HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM!
“It is my birthday. I had thought t' have held it poor”
- Antony and Cleopatra
Act 3, Scene 13
“Today is your birthday. It’s my birthday too, yeah”
- The Beatles
Yep, today is Willy Shakes birthday and the Bard is still going strong. In fact, our favourite, self-doubting, quill-wielding creator turns 449 today!
It's been a long run for Shakespeare and we're proud to say that this also is an anniversary of sorts for us. Way back on April 14th of 2010, just before Shakespeare's birthday, so we could maximize publicity - natch, we released the first issue of the first series of our little baby.
We weren't really sure what to expect. We'd sold our investors and families on the fact that we had this BIG idea, but who really knew what we had? After all of you made that first issue sold out and then we went into a second printing and you guys made sure THAT sold out too we had an inkling that we might actually have that BIG idea.
Since then, 13 more issues have hit the stands (with #14, the third issue of The Tide of Blood, hitting stores tomorrow), we've developed a stage show with one of Toronto's top theatre companies, Soulpepper, and seen that show tour across Canada, the U.S. and now Dubai, we've made t-shirts and buttons and all manner of ShakesGeare that people seem to like, we've been developing a mobile game and an enhanced graphic novel that we hope will take sequential storytelling to the next step, and we've been courted - quite feverently at times - by the world of Hollywood to make K.S. into T.V. or film...
So, while today is REALLY about the man who inspired us, and upon whose works all our ideas rest, we're still pretty proud of the little space we occupy for people who are excited that William Shakespeare was ever born.
Here's hoping for another 449 years from Shakespeare, and at least another 49 for Kill Shakespeare! And here's a HUGE thank-you to all of you, the fans, supporters, and Bardolaters who have taken our little idea and made it into the BIG one we hoped we had.
Conor