Lady Macbeth's Breasts (SFW - honest!)
Lady Macbeth gets the academic treatment thanks to WPI Prof: Michelle Ephraim
We're a week away from the release of the new JULIET trade to bookstores, and to help celebrate that we have something cool for you Shakespeare academics.Michelle Ephraim, who was one of the scholars who helped to put together our Backstage Edition has thoughtfully provided us with a copy of a Kill Shakespeare inspired essay, entitled, rather provocatively: Lady Macbeth's BreastsMichelle talks in her piece about the role that sexuality plays in the depictions of Lady M, both in our comic, and in culture as a whole. It's a funny, thought-provoking and insightful take on one of my favourite characters in the canon, as well as one that gives us a pat on the back for having Lady M transcend her "femme fatale" tropes (yay, us!).It's a short and enjoyable read - and you can go here to get in on the fun!Or if you'd rather just read the whole thing now i'ts here below: Lady Macbeth’s Breasts Before venturing into the influential (and notoriously censorious) Texas library market, the Kill Shakespeare team took some professional advice and gave Lady Macbeth’s ample breasts a bit of a nip/tuck. Especially to the “side boob” swelling out from the periphery of her metal tank top. Even with this strategic augmentation, Lady Macbeth’s breasts are a formidable presence in KS. And even more than her signature props—daggers, poison, wine—the breasts are Lady Macbeth’s most defining accessory. At the end of Issue #6 (also the concluding chapter of Kill Shakespeare: Volume 1), Lady Macbeth is serving up plenty of wine and cleavage to her obsequious paramour, Iago. (You can practically hear him panting.) Issue #7, with which Kill Shakespeare: Volume 2 begins, picks up with the same tableau of booze and breasts, establishing the latter as a key visual and symbolic theme in KS’s grand design. These prominent breasts seem appropriate given Kill Shakespeare’s literary context. In Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth’s most famous speech, her furious response to Macbeth when he tries to renege on their plan to murder King Duncan, concerns this part of her anatomy: I have given suck, and knowHow tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gumsAnd dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this. (1.7) The speech has launched many an academic publication on Lady Macbeth’s maternal history. Did she give birth? What happened to the kid? Regardless of the true story of little Macbeth, her anecdote is meant as a testimony to her toughness, her refusal to wuss out of any promise. Ultimately and ironically in Act I of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth cites the female breast to articulate her strong masculine attributes and, by contrast, her husband’s weak, feminine nature. We hear her plea to be rid of any and all nurturing attributes: “Come you spirits/Unsex me now, and take my milk for gall.” Just in the highly unlikely case there’s a residual drop of motherly compassion. But her real concern lies with her husband who’s “too full of the milk of human kindness.” Whereas she’s manned-up to the task of killing the king and usurping the throne, Macbeth has not; she must bully him into it. To this end, Lady Macbeth shames her husband: if he refuses the chance to kill Duncan he is unmanly, but if he takes this opportunity he will be “so much more the man.” Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth demonstrates her feminine side by the end of the play, but it’s not a pretty sight. Senseless, sleepwalking, and suicidal, she embodies what contemporary medical discourse would have identified as textbook female hysteria. Modern American psychiatrist Isador Henry Coriat in his 1912 book The Hysteria of Lady Macbeth goes to town with this interpretative tradition: “Lady Macbeth is a typical case of hysteria; her ambition is merely a sublimation of a repressed sexual impulse, the desire for a child based upon the memory of a child long since dead” (28-9). KS, however, clears Lady Macbeth of any trace of maternal trauma or desire. She’s homicidal, not hysterical. She’s characterized by malevolence, not madness.[1] In gaining and maintaining the Scottish throne, she also succeeds where her Shakespearean prototype fails, but this is hardly enough for her. And unlike Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, she doesn’t rely on her husband to get what she wants; she simply rids herself of Macbeth, a nuisance of a husband and an obstacle to her own political ambitions. In fact, KS’s Scottish Queen doesn’t give her husband much thought at all. It’s Iago who comments on their inverted gender roles: “[Lady Macbeth] has none of the soft parts of her husband.” No soft parts, indeed. Those impressively pneumatic breasts are definitely not filled with milk, not even a drop of it. Instead of milk, she’s full of the sinister liquids of liquor and poison, which she administers without a trace of human kindness. Lady Macbeth’s breasts in KS might be seen as inflated, metaphorically, with her voracious ambition. Appropriately, they are also her most formidable weapon, insuring her husband’s lusty oblivion as she straddles him in bed . . . and murders him. Instead of drinking the “nectar” between her legs as he happily expects, he gets poison thrust down his throat. As Lady Macbeth forces her liquid into him with her phallic vial, she is so much more the man. Like the stage and film productions that have depicted Lady Macbeth erotically, KS emphasizes a connection between a woman’s verbal and sexual aggressiveness. In the Renaissance, the oft-open mouth of a woman who talked excessively or forcefully was thought to have an analogous “openness” in her nether regions as well. In KS, Lady Macbeth’s skill at verbal manipulation hooks not only her husband, but Iago and King Richard II. In bed, she and Richard spar with “wit”--a word that for Shakespeare’s audience would have a double entendre as genitalia. Like their battle of wits, their competition for Shakespeare’s quill, an object with clear phallic symbolism throughout KS, is ultimately a fight for sexual and political domination. The most audacious adaptation of Lady Macbeth’s character in KS, more than her inspired cup size, is her new identity as a bona fide witch. Her magical cred supersedes that of the incanting Weird Sisters who submissively mumble their toil and troubles in her shadow.No matter how many Shakespearean scholars have argued for their similarities in Macbeth, there is no evidence that Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth knows the three Weird Sisters, save for Macbeth’s mention of them. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, all four ladies may take gratification in controlling Macbeth, but only the witches have true agency; as she discovers, Lady Macbeth is just a poor player strutting and fretting her way to a really crappy fate. By promoting Lady Macbeth to witch status, KS ups the ante of the threat she poses to Macbeth, to Shakespeare, and, if we think about King James’ influential 1597 treatise on witchcraft, Demonologie, to the world of men in general. Richard is warned that she is “bewitching” and to “stay safe from her spells,” but he counters that she is merely his “possession, nothing more.” Nothing more, Richard? Are you sure about that? Shakespeare’s witches are sexual deviants who gets their kicks from screwing with men. Maybe from literally screwing them, too. They brag about removing a sailor’s thumb, a castration narrative KS evokes in Lady Macbeth’s fantasy of snatching the quill from Shakespeare. A well-endowed caricature of a Sexy Woman, Lady Macbeth would evoke a grotesque and subversive (and transgendered?) figure should she gain possession of the phallic quill, that penile appendage. With the quill, she would, as she declares to Richard, be “crowned king of this infinite space.” In Demonologie, King James’ deep paranoia about his subjects’ loyalty is on full display. He writes that women are susceptible to becoming “entrapped” by the “gross snares of the Devil” because they are weak, frail, disloyal creatures by nature. Once they become witches, the devil’s servants, they will launch a sexual and thus, political assault on every man they can get their hands on. Witches, he argues, have the power to:“[weaken] the nature of some men, to make them unable for women.” Unlike the bearded ugly witches in Shakespeare’s play, the extreme sexuality and physical beauty of KS’s Lady Macbeth only underscores, by contrast, the potentially sterilizing, castrating, and generally emasculating effects she has on men. What would King James make of her controlling the dagger that flies around trying to stab Hamlet and Shakespeare? Like the phallic vial of poison, the dagger is a weapon that is both physically and ideologically threatening in its symbolic usurpation of phallic power. It’s easy (and pleasurable) to imagine King James quaking with anger and pointing a shaky finger at this comic book Lady Macbeth. “See?,” he would mutter through clenched teeth, “I told you so!” At the end of Issue #12, after the big fight scene, Lady Macbeth disappears in a puff of magic smoke. It’s her own version of “I’ll be BAAACK.” Suddenly, that visually arresting eye candy of a body is gone, and we are left with . . . well, with eyes. Her eyes, staring out at us from the page. There is no body here, no breasts. Yet their gapingly absent presence is as much of a threat as they are, in all their gloriously visible cleavage, to the horny Iago. Shakespeare’s suicidal Scottish Queen becomes undone by her physicality—she just can’t seem to get that damn spot off her little hand. Not to mention the trauma of that lost child, the pet theory of Coriat and other psychoanalytic critics. There’s nothing little about Lady Macbeth’s character in Kill Shakespeare, but her enormous breasts, and perhaps her entire body itself, is a ruse. As the disembodied eyes suggest, she maintains a purely utilitarian relationship with her own body. Her real power isn’t her well-endowed physique but rather her ability to deploy it and collapse it. In this sense, her magic allows her to transcend the physical body, freeing her from the matters of flesh and blood—such as the prophecy of Banquo’s children who will succeed the childless Macbeths—that sunk her sixteenth-century prototype. Michelle EphraimAssociate Professor of EnglishWorcester Polytechnic Institute
In Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth betrays a soft spot early on: she says she won’t kill King Duncan because he resembles her father. On the other hand, a reader could imagine
KS
’s Lady Macbeth nonchalantly offing a family member should she get the chance.
WHAT A RIDE!
Finally....Wow. What a ride that was. The path to get Juliet from our brain to your eyes has been a far crazier and more rewarding one than I could ever have imagined.We sent off the final issue to the Printer's this Friday -- almost a full year after the first pages were drawn. If you had told me it was going to take us a YEAR to get four issues done -- I would have laughed in your face. No WAY. The book was totally written by November, this thing was going to go off without a hitch.
Ha. What was that they say about "best laid plans....?"Somehow, in-between that first page and last Friday, there's been numerous family illnesses, two floods, one team member who had to leave, a busted up car, more trips to Cons than I can count, and 100 pages (And counting - don't worry, we have a bad-ass back-up story for the trade) of the best work we've done on Kill Shakespeare so far.I want to thank Corin Howell, our incredible inker and penciler who had to juggle the family illness, the busted up car and one of the floods alongside the on-going work she's been doing for BOOM! and IDW AND the incredible stuff she's done for us. Corin, you're ability to nail all the biggest emotional moments, the beautiful backgrounds you've littered the book with, and your good nature and amazing laugh have made this journey a pleasure. KS will ALWAYS miss Andy Belanger, but you've proven to be more than worthy of being his successor.
Alex Lillie and Shari Chankahamma -- what a tag team. We'd worked with Shari before on Tide and Mask, and so I was SO excited when we got her back for Juliet, and then SO devastated when we lost her half-way through to a dream opportunity that she HAD to say yes too.
Into the void stepped Alex. You can't possibly believe this, but this is ALEX'S FIRST MAJOR COLOURING JOB IN COMICS!!! To be thrown into a series that has the depth of mythology as KS, and halfway into a book, is incredibly hard, yet Alex was amazing. I think you'll agree that hers was an incredible rookie season.
I also have to thank Simon David and Adam Gorham, our exceptional cover-artists. Simon did work for us on Tide of Blood (the iconic Skull, and, perhaps my fave of all time, the bloody Prospero emerging from a book), and being able to hand him all four covers was a dream. He churned out four more brilliant covers -- including what be my NEW favourite, his chilling take on Issue #4...
Adam is also SORT of new to the KS family. Those with keen eyes will have spotted his work here and there before, but this was the first time we could get him for a full run, and he did not disappoint. His issue #1 cover is one of the best things I think he's ever done. It kills me that we can only have one cover for the trade... because there is so much good stuff in here.
Toby Malone has a credit you don't see a ton in comics -- Story Editor, but he was invaluable in shaping the tale. His knowledge of Shakespeare is peerless, and there is more than one reference to the Bard that originated in his nimble brain. He also constantly had me thinking about how to best deliver the story concisely and with maximum emotion. He's a real talent - and any writer would do well to work with him.I also HAVE to thank the team at IDW -- Tom Waltz our fearless editor, who helped keep us on track story-wise, and was there when I was freaking out when we lost Shari, Corin had to go to be by her Father's side, and the roof of my house threatened to collapse. When I found out we weren't getting Chris Mowry, the letterer for the first four KS volumes, I'll admit, I was nervous. Shawn Lee took those nerves, made them a cup of tea, and tucked'em in with a good book. Shawn's lettering is instinctive, insightful, and never ever obscures the artist's work. That's the true mark of a great letterer -- knowing that the "image is the thing." Shawn, I'm a believer.
Last, but not least, I need to thank my partner in crime - Anthony Del Col. We started committing Bardicde way back in 2008, and now almost a decade later we're still going strong (or at least WE think so). I'm so grateful that Anthony was willing to give me a chance to take KS in this direction. It would have been easy for him to have felt threatened, or wanted to control things, but that's not the kind of guy he is. All he cares about is good story, and once we figured out what THIS ONE was, he supported me whole-heartedly (The "Cassio" twist is a direct result of Anthony challenging me to take the story to a better place.)Thanks Anthony. I'm blessed to get to tell stories with you.
Actually, the REAL last but not list are you, the readers. When we first dreamed-up Kill Shakespeare we had no idea if we could find an audience or not, and then you came into our lives. We're on the seventh printing of Volume 1, we've been able to take our little baby from the page to the stage, to the board (game), and now to TV. Without you folks reading, commenting, challenging us, we would never have come even half this far. I hope you find Juliet an excellent addition to the canon. At the end of the day we're here to serve you.
Lots of love,Conor
Issue #3 is FINALLY here -- it got a little Shakespearean there for a second.
Hey everyone,Today is a bittersweet day for the Kill Shakespeare team. On one hand we're thrilled that issue #3 of Juliet is out. We think it's the best issue of the series - a giant sized 28 pages of story that we hope feels as Shakespearean as anything we've ever done. Corin Howell's art has hit another level for this one, and I think it's one of the best issues I've ever written.
You may have noticed, however, that there's been a delay in getting this issue out -- originally #3 was supposed to be out LAST month and #4 was supposed to hit stores now.That's the bittersweet part. You see, it's been fairly Shakespearean behind the scenes here in the ol' KS world. Corin's Dad got sick early this year. He had to go into the hospital for surgery a couple of times. Thankfully he's going to be o.k., and we're so happy about that, but as you can imagine helping to take care of her family was Corin's top priority, and so that meant the book had to come second. Which is the right choice.For those of you who have the book you MAY have noticed that the colours seem a bit different. Well, that's part of the drama too...The OTHER bittersweet moment came because we had to say adieu to long-time colourist Shari Chankahamma. Shari whose been with us since Book 3 was offered an amazing opportunity to pencil and ink a project and there was no way we were going to stand in her way. That DID result in a delay though as we found a new colourist who could fit into Shari's style.Enter Alex Lille, our saviour (and big thanks to Keith Morris for helping us find her!)
This is Alex's first crack at a regular series, and she's still finishing up her degree in SoCal, so we decided that rather than rush her, it was best to take our time and make this book look as good as possible. All that add's up to a longer production cycle than we were hoping for, and it means that issue #4 is also going to be delayed -- with it looking to come out in August (it's almost finished on our end.)So, our apologies for the delay, but I hope you'll all understand the reasons behind it.Thanks to all of you.C
Conor hits the airwaves!
A couple of days before Juliet #1 was released I had the privilege of going on the radio in NYC to make an appearance on the Stuph File - an eclectic radio program hosted by Peter Anthony Holder. We talked about Kill Shakespeare, the new series Juliet, the hidden city of my birth, and EXACTLY how arrogant we were in deciding to rewrite this little known literary hack called Shakespeare...I'm on with a doctor who invented a "Hangover Heaven Bus" to help the, uh, overly enthusiastic denizens of Las Vegas, and a super talented writer/producer of the web-series 'Riley' - about a child star's life gone horribly, hilariously wrong as an adult.Go here to check out the episode -- we're #0398 if it's no longer at the top of the page.But if you're not interested in one of the most bizarre news summaries you'll ever hear, the Doctor to the Drunk, the fate of a child star all- grown up, and The Idiot of The Day, you can just listen to my segment here.Enjoy!
An Afternoon (and early evening) in Paradise!
Just wanted to write a quick thanks to everyone who took the time to come out to our signing for JULIET #1 at the AMAZING Paradise Comics.I had a great time seeing some old friends (Keith WTS Morris, yes! Doug and Peter), and making LOTS of new ones (including Peter's terminally cute little girl, Violet.) Below are pictures of super fans, Rachel, Dominic (aka the Kiwi Kid), The Voltron Sisters, the Big A and Terran - whose also the winner of out Twitter picture contest and will now win a copy of Juliet #1 when it comes out in trade.Can't wait to do it all again for issue #2!
CAPTION CONTEST
It's contest time!With Kill Shakespeare - Past is Prologue: Juliet #1 just a week away (WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5th), it's time to do some fun things to get us all ready for the latest chapter in our tale. Below is a panel from issue #1 of Juliet.Send us your best caption for it and the winner will receive a Kill Shakespeare prize-pack including books, t-shirts and more! 
For those of you not familiar with Juliet it takes place roughly five months after the end of Romeo & Juliet, where our heroine, still mourning the death of her beloved Romeo again comes face to face with death. This time the victim is her mother, and this time Juliet has reason to suspect it was not suicide, but a murder most foul. Now the headstrong and passionate young woman will be plunged into a world of rebels, mercenaries, and wise fools as she tries to bring her Mother's killer -- before Juliet herself is the next victim.It's the perfect place for a new reader to jump into the Kill Shakespeare Universe, and for you, our dedicated fans, it answers some of the questions we get the most: how did a girl, best known for being a star-cross'd lover come to lead a rebellion?As the Bard himself wrote "...be not afraid of greatness."All the best,Conor
I'll be at New York Comic-Con this week!
Hello fans!Things have been busy here in Kill Shakespeare Land with lots of work and deadlines of late. Many things to announce in the coming months...But first, I want to announce that I'll be attending New York Comic-Con this upcoming week in my adopted city!I'l be at Table 1249 the entire weekend, along with some helpers at the table. I'll have copies of all Kill Shakespeare volumes, our board game, our ShakesGear t-shirts, and copies of Assassin's Creed (Volume 1 and issues 6-12) and Sherlock Holmes vs Harry Houdini. And you'll be able to find out more about our future projects as well!
I'll also be attending a few panels and signings. These include:Dynamite Comics' Panel - Thu, Oct 6 @ 7:45pm (Room 1A02)How to Self-Publish - Fri, Oct 7 @ 11am (Room 1A02)Assassin's Creed Signing - Sun, Oct 9 from 12 noon - 1pm (Titan Comics' Booth)So come by and visit me - it's gonna be a great show!
The Year of Shakespeare!
To post, or not to post...I'm back after a two-week sojourn into the colds of Canada... Actually, I took two weeks with Lisa to celebrate the holidays and am now back to the grindstone, plugging away at scripts for projects already announced or soon-to-be-announced. The last year (2015) was a great one, and it's looking like 2016 will be even better.Not only that, it's also the Year of Shakespeare around the world. Why? Well, it's the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death (he died on his birthday, April 23, 1616). Shakespeare organizations from around the world will be celebrating and acknowledging this with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. 
And for us? Well, we have a few things up our sleeves but nothing to announce quite yet but stay tuned - there are at least two big things we'll be involved with this year that are Kill Shakespeare-related.
New York Comic-Con!
Hello! It's been a while as I've been quite busy over the last month with lot of stuff going on and lots of news to announce in the coming months. It's a little frustrating as I love to be able to post information regularly for our readers but, alas, I also need to make time to do, well, actual creative work that I will be able to write about!But today I write about this weekend... The New York Comic-Con!Yes, we will be attending the New York Comic-Con this weekend (Oct 8 -11) at the Javits Centre. It's the second-largest comic convention in North America and seems to grow bigger and bigger each year (with attendance hitting about 150,000, from what I've been told). It's always our biggest show of the year and this year it'll be just as big for us!
WHERE WE'LL BE (OUR BOOTH)We'll be at the same spot we've had for the last three years - BOOTH #1249, locating in Small Press area and close by the Marvel and Image booths. It's a great spot and we're happy to return. Conor will be overseeing the operation this weekend and I will be there on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. And joining us this time around is our amazing Marketing Coordinator Keith Morris! So swing by to pick up copies of Kill Shakespeare (including our recently-released hardcover book), Sherlock Holmes vs Harry Houdini (now available in graphic novel!), our board game, our t-shirts, and the first issue of Assassin's Creed (being released on Wed, Oct 14th!).ASSASSIN'S CREED - PANEL AND SIGNINGSTo celebrate the release of Assassin's Creed #1, we'll be taking part in a number of signings and a panel talk with Titan Comics. Our signings will be:Thur 3:15 - 4:15 - Titan Comics Booth # 2142Fri 1:30 - 2:30 - Titan Comics Booth # 2142Sat 2 -3 - Titan Comics Booth # 2142And our panel is:PANEL: ASSASSIN’S CREED COMICS PANELTime: 1:45PM – 2.45PM - Room IA24Guests: Richard Farrese (AC Scriptwriter at Ubisoft), Aymar Azaizia (AC Head of Content), Anthony Del Col (writer), Conor McCreery (writer), Dennis Calero (artist), Fred Van Lente (Templars writer), Andrew James (Executive Editor) So come by and say hello - it would be great to see you!
FanExpo, here we come!
It's that time of year! No, I'm not referring to cooler weather or the purchase of backpacks and pencil cases... I'm referring to FanExpo Canada in Toronto!Conor and I will be attending this year's show for our fifth straight year. Wow, it's been five years! Maybe six? I've lost track by now. It's always one of our best shows and this year we're excited to have it serve as the official launch pad for our new book SHERLOCK HOLMES VS HARRY HOUDINI! Though the book hits stores on September 10th you'll be able to find a limited number of copies at the show this year.
This year's FanExpo runs from Thu, Sep 3 - Sun, Sep 6th at the Metro Convention Centre. Conor and I will be located in Artist Alley at Table P59 all weekend.
This is why we do this...
I received an email from an old high school friend of mine last week, who I haven't heard from in almost 20 years (don't do the math, please...). He's now living in Europe (he moved back during high school) and discovered Kill Shakespeare in his own journeys. It was a really nice thing to receive out of the blue.
We spend so much of our lives working on our stories and one of the best things is to know that people are reading what we've written - and more importantly, that it helps bring people together. It makes all of the long hours and doubts completely worth it.The letter reads (I've edited out one line in the opening paragraph):Hello Anthony.You may not remember me, but we went to school together back in South Porcupine. We had mutual friends... and back then I used the name Matti. Only after moving to Finland have I started using my real name. But as to the reason of this letter. It is nothing more then a letter from an acquaintance from long ago congratulating you on your achievements. I literally stumbled onto Kill Shakespeare while working. A few years ago I was working as a child and family counselor in the university hospital of Tampere in the pediatric oncology and hematology unit. I walking into a patients room, and as I said literally stumbled on this book. I was immediately intrigued, as was the patient due to my English language. It turned out to be just the right "ice breaker" that was needed to start the process I went through with the family for what turned out to be a long, painful and sadly final trip to the hospital for this family. But it wasn't until now, years later I once again came across this series that I looked a little closer at it and realized that it was the Anthony that I knew back in Porcupine. I now live with my family close to the Russian boarder in a small town/village called Kiihtelysvaara,close to Joensuu in North-Eastern Finland where I am going for my masters in theology to become a pastor at the university. As such, from time to time I do work with the youth group and young adults. One of youth group kids brought your comic on a camping trip that we were on and he asked that I read it to them as my pronunciation is somewhat better then theirs.So congrats to you Anthony, you have a following way over here in Finland too. I wish you all the best. Kindest regards,Matti
Help boost the Kill Shakespeare Game's Rating!
Hey Bardolaters and Holmesians!We're back beating the gaming drum again and hoping you can help us get a bit more love for our board game baby 
Board Game Geek is a very influential corner of the internet when it comes to talking games. Right now Kill Shakespeare's rating is lower than we think the game deserves. We're asking you to go out there and rate the board game (obviously with what you feel it deserves), the more votes and comments we get, the more attention we can bring to the game -- and the more "frenemies" you can find to play with you!You'll need to register for a BGG account first, but if you like board games you'll want one of these anyway.Once you are a member rating a game is a bit tricky so let us walk you through it:a) At the top left of the screen, beside your log-in name, there are a series of drop-down menus. Click "My Geek"b) Choose "Collection"c) On the top left is a button "Add Games'. Click that.d) Type the name of the game you want to add in the dialogue box and click it when it comes up.e) Once the game title is listed in your collection you can click on the N/A button below the heading Your Rating to add a rating and then click on the empty space below "Comments" to add a comment. Be honest. If you're frustrated with the game let us know, if you think it's great, let us know.Thanks again for being the best group of fans in comicdom! (and gamedom now too!)C&A
Helpful files for the Kill Shakespeare Game HERE
Happy New Year (again) everyone!
Many of you have been reaching out to us on social media to let us know you received a copy of the Kill Shakespeare Board Game for the holidays. Thank you so much for supporting us. We want to hear everything we can about how you are liking the game, what you think can be improved, and what you'd want to see in expansion packs for the game.For those of you who didn't realize we had a game out you can go here for a great review and discussion of how it came to be (And if you have the game? Ah, go ahead. Click anyway!)This was the first time making a game for us and for IDW who spearheaded the project. While we're VERY proud of the game that Wolf and Tomas designed for us, it's incredibly thought-out and meticulously play-tested and put together, we know that some of the peripherals are a bit lacking.But IDW isn't the kind of partner to shrug their shoulders and say "oh, we'll get'em next time!" They've been working their butts off with a few different folks around the internet - including David Minken of ConnectMore - who posts amazing play-throughs of tons of great games. Together they have made a collection of bonus materials, rules, a turn description, a summary sheet of how each round works, etc... to make your game playing (or giving) experience easier - and we want to share those with you.To access the folder with all these goodies click here.Now go, play and have fun!All the best,Conor & Anthony
Game Launch? Check! Beer Drank? Check! Good times had? Check!
In the immortal words of the Bard: "that was a hell of a night."
Thanks to EVERYONE who came down to Snakes & Lagers last night to be part of the official game launch. Beer was drank, dice were rolled, backstabbing commenced (for the table I was at it came on the very first turn from a particularly feisty Juliet), and all in all it was very Shakespearean.Thanks also for the feedback you gave us. We really appreciated hearing what you loved about the game (the depth, the replayability, the awesome design) and what you thought could be improved (a rulebook that was easier to understand).We're happy to say that IDW is busy working on a new version of that slightly wonky rulebook. For those of you at the event you got to work off of some of the new cheat sheets they created(created by the amazing David Minken at Connect-More.ca, thanks David!) you could see how much they helped - we'll have a full set of those ready to go to Kickstarter backers soon.But if you have the game through non Kickstarter means, or are going to order it, give us a shout at muchado@killshakespeare.com and I can get you those files ASAP. While the game itself works amazingly well there are a FEW confusing bits in the rulebook that make the first turns a bit longer than they need to be.
But even with that minor challenge, I was amazed at how people tackled the game and kicked some Ricardian ass!Now if you're sad you missed the event, have no fear, TONIGHT (December 10th) at 6PM on SPACE's news journal show, Innerspace, you can see the whole thing and geek out as if you were right there WITH US!
Now of course I need to say a HUGE thank you to Aaron, Ben and Kayla at Snakes & Lagers. You guys were fantastic hosts and we couldn't have asked for a better venue to unveil the game. I also want to say thanks to Barry and the MacAuslan team for putting together the beer prize packs. And of course a big thank you to Doug and Matt from Paradise Comics who shocked everyone by DEBUTING VOLUME 4 of Kill Shakespeare at the event.
(I also want to nod towards John at 401 Games and George at the Silver Snail who generously allowed us to grab their stock to make sure we had enough games to meet demand.)
If you missed the event but NEED some Kill Shakespeare in your games cupboard and you don't see it at your local game or comic shop the Snakes folks can help you there too -- they send more games around Canada than anyone else. So you can buy your copy here: http://www.snakesandlattes.com/shop/What a great night -- we can't wait to do it all again!
You're Invited!
Alright you guys, it's time to come out and celebrate with us!
The K.S. Board Game is FINALLY out and has been delivered to almost all of our Kickstarter supporters as well as to game shops across North America. We're patting ourselves on the back and throwing a launch party with the help of the amazing people at Snakes & Lagers - 488 College St.
The whole thing goes down next Tuesday, December 9th from 5 PM until your brains explode from awesome gaming.
AND we want two of you, are dedicated fans to win the chance to play at the head table against Conor and our special MYSTERY GUEST (shhhh, it might be Ajay).
To do that you need to tell me WHAT GAME IS FESTE playing here in Issue #3 of The Tide of Blood?
This is a tough one, so keep an eye on our social media, twitter, Facebook and tumblr for more clues.
For all the details on the launch read on below!
Kill Shakespeare and Snakes & Lagers team up to launch KILL SHAKESPEARE BOARD GAME
Lucky fans will get chance to beat Kill Shakespeare co-creator Conor McCreery at his own game and meet SPACE TV’s Ajay Fry.
Toronto: Fans of both ‘Bardicide’ and brews will get a chance to combine their passions as Toronto’s #1 gaming bar, Snakes & Lagers hosts the official release party for Kill Shakespeare: The Board Game— based on the award winning Kill Shakespeare comic series.SPACE TV’s Ajay Fry will host the evening, and portions of the event will be shown on Hyperspace, SPACE’s flagship news program for all things in Geek culture. Kill Shakespeare co-creator Conor McCreery will also be at Snakes and two fans will get a chance to beat him (and Fry) at his own game by winning seats at the head table with Conor and Ajay.The evening begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday December 9th at 488 College St. West. To help celebrate the launch Snakes & Lagers will offer special deals to gamers on a host of their craft beers.Kill Shakespeare: The Board Game is the first release from IDW Games. Designed by Tomas Vande Giste and Wolf Plancke, the creators of the cult classic strategy game Yedo, Kill Shakespeare is a semi-co-operative game in which you and up to three friends each play as one of Shakespeare’s legendary heroes: Hamlet, Juliet Falstaff, Othello or Viola. Together you must overthrow the oppressive duo of Richard III and Lady Macbeth.But, as in real life—only one of you can be the hero of the revolution—and the ultimate winner of the game. This forces each player to constantly balance their actions between what’s good for the rebellion, with their own desire to be crowned the new King or Queen of Illyria.“I’m looking forward to teaming up with two passionate gamers to take down Richard and Lady Macbeth, but of course I’m going to be forced to backstab them in the end,” says McCreery. “What else would you expect from a guy who always plays as Falstaff?”To get your chance to play at the head table follow @KillShakespeare and @SnakesandLagers and “like” the Kill Shakespeare and Snakes Facebook pages for contest information.For more information contact:Kill Shakespeare Snakes & LagersConor McCreery Aaron Zack416.844.4122 647.748.4004Muchado@killshakespeare.com aaron@snakesandlattes.com Kill Shakespeare (IDW Publishing) is an award-winning comic book series created by Conor McCreery & Anthony Del Col. The original series has spawned two sequels, a live stage show that has played everywhere from New York to Dubai, a board game, and is currently being developed for television and other mediums.Snakes & Lagers is the late-night playground for Toronto’s gaming aficionados. Located in the heart of Little Italy, Snakes & Lagers offers 19 craft beer taps, an internationally inspired menu and hundreds of games for your eating, drinking and playing pleasure.
The Mask of Night collected edition is out next week!
I'm excited to announce that the collected trade paperback of THE MASK OF NIGHT is being released next week in comic shops around the world (and bookstores will be the following week). So if you're looking for a great holiday gift idea for that comic and/or Shakespeare fan in your circle, our fourth volume could be it!
This collected book includes the original four issues, a new backup story detailing the backstory of our protagonist's brother Sebastian (tying it into our Kill Shakespeare universe), and a page-by-page dissection of script-to-artwork.We're excited to see the final product when it arrives (after LA port delays) and we know you will too!
Killing Shakespeare in his own city!
I returned just over 24 hours ago from a whirlwind trip to London where I took part in the London Comic-Con (the weekend of Oct 24-26th). This was my third time over the pond for a show and I'm growing more and more attached to the city. In addition to the show I swung by the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the Globe Theatre. Both incredibly inspiring spots.Here are some pics from this weekend.
- Shocked by the content of Holmes vs. Houdini!
The Gameplay's the thing and it's FINALLY here!
The Board Games are FINALLY arriving.
It's been a LONG process (much longer than we ever expected and we're sorry about that), but we are starting to receive tweets and emails that you, our supporters, are receiving your copies of Kill Shakespeare: The Board Game.
Anthony and I had the privilege to see the game in Edmonton and New York, and we can tell you that it drew a LOT of attention from passer-by's. We even had one guy offer to buy the display copy for $200!
But we didn't want to leave it to total strangers to get a look at our new baby, so below are some pics of the game. I hope you'll agree that while it has taken some time to get ready, it looks like time well spent.
Also, the amazing folks at IDW want you to have the best game-playing experience possible. Once you get your game if you have ANY questions about how a rule works simply tweet @IDWGames or email Nate Murray: Nate@idwpublishing.com with that question and within 72 hours Nate will post a short video that will show you exactly how that part of the game works.
Yes, that's right, personalized rule explanations! That's pretty Bard-ass if I do say so myself.
(oh Conor, you're such a wit)
Now go swoon over some awesome game pictures!
New York - A Hell of a Town!
Well, what has quickly become the busiest convention of the year for us has just ended... The New York Comic-Con! Some reports indicate that the show is now bigger than San Diego in terms of attendance; I don't know if this is the case but I do know that it's a really big show.We had a great time in the city this year - meeting with fans, finding new readers, seeing the board game for the first time, and selling our new Sherlock Holmes vs. Harry Houdini series as well. We broke sales records and look forward to winding down the year with only a couple more.Here are some pics from the weekend:
New York Comic-Con
We are now only a week away from our biggest comic-con of the year... The New York Comic-Con!It was five years ago that we attended this show and secured ourselves a publishing deal with IDW... and now we're back with not only the fourth volume of Kill Shakespeare but also the debut of our new Sherlock Holmes vs. Harry Houdini series.
We will be at Booth #1249 the entire weekend so swing by say hello, check out our final issue of Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night, the first issue of Holmes vs. Houdini... and our board game! You can find a floor plan here. Andy will also be at the show at Table N11.We will also be doing signings at some other booths over the span of the weekend. These will include:IDW Publishing (Booth #1844) - Fri (Oct 12) - 6 - 7pmDynamite Comics (Booth #2022) - Thu (Oct 11) - 2-3pmDynamite Comics (Booth #2022) - Sat (Oct 13) - 4-5pmDynamite Comics (Booth #2022) - Sun (Oct 14) - 11am - 12pmSo it'll be a busy weekend for us but do come and visit!