Kids Read Comics! (A.K.A. My First Convention)

Hi everyone! I am super-excited, because this weekend I will be sharing my work at my very first comics convention - Kids Read Comics! I will be at Table #22 in Artist Alley, and will be there 12:00pm-6:00pm on Saturday, and 12:30pm-6:00pm on Sunday. 

I know most of my readers are not in the Southeastern Michigan area, but if you are, stop by and say hello! I've prepared some convention-exclusive swag for you, including a collection of my three-panel Shakespeare plays and some physical copies of my mini-comics.

KRC-Swag.jpg

Before you ask, let me just say that no, I have NOT yet gotten my act together and figured out how to most efficiently (and profitably) sell my stuff online yet, so this motley collection of material is, for the moment anyways, ONLY available at the Kids Read Comics! convention. However, I am hoping to get some sort of online shop up and running in the future. If you have any suggestions or want to share your own experiences selling stuff online, please do send me a message (goodticklebrain at gmail dot com) because I'd love to hear from you.

I will be at Table #22 in Artist Alley, and will be there 12:00pm-6:00pm on Saturday, and 12:30pm-6:00pm on Sunday. I hope to see some of you there!

The Shakespeare World Cup: Groups G & H

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

Here we go, the last two groups in the Shakespeare World Cup!

20140618-S-SWC-GroupG.jpg

And now for Group G:

Thank goodness that's over. Now I can sit back and enjoy the tournament without freaking out about how I'm going to connect Algeria with Much Ado About Nothing.

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

All You Need To Know About Henry IV, part 2

Tomorrow the RSC is live-broadcasting their current production of Henry IV, part 2, starring Antony Sher as Falstaff and Alex Hassell as Prince Hal! I just saw their production of Henry IV, part 1 at my local cinema this past weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. To help get everyone caught up for part 2, here is a handy-dandy guide to the play:

Forgot what happens in part 1? Check out my guide here!

Stop by tomorrow for the last of my Shakespeare World Cup team rundowns!

 

The Shakespeare World Cup: Groups E & F

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

Apologies! I was trying to get this finished on Sunday, but a weekend full of incident (including, finally, a local screening of the RSC's Henry IV, part 1) kept me from sitting at my computer for hours trying vainly to come up with a stupid rationale for each of these teams.

This was one of those projects that seemed like much less work when I came up with the idea. 

The answer is no, Ecuador will not have a bright start to the tournament. However, I was right about Honduras's tactics (aka KICK ALL THE THINGS).

Some non-World Cup stuff tomorrow, and then I'll try and fill in the rest of the teams on Wednesday. Tally ho!

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

The Shakespeare World Cup: Groups C & D

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

Ready for another round of "Let's Make Tenuous Connections Between World Cup Teams and Shakespeare Plays"? It's the game all the cool kids are playing this summer. Let's start with Group C!

And now Group D! 

Groups E and F are coming tomorrow! No rest for the wicked!

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

The Shakespeare World Cup: Groups A & B

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

The World Cup is officially underway! Let's take a closer look at some of the play/team match-ups and see why they are appropriate.

Before I start, I freely acknowledge that much of the rationale presented below is tenuous and circumstantial at best, and totally spurious at worst. That's what you get when you base your pairings on such arbitrary measures such as overall line count and FIFA world rankings, neither of which take quality into account. If you have any better ideas as to why a particular pairing works, leave me a note in the comments! I need all the inspiration I can get.  

And here is Group B! I'm quite pleased with how Group B turned out.

20140613-S-SWC-GroupB.jpg

Tune in again tomorrow (Saturday) to see how Groups C & D fare!

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

The Shakespeare World Cup: The Teams

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

The World Cup starts tomorrow! YAY! Football (or soccer, depending on your geographic location and cultural preferences) is my soap opera of choice, and I am really looking forward to a month of international angst and drama. 

For those of my readers who are totally uninterested in football, I have selected 32 Shakespeare plays to stand in for the 32 international teams competing in the World Cup. They have been paired together courtesy of a very complicated scientific formula in which I listed the teams according to the totally not-arbitrary FIFA ranking system, then listed the plays according to line counts, and matched the plays together. Team captains were then appointed according to their own line counts (with Hotspur stepping to to replace Falstaff and Hal, both of whom captain other teams).

Six plays didn't make the cut: Henry IV, part 2 and Henry VI, parts 1 and 2 were disqualified for having parts with the same name already in the tournament, while Henry VIIIPericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen were axed on account of excessive collaboration. Don't argue with me! My decisions are ineffable and incorruptible, just like FIFA's.

(That was a joke.)

So, without further ado, here are your competitors for this year's Shakespeare World Cup!

I'll be checking back periodically to explain why these totally arbitrary pairings work perfectly (Netherlands = Richard II! I mean, come on!) and to catch up with results. 

The Shakespeare World Cup
The Teams | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H | Group Stage Summary, pt. 1 | Group Stage Summary, pt. 2 | Round of 16 Summary | Quarter Finals Summary | Semi Finals Summary | Final Summary

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Summary

Well, we've finally reached the end of King Lear. Thanks for sticking with me! It's taken a long time. In case you've forgotten everything that's happened over the past two months, here is a quick one-page summary:

I think that covers most of the highlights.

Before I leave King Lear, I must do my obligatory "Death and Marriage" count. As you know, the rule with most Shakespeare plays is that if everyone dies, it's a tragedy, whereas if everyone gets married, it's a comedy. Let's take a look at how King Lear measures up:

Surprise, surprise. 

(Thanks to Josh Freeman for reminding me about the Captain. I forgot all about him.)

Join me again on Wednesday, when I'll have... actually, I'm not sure what I'll have up on Wednesday, but it sure as heck won't be King Lear. Toodles!