William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead

Following up on the teaser from a few weeks back.

How many of you heard of the following …

I’ve read the first two, looking for the third. I also can’t wait for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter the movie. If you had asked me a year ago if I enjoyed stuff like this, I would’ve said no. But it was hard to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies without seeing Keira Knightley and Dame Judi Dench kicking zombie ass. (Go on, I dare you!)

Now I get regular updates from publishing houses regarding new plays that have come under their banner. A while back, I was notified by Samuel French of the title William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead: A true and accurate account of the 1599 zombie invasion at the Globe Theatre. Cast includes William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth.

Challenge accepted. (Great, now I’m plugging in the cast of Shakespeare in Love.)

First, do I have any fonts evoking the Elizabethan Age? No?! Really?! (I’m a little ashamed about that.) A quick online search fixes everything, at least in this instance. I scanned a piece of parchment paper, removed the color, and adjusted the levels to wash out most of the texture. Borrowing from the layout of the Folio, I added an image of the Globe, which was taken from Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse by Irwin Smith (1956). If I were to actually do this show, the book would be listed among the rest of the credits.

Parchment paper treatment.

 Folio and Globe images.

Now then … What about some blood?

I experimented with drops and slashes for a Die! Mommie! Die! treatment many moons ago. I thought about getting a bottle of fake blood, but then remembered it’s practically impossible to wash off. So, I stuck with my little bottle of India Ink and eye dropper. I hoped to scan the results and recolor them, but it became clear that I was over-thinking things with my Jackson Pollock-esque spatter wall. Back online to find a fake blood recipe. It was time to get my hands (or at least one hand) very dirty.

Corn syrup, water, and food coloring. Such simple ingredients, but when combined they evoke anarchy and chaos. Excellent.

The first batch looked the right color in the bowl, and although the recipe said it was good for smearing, it was very watery; not enough viscosity. I dipped my fingers in and starting flinging. A couple nice spatter patterns; we’ll see how they dry ... Hmm … Not very well. Despite it’s dilution, the corn syrup still left some sticky properties, and I was not about to put something sticky on my scanner.

So I took a picture. Meh, not the greatest results after putting it through Photoshop, but in a pinch it would do. It’s one of those instances where no one else is going to know, but it’s enough to drive you crazy. So I put the sheet in front of a space heater. (Yes, I checked on it frequently enough or else I may not be typing this now.) It reached a point where I decided it was scanner ready. Final product:

Overall? Good. It’s got that Hammer Films from the 60s look, where the blood dripping off Christopher Lee’s fangs was the kind of red you just knew was fake … I mean, you still freaked out a little, but you knew … The key I think to this is to find a fake blood recipe that doesn’t stain and is not sticky, but thick enough to run down the page. Or get the smallest amount of red-appropriate paint you can find, go all Jackson Pollock, and wait for it to dry. Everyone’s spatter pattern will be different, but do not go overboard.

This keeps in line with my using only black, white, and red for these mockups. However, if there’s money in the budget, perhaps one could give a little more authenticity to the parchment background.