard process of adapting your own work, etc.
One media source that also is looking forward to an adaptation is Rick Marshall from IFC.com. He runs a weekly column looking at comics that would make great screen adaptations and this week he turns his eye to us (two weeks ago it was KS cover artist Kagan McLeod's Infinite Kung Fu). And this week? It's Kill Shakespeare!An interesting quote from the analysis:"Given the size of the world in Kill Shakespeare and the epic nature of the characters' quest, television seems like the right medium to tell McCreery and Del Col's story - especially since there's little need for complicated special effects. The popularity of current shows like "Grimm" and "Once Upon A Time" make it easy to see the possibilities of a "Kill Shakespeare" television series, and if the project receives the sort of nurturing that one of the cable networks like SyFy can provide, the sky's the limit."What do you think?
Merchandise now available online!
After receiving many requests over the last couple of months, we have now answered... Our ShakesGeare merchandise is now available online!
These t-shirts have been available at comic conventions over the last couple of months but we are now super-excited to have them available for purchase - just in time for Christmas! You can access the merch site by clicking the image above.
Shakespeare takes down Marlowe!
Well, at least in illustration form...At our signing at L.A. Mood Comics yesterday in London, ON we chatted with Steven J. Tiampo, a fan of ours who asked Andy Belanger to craft a very interesting illustration this past FanExpo in August. An image of Shakespeare killing Marlowe with a knife in a bar-room brawl! It's an amazing request and a great final product - and here it is!:
Andy B is always looking to do interesting sketches like this so if you're looking for a great Christmas gift you can reach out to us and get him to tailor something for you!
Anthony Appears on T-Dot Comix New Vlog
Earlier this week I sat down with one of the biggest fans of our series, Alice Quinn. She and XXX have started a new web series, Quinntessential Comics, which is a weekly series devoted to discussing comics with fans, experts and creators.It's always great to chat with Alice and we had a lot of fun shooting this episode.
ONE BIZARRE LIFE
One thing we like to do when we get a chance here in the Kill Shakespeare estates (and by estates we mean two painfully small apartment-y type things in the city of Toronto) is to pass on weird, wonderful and interesting work that people share with us at conventions.
Well, earlier this month, (last month by the time most of you see it) we were in Halifax and I struck up a fun conversation with an artist named Bruce Delo. Bruce asked if he could show me his comics and I said 'yes' (being the generally kind and generous soul that I am).So he passed me this bizarre little strip called Life Comix which I flipped through and it was really, really random.And I mean that mostly in a good way. Life Comix seems to be about a group of stoner friends who get up to all sorts of adventures, well they don't get up to a heck of a lot (they ARE stoners), but there is definitely a sweet undercurrent to everything in the strip which appealed to me (as did some of the most random moments like the centipede buddy or the "face-hands" that make apocalyptic predictions).So I told Bruce I'd toss it on our site and that hopefully he and I wouldn't be the only ones with the same odd sense of humour.Life Comix -- it may not be for everyone, but I think there's the seed of something here so I hope you check out his work, and Bruce I hope you keep at it!Enjoy!
Kill Shakespeare Secret Diaries
As we have mentioned we really get jazzed when we find out that teachers and students are using Kill Shakespeare as a way to explore the Bard.
One of our fave teachers is Deborah Altenbeck who teaches at an institute for gifted children in Essen, Germany. Deborah has been teaching Kill Shakespeare as part of one of her courses.Deborah has generated several cool lesson plans and walked the students through the first few issues of the series.
One of the homework assignments she gave to her class was to take a Kill Shakespeare character and write a "secret" diary for them. The results were a lot of fun and Deborah shared some of them with us and we wanted to pass them on to you.So here you go - this first entry is from Richard III's POV and is done by Luise (and remember English is the second, third or fourth language for these students).Dear diary,We’re gonna stop Shakespeare. He is an evil guy, I know that. And with Hamlet’s help we’re gonna kill him. I hate that Shakespeare guy so much! I also need Lady Macbeth. She’s somehow creepy and seems clever although she’s just a woman. I think I have to be careful with her. Everybody knows what she’d done to her husband. Some even say she killed the English king… If she killed a king once, she can kill one a second time. But I’m much cleverer than her. I mean she’s just a woman!The Syna wrote this diary from Lady M's perspective:Today, everything was just perfect! I persuaded my friendly and thankfully not very intelligent partner to accomplish my plan! I hope he won’t be too awkward, but hopefully, he will appreciate what I want him to do… But all in all, my plan is really delightful – it is just perfect! I really take pride in myself! One day, everything will be wonderful!And finally Jonathan got into the act, also as Richard:Dear diary, Today Hamlet finally got to my land. Yesterday, the stars shone in very strange colors and I hoped that it would mean that the prophecy will be fulfilled. This morning I found the Shadow King, Hamlet, at the beach. I'm very glad that now the prophecy will be fulfilled by him. The only thing I'm depressed about is that Hamlet doesn't want to hear anything about this prophecy and the fact that only he himself can kill Shakespeare. Yours, RichardFor our teacher friends Deborah has shared three of her lesson plans -- given that English is not her students first language I think that the content is probably appropriate for junior high school students. If you are interested let us know as we'd love to share these with you and spread ideas of how you can teach Shakespeare, and Kill Shakespeare, in fun ways.And as always we love to hear how teachers are teaching the Bard in their own classes.All the best,Conor and Anthony
PW loves ANDY B.
Publishers Weekly has long been a big supporter of Kill Shakespeare so it is a real pleasure to see them review the second trade collection - THE BLAST OF WAR.The review isn't a stroke job by any measure, but it does single out Andy B. for the fantastic work he put into the trade.Click here to read it.So cheers to Andy B. as he continues to receive the recognition he deserves!
All the stage's our world!
I'm still on a high from this weekend.Still.This past weekend saw two performances of KILL SHAKESPEARE: THE LIVE STAGE READING and they were a smash! Our Saturday night show was standing room only and the crowd loved it. The Sunday matinee show went so incredibly smoothly and was a great way to end our weekend. The fans of Kill Shakespeare were treated to seeing a favourite book of theirs come to life while newcomers to our story became instant fans.
The only shame from this weekend is that we were unable to do any recording of the show - either video or audio. If we could have we would have already posted some images her on our site. Alas, 'twas not to be, and thus I do not have many photos to post here today.I have been working on this project with Conor for almost four years now and it was great to see our entire story come to life like it did. The show I felt when Rick Roberts manned the voice of Falstaff for his first appearance in our story - amazing. The crowd loved him. They laughed along with Falstaff, enjoyed the appearance of someone from Juliet's past, were dazzled by Falstaff and Iago's final appearances, and enjoyed Greg's take on our melancholy Dane.
My favourite moment, though - in both shows - was the balcony scene. This was one of the first ideas for a sequence when we first conceived Kill Shakespeare over eight years ago and in doing all of this work I forgot how cool a sequence it is. When the crowd started to chuckle and then enjoy the romantic moment, all of my original love of the scene came back to me in a big way. THIS moment is really what makes Kill Shakespeare for me.And I'm so glad that the audiences enjoyed it. This is why Conor and I chose to work on this project - to entertain audiences. And this weekend we did.There are so many people to thank. First off, Andy for his fantastic artwork and for putting together all of the slides for the show.
The entire team at the Young Centre and Soulpepper - Claire Sakaki, Liza Paul, Lisa Li, Katie Saunoris, T.J. Tasker - everyone. You were all a treat to work with and oversaw so many things for us.Thanks to those that assisted us this weekend - Ken, Christine, Ben, Christine at Balzac's and Spearhead Beer for sponsoring our premiere party.The actors themselves - Sarah (Lady M), Michelle (Juliet), John (Chorus, Shakespeare), Greg (Hamlet), Brandon (Romeo), Rick (Falstaff/Richard 3), Toby (Iago), Andre (Othello). You guys really brought our characters to life and you will leave a lasting impression on our work moving forward.Toby Malone is the dramaturge at Soulpepper and really helped us fine-tune our script into the 90-minute spectacle that it became. Thanks so much for being a fan of our story before even coming
on board this interpretation and guiding us throughout the process.The director for this show was Derek Boyes, who guided the entire ship with a strong eye and vision throughout. He included us in the entire process and was the one insisting that we be on stage with the entire cast.Thanks to Don Shipley for being the first person to reach out to us and put us in contact with the organizers of the festival.And finally, thanks to Albert Schultz, the artistic director at Soulpepper, for being a driving force in the Word Festival and helping to mentor us. Albert is one of the shining lights in Canadian theatre history (if you ask me) and has always been an inspiration for me; to now have worked with him is something I'm quite proud of.And now we move forward with the project, with many more achievements ahead of us...
The curtain is about to rise...
Conor and I have spent the last two days in rehearsals on the Live Stage Reading which will take place this weekend. The production has really come together and there are some moments in the presentation that are amazing and really make the story and pages come to life! We are excited to be able to see it in front of a live audience.
Again, the times are:Sat, Nov 26th - 8:00pm & Sun, Nov 27th - 4:15pmTickets are still available so if you're in the Toronto area and haven't picked them up please do so. You can order them here or by calling the Young Centre Box Office at 416.866.8666