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:
Pictures from that most latin of North American cities. The one that never sleeps - the one that starts with an "M"
... Montreal. I know, I know that I just got back from Miami and you want photos of Manatees and Martinis, but some of you have been bugging me for awhile about La Belle Province."Conor," you say, "Where are all those photos you promised from Montreal? You took like a dozen of you and the belly dancer alone!"And I had to confess that because I am technologically dumb I had somehow managed to save my Montreal photos in a strange directory that I could not find to upload them.But lo and behold! While taking photos for my time at the Miami Book Fair, I managed to save THOSE photos in the same place and this time, sitting along in my hotel room with nothing but tap water and angst, I managed to CRACK THE CODE.So here we go -- a small sample of the VERY delayed Montreal photos are here, as well as a video from the show of a hoarse-voiced me trying to pitch a girl on the merits of Kill Shakespeare, but all she's REALLY interested in is my celebrity look-alike...For all the photos cruise over to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152150232089131.1073741855.132288909130&type=3The Miami photos and stories will be along in a day or so.Hugs,Conor
And now the video!
Swimming with fun at Lakes!
I've forgotten how much of British culture revolves around the pubs... I'm currently sitting in the only place with WiFi in Kendal city centre, a pub where I'm picking up northern British slang indirectly...I just finished the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival earlier today. The first (hopefully annual), it was a fun event in the beautiful Lakes district that brought some of comics' top talents (Ed Brubacher, Charlie Adlard, etc.). I was fortunate to be a last-second addition to the Clock Tower stable of talent for the weekend.Thanks to everyone that came out to the event - those from Kendal and those around the district. Thanks to Julie and Jenny, the chief organizers, who added me to the roster. Thanks to Owen and Emma for introducing me to the show. And thanks to Mike Holman at Diamond Comics UK who helped arrange for books to come (and Jon Harrison from Forbidden Planet who brought them).Here are a selection of photos from the weekend... Enjoy!
We never slept - well, because it was New York...
I'm back in Toronto, finally catching up on everything from this past weekend. The New York Comic-Con was amazing - so much fun and we burst through to break our sales record - by quite a bit, actually. We sold out of our new Volume 3 on Saturday afternoon, and Volumes 1 and 2 early on Sunday.In addition, our tshirts flew off the table and our new Shakespeare Fighter design was a HUGE hit.Thanks to everyone who made it such an incredible weekend for us - the organizers of the show, REEDPop (especially Jenny Martin), our hosts (Vanessa, Eric, Stephanie), Oliver and Mike from Mad Scientists (helped store and deliver our tables), everyone from IDW, and most importantly, everyone that swung by to say hello!Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Battlin' in Boston (pics)!
I just returned last night from a weekend excursion in Boston to attend the 2013 Boston Comic-Con and enjoy a bit of the city. It was a really fun weekend and the show was amazing, having doubled in size from the last time I was there, back in 2011.Thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend - our new fans and readers, the organizers of the show, Beata and Loren for helping out with logistics, the amazing Lisa for her pictures and patience, and the city of Boston!Here are some photos from the weekend:
Pics from Calgary!
After five weeks straight of traveling I'm finally at home for an extended period of time... Well, until next Thursday when I head to the Ottawa Comic-Con... And I've just gone through the photos from Calgary (below).What a great time I had in CowTown! Another Expo, another great time. We sold a lot of books, shirts, buttons and had a great time meeting new fans and readers. Lots of people - perhaps more than most other shows - were already fans of the series and picked up issues of the new Tide of Blood series.Thanks to everyone who helped out with the show - especially the volunteers, who were amazing! I'd like to single out Doug and Carrie-Ann, especially the latter, who provided sales relief during a good chunk of Saturday. And Tasha Zimich, who would inch over from her Sky Pirates booth to help out as well.I look forward to attending next year!
Photos from Toronto Comic-Con
This past weekend Conor and I took part in Toronto Comic-Con (formerly known as Toronto Fan Appreciation, I believe). Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, it was much bigger than the usual spring show mainly because it was attended by most of the main cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Alas, we did not find Patrick Stewart and force him to read our book on the spot...The event was a great way for me, specifically, to warm up for the soon-to-begin convention world tour - it feels like just yesterday that I attended my last convention yet it was back in October.Here are some pictures from the show. You can also see more at our Facebook page.
Attacked at Guelph's The Dragon!
Andy and I, along with the uber-talented and amazing Becky Cloonan, headed to Guelph this past weekend to do a signing at The Dragon, the Eisner Award-winning comics retailer. It was a fun afternoon that involved visits from family members, theft of Eisner Awards, employee Tyler Jirik receiving a raise and then being fired and then hired again, and another attack at the hands of Mason (this is the third or fourth now, I believe...).Here are some pics from the day!
Photos from Montreal Comic-Con
I'm a little late in posting these but here are some photos from the Montreal Comic-Con (Sept 14-16). It was a great weekend where we sold a lot of books, put on a standing-room only workshop (How to Create and Market Your Indie Comic), had an amazing Live Stage Reading (packed crowd), ate some good food, sang some great songs, and had a blast.Thanks to Keith Morris and Paola Paulino for coming to help out at the booth, Chris Cater for hanging out at the booth, singing and taking photos, La Dolce Vito Balenzano for giving me a place to stay whilst in the city, and everyone else who came by the booth!
Montreal Comic-Con - and Live Stage Reading - was amazing!
I got back from Montreal yesterday evening and am still catching up on emails and correspondence but wanted to post a quick update from this past weekend. The entire weekend was a success for us and it's our second consecutive great show in Montreal. Lots of new readers, lots of returning readers, and lots of new friends!What made this weekend memorable, though, was our very successful Live Stage Reading on Saturday night. Playing to a packed crowd of about 300 or so the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company put on an amazing production of the Reading on Saturday night. The crowd laughed, they gasped, they thoroughly enjoyed it. Numerous people that night and the next day told us it was the highlight of the weekend for them.
I will be posting more photos in the next couple of days but here is an image from the show. The photo was taken by Chris Cater of Flux Fox Photography. And just wait until you see a video of he and I performing at our booth earlier in the day...
Images from FanExpo
It's been a really hectic week so I'm a little slow in posting these images... FanExpo last weekend was fantastic! It's always great to attend the large show in your hometown (third largest in North America) and great to meet up with friends, fans and everyone in between. This year's show was great - sales were brisk (came just short of our all-time sales record!), we sold out of both volumes, I hosted a well-attended workshop, and more people became exposed to Kill Shakespeare!A big thanks to Keith Morris, our marketing intern extraordinaire, Geoff Moore (always be selling), Samara Nicholson (head of transportation), Sherri Chantler (head of Sunday snacks), Carol Zara (for her gift bag), Ian Herring (for putting up with us sitting beside him...), and everyone else that helped out over the weekend. Thanks to the organizers of the event, namely Kevin Boyd, who creates such a great environment for artists and creators at the show. And thanks to everyone who came up to our table to say hello, get their books signed, purchased books, or generally made us smile through the weekend!(Conor has more photos and should be posting them soon...)
Caption Contest!
Win a Kill Shakespeare t-shirt by submitting a caption for the photo below (of Anthony being playfully attacked by young fan Mason Chantler)! You can submit a caption here, by Tweeting to us, or on Facebook! A winner will be selected randomly later this week...
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...
Fuzzy Photos from Montreal
We got back in from Montreal late last night after a really great weekend. The Comic-Con there was really good for us (we sold out of books!) but the Con overall is becoming a really strong one. The numbers increased dramatically from last year, there was a lot of excitement, and I think it's a Con that will continue to grow over the next few years. We definitely would love to attend next year and meet up again with our new fans and readers.Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth - our existing fans (the peeps from Hal-Con, Adam from Kingston, our biggest fan Julie, etc.), those that swung by because they had heard of us, those that checked out our book for the first time (hopefully you're enjoying the read) and those that are only now checking out our website (welcome!). Also, thanks to those who attended our two workshops (the Creation of Comics, the Business and Comics). And finally, thanks to Oscar at the show for inviting us as guests - it was a great experience.I just went through the photos and, unfortunately, a lot of them are out-of-focus. Not sure why. But here are a few shots from the weekend...
Advertising in Stratford!
Our good friend Steve Pigozzo, who lives in Stratford, Ontario, decided that he'd like to help advertise Kill Shakespeare so he did what he could - he painted our website onto his front porch! Any visitors driving on Ontario Street, the major street in the city, will pass his place (it's right by the Dairy Queen) and check out the site.Of course, why didn't he paint a QR Code onto the porch as well...?
Pics from Calgary Expo
We had a simply amazing time in Calgary last year. We've been to many Cons over the last two years and Calgary is definitely, if not the best, then right up there. We organizers were absolutely fantastic, the crowds amazing, and people were super-excited to see us there. So much so, in fact, that sold out of trade paperbacks by Saturday at 2pm and after that only had artwork and individual issues to sign (the latter of which sold out Sunday at 1pm).Thanks to everyone associated with the event for a great time. Thanks to the organizers, to the fellow artists and creators, to the organizers of the Joe Shuster Awards (which I missed as I was at our table but Conor attended), to the CBC for running our profile that very weekend, and for everyone who stopped by to chat with us. I've said it many time already but I'll say it again - one of the best parts of our time with Kill Shakespeare thus far has been being able to chat with fans and readers at conventions. We look forward to our next one - Baltimore in August!Here are various photos taken over the weekend.
Toronto Fan Appreciation Comic-Con
This past weekend we took part in the Toronto Fan Appreciation Comic-Con. It was a two-day affair at the Metro Convention Centre and, though not as big as some other cons in the city, was a great event for us. We had a number of fans and readers visit us, sold a number of books, and made some new friends and readers.Thanks to everyone who stopped by our tables to chat, to the organizers (Kevin and the gang), to Ben O'Brian, our marketing assistant who is now our #1 salesperson, and to those who picked up the book!Here are some photos from the weekend:
The South Street of Philadelphia
Conor, Andy and I returned to Toronto at about 6:30am this morning after driving through the night from Philadelphia. We've already posted a number of entries and photos from our stay in New York but Philly found us at some great places and meeting some cool people.One of the reasons we ventured out to Philly was because of Conor's trip earlier this summer (you can read about it here) where he met Joe Turner at Atomic City Comics, a great comic and pop culture store. We did a signing there on Friday night and then returned for a couple hours the next day to hang out. Joe and the gang there are fantastic and really promoted our stay and introduced us to a number of great people.Photos from our signing(s) are below.
More Photos from the Gallery
For those of you who couldn't make it we continue our photo essay from the gallery show we had here in NY at the Chair and the Maiden gallery.
These photos were taken by the lovely and talented George Goss, a local photo-journalist who just so happened to be covering another event down the road.
It's always rewarding when we get to meet new people through this adventure and George was a fantastic example of that. I mean how many people would just poke their head in, say hi, and start snapping pics for us?
All in all this is just another example of why we have been having SO much fun with this project and why we are looking forward to our Toronto Book Launch where we can rub elbows with family and fans from the T-dot (and also friends who hate what we are up to but are too polite to say so....).
So see you all on the 16th at 918 Bathurst - doors open at 6:00 PM and the fun and food will last until 8:30 or so.
What should the caption be?
This is one of the funniest photos I've ever taken... I hope that you agree. But we're having problems - we'd like to come up with the best caption possible. We are now holding a Caption Contest - submit your ideas for the caption for this photo and you can win an autographed copy of Issue #5 (to be released Sept 8th)!
