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.
Happy Birthday Keith!
Today is the birthday for our amazing teammate, (former) intern, editorial assistant and comics guru, Keith Morris! Please take a moment and send him a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY greeting via his Twitter account, if you can.
Keith has been working with us for over two years and has done an amazing job, helping us with everything from grunt jobs (thanks for the Jamba Juice at our Paradise Comics signing!) to graphic design (his ads have appeared in every issue of The Tide of Blood) and recently amazing work as an editorial guru/art talent scout. He's an amazing guy to work with and a huge part of our recent success.
Excitement! Electricity! Edmonton!
I attended the Edmonton Expo this past weekend and it was an amazing time! The Edmonton Expo merged with the organizers of the Calgary Expo two years ago and this year attendance doubled so I was glad to be part of such an amazing show.Thanks to the organizer, Shane Turgeon, the artists I was placed with, and most importantly, everyone who came by my table to say hello, get something signed, pick up a book/shirt/buttons, or just threw a smile in my direction. A special thanks to my Aunt Elizabeth who provided accommodation, rides - and perogies! And thanks to Aunt Adeline and Uncle J.D. for coming out and also helping with meals during my stay.I hope to attend next year's show!Here are some pics from the weekend...
Good morning, Baltimore!
Last weekend I visited one of the top east coast comic-cons - the Baltimore Comic-Con! I spent the weekend chatting with fans, signing and selling books, attending the Harvey Awards, eating crab cakes, and having a great time. Thanks to everyone that I saw over the course of the weekend!Here are some photos from the weekend:
FAN EXPO 2013 - Part the First
All hail FanExpo!Thanks to all of you awesome people who came out to Canada's largest pop-culture show this past weekend. The Kill Shakespeare gang had a fantastic time meeting new friends, saying hello to old ones, and crossing (verbal) swords with anyone who came within shouting range!A big thank you to Keith Morris and Sam Zimmerman, our AMAZING interns who did a fantastic job selling books and merch with us (well, thanks to Keith for the the five minutes he actually bothered to SHOW UP).There will be tons more photos, but here are a few to whet your appetite for the weekend!
LOVE IS IN THE AIR - Well actually a box...
A Kill Shakespeare team-member is getting married!(Don't worry ladies, it isn't Anthony, you can put your hearts back in your throats - GRIN).No, this is the rather unsung Alex Bethke, part of the team that has been working hard to design a prototype for a Kill Shakespeare inspired word battle game.Alex let me know that last night, he proposed to his now fiance, Kienan Marie Walker, and she said YES!Of course, given what Alex DID for his proposal how could she say no?First off, the ring, a THIRD generation heirloom, was pretty cool.
But then there was what Kienan had to do to get to the ring. You see, Alex decided to go full Geek-Fu on this proposal and designed, and built, a 977 PIECE PUZZLE BOX for her to master.I could't even PUT TOGETHER a 977 piece lego set -- and he designed it AND built it (based on the Hellraiser design, naturally).What's more, the box had over a DOZEN puzzle elements -- Kienan even needed a hint to try to solve one of them.Alex filmed the four hours it took him to build the box as a gift and then presented the whole thing to her at night, surrounded by candles, on their balcony (using the Fight Club "Your one perfect moment..." quote as the lead in).
And she said yes!So, we congratulate Alex and Kienan on what will undoubtedly be a very entertaining life together (I'm just wondering if Alex is going to show up at the altar submerged in a giant aquarium and have to make a Houdini-like escape in order to kiss the bride).All the best to the new couple from the rest of us the Kill Shakespeare team!
The Long Wait is Over - final Tide hits stores on August 28th
After what seemed like FOREVER, the final issue of Kill Shakespeare, The Tide of Blood is steaming its way from the printers in Korea to YOUR local comic book shop!(o.k., it probably isn't STEAMING its way here, since this isn't 1910, but "dieseling" doesn't have the same romance now, does it?)The issue will finally run aground at your LCS on the 28th of August. We apologize for the big gap between issues #4 and 5 -- there were some script issues we had to iron out and Andy hit a crazy busy patch in his work and personal life and it all conspired to see us JUST miss our July deadline.But that is the past, and the future is....... well, one HECK of an amazing end to the latest series! Issue #5 is a wild, break-neck race across the island you've grown to fear.This puppy will wrap up the increasingly jagged love triangle between Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, will result in a wild three-way between Prospero, Shakespeare and Lady M (a WIZARD BATTLE you sicko, get your mind out of the gutter), and we'll get a better sense of just what Sycorax has in store for our heroes as well.I might even say it all ends on a "high tide"?(No? No, I shouldn't? In fact I should never try that pun again?Fair enough...)"Groaners" aside, because we're generous guys, below is a sneak preview of the VERY first page. I don't know how many other special peeks we can give you, every page is a spoiler in this 28-page juggernaut, but we can at least get you licking your chops for some Shakespearean action!Thanks for being patient, and for being the best fans in the world! (and for those of you who may have missed it, I'm also including the cover here as well)
CONOR
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:
Photos from Afar (England, that is)!
I returned from Europe earlier this week and have been busy catching up so haven't had a chance to get around to posting these photos until this afternoon.My trip to London, England late last month was incredible. First off, I'm a BIG fan of the country (despite the horrible weather I always seem to encounter) - there's so much happening and everyone we meet in the comics, theatre and film worlds there are so nice and have been great to us.Mainly, though, this trip was great because the MCM London Comic-Con (May 24-26th) was an amazing con for me. We sold out of books and made a great deal of new fans, readers and friends! I was very fortunate to be placed in a row with amazing talent like Richard Starkings, Boo Cook, Yishan Li, Lee Townsend and Emma Vieceli, all of whom made it a fun trip.I owe a HUGE thanks to the team at Diamond Comics UK for helping to put my visit together, mainly Mike Holman, who is one of the best ambassadors for comics in the entire world. He assisted Conor and I on our visit to England last year and made this year's trek so much better. He also allowed me to take part in the Diamond Retailer Summit on the Sunday, which allowed me to forge new friendships with a number of retailers across the UK.Another big thanks to the talented and fun Serena Obhrai, who provided accomodation for me - and also hosted a really fun Arrested Development party (complete with cornballs and frozen bananas) on my last day in London.And after the convention I headed over to Oxford to spend a couple days there, visit the great professor Amy Scott-Douglass, and lecture at her class at Oxford. It was a really fun session where we talked about not only KS but also Hamlet (as a man of action/in-action), Juliet as a strong female lead, and other things Shakespearean.Here is a selection of photos of my visit - additional photos can be seen on our Facebook page.
Conor's Con Pix Galore! (And an ANDY B. retrospective: "A Man and his Beard")
The past few weeks have been a pretty busy time for the K.S. boys. You've seen Anthony jet off to exotic far-flung locales like... Ottawa and... Calgary...But while Anthony was enjoying the high-life, poor lil' ol me has been stuck doing AMAZING SHOWS in Chicago and right here in Toronto -- TCAF 2013.I've been quite the shutterbug as I learn to play with this new Galaxy Tablet and I even took a bit of video of the Kill Shakespeare stage show that played at C2E2. I wanted to share some memories of the events and thank all the amazing fans and friends who came out and supported us in both places. I had SUCH a good time talking with all of you.We've said it before, but I don't believe that any other book has such diverse and interesting fans as K.S. does!Now let's see some photos!Below are a few from the stageplay that went on at C2E2 and was put on by the amazing Strawdog Theatre. I've already posted a few on our Facebook account, but these are a few samples that I took of the show. The rest you can find in this album.
Of course C2E2 was more than just theatre -- we also had fans and cosplay galore. To get a flavour of the delightful madness here are a few shots to whet your appetite. You can see more of C2E2 in this album.
This past weekend was TCAF -- a more "refined" comics experience. While cos-play isn't really a "thing" at TCAF it was a great chance to see old friends and to steal a ukele
For more TCAF click here.And finally, for those of you who haven't seen Andy B. for awhile you may not know that he now owns the 1,965th best beard of ALL-TIME. He just passed this guy and is closing hard on these guys.Andy graciously agreed to pose for a series of photos so we can commerate a time when life was simpler, and all that mattered was a man, his beard, and how many birds could nest within it.
For the entire, surely to be award-winning, collection - click here... if you dare!
Images from Ottawa
Despite a severe allergy attack and a really bad cough, I was able to take part - and quite enjoy - the Ottawa Comic-Con this past weekend. It was only the show's second year but it was a really big one and the organizers - the same ones who put together the Montreal Comic-Con - have done a great job.I was really fortunate to be placed beside some amazingly talented (and really nice) artists - Yanick Paquette (Swamp Thing, the upcoming Wonder Woman), Pia Guerra (my favourite series of all time, Y The Last Man) and Ian Boothby (Simpsons Comics) - they were great to chat with and share space with.And thanks to everyone who came to the show and swung by to chat, learn more about KS, pick up some books/ShakesGeare, etc. It was great meeting/chatting with all of you!Here are some photos from the weekend. You can find more on our Facebook page.
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!
Great first day in Calgary!
Today was a great first day at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo! Thanks to everyone that came by to visit my table at P-10 to visit/buy books/shirts/ chat, etc.! Tomorrow should be an even busier day for us!
Also look for my pitching workshop on Saturday at 4:30pm.
Shouting KS on the rooftops (of Cairo)
I'm just heading off to bed after another busy day in Cairo (thanks to my amazing tour guide - and Sundance fellow - Yasmin Elayat) but I wanted to post this photo. The artist known as Ganzeer organized a rooftop talk for me this evening to discuss Kill Shakespeare with comic and art fans so here's a photo from this evening...
Stage debut in Dubai!
I'm heading off to the second day of the Middle East Film & Comic-Con today but wanted to post this cast photo from yesterday's performance of KILL SHAKESPEARE: LIVE GRAPHIC NOVEL, which took place at the comic-con yesterday to strong audience reaction. Below are Conor and myself with the cast immediately after the show! More information to come.
Kill Shakespeare goes to school -- in Dubai!
With all the cons going on sometimes it gets tough to look ahead at what's coming next so it was nice to find an e-mail in our in-boxes from Melanie Guidera who is part of the Backstage Dubai team helps Ben Caddy and the rest of the MEFCC team with education programs at the Con as well as teaches English and Film at the Emirates International School - Meadows.Melanie sent us some great pictures from the school of Backstage Dubai's team of actors running a shortened version of the Kill Shakespeare reading they will be performing at the Middle East Film and Comic Con.The kids at the Emirates International School- Meadows seemed pretty taken with the performance and we hope to see many of them at the show -- and then maybe again when Backstage puts Kill Shakespeare on for a two-week run in the Emirate.
Spinning Tales at FableTown and Beyond
Safely entrenched in Anaheim after a busy few days in Los Angeles, and prepping for WonderCon, I've now finally be able to catch up on the events of last weekend.Last Fri - Sun saw the first-ever FableTown and Beyond convention in Rochester, MN. Not just a convention for the hit Vertigo series Fables, it was an exploration and celebration of "mythic fiction" in comics today. In addition to Fables and Kill Shakespeare, the show also featured titles like The Unwritten, Mouse Guard, Mice Templar and others.It was a fantastic convention and we made a lot of new friends, hung out with some great people and artists, sold a lot of books and t-shirts, and survived the cold weather of Rochester. I hope that there's a convention next year because this was one of the most high-spirited event I've attended and enjoyed it immensely.Here are some photos from the weekend:
Dream a little Dream with Neil.
Every once in awhile in the course of promoting Kill Shakespeare opportunities come by that see us starstruck. This past weekend was just such an occasion.While Anthony started the weekend holding down the fort in Rochester Minnesota (and rubbing shoulders with comci superstars like Bill Willingham), I was in Orlando after being invited to the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.The IAFA is an academic conference that focuses on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Attending the conference is like going to the very smartest corner of a ComicCon, except with a swim-up bar, and no furries.The 34th edition of the conference had five papers on The Walking Dead, two on semi-obscure Swedish Vampire flick Let the Right One In and a paper entitled Do Linguists Dream of Electric Sheep? A Study of Constructed Languages in Speculative Fiction.I even sat in on one paper that linked changing Renaissance Fairs to Stephen Colbert's notion of "truthiness" and what it called a growing problem in American Politics of ignoring what is true for what we want to be true (as always, blame the trolls people).So, for a geek like me this was heaven.But I was talking about being starstruck, and while being around so many smart interesting people was dizzying enough what REALLY made me need the shades was the chance to rub elbows not once, but twice, with a certain gentleman named...... Neil Gaiman.Yeah, him.As part of the deal the IAFA offered us they said they'd pay for a night in a hotel and make sure that whichever of us came down would sit on a panel with Neil and other scholars and talk about adaptations of Shakespeare.(the fact I got to go to this one explains why Anthony is currently sunning himself in SoCal while I hang out in lovely, but much colder, Toronto.)But if that wasn't enough the amazingly talented Carrie Cole, who helped put together the Kill Shakespeare stageshow when it was in Arizona had a surprise in store for me.You see every year at the IAFA they perform three, one-act plays that were chosen as winners of a competition. This year Carrie was directing them, and knowing what a ham-bone I am she asked if I would be willing to be in one of the plays. I agreed, but because the play would be a day after I was scheduled to go to FablesCon from Orlando I was ready to beg off."Oh, but don't you want to know who will be acting opposite you in the play?" she asked."Wellll, I guess....""It might be someone named... Neil Gaiman."So, about 45 minutes later I had my plane changed and was staying an extra day in Orlando which is how I ended up on stage on Friday night looking at one of the greatest writers of our time as he pulled a gun on me.The play was a taut two-hander called The Sum of Your Experience and was written Trace Crawford. It involves the strange case of a man who gets robbed and the mugger who steals all his stories.Appropriately Neil got to be the tale thief while I was the sorry son-of-a-gun who loses everything -- including the memories of his children.While I didn't get a great chance to hang-out with Neil afterwards (he had been on his feet for three straight days) I was able to chat a little bit and passed on a couple of Kill Shakespeare t-shirts to him and his wife Amanda. He was as gracious and polite as everyone said he would be and is one of the smartest people I've ever meant.Below are a few pictures from Orlando (and there may be one or two of a certain comics genius).
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.
