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Manga Shakespeare are manga adaptations of Shakespeare's plays from UK graphic novel publisher, SelfMadeHero
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The Making of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar is here!
My first book.
What a lovely day Thursday the 3rd of July 2008 has been. This afternoon, the sun shined brightly and the weather was fine as the intercom to my apartment rang. It was the postman on his bicycle with a very special delivery for me, my first graphic novel. Manga Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is here. I am so happy to see the final form.
Go out, stay in, order the book, pull yourself up against a quiet spot by the window, or tuck yourselves in bed and read away. Let me know what you think, and most importantly, enjoy Shakespeare’s great and ambitious play.
^_^
- Manga Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar by Mustashrik is available to buy at all good book stores such as Borders or Waterstones and online via Amazon and Play.
Mustashrik. Copyright 2008.
Lucilius.
A wonderful little boy
Blessed with a joyous soul
Singing and dancing
Wherever it is he may go
A great little seed
For the future of the world
Smiling and skipping
To the very end of the road
A loyal little one
A brave little one
A beautiful soul
This seed is their life's hope
Mustashrik. Copyright 2008.
Character from Julius Caesar.
*Desktop wallpaper for you my friends
Julius Caesar coming June 2008
Ruby Blue.
Hey there,
News front is open, and it looks like this, my first book is finally done and ready to rock and roll for publication and a summer release this June! It’s all very exciting, yet at the same time surreal to be happening so fast. Julius Caesar has been something I’ve been working on for about 5 months and invested a lot of myself in physically and emotionally, in regards to the time spent visualizing it all and the metaphorical symbols and characterizations. I sincerely hope you like it and would like to thank everyone whom has supported me along the way, this book is for you.
Here’s a look at the cover artwork they’ve decided to run with for the first print, paperback edition. The colours are an artistic collaboration with fellow Manga Shakespeare visionary Robert Deas, whom is also putting an amazing re-imagining out on the shelves at the same time with the classic Macbeth (look out for it too!). Thank you Robert for the last minute pitch in.
So what does Caesar mean to me and what do I hope it means for you…To me it very much reflects a feeling of peace, redemption, sanctity and friendship. That all these themes are present in the story itself I hope is something you connect with, and realise the fragility of. Life is precious, enjoy every moment of it.
Official Publishers book information: http://www.selfmadehero.com/manga_shakespeare/titles/julius_caesar.html
Production Blog : http://mangashakespeare-mustashrik.blogspot.com/
Mustashrik. Copyright 2008.
Videos
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HIgh speed tour of SMH HQ
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Resonance FM interview
Added by SelfMadeHero
Manga Shakespeare competiton results
How to make a Manga Shakespeare with Faye Yong
Blog Posts
How Faye Yong drew Shylock for The Merchant of Venice
Posted by SelfMadeHero on September 30, 2009 at 1:00pm
Manga Club Goes to Edinburgh
Back L to R: Rebekkah McAleese, Natalie McAleese, Darren McKenzie, Douglas Steel, Madison Alexander, Mrs Ingram, Kerri Sargent,… Continue
Posted by SelfMadeHero on September 11, 2009 at 4:11pm
Star Wars lightsasber chopsticks from Kotobukiya
Posted by SelfMadeHero on August 20, 2009 at 3:46pm
NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO > NEO
Posted by SelfMadeHero on August 12, 2009 at 3:30pm
The making of The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet
Merchant of Venice: Jessica & Lorenzo fanart
Lovely lovely fanart by Amanda Tribble, submitted to the art competition at London Expo, October 2009.
Thank you Amanda, you made my day! ^o^
Merchant of Venice: My first fanart! =^w^=
I'd been meaning to upload this for some time, well here it is! This was drawn by the lovely talented Kate Holden, jewel of the North! XD
She drew this for me to cheer me up while I was exhausted working on the Merchant project, and I'm so chuffed! Bish Antonio in all his angsty-wangsty glory.
5 and going
Inked 5 spreads (meaning 10 pages!) today. I think I just broke my own personal record.... and I'm going to keep going!Here's one of the pages inked today, and LOOK! They have backgrounds! (the bane of my existence). Antonio and Shylock having a mini face off... oh the drama!
Merchant of Venice
Pencils for page 162-163. It's one of the lighter comedy moments, and it's nice to see poor Lorenzo and Jessica get their 15 minutes of fame. =)
Merchant is chugging along quite nicely. Thumbnails are done, and all I have to do is to pencil and ink the pages remaining!
Pre-order Manga Shakespeare titles at Amazon.com!
FOLLOW THE MAKING OF "TWELFTH NIGHT" EACH MONTH IN NEO MAGAZINE
Henry VIII Production blog
The other Henry
If you can't get enough of Henry VIII, you might like to check out The Tudors books and DVDs. I think the books have great covers - though they are a bit saucy, so avert your eyes if you are easily offended by bodices that look like they might rip (or be ripped) at any moment.
"Henry VIII" or "All Is True"
We wouldn't be surprised if you'd never heard of Shakespeare's play, Henry VIII. It was one of his later history plays and is considered to have been written in collaboration with his successor, John Fletcher.This is a quick synopsis of the play, which gives an outline of the story. It isn't the traditional story of Henry and his wives but it does include characters that you will recognise: Katheryn of Arragon, Anne Boleyn and Cardinal Wolsey...
Following the King’s triumphant summit-meeting in France, organized by his ambitious minister Wolsey, there is factional unrest back home at court. Wolsey’s arch-rival Buckingham suspects corruption – but Wolsey is a dangerous enemy: after bribing his “Surveyor” to give false evidence, Buckingham is arrested for treason. Praised by the King for thwarting Buckingham's “conspiracy”, Wolsey’s schemes are opposed by Queen Katherine, who joins Norfolk in condemning him for the savage taxation he has introduced. Of this policy the King knows nothing, and when he orders its cancellation, Wolsey privately seeks the political credit for doing so. The Surveyor testifies that Buckingham intended to murder the King.
Wolsey celebrates by throwing a riotous banquet, which is interrupted by a group of masked revellers – among them the King himself, who is smitten with his dancing-partner: Anne Boleyn by name. Love and politics now begin to interwine. Buckingham forgives his enemies, and dies nobly; Wolsey’s schemes continue. Next on his agenda is the divorce between the King and his Catholic Queen, but this is opposed by Norfolk and others, whose appeals to recognize Wolsey's intrigues Henry ignores, instead welcoming Wolsey and the papal legate Campeius, and instructing his unscrupulous secretary Gardiner to initiate formal divorce proceedings. Henry has meanwhile sent an expensive gift to Anne Boleyn...
Despite Katherine’s spirited defence against Wolsey, Henry expresses doubts over the sanctity of their marriage (she is the widow of his dead brother Arthur): she is persuaded to accept the divorce to avoid scandal. Wolsey’s political success is nevertheless short-lived: he has inadvertently included some incriminating documents in some papers sent to the King, and when Henry returns them, Wolsey realizes the game is up. Arrested and charged by Norfolk, he stoically accepts his fate, advising his deputy, Cromwell, faithfully to serve the King – now newly married to Anne Boleyn. The factionalism continues, though, even on Anne's Coronation Day, this time between Gardiner and Cromwell's friend (and Henry's close adviser) Cranmer.
When word of Wolsey’s execution is brought to the ailing Katherine, she forgives him, honouring his Christian repentance after a symbolic dream. From Queen Katherine’s death-bed we move to news of Queen Anne's child-bed – she is enduring a dangerous labour. Amidst this uncertainty, King Henry gives Cranmer a signet-ring, symbolic of his royal protection – and then news arrives that Anne has safely given birth to a daughter. When Gardiner accuses Cranmer of heresy in the next day’s cabinet-meeting, and orders him to prison, Cranmer reveals the King’s ring – whereupon Henry himself emerges to denounce Gardiner’s faction, requesting Cranmer to preside over the ceremonial baptism of his new daughter – the future Queen Elizabeth I.
About
Emma Vieceli's Livejournal
Webcomic ~ Dragon Heir: Chapter #5
Not sure how many of my LJ readers are following, but Chapter 5 is up!The Making of The Tempest & Midsummer Night's Dream
The final cover.
Oh yeah ...!
This was the cover that ended up being used in the final book design! The image is cropped a little bit on the cover, and it's a veerrrry slightly different colour (more yellow in the shadows, I seem to remember), but this is basically the picture ^_^
Oh my god, I drew this about ... three or four months ago now? I cain't remember. I do remember it was a couple of pages [of comic] before I started on the section with Bottom with his animal head, so I wasn't used to drawing the donkey ... as such, this image took about two hours to edit together so that the problems I had with the head were sorted into a more or less convincing ... er, image. Originally, Titania was leaning on him, but now she's ... er, not. Um!
I learned during this comic why, in most illustrations of Donkey-Bottom, he is really rather well-built ... and it's because trying to fit a huge head onto a skinny body really doesn't work. Of course, MY Bottom is quite thin (never thought I'd be able to say that in context, hahaha). So I had a lot of problems!
.............. p194
... finished.
p177
I've .... I've just drawn an amphitheatre. *cough-hack-die*To those who don't know - which I'm guessing will be about 100% of you - my absolute pet hates in drawing are (in order of lowest to highest Hate): feet-and-toes, chairs, curving scenery/things that involve circles, and stairs. So obviously, a ROUNDISH theatre COMPOSED OF STAIRS is not high on my list of likes. Oh god. Oh god. I haven't pencilled the lines yet, it's still at rough stage. IT COULD ALL GO VERY WRONG.
I had a count-down to the day I had to draw Bottom with his animal head (it was called D-Day, hur hur hurrrr), but THIS one sneaked up on me. I only realised today was Amphitheatre Day when I sat down to draw.
At any rate, all I can hope for is something that resembles an amphitheatre to some degree ... whine, moan, etc.
I have HOWEVER thumbnailed the entirity of the sequentials now. I finshed the buggers off (I hate thumbnailing too) the other week and now feel much better for it.
I'M NEARLY DONE I'VE NEARLY DONE THE WHOLE THING OMG.
The Book is Here!!
The Tempest has been printed! :D I received a copy in the post a few days ago, and it's looking great! It's amazing to actually see and hold a book that's filled with your own illustrations, I'm pretty excited!It's also good to be able to read it through in its intended format. I'm quite pleased with the pace of the read, although I can't really comment objectively, since I know the story inside out now. Well, next step, release date! The launch event is later this month :)
It's in the trees! It's coming!
I'm out of the woods! I'm out of the woods!! I DON'T HAVE TO DRAW ANY MORE TREES OMG so happy. *headdesk*
Fnurgle.
OOOooooh. Coffee and F-Zero X for breakfast does not a steady hand make. Urrrgh.... page 138 ....
Off To Print!
Proofing on The Tempest is now finished! Hopefully every last spelling mistake and image-based error has been found and sorted out. It should be a few weeks at the printer, and then I get to see the finished thing :D I can't wait! It's going to be my first complete book!I'll check back when the finished thing is ready.
Proofing
I guess it's common opinion that once you've finished working on all the pages that's it! You're done, the comic is finished and the printer just needs to print it (or at least that's what I naively thought XD).But no!
Proofing turns out to be quite an extensive and intense process! So far about 6 or 7 people (including me - many times) have read The Tempest through, making notes and suggestions that will help the final product to be at 110% quality.
In this process, all sorts of things are picked up on, such as inconsistency in images or characters, page order and page numbers, confusion about speech bubbles and who they belong to, page flow, legibility of text etc etc.
So far, more than 20 pages have been tweaked and edited. It's amazing how many mistakes a fine-tooth comb can pick out! However, this process has gone quite smoothly, and is now almost over... the day that the book goes to print is truly growing near, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it printed and bound!
Thanks to Kate, Charlie & Simon for taking time out to have a look over it :)
Lysander is a meanie
To be honest, Lysander is my least favourite character in Midsummer Night's Dream. It always shocks me how awful he becomes when under the influence of the flower (just say no, kids). Like, ACTUALLY horrible. Look how upset he makes Hermia:
Of course, it's not really Lysander's fault. The dear couldn't have done ANYTHING wrong, really. So with feminine lightning-quick recovery, Hermia beats on her best friend instead:
Haha! Hmm. Well, regardless of his nastiness, I'm not keen on Lysander. There was something about him that left a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning, and although my opinions of each of the characters has changed variously as I've worked with them, he's ... still way at the bottom of my scale of Likeness. Mm.
My most favouritist character is Helena. She's genuinely wonderful :D She's so ... kind of ... flappy! I don't know how to describe her. I think her edit for the Manga Shakespeare version has worked really well, too.
The character interactions are very delicate in general, especially during the long scenes in the wood ... I really appreciate these parts. It's been really cool breaking them down and deciding (as fast as possible, hur hur), what to do and how to place the couples and etc.
I am just about to start thumbnails for 130 - 161! It involves more screaming and shouting and Oberon.
FINIIISHED
Wahey! I've finished The Tempest! That's 193 b/w pages and 9 colour pages, plus a cover illustration and various revisions/tweaks.It feels great to have completed something so large, and I'm really excited to see it go to the printers. I'll be getting a copy of the proofs in a few days, and after all the checking has been done, it'll be a month or two before the actual shop release date. There's already a provisional page for it up on amazon.
I have to say, having completed the project, I now respect/appreciate Shakespeare in a whole new light. Previously, I'd only studied his plays for educational purposes, and never really enjoyed it properly, but the act of constantly referencing the edited version with the full version, and trying to deconstruct the prose and verse into images and solid meaning is a real eye-opener. If you want to do well on a Shakespeare-based exam, I suggest trying to edit down and illustrate a few famous passages! You won't forget those bloody quotes after you've had to create a character to deliver them! And you'll really appreciate the poetry of the language when you're bashing your head on the table thinking 'how can I create an image meaningful enough to replace this bit of what I previously though was just meaningless embellishment!?'.
Anyways XD I digress... I'm finished! And taking a short break from work, which is a pleasurable relief after 12 hour days 7 days a week for months.
Sonia Leong - Livejournal
LOL, a little late but...
Just found this screenshot on my computer, I should have posted this up on the 5th November for Bonfire Night XD
Anyway, I had a great time hanging out on Midsummer Common with Nana and Chloe - the fairground rides and snacks were quite extortionate, so we decided to go on one ride, the biggest one XD It was the whirly super-tall blue neon one. And just as we paid for our tickets, the booth lady told her heavy to raise the price from £5 to £6 O_O;;
We grabbed some toffee apples, then Matthew found us and we made our way to the food stands to watch the fireworks. They were great, my neck was hurting by the end of it XD I love sparkly things.
Then as I bought myself some fried noodles, Laura bumped into us, so we all made our way to the Zebra, which was packed full. I swapped my half of IPA with Laura's pint of Wychfinder (yum) then after chatting very briefly with Andy, Carol and Bethany, we walked back to our respective houses.
Matthew: "So, do you remember how the rhyme goes?"
Me: "Remember, remember, the 5th of november.... BLOW UP PARLIAMENT!!!"
Matthew: "... *headdesk*"
Me: "But that's what's important, right? Ne? Ne?!"
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