A stick-figure Shakespeare comic by Mya Lixian Gosling
We're getting close to the end now, I promise...
Fun fact! The son of Marcus Cato (ho!) is Marcus Porcius Cato, the brother of Brutus's wife, Portia. Their father, Cato the Younger, killed himself after his attempts to prevent Julius Caesar's rise to power failed. Portia, as you will remember, killed herself by swallowing hot coals. Young Marcus Porcius Cato here essentially committed suicide by charging the enemy without helmet or armor.
Don't be like the Catos, kids.
When we last left our heroes, Cassius had unnecessarily killed himself after mistakenly thinking that his hitherto-unknown best friend, Titinius, had been captured by enemy forces. Let's see what happens today....
Poor Titinius. We hardly knew ye.
OK, we haven't had many major deaths in Julius Caesar so far. Caesar, obviously, and Cinna the poet, but no other on-stage deaths.
Well THAT'S ABOUT TO CHANGE.
This is Titinius. He previously appeared in the tent scene, where he said, and I quote, "Goodnight, Lord Brutus", a line which he had to share with Messala. He's famous for being a total cipher of a character who suddenly becomes incredibly important to the plot.
He is also responsible for giving birth to the timeless phrase "Who the **** is Titinius?"
There's been a lot of standing around talking lately, so it's about time for a BIG BATTLE!
Um.... OK, maybe I misplaced the big battle. Maybe it's in next week's comic. Hmm...
We've made it to Act 5, and you know what that means... BATTLES!
....wait, it means talking. Talking and then battles. But first, talking.
OK. Battles on Thursday, I promise!
Hi there. This is extremely vexing but, for a variety of reasons, I haven't managed to finish the next part of A Stick Figure Julius Caesar yet. This vexes me. I'm terribly vexed. So, to give me a bit more breathing space without depriving you of fun Shakespeare content, here's a video I created a while back for my top tier supporters on Patreon:
You can support me on Patreon and get all sorts of fun extra content, including early preview comics, bonus comics depicting the daily trials and tribulations of being a Shakespearean cartoonist, and lots more drawing videos.
As always, thanks to all my current and past Patreon supporters for helping to make it easier for me to work on Good Tickle Brain full-time. You're wonderful, supportive, generous, giving, and inspiring people and I am deeply grateful.
We've finally reached the end of The Tent Scene! Let's celebrate by hosting a supernatural apparition!
I actually love the short interaction betwen Brutus and the ghost. It's so repetitive:
BRUTUS: Why comest thou?
GHOST: To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.
BRUTUS: Well: then I shall see thee again?
GHOST: Ay, at Philippi.
BRUTUS: Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.
I like to imagine the ghost being like... "Yes, I just said Philippi, are you even listening? Stop making me repeat myself."
So, where are we now?
We're still in the tent! Talking about stuff!
This bit of the tent scene is primarily exposition, although it does feature Brutus putting on his best "Brave, Stoic, & Noble" act.
Also, Brutus deliberately forces Messala (the guy in the helmet) to break the news of Portia's death to him, even though he already knows about it. I think that's a rotten thing to do to Messala, honestly. Way to unnecessarily put him in a really awkward and uncomfortable position, Brutus.
I was at the Shakespeare Theatre Association's annual conference last weekend and had the opportunity to sit down with the hosts of No Holds Bard (the Shakespeare podcast Shakespeare would have listened to) for a second year in a row. This time I joined Jenn Deon of Persistence Theatre, Brett Elliot of Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, and Lesley Currier of Marin Shakespeare Company to participate in the second Fantasy Shakespeare Season draft.
We all took turns selecting Shakespeare plays to include in our hypothetical theatre seasons. I'm quite pleased with how my season turned out; I'm regretting my round two pick, and I don't know how many producers would be willing to finance it, but it's got a solid theme and I'd be genuinely excited to see almost all of them (round two pick notwithstanding).
Give it a listen below or head on over to No Holds Bard!
