The easiest place to download the digital version is at DriveThru Comics.
You can contact Comic Fusion or your local comic shop about getting printed versions from Red Stylo Media, soon to be up on Amazon & BN.com.
Amber Love UPDATES!
08-AUG-2012
The digital versions of the SHAKESPEARE SHAKEN are going to be rolled out in sets of three stories each week. The schedule and full details are posted at RedStylo Media. Each digital release also comes with bonus content that will not be available in the printed versions of the anthology. No. 130, For Love is scheduled for August 29th digital release.
Pre-orders are being taken directly by RedStylo Media at this time. All of us hope to get listed in Previews catalog but if you don’t know how that works, it’s actually quite difficult to get listed. Comic shop retailers can be quite reluctant to order anything outside of Previews catalog. For this reason, please contact Rica Jang at RedStylo about setting up book signings in your area. RedStylo will have a presence at Baltimore Comic Con and New York Comic Con.
Print orders will also open on Amazon
As of now, I won’t personally be signing at any big comic cons this year. I am working on setting up a signing schedule in NJ and eastern PA for September.
I also had a lot of fun one day brainstorming my dream casting of No. 130, For Love if it were ever to find a home in film:
HERJA would ideally be played by REBECCA ROMIJN. Once I looked at Jhazmine’s colored panels of Herja, I was hit with this vision of Rebecca in the part, in full costume with the pink hair. It was so overpowering of an image to me that I couldn’t wait to brainstorm about the other characters.
VIOLET has more options ROSARIO DAWSON was my first pick but I also loved the thoughts of Zoe Saldana and Dania Ramirez. The hard part would be making any of these athletic ladies look sickly and physically weak. I’m sure it could be done.
DALEN DELLING took me a few days to come up with the right man for this role. Watching an interview with CHRIS PINE was when I noticed his perfect bone structure, great hair, and remembered enjoying his performance in the JJ Abrams’ STAR TREK. I think Pine would be a great choice for Delling.
MAJOR THOMPSON COLE is a character that I would want to have a little surprise in the casting. For that, I had one actor in mind and knew that he could be given some scruff treatment and a rebel army wardrobe to reach the appropriate visual. PAUL BLACKTHORNE.
The voice of THE OPHANIM would have to be someone that can mesmerize people vocally. The was easy because one day my co-creator Kristen McHugh sent me a link to an audio recording of the very sonnet we used for source material. It was read by TOM HIDDLESTON and both of us were ready to change our pants after hearing it.
ORIGINAL POST:
Amber Love 15-MAR-2012 From the publisher that brought you the 2011 THE POE TWISTED ANTHOLOGY, comes Red Stylo’s major project for this year, SHAKESPEARE SHAKEN. I’m thrilled to say that my pitch for it was accepted.
The process was pretty incredible. I had received an email about an open call for submissions for writers. Since it was specifically for short comic stories, I kept reading. I love short stories even though they have become lost and forgettable in the world of literary fiction where goals seem more set on page count than quality. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever take on another anthology. I’ve been part of THE DECEMBER PROJECT and SHELTER so far. I dropped out of another anthology because it never seemed to get off the ground. Red Stylo already had the TWISTED POE under its belt which proved to me as a creator that they were just as serious about making a final product as I was.
The strange oversight on my part was that I didn’t realize this cool woman named Rica Jang that I met at a comic con is the force behind Red Stylo comics. I knew of the title AZTECA but I never investigated the publisher. Rica and I had talked during conventions and at the after parties with that promise to keep in touch. It was destiny – at least for me.
After reading through the call for submissions, my hopes deflated quite a bit. It was a Shakespeare theme! Oh no. Oh god!! I can’t do this! A plan began to formulate. I have some brilliant friends and each one has a skill set and knowledge base that can dumbfound me. Such was the case as I got to know KRISTEN MCHUGH. Her literary background and her own skill for writing simply blow me away. I needed help with Shakespeare. She was The One — the one I knew I had to contact and throw myself at her feet.
Of course Kristen surprised me with her excitement and her dedication to jumping on the project with me. She took the first big step in choosing which work of the Bard we should tackle and twist. I had only been thinking of the plays. Kristen chose SONNET 130. No flashy title given. Only 14 lines of poetry to turn into an 8-page comic. And to top it off, my lack of confidence was blaring. I read the sonnet half a dozen times. I was pretty sure I knew the message but I couldn’t be certain. I had Kristen translate it for me and then she shared her thoughts of the imagery in her head when she read it. What was there was a dystopian world where beautiful women who seemed to have it all were actually missing love.
I’m also a relative new fan of the steampunk/dieselpunk genre but it was something I’ve wanted to explore for years. Reading through Kristen’s initial idea was exactly what I needed to start off the project. I created a summary; it bounced back and forth a couple times; then I had a workable set of page breakdowns. The first draft was submitted and then revised with necessary changes to make this large world more intimate on the few pages we had. I also started downloading photos of fashions that I think our characters would wear. Most of the images I saved were haute couture from Alexander McQueen, may he rest in peace. Kristen and I don’t know who our artist will be.
Then I saw that other people from the Comics Experience workshop had been accepted into SHAKESPEARE as well. Worlds collide. THEN I saw another familiar name in the mix. My friend in the arts and costume community, Laura Guzzo is one of the artists. This project just gets better and better.
I plan to interview Rica Jang soon to talk about the anthology. She’ll be able to reveal the other creators involved and which tales will be told.