Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Coriolanus Edition
What would you do if you were confronted by a wild bear, as poor old Antigonus was in The Winter's Tale? I've already speculated as to what Hamlet's response would be. At the other end of the spectrum we have everyone's favorite psychopathic warrior, Coriolanus.
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, BEAR.
Shakespearean History Bingo
The Shakespearean Bingo train keeps rolling with today's follow-up to last week's Shakespearean Comedy Bingo. Today we take a look at the histories.
I was really tempted to put squares in that said "Someone is named Henry", "Someone is named Richard", "Someone is named Edward", but it got a little repetitious. Not any more repetitious than "So-and-so is killed", I realize, but you can't really avoid that in the histories. The histories are all about so-and-so being killed.
Exit, Pursued by Bear: Hamlet Edition
As you all know, I am really fond of the (in)famous "exit, pursued by a bear" shtick from The Winter's Tale. I thought it might be edifying to place characters from various other Shakespeare plays into Antigonus's unfortunate shoes and see how they react to being confronted by a wild and hungry bear. Let's start with Hamlet, shall we?
STOP SOLILOQUIZING AND MAKE UP YOUR MIND, HAMLET, THERE'S A BEAR TRYING TO EAT Y--- ooh, too late.
Shakespearean Comedy Bingo
Last summer I put together an Operetta Bingo sheet, scientifically designed to capture the most popular cliches present in light opera. Well, it just seemed obvious to apply the same process to Shakespeare's plays. Given the huge number of cliches present in Shakespeare, I thought it wise to break them down by genre. Today we look at the comedies.
BINGO
Shakespearean New Year's Resolutions, part 2
Happy New Year to all my readers! Have you made any New Year's resolutions? These guys have:
2014 was an amazing year for Good Tickle Brain. I started the year with just a couple hundred followers on Facebook and Twitter and absolutely no plans to for this website to be anything but a display case for the rather obscure jokes running through my mind. However, thanks in part to websites like i09 and Buzzfeed sharing my stuff, I now have well over a thousand followers on each site, plus more on Tumblr and Instagram. The "Shakespeare fan with strange sense of humor" demographic is, happily, much stronger than I had anticipated, and I have really enjoyed meeting and interacting with like-minded Shakespeare geeks.
2014 was also a year for projects. I started the Weekly Tickle Brain e-mail newsletter, as part of my ongoing plan to take over the world with stick figure comics. I signed up for more social networking services than I had previously known existed. I also did some work for the excellent Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which actually managed to cover my annual website hosting costs. So, if you appreciate being able to read Good Tickle Brain without any annoying ads popping up at you, thank the Birthplace Trust.
I consider "breaking even" to be a fairly substantial achievement in the field of esoteric niche-market webcomics, but some of you out there have been kind enough to indicate that you would like to give me more money in exchange for material goods such as t-shirts, books, mugs, and posters. In 2015 I hope to make Good Tickle Brain merchandise available! If there is any product in particular that you would like to see, please do get in touch.
Unfortunately, working on these sorts of projects does take up a lot of time. In order to allow me to work on expanding Good Tickle Brain, I will be moving to a twice-a-week posting schedule, with new comics on the site every Tuesday and Thursday. The Weekly Tickle Brain newsletter will continue to go out on Mondays, and I will also be posting random stuff during the week on my various social media accounts, as usual.
Too long, didn't read? Let me sum up:
Thanks for supporting Good Tickle Brain in 2014!
You're all awesome.
New comics will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays!
Shakespeare is awesome.
Happy New Year!
Shakespearean Christmas Carols
A very merry/happy Christmas to all my readers! Let's kick this party off the Shakespeare way. Everybody sing along!
Fun fact: Not much rhymes with "Crispin".
Hamlet is so cheerful when put to music like this.
Singing witches = cute.
Happy holidays, everyone! Check back on New Year's Day for a peek at some more Shakespearean New Year's Resolutions.
Into the (Shakespearean) Woods, part 3
Rosalind's song is based on On the Steps of the Palace, while Helena and her suitor's are singing a version of Any Moment.
The witches are singing Children Will Listen, and the final chorus is pretty much a re-hash of the opening chorus. This concludes my foray into Shakespeare/Sondheim crossovers! I hope you've enjoyed it.
I'm going to be taking the next two weeks off, in order to enjoy the holidays and get caught up on some long-overdue Tickle Brain projects. I hope to have comics up on Christmas and New Year's, and will probably be posting random stuff on Tumblr and Twitter (including my ongoing Shakespearean Advent entries) but will not resume regular comic updates until the new year. The very best holiday wishes to all of you!
If you want to make sure you don't miss anything over the holidays, sign up for my e-mail newsletter! All the cool kids are doing it. Well, my friends and family and a couple other people are, anyways.