Guest Column: Gary Scott Beatty on Shakespeare As Inspiration

EDITOR'S NOTE: Occasional contributor and friend of the blog Gary Scott Beatty waxes poetic on Shakespeare, art, cinema, music and food here in his latest installment . . . . . . . .

I attended a live Shakespeare play Saturday in a replica of the Rose Theater. In 1587, the Rose was the first playhouse to ever stage a production of Shakespeare's plays. Saturday, I was in the replica built at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in 2010 (It is an interesting theater, but don't let the romance fool you. If you don't bring a good cushion to use on the flat, wooden bench seats, you will wish you had.) The live experience was super, I was impressed by The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, but Antony and Cleopatra is not one of the Bard's strongest plays. I couldn't fully grasp Cleopatra's motivations and Antony seemed a fool. If there was a theme beyond the usual Shakespeare rulers-with-flaws device I didn't find it. You might know that the prologue of Gods of Aazurn: Witches, with Death in a Tuxedo introducing the graphic novel, is inspired by the Prologue to Henry VIII, informing the audience “I come no more to make you laugh.” This is Death is putting you in the mood for Witches. The scene after this is inspired by Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead. Yes, I have varied influences.   If 16th century poet or '70s Italian horror movie references appeal to you, you may be interested to know Witches is part of the affordable and downloadable Gods of Aazurn Bundle here:  http://aazurn.com/books/gods-of-aazurn-bundle.html Junkyard Horse has a new track up on Bandcamp. EP to follow. Listen here: https://junkyardhorse.bandcamp.com/track/time-we-kill   It's BACK! Alton Brown's Good Eats tackles chicken parm. Disney CGI remakes, comic character reboots, and Netflix '90s cartoons make me yawn, but this is different. History, science, technology. This is one of the only rehash entertainment venue that has my interest.  Watch here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kg6regArFY&feature=youtu.be It was a good week for Welcome to Dunwich 3. I'm inking my way through the roughs and even nailed an outline for W2D4. This could be the tightest script I've written in a long time (I kind of soared off into space there for a bit, thanks for following along). Below, completed inks on the first three pages. Yes, that's Sam, the Davison's youngest daughter. No, that wasn't the end of her when the unearthly geometry in her room helped her understand the higher dimensions of non-Euclidean space as short cuts through normal space. No, I don't have any qualms using elements from other Lovecraft stories in a GN called Welcome to Dunwich. The Dunwich Horror will appear, yes it will. For a closer look at these, I've posted them with create notes for Patrons at Patreon.   Horror readers know life is short and often wonder why everyone else doesn't realize it. Birth, life and death are three things common to all of us. Yes, every single human. We have little control over birth or death, but make life choices every day. Call your mom. Sing. Go outside. Eat chicken parmesan while listening to Junkyard Horse and reading Shakespeare. It's your life, your choice. In glorious service to our Aazurn overlords, Gary Scott Beatty http://strangehorror.com