shakespeareblog

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The email I got this morning. 

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Faye’s Script

Faye’s Script

Characters:

PUCK MAYFLY OBERON TITANIA

 Page 1

Panel 1

PUCK: Hello there Spirit! Where are you going?

 Panel 2

MAYFLY: I go over hills and valleys, through bushes and thorns,

-          over parks and fenced-in spaces, through water and fire.

 Panel 3

MAYFLY: You’ll see that their petals have spots on them—those are rubies, fairy gifts. Their sweet smells come from those little freckles. Now I have to go find some dewdrops and hang a pearl earring on every cowslip flower. I wander everywhere faster than the moon revolves around the Earth.

PUCK: … (Slightly overwhelmed look)

 Panel 4

MAYFLY: I work for Titania, the Fairy Queen, and organize fairy dances for her in the grass.

PUCK: (Shocked look)

 Panel 5

MAYFLY: Goodbye, you dumb old spirit. The queen and her elves will be here soon.

 Panel 6

PUCK: Ahhh Spirit!

 Panel 7

PUCK: The King’s having a party here tonight. So you best make sure the Queen doesn’t come anyway near here as he is still very angry.

 Page 2

Panel 1

MAYFLY: Huh! Does the King still wish to tear apart my Queen from her adorable Indian boy?

 Panel 2

MAYFLY: My mistress was so very upset from her last talk with the King.

 Panel 3

MAYFLY: I do not wish for her to go through that again!

 Panel 4

PUCK: Of course! OBERON is jealous, of the TITANIA having the boy and the boy himself for having TITANIA.

MAYFLY: The forest hasn’t been the same since they started fighting.

 Panel 5

MAYFLY: The flowers, trees and animals all feel it. Even the water tastes bitter.

 Panel 6

PUCK: Which is why I need you to go send her a different way.

  Page 3

Panel 1

(Sound of ringing from one side), (PUCK turns quickly)

 Panel 2

PUCK: But, room, fairy! Here comes OBERON.

 Panel 3

PUCK: Run back quickly!

(MAYFLY running)

 Panel 4

(Drums Sound)

MAYFLY. Oh dew drop! It seems we are too late. My mistress arrives as well.

 Panel 5

QUEEN: If you’re my lord and husband, I must be your lady and wife, so you’re supposed to be faithful to me. (Dialog is off to the side so we can’t see it all).

(PUCK falls off the branch while MAYFLY hinds behind said tree)

  Page 4

Panel 1

(MAYFLY flies her way up to PUCK) (PUCK is climbing back on his branch)

MAYFLY: Unless I’m mistaken7, you’re that mischievous spirit named Robin Goodfellow?

 Panel 2

PUCK: Just Puck is fine. And as it seems we shall be here for a while. (Fairy hovers over Puck’s shoulder with an innocent expression)

 Panel 3

PUCK: -we might as well get comfortable. so who might you be- (Gestures to space on tree branch)

 Panel 4

MAYFLY: I am Mayfly! I work directly for the Queen.

 Panel 5

(Pause) (PUCK looks uncomfortable)

 Panel 6

(Pause) (Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

 Panel 7

PUCK: Pleasure meeting thee.

MAYFLY: You as well!

(They shake hands)

(Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

 Panel 8

(The two turn to look down on the arguing OBERON and TITANIA)

(Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

  Page 5

Panel 1

(Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

PUCK: Do they still argue about the Indian Boy?

MAYFLY: It would seem so.

 Panel 2

(Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

PUCK: Pahh! I should just get rid of him myself!

MAYFLY: For shame Robin! He is just a boy!

 Panel 3

(Dialog from OBERON and TITANIA can be seen at the bottom)

PUCK: Not kill him! Just take him back to Indian

 Panel 4

PUCK: I just don’t understand them. All this over a boy.

MAYFLY: One does not choose to fall in love.

 Panel 5

MAYFLY: One does, however, choose to stay in love.

 Panel 6

MAYFLY: They gave up a long time ago. If only there was a way to help...

(PUCK has a thoughtful expression.)

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Puck Character Research

A Puck is a domestic and nature sprite or fairy. He is sometimes called a demon as well. This happened after the opera Robert le Diable (1831) by Meyerbeer. Neo-medievalists and occultists started to use the name Robin Goodfellow in association with the Devil.

Because of Puck’s association with the Devil, I’ve decided to give him a mask with demon like horns.

Alternative names

Puck has a few different names. He has been called ‘Robin Goodfellow’ or ‘Hobgoblin’.

It should also be noted that the term Pixie is a diminutive of puck.

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Daniel’s various notes, including such things as conventions, where to print and my script.

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Daniel’s developmental work.

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Shakespeare Museum Email

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Travelling Man Email

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Ronan Emails

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I’ve added images from that day - Faye

Notes from our First Meeting with Ronan

Shakespeare in Comic Form

Shakespeare in an illustrated format started in the 19th Century.

Classics Illustrated – Adaptations of Shakespeare, Les Misérable, Frankenstein, Oliver Twist. Originally, they were published with only four colours.

Three episodes of ‘Sandman’ have Shakespeare in them.

Shakespeare The Manga Edition

Henry V: The Graphic Novel – Differs the dialogue. Original text, plain text and quick text.

Kill Shakespeare – Three volumes

Arthur Rackham created some very detailed illustrations of Shakespeare plays.

Keep reading

[shakespeareblog]

Notes from our First Meeting with Ronan

Shakespeare in Comic Form

Shakespeare in an illustrated format started in the 19th Century.

Classics Illustrated – Adaptations of Shakespeare, Les Misérable, Frankenstein, Oliver Twist. Originally, they were published with only four colours.

Three episodes of ‘Sandman’ have Shakespeare in them.

Shakespeare The Manga Edition

Henry V: The Graphic Novel – Differs the dialogue. Original text, plain text and quick text.

Kill Shakespeare – Three volumes

Arthur Rackham created some very detailed illustrations of Shakespeare plays.

Shakespeare in Film Format

Animaniacs

Popeye – Romeo and Juliet

Disney – Midsummer Night’s Dream

The BBC commissioned twelve 30 minute Shakespeare animations. The style of animation varies, e.g. claymation and hand drawn.

Arthur Rackham created some very detailed illustrations of Shakespeare plays.

The first film of Shakespeare came about in 1899. You can find this on YouTube. Since then, there have been over 400 silent films of Shakespeare. The first sound film was released in 1929.

Most Shakespeare films have lost money.

Westside Story – Adaptation of Romeo & Juliet

She’s the Man

Throne of Blood

The most successful film that acknowledges it’s a Shakespeare play – ‘Gnome and Juliet’

1950s Czech animated version of Midsummer Night’s Dream

Richard III with Ian McKellen  - Set in 1930s Britain

Have had Shakespeare in episodes of Star Trek

Miscellaneous Notes

Shakespeare can do any style or setting.

On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, Ronan helped to organise a conference at Hamlet’s castle in Denmark.

Shakespeare was always done in modern dress until the 19th Century. The style of dress in Shakespeare plays/adaptations can often annoys the purists who think Shakespeare should always be done in the style of dress it was meant to be done in.

Things we could look Into

Russian Hamlet film from 1964 – sometimes titled ‘Gamlet’. It’s a Cold War Hamlet that was made from a Russian perspective. Can be found in the library.

Arthur Rackham – Midsummer Night’s Dream

Animaniacs and Disney Shakespeare adaptations

Jiří Trnka– Midsummer Night’s Dream

Harumo Sanazaki

Notes written and then typed up by Daniel.

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Designs for the Hamlet comic :} -Karolina

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Some really weird imagery! I don’t think it’s the best rendition obviously but interesting at least.

I’m focussing on Lady Macbeths Character so looking at the performances help put the text more into context for me.

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An article Ronan wrote. He sent it in an email so I’ve saved it to my drive and created a link so everyone can view it :)

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Emails From Ronan

And then my train decided it didn’t want to show up on time -_-

Karol managed to get a recording for me so I can listen to it later :D I think it’d be a good idea to check in with Ronan every now an then to get his opinion on our work. 

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Time Table so far

30th Jan – Research done. E.g. Faye – Research on Shakespeare comics, ‘Graphic Shakespeare Competition’. Karol – Share Tumblr, Research on Shakespeare comics, ‘Selfmade Hero’ Section: Shakespeare. Laura – Summaries of Shakespeare’s stories. Put stuff on Tumblr page. Dan – Research Conventions. How we do this. 6th Feb – Choose stories/story. Planning out stories e.g. Sketches page, layouts.. Laura - Start communication with Ronan (drama guy), interview (Laura & Dan/Karol). Faye - Start communication with ‘Graphic Shakespeare Competition’ organisers. Interview? (Faye & Dan/Karol).

27th Feb – End of Feb, Stories are chosen and initial development sketches for pages done.  

3rd Apr – Pages completed. Start looking at getting printed and going to comic convention.

6th May - Have everything done.

11th May –E.g. Completed and printed anthology, planned convention date, organised research and development work

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Sorry, this is a little late :) Written by Laura :D

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Graphic Shakespeare Competition - Faye’s Research (Woop!)

Elsinore Conference 2016. Shakespeare – The Next 400 Years

A bit of history, cause it makes me feel like I’ve done more work. So basically in April of 2016 (Also the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death), a three day conference/festival was held at Kronborg Castle, Helsingør, in Denmark (where Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set) to discuss and debate the legacy and future of Shakespeare’s work.

It was at this international conference that the ‘Graphic Shakespeare’ competition debuted in April 2016. The competition is run as a partnership between Teesside University, in England and the University of Tsukuba, in Japan.

The Judges were:

Paul Gravett: Comics, graphic novels and manga since 1981. http://paulgravett.com/

Paolo Fabregas: Author/artist of the graphic novel, The Filipino Heroes League. Book 1 was a best-seller when launched in 2011. Book 2 was a finalist in the Philippines National Book Awards for “Best Graphic Novel” in 2014.https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolo-fabregas-79002254

Yukari Shiina: Japanese agent to represent non-Japanese manga artists for Japanese manga publishers / translater / researcher on manga outside Japan. https://twitter.com/ceena_?lang=en

Competition Convener

Yukari Yoshihara (U. of Tsukuba, Japan): Japanese Go professional(?). http://www.yukari.gr.jp/sub01.html

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Graphic Shakespeare Competition

I decided to look up the comics from the Graphic Shakespeare Competition for my research and it was really fecking annoying cause the Teesside website for the competition said the winner was Kathryn Briggs but it didn’t have any links to the work or anything. There was a link at the bottom for a Graphic Shakespeare Tumblr but that lead to an old one from 2015 with no new posted since: https://graphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/

Did a bit of googling and found the real Tumblr: https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/ I scrolled through the whole thing trying to find the Kathryn Briggs’ entry but it didn’t have it on there (I checked twice).

Next I went to Kathryn Briggs twitter and scrolled through all her pictures all the way back to 2016 for about 10 mins, I didn’t find it there either… https://twitter.com/withryn/media

I finally managed to find one page of Kathryn Briggs’s work posted by her husband(?). Here it is:

I think the panelling is interesting, it’s very linear and sets the pace for a serious tone. I like how the 2nd 4th and 6th panel are of scenery that slowly gets closer and more detailed, while the other three panels show three different women saying a line each. The usage of only one colour and the black and white shading add to the atmosphere.

After giving up finding more pages from the winner and runners up, I decided to just pick a few at random. Let’s look at some other entries!

The Merchant of Venice – Illustrated by Leah Yael Levy

This comic is very pretty with its beautiful colour schemes and starry sky, the usage of light and dark is also very nice adding a magical feel to the comic; however the problem with this comic is immediately seen, the text is almost illegible and that’s not just my dyslexia talking.

Link: https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/post/141886426514

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2 - Illustrated by Jackoburra (Katja Hammond)

I personally really like the look and feel of this entry as it focuses more on bring life and character to the bland personalities of Romeo and Juliet from the original (of course that’s my personal opinion). The expression of the Juliet are meaningful and cute, with the shading of the background and characters also done very well. The only thing that bothers me in this comic is words as I feel seriousness and compilation of the words don’t match the childlikeness of the illustrations. But maybe that’s my dyslexia talking again. 

Link: https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/post/142200692849/jackoburra-this-is-my-entry-to-the-graphic

Macbeth Act I Scene III - Illustrated by Jaime Huxtable

A nice modern day, child version of the story. It’s a pretty cool idea and the wording in this one doesn’t bother me as much funny enough cause its kids speaking and children say all sorts of weird shit. The character designs are cute and coloured with brighter colours; while the background is made up of fairly muted and earthy tones which ends up reminding me of my own childhood playing in murky England.

Link: https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/post/142584012299/jaime-huxtable-macbeth-act-i-scene-iii-graphic?is_highlighted_post=1

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Okay, So I just found out that there are two winners and the other winner was Letty Wilson’s ‘Park Witches’ (based on Macbeth).

This ones really cool, the colours of the page work well and it’s really easy to read. The designs of the three witches contrast each other nicely both in colours and looks; they each have something unique to their character e.g. eyes on knees and covered face, blood red body with curdling smile and neon yellow with dark clothes and skin. I also like how the artist has used the ducks and geese to cover up more of the wordy dialog, the reader doesn’t need to see that dialog so why waste their time and interrupt the flow of the comic.

I like this one, the whole comic flows very nicely and is pleasing to look at.

Link: https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/post/141742479964/adaptation-of-macbeth-act

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Other Research Links:

https://elsinoregraphicshakespeare.tumblr.com/

https://www.tees.ac.uk/elsinore/

https://www.tees.ac.uk/schools/scm/news_story.cfm?story_id=6632&link=true&this_issue_title=August%202017&this_issue=291

http://asianshakespeare2018.com/graphic-shakespeare/