The Adventures of Lego Shakespeare, part 1

A little bit of a lazy post from me today, whilst I prepare myself to tackle King Lear next month. If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, you'll know that one of my friends recently acquired a Lego Shakespeare mini-figure for me, after much trial, error, and cunning. Naturally, I was really excited to see what sort of antics Lego Shakespeare could get up to, and have been posting the results sporadically on my various social media outlets. So, for those of you too wise and sensible to be on Twitter and Facebook, here are the results so far:

Lego Shakespeare's debut! Of course there had to be a bear involved. There always has to be a bear involved. 

I woke up one morning to find that The GlobeHollow Crown Fans, and various other prominent Shakespearean Twitter accounts were encouraging people to post photos of their Shakespeare books. Decades ago, I had bought a very tiny copy of Henry V - my favorite play - which I used to carry around with me as a sort of Shakespearean security blanket. I managed to find it and had Lego Shakespeare pose for a photo with it, for scale.

I quickly discovered a challenging aspect of setting up Lego Shakespeare photo-shoots: finding things for him to interact with that aren't too big for the frame. I originally staged this with a paring knife, but it was so big that only the handle itself fit into the frame and you couldn't really tell what it was. So I substituted a teaspoon instead. The end result was funnier, because anything involving the word "spoon" is automatically funny. 

This has been the never-ending winter here in the Midwest (and across most of North America). So when I woke up to another four inches of freshly-fallen snow, I though it was the ideal time to take Lego Shakespeare outdoors. Unfortunately, Lego Shakespeare is not four inches tall, and was quickly overwhelmed.

Undaunted, Lego Shakespeare commandeered a T-47 snowspeeder and returned to the great icy wilderness. (In case you're wondering, the original quote is "Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?" See, "hath" sounds like the ice planet "Hoth" from Star Wars, so... hey, I said it was a terrible pun.)

This is my favorite Lego Shakespeare installment so far. I posted it, appropriately enough, on the Ides of March. It still makes me giggle, which probably says a bit too much about my psyche. (Also, note the stealth pun in "severity"... I'm quite proud of that one.)

These little tiny eranthis are always the first flowers to emerge at the beginning of spring, often coming up under the snow. Sure enough, when the snow around here finally started to melt, I spotted lots of squished-looked eranthis buds bravely poking up through the leaf cover. HOPE. That's what it is. 

Also, I am going to make a bold statement and say that nobody can sing "Hey ding a ding ding" without sounding incredibly silly. Anyone want to debate that point with me?

That's it from me today! My apologies to my Twitter and Facebook followers for not having anything new and exciting today. Tune in again next week, when "new and exciting" will be back on the menu, possibly featuring some more Shakespearean Selfies

Three-Panel Plays, part 19

This is it! The final installment of Three-Panel Plays! As Bottom would say, "alack, alack, alack". They've been a lot of fun to do.

There are only two plays that I have not seen live on stage. One is, ironically, Richard III have seen numerous film and filmed stage performances of it, but I missed it when it was last on at the Stratford Festival and haven't found a conveniently-located production of it since. The other is The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I have neither seen (even on screen) or read. I don't think that will change anytime soon.

20140319-S-Winter'sTale3Panels.jpg

OK, so remember how I had a hard time drawing donkey-heads? Drawing bears is even harder. I guess that looks more or less like a bear, but I thought I'd better label it just to make sure.

That's the end of my Three-Panel Plays! I've got some random stuff lined up for Friday and next week, but starting in April I'll be embarking on another scene-by-scene adventure.... this time of King Lear! Oh, this is going to be barrels of fun!


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 18

It's the penultimate edition of my Three-Panel Plays

Probably my favorite comedy. It's just so much fun. I'll eventually get around to giving it the full scene-by-scene treatment, but until then, here are a couple of Twelfth Night themed comics I posted earlier:

20140317-S-TwoGentlemen3Panels.jpg

Of course, ever since Shakespeare in Love, this play is better know as "the one with the dog in it". I left the dog out, due to space constraints. I hope the dog will forgive me.

Tune in tomorrow for that mostly-Shakespeare play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and that mostly-a-comedy-but-also-not-quite play, The Winter's Tale


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 17

The third-to-the-last installment of my Three-Panel Plays series is upon us! My, how time flies when one is having fun. 

I hope you won't judge me unkindly, but out of all thirty-eight plays, this was easily my favorite one to draw.

I saw a fantastic performance of Troilus and Cressida at the Stratford Festival back in 2003. I don't actually remember much about it, except Patroclus full-frontal flashed Odysseus, Paris and Helen got it on on-stage, and there were lots of people running around with spears. It was a lot of fun. 

We're almost done! Come back on Monday for Twelfth Night and The Two Gentlemen of Verona


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 16

The Three-Panel Plays are into the Ts now. If anyone ever asks you "which letter is most likely to start the title of a Shakespeare play?" the answer is T - assuming you're counting The Two Noble Kinsmen, of course. Otherwise it's H, with all the Henries. 

That's the basic gist of The Tempest. I'm very sorry that I cut out Caliban, but (a) I didn't have the space for him, and (b) I don't know how to draw Calibans. 

Confession: Out of the 37 Shakespeare plays that I have seen (I stupidly missed the Stratford Festival's production of The Two Noble Kinsmen back in 2002) I would have to say that Timon of Athens is probably my least favorite. This is probably because I am a feckless, shallow youth more interested in the joys of the world than in a bitter study of a man's descent into miserable misanthropy, but hey, to each their own. 

Next up on Friday, we hurtle on towards the end with Titus Andronicus (that's a fun one, believe you me) and Troilus and Cressida!


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 15

It's all about love in today's installment of Three-Panel Plays

Poor old Mercutio and Tybalt didn't make the cut. GET IT? "CUT"? HAHAHAHAH.... sorry, it's a Monday morning, that's the best I can do.

See how I managed to distill all the controversy surrounding varying feminist/misogynist interpretations of The Taming of the Shrew by adding a question mark to the last panel? That's efficiency for you. It says: "Draw your own conclusions, because I'm too lazy to do so."

Stop by again on Wednesday when I'll be taking a look at The Tempest and Timon of Athens! If you've always wanted to know what happens in Timon of Athens, but you've never seen a production (because it's hardly every performed) and you've got better things to do than actually read the play, or even the Wikipedia summary, you'll want to see this.


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 14

A double-dose of history in today's Three-Panel Plays!

Richard II got the full Tickle Brain treatment last year. You can see all my Richard II material, including a scene-by-scene stick-figure version of the entire play, here.

Remember: Richard III is not the sequel to Richard II. In between the two are seven different Henry plays. So the final score is Henry 7, Richard 2. Henry wins on aggregate!

Join us again on Monday, when we will be taking a look at two very different romances, with Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew!


See all Three-Panel Plays here!

Three-Panel Plays, part 13

Another Wednesday, another set of Three-Panel Plays. Today, a tragedy and a... OK, nobody really knows what Pericles is supposed to be. Comedy, romance, problem-play. Take your pick.

I'm not a huge fan of Othello, but Emilia is easily one of my favorite characters in the canon. In every performance that I've seen, Emilia has always been positively electric in the final scene, calling out Othello for being an idiot and Iago for being a total scumbag. "Villainy, villainy, villainy! I think upon it, I think. I smell it. O villainy!" You go, Emilia. 

I was lucky enough to see a production of Pericles at the Stratford Festival, which remains the only time I have see the play. It was a totally confusing mish-mash of melodrama and scene changes, but it was also quite a lot of fun. I'll have to track down the BBC TV production and take another look at it. 

Tune in again on Friday, when we'll have a brace of Richards, with the second and third of that name showing up. 


See all Three-Panel Plays here!