Rounding up stormtroopers in Dubai
The next two weeks will find the Kill Shakespeare team splitting up conventions. This weekend (Apr 13 - 15th) will find Anthony in Chicago to attend C2E2 while Conor and Andy are in Toronto for the Wizard World show.Next weekend will find Andy in Boston for the Boston Comic-Con while Anthony and Conor fly to Dubai to attend the first-annual Middle East Film & Comic-Con. More on that in the next day or two...In the meantime, check out this amazing spot for the show in Dubai. As someone who has been to Dubai before I've been to a few of the spots highlighted in this commercial - and am looking forward to going again!
Blowing winds take us to C2E2 this weekend!
The past few weeks have been an absolute blur - and blast - which have found me in Anaheim/LA (WonderCon and meetings), Seattle (Emerald City), Boston (SAA) and, in a few days, Chicago. Which, of course, will be very promptly followed by Dubai (but more on that tomorrow...).
I'm heading to Chicago later this week to take part in C2E2, one of the largest (and fastest growing) cons in the U.S. It should be a great time - it's a city with a great theatre crowd and I know that we've sold well in Chi-town stores. I look forward to meeting with existing readers, convincing more to check us out, and hanging out in the city (it's my first time there). Amongst other things I'll be checking out the Improvised Shakespeare Company on Friday night - they are a talented troupe the improvises a Shakespeare production on the spot - should be a good time.If you're in the Chicago and surrounding area (or a surrounding state) come by and check us out! I'll be located at Booth 703 the entire weekend. Also helping me out with be the amazing Sarah Hunter as well as Christina Hall.
All the World's the SAA!
Conor and I just got back from the Shakespeare Association of America's 2012 conference, held in Boston the past three days. Despite my lack of sleep I'm still on a high from the days there. The SAA is an organization devoted to the study of Shakespeare and his plays and how they from a part of the culture.
It was a great conference for us for SO many reasons: we got to meet up with some old friends, meet up with a lot of our Facebook and Twitter followers, were fortunate to sit in on the Friday morning plenary presentation by Dr. Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame), who discussed our project in the presentation "Shakespeare, Humanity Indicators, and The Seven Deadly Sins"), discovered that two other academics profiled our project in other papers (including one, "Screw Shakespeare", that discusses the sexual and pornographic images in our series" - who knew?), sold a lot of books and t-shirts... but MOST importantly, left feeling even more energized about the potential of our series to reach larger audiences and a better appreciation of how great Shakespeare is.Thanks to everyone who chatted with us this weekend - you were all great to talk to and you each inspired us. Thanks for that!And next year we look forward to attending - especially as it's right here in Toronto!Here are some pictures from the weekend...
Shakespeare Plenary Presentation
Conor and I are currently at the Shakespeare Association of American Annual Conference in Boston and winning over a LOT of people to our series. It's been a great time and the highlight was this morning when Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame) profiled us in his plenary presentation this morning to all delegates. Here is a pic:
More information to come!
Congrats to IAN HERRING on his Eisner Nomination!
A big kudos to our colourist Ian Herring on his Eisner Award nomination, announced today, for Best Colouring on the Archaia Entertainment's JIM HENSON'S TALE OF SAND (sharing the nomination with Ramon Perez). It's a great honour (one of the top awards in the comic industry) and we all send out big props to Ian for this recognition.
The awards will be handed out at this year's San Diego International Comic-Con in July.
Pretty in Purple
With Anthony and Conor splitting up to do cross-country coverage of comic-con's (say that five times fast), the press has started to come trickling in.
For those fans newer to the whole Kill Shakespeare "thing" these interviews are a great way to get caught up on what the project is about, what we have done and where we are going for it.In Toronto, at the Fan Appreciation Show, Conor chatted with Adam Donaldson of Press+1 a new, and very slick site that delves into geek culture with reviews, interviews and commentary (they're also going to cover the Junos - Canada's music awards - which I think is pretty cool and innovative).You can check out the interview with Conor here (and leave comments on that snaZZY purple sweater below....).Next stop for the dynamic duo is the Shakespeare Association of America's meeting in Bahstahn, so if anyone has any advice on what to do and where to go this weekend let us know!As Don Draper's wife would say -- Bissous (or is that Zou be Zou be Zou?)
To all our Teacher friends, 'sup!
While Anthony was away in Seattle converting the masses to the joys of Bardicide, Conor was beavering away back in K.S. HQ on a new project that we've hinted at but will be announcing "for realsies" very soon.And while he was procrastinating by checking e-mail a really cool message came in.As many of you know we've got dreams that Kill Shakespeare will be picked up by school systems around the world as either a way to introduce people to the Bard's tropes and tricks or as a tool for deeper analysis of the plays.
So far we've been making steady headway (And later this week Anthony and Conor will both be in Boston for the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America) but the little e-mail we got was from noted academic reviewer Chris Wilson.
Chris is the top dog behind the awesome The Graphic Classroom -- a well-read site chock full of reviews and tools for teachers looking to bring graphic novels into the classroom.
Chris gave Kill Shakespeare a REALLY solid review and called it "highly recommended" for school classrooms.
For our teacher fans we hope this is something you can use to help justify bringing K.S. to your class, and for those of you who have teacher friends this is a fantastic link to help them discover our series, but more importantly graphic novels in general.
Thanks Chris!
Pics from Emerald City
It's pretty late at night and I have to get up uber-early to catch a shuttle to the airport to head back to Toronto... But wanted to relive some of my memories at this past weekend's Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle. It was a great time and I enjoyed meeting everyone that came to the table, bought books, chatted about Shakespeare and comics and pitching, and everything else.Also thanks to everyone that came out to my How to Pitch and Market Your Comic workshop on Saturday afternoon. It was a packed crowd and it seemed like people really enjoyed the talk. If you missed it... Well, hopefully you'll be able to catch it at another show in the future.Here are a number of pictures from the weekend...
A Big Birthday Wish to the Big Guy!
Today (March 30th) is the birthday of the amazing artist of Kill Shakespeare, Andy Belanger. Conor and I have been working with Andy now for almost three years and it's been a complete blast since the very beginning. It was two years ago that we celebrated his birthday with him in San Francisco having some great clam chowda at the Market just before WonderCon, and there have been a lot of great moments since (including the famous April Fool's Day joke that same trip... Ask him about it sometime...)
So feel free to wish Andy a happy birthday (his Facebook page is here and his Twitter feed here)!
Three Great Days at the Emerald City!
This weekend (Mar 30 - Apr 1) I will be attending Emerald City Comic-Con (in Seattle) for the first time. I'm pretty excited as I've heard a LOT of great things about it and they've put together a who's-who collection of comic book writers and artists (including people like Bill Willingham, Robert Kirkman, Tony Harris, fellow Canadians Bryan Lee O'Malley and Ray Fawkes, and talented young writers like Nathan Edmondson).
I will be at Table E-18 (floor map here) all weekend. The hours of the show are Fri (2-8pm), Sat (10 - 7) and Sun (10 - 5) at the Washington State Convention Centre.
I will also be conducting a workshop while at the show. The details are:How to Market Your Own ComicRoom: 201Time: Saturday, 5:00 - 6:00Kill Shakespeare co-creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery discuss the creative entrepreneurship side of creating your own comic book. A sold-out workshop at numerous other comic conventions, they discuss how to court publishers, raise funding, generate publicity, and get your books into the hands of stores and readers. This workshop will allow you to turn your creative idea into a creative business.So if you're in the Seattle area please come on out to check it out - it'll be a great show for everyone!(Note: Kudos to those that knew that the title of this post is a reference of a song from the musical "Wicked"...)
A Video of Anthony from WonderCon
A little video that Lyz "Lyzard" Reblin took of me a week ago at WonderCon...
Sunny photos from cloudy Anaheim...
WonderCon 2012 just finished yesterday (Sun, Mar 18/12) and I still haven't wound down from how much fun the event in Anaheim was. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, we launched the first issue of Kill Shakespeare two years ago in San Francisco at the event and it was great to come back to celebrate.Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and those that stopped by our booth. One of the great things about a convention like this is the number of people that walk by, see our banner, and then say to us, "Kill Shakespeare? Why would anyone want to do that?" It's great meeting with fellow Shakespeare fans (Bardolaters), fans of comics, and hanging out with fun people overall.More importantly, thanks to other special people - the team at IDW that helped us out this weekend (Mike, Dirk, Chloe, John, Greg, etc.), the people at WonderCon (thanks for the great booth spot), AdaPia (for connecting us with the right people), Keith and Dave from Avatar (for helping with shipping), and most importantly, Alex Renshaw and Lyz (Lyzard) Reblin for helping out with the booth through the entire weekend. You guys are all great and make all of this possible.Here is a collection of photos from this past weekend...
Welcome to the Comic Book Laboratory
While Kill Shakespeare is a more than full-time job for Anthony and I, we aren't even close to the only people needed to get the thing out there to you fine readers.
Beyond Andy B.'s awesome art, Ian Herring's great colours, Kagan Mcleod's cool covers and the entire team of amazing people at IDW we also have a crack squad of interns -- all of whom aspire to their own careers in the arts in one flavour or another.So, we're VERY happy to be able to point you in the direction of mega-awesome intern Ben O'Brian's new website.Ben's Comic book laboratory contains Ben's j on-going comic work, several series of art projects (including a great one of Toronto cinema's marquees) and his stand-alone political cartoons.Ben also reviews films for several portals - so he is a real renaissance man -- please check out his work and leave some comments for one of our favourite people!
Appearing at WonderCon this weekend (Mar 16 - 18)
Two years ago we officially launched the first issue of Kill Shakespeare at WonderCon in San Francisco (check out this early interview from that time). Yes, two years ago (Apr/10). To celebrate this, I will be returning to WonderCon this upcoming weekend to take part in the festivities - this time with a full series and merch accompanying me.
I'm really excited about the weekend. WonderCon is one of the biggest conventions on the continent and normally has great crowds. The show is normally held in San Francisco but is located in Anaheim this year as the Moscone Centre in S.F. is under renovation. So we're that much closer to Los Angeles, which doesn't have its own large convention. I know that we're quite popular in the L.A. region so I'm sure it'll give us a chance to meet existing readers - and convert more over to our take on the Bard.If you're in the area please come out and visit. I - along with fantastic volunteers Liz Reblin and Alexander Renshaw - will be there all three days and look forward to meeting you!
Photos from Toronto Comic-Con
We took part in the Toronto Comic-Con this past weekend and it was a great time for all. Though not as large as FanExpo (held here in late-August), it was a good show run by the same organizers. Thanks to Kevin and everyone else that invited us and helped us out over the weekend.Highlights included our workshop on Sunday (run amazingly well by Conor and Andy), getting new fans, talking to Shakespeare buffs about its works, being visited by two women who came all the way from Buffalo to see us, and running into old friends. Thanks to Bob, Spencer, Keith and Ben for helping us out over the course of the weekend.Here are some pics from the show:
Toronto Comic-Con this weekend!
We will be updating our convention schedule in the next couple of days but in the meantime we will be attending the Toronto Hobbystar Comic-Con this upcoming weekend (Sat, Mar 10 - Sun, Mar 11th). It's going to be a crazy convention season for us as we take part in at least nine conventions in the span of 11 weeks so it's great to start the race in our hometown.
It's shaping up to be a good show with some good guests. It's run by the same guys that handle FanExpo in August so we enjoy working with them. All three of myself, Conor and Andy will be attendance over the weekend so if you haven't had a chance to pick up any of our books, t-shirts, buttons or anything else we're there to sign - and sell - all weekend. We are located in Artist Alley at Table A74.On Sunday Conor will also be overseeing a reprise of our popular panel "How to Create and Market Your Own Indie Comic". I presented this back at FanExpo in August and it was a standing-room only event. If you missed it come out and learn the tricks of the trade. The panel will be taking place on Sunday, March 11th at 1pm in Room 803.We hope to see you there! And check back for announcements of other upcoming shows for us - there will be many of them!
Thanks to Lester B. Pearson C.I.!
Conor and I have done a number of talks and presentations at schools and libraries over the last 18 months and today we did the first of (hopefully) many for this year. Today we were at Lester B. Pearson C.I. in Scarborough, where a number of classes came to visit us as we talked about Kill Shakespeare (of course), comics, the Bard, storytelling, entrepreneurship, art... as well as androids, sisters dressing up as brothers, tough exams, and everything in between (thanks to the students for coming up with the last couple of items...).
We really enjoy these talks and thank the students and teachers for a great session today. And special thanks to Miss Serba for organizing the event with us!
The Berenstain Bears and Librarians
The co-creator of The Berenstain Bears, Jan Berenstain, passed away late last week. It's been years since I have read - or even thought of - those collections of books but seeing her obituary brought back a flood of memories, not only of the books but an influential librarian in my life.
Growing up in small town northern Ontario, my mother always brought my sister Anna and I to the local library (I believe it was called the Whitney Public Library) to take out books. Located right next door to the fire department (where my dad volunteered for a while), it was a sea of information and entertainment and we would spend hours there, perusing the shelves for the books. The librarian, a fantastic older woman by the name of Mrs. Kullas (who had worked at the library for a great number of years), took a shine to my sister and I and, knowing that we loved reading The Berenstain Bears books, would always put aside the latest ones just for us upon their arrival. We would be so excited to get those new books and crack them open when we got home later that day.We've been working with librarians now for the last two years on Kill Shakespeare but it wasn't until this very moment that I realized how important Mrs. Kullas was in my life, helping to foster an appreciation for books - and reading in general - in me. It was just a small gesture, but her putting aside those Berenstain Bears books was a highlight for me that always had me excited to go to the library as a child. Mrs. Kullas passed away when I was in my pre-teens and the library closed down shortly thereafter but my love of the written word has stayed with me to this day. And for that I owe a big thanks to the influential librarian in my life, Mrs. Kullas.
Recommended comic: Conan The Barbarian
This past Saturday Conor and I swung by Paradise Comics in mid-town Toronto to visit the signing by acclaimed artist Becky Cloonan of the first issue of her run on Dark Horse Comics' Conan the Barbarian: Queen of the Black Coast. Becky is a good friend of ours - and especially artist Andy Belanger - and it's great to see her work get so much mainstream comics attention.
I'm about to dive into the first issue and I'm looking forward to it - the illustrations are amazing!
AintItCool News @$$IE Awards: Best Writer!
We've received a number of positive reviews for our series on AintItCool News, which is still one of the top comic review websites. But yesterday we received a further plaudit from them: Conor and I were listed as one of the top comic writers of 2011 in their 8th annual @$$ie Awards!
It's a very distinguished list that includes fellow Canadians Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) and Ray Fawkes (One Soul), as well as industry stalwarts like Scott Snyder (American Vampire) and Mark Waid (Daredevil). We're honoured to be included with these other talents, and for the recognition for the series!You can read the write-up on us by Lyz "Lizard" Reblin by clicking on the trophy image above or clicking here.