A stick-figure Shakespeare comic by Mya Lixian Gosling
Some useful quotes for our current time.
Consulting pocket dramaturg: Kate Pitt
Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will INSIST THAT YOU PULL YOUR MASK UP OVER YOUR NOSE, COME ON, MY GLASSES ARE FOGGING UP TOO BUT SERIOUSLY ONLY SELFISH SOCIOPATHIC NARCISSISTS THINK THAT’S TOO HIGH A PRICE TO PAY FOR LITERALLY SAVING LIVES AND CURBING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC JUST dammit… I’m so tired… just wear your masks properly.
As you know, my comic archives have been pretty nonexistent thus far. For some reason “Update and Organize Archives” never seems to make it above “OMG DRAW NEW COMICS” on my to-do list. Well, I’m trying to remedy that now. I am going back through SEVEN (!!!) years’ worth of comics, retagging them, and putting together play-specific pages. It’s a slow process, but hopefully will make Good Tickle Brain a much more navigable resource for my fellow Shakespeare geeks.
Naturally, the first play page to be completed is Hamlet! Perhaps unsurprisingly, I think I’ve drawn more Hamlet-related comics than anything else. That jerk always hogs the limelight. Anyways… take a look, check out any comics you might have missed, revisit old favorites you haven’t seen in years, and enjoy!
And, if by some terrible miscalculation on your part, you are eligible to vote in the U.S. elections but have not yet voted early or absentee… VOTE. VOTE. PUT YOUR MASK ON AND GET YOURSELF DOWN TO THE POLLS RIGHT NOW, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. PLEASE. I’M BEGGING YOU.
Halloween is on Saturday! I don’t know about you, but I am definitely not going out because of the plague. However that doesn’t mean you can’t get festive in the comfort of your own home! Here are some easily-constructed Shakespearean Halloween costume ideas from last year!
Consulting pocket dramaturg: Kate Pitt
If you don’t want to go shopping for novelty items, you can definitely use ketchup in place of fake blood. But, you know… at your own risk.
As Halloween is fast approaching (when did the run-up to Halloween become as involved as the run-up to Christmas?) I thought it would be a good time to revisit some of my earlier Halloween comics and re-draw the earliest ones digitally. Enjoy!
Original Shakespearean Halloween Party I here. Honestly, after all these years, Desdemona’s handkerchief and the bees are still my favorite Shakespearean Halloween costume ideas.
Original Shakespearean Halloween Party II here. Seriously, butter knife + string + stick is all the effort I want to put into a costume.
He’s dressed as a lion tamer and is holding a shrew. I’ve had to explain this to everybody, the sure sign that a joke didn’t work. Oh well.
Pls note bear is mauling his shoulder. Textual accuracy is important.
Occult October continues with a closer look at all of Shakespeare’s ghosts! Not just the flashy ones like Hamlet Sr. and Banquo. ALL of them. (Apparitions not included.)
Consulting pocket dramaturg: Kate Pitt
Richard III provides full employment for ghost actors.
It’s October, the spoooooookiest month of the year! Shakespeare is full of spooky, so, to get in the seasonal swing of things, let’s start with taking a look at how to draw my personal favorite Shakespearean ghost!
OK, so all of Shakespeare’s ghosts are pretty cool. I don’t want to play favorites. But… COME ON. THE GORY LOCKS. That’s some top-quality spooking going on there.
This video comes courtesy of my top-tier supporters on Patreon, who, in the grand scheme of things, are the goriest of locks. And I mean that as a compliment.
It’s taken me just over a year to finish A Stick-Figure Hamlet. For those of you who have following along since the beginning, thank you! For those of you just joining me… you didn’t miss much. Let me sum up:
Consulting pocket dramaturg: Kate Pitt
A huge HUGE thanks to my pocket dramaturg, Kate Pitt, for being with me every step of the way, answering all the random questions I had about the text, making sure my storytelling was clear, discussing the pros and cons of different interpretations, fixing typos, and generally being the best moral support a Shakespearean cartoonist could wish for.
I’ve neglected a lot of stuff while working on Hamlet, so I’m going to take some time off to get caught up on life. I’ll be posting just once a week on Tuesdays, for the next month and possibly for the rest of the year, although I’ll possibly come up with some filler stuff for Thursdays at some point.
So… see you next week for something that will DEFINITELY NOT BE HAMLET.
It’s all over! Let’s check in and see if this is a comedy or a tragedy by counting up the corpses and the nuptials.
Consulting pocket dramaturg: Kate Pitt
Folks…
…I think it’s a tragedy.
