Award-winning
Kill Shakespeare Returns to IDW with New Series, Celebrates with NYCC Stage
Show
Toronto, Canada: IDW
Publishing is proud to announce the return of the acclaimed comic series Kill Shakespeare to comic shelves.
The first issue of the new
five-issue limited series, entitled The Tide of Blood, will hit
comic shops across North America and Europe in February, 2013.
Series co-creators Anthony Del
Col and Conor McCreery returned to pen the five issues and original artist Andy
Belanger is back as the series artist (and also adds cover artist
duties). All three are at this week’s New York Comic Con to
officially launch the new arc as well as present a special Live Stage Reading
based on the first twelve issues of the series that the New York Times called:
“gripping, violent, dark, fun.”
The five-issue series – a
continuation from the first two books - will follow Hamlet, Juliet, Othello and
Romeo as they face their biggest threat – Prospero, a rogue wizard who
plans to destroy all of creation. Hamlet must embark on a perilous
journey to a remote island whose inhabitants have gone mad and want the
Dane’s blood – if a love-triangle and Cupid’s poisoned bow
doesn’t kill Hamlet first.
“It is a dream come true
for us to be back at the New York Comic-Con, where we first pitched Kill
Shakespeare to IDW almost four years ago,” says Del Col. “We
are incredibly happy that our fans and readers have been asking for more and
have put together a new story that takes our characters in an exciting new
direction.”
To date, Kill Shakespeare
has been collected into two trades: A Sea of Troubles and The Blast
of War. Both were nominated for numerous awards and lists and Volume
1 is entering a fifth printing.
"I had an awesome time
working on the first two volumes of Kill Shakespeare," said series
editor Tom Waltz. "Tickling both my literary and action-adventure
fancies, Conor, Anthony, and Andy have most definitely given me one of the most
satisfying and unique experiences I've had as an editor at IDW Publishing.
And, just as the first go round proved it's hard to kill Shakespeare,
well, it's hard to kill a fantastic story concept, too, and I truly believe the
best is yet to come from the Kill Shakespeare crew!"
The series has also been brought
to the stage with the creation of the Kill Shakespeare: Live Stage
Reading theatrical show. Featuring a unique mixture of comic art,
radio-play-style drama, music, and audience interaction, it has played to
packed audiences in various cities across North America and will receive its
American comic convention debut at the New York Comic-Con on Saturday, October
13th at 11:00 AM on the Variant Stage. Special Kill Shakespeare
and IDW prize packs will be given away to lucky attendees at this free show.
Kill Shakespeare is exhibiting at
Booth #2280 all weekend at New York Comic-Con.
About the series:
Kill Shakespeare is
an adventure story that pits all of Shakespeare’s greatest heroes
(including Hamlet, Juliet, Falstaff, Othello, Puck) against the Bard’s
most menacing villains (including Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Iago, Prospero) in
a quest to track down and kill – or save – a reclusive wizard by
the name of William Shakespeare. The series was nominated for a 2011
Harvey Award for Best New Comic Series the 2011 and 2012 Joe Shuster Awards for
Comic Writing and has been selected to the YALSA and Maverick lists for top
graphic novels for teens. The series has been covered by NPR, BBC, The
Washington Post, CBC and The New York Times. In October 2011, Kill Shakespeare
was chosen by the Sundance Institute as one of six projects for the inaugural
New Frontiers Story Lab.
More information about the series
can be found at www.killshakespeare.com.
