EOS’s favourite comic of the year is ‘Kill Shakespeare’, so we caught up with creative duo Conor McCreery and Anthony del Col to find out their plans for the comic book event of the year and enable us to stalk them help them reach out to their fans.

EOS :  Have you been to Comic-Con before? What’s the best part? (If not – what are you most excited about?)

Conor McCreery : Yes we have. Last year was our first taste of the madness.  The best part? I’d say the people. Whether it is costumes or cos-play everyone at San Diego seems to be having a great time and you really can meet and make friends with tons of fellow pop-culture geeks.

Anthony del Col : I enjoy attending Comic-Con (this will be my second year) to get a good sense of what’s emerging as the next big trends in pop culture.  Yes, last year Twilight was the big thing but it was also interesting to see something like Glee get a big push… and twelve months later it has just been nominated for the most Emmy Awards.  Comic-Con is so influential these days that it’s great to be bombarded on a minute-by-minute basis by everything.  As an aside, I wonder if ten years ago attendees knew that they would become the arbiter of what’s cool these days?…

EOS :  What are your worst and best case scenarios for your signing appearance at SDCC?

C: Best case? Nobody gets sick on some bad poi the night before. Worst case?… Nobody comes? Or maybe they do come but they throw tomatoes. Actually, that’s probably best case we’d get tons of coverage that way!

A: Conor’s absolutely right.  We wouldn’t actually mind if people approached us while at SDCC and told us they really didn’t like the comic.  We love people that are passionate about it – whether they hate it or love it, just evoking a reaction/emotion is fantastic.  My best case scenario would be to have a hero of mine show up and get an issue (like Michael Chabon did at WonderCon earlier this year!).

EOS :  What do you hope the readers will take away from seeing you at Comic-Con?

A: That Canadians can be cool.

C: That we are passionate about comics AND Shakespeare. That we’re friendly, and that we love riffing with people about pretty much anything…

EOS :  What do you plan to do when not working? Are there any panels you’re dying to see?

C: Not…. working?  I actually have no clue what is happening at SDCC. It’s sad, but I never get to be a fan anymore at these things. It really is all work for us.

A: I haven’t had a chance to look through the panels yet but I did hear that JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon will be doing a panel together.  However, to get into these panels you need to wait in line for hours upon hours, and I just don’t have the chance to do so.  I like to attend the smaller panels about new projects – comics, books, technology, etc.

EOS :  Comic-con parties are the best, what are your after dark plans? (Keep it clean)

A: Last year we were so busy with the convention that we didn’t have a good chance to check out the city.  I hope that we have a chance to this year – it’s the reason why we’re heading into town a day early.  Of course, I fear that there will still be some work in the evenings to attend to… Sigh…

C: See above. Ummm, if someone wants to invite me to a party that would be great. I have no idea what is going on. So far I think we’re pretty unknown in the comic world, so it isn’t like Matt Fraction or Brian Wood have put us on guest-list or anything (but it’d be cool if you did….).

EOS :  What do you think Juliet and Hamlet would want to do at Comic-Con?

A: I could definitely see Hamlet dressing up.  Perhaps a zombie costume?  Or perhaps dressed up as Dr. Who?… I could Juliet having a fun time there.  As one of the most attractive females there I’m sure that she would wind up the belle of the ball… Perhaps give Olivia Munn a run for her money…

C: That’s an awesome question. Whew. Juliet would want to raise resistance against the forces trying to move the Con to L.A. or Anaheim – and then she’d totally try to drink you under the table (but she’s tiny and might fail) .  As for Hamlet, I’d like to think that as long as nobody recognized Hamlet he’d have a great time just enjoying the pageantry. Oh, and he’d have funnel cakes with Falstaff after – if there were any to be had.

EOS :  Are you prepared for fan feedback? Do you think it would ever influence your plans for characters or the story?

C: Yes it does for sure. You need to listen to the fans. You may not give them what they want (or think they want) but you do listen. If we’re thinking “character X is like this” and NOBODY feels that way, well that’s a good sign that we haven’t done the job effectively… You can’t lose your own creative voice to please the fans, but you need to be aware if you’re reaching them. This is a commercial work, it’s meant to be enjoyed by fans. Now if I was working on the comic autobiography about my tragic upbringing that’s a different thing. But this, this is Shakespeare – it’s meant to be for the masses and it is meant to be entertaining.
A: I’m actually writing Conor’s autobiography about his tragic upbringing… But I’m ignoring any input (aka truth) that he insists upon… But seriously, we have definitely found that some of the feedback and reactions we’ve received from readers in the first couple of issues have allowed us to tinker with some small aspects of our scripts for the second half of the series.  That’s one of the great things about comics and the ability to talk to fans (in person or electronically) – we get that instant feedback.

Visit the guys from Kill Shakespeare at the IDW booths – 2643 and 2742 where they will be signing copies of issue #3 Thurs 12-1, Sat 10:30-11:30 and Sun 1-2.