The Dream

For those who have shown an interest in the goings on of the Magic Theatre all is not lost.
As you know our original idea of the development of a Kula Shaker graphic novel is on ice, suspended, shelved, on a back burner… one or all of those. The ‘Magic Theatre’ idea does still exist though. Myself and Jason have had many conversations around the theme and are moving ahead in a couple of different directions. The plan at the moment is to develop two different projects. One sits inside the other. All very confusing but we are currently in conversation with a publisher about the first of these and more on that soon. The second may take more time but it is alive and well.
By way of offering something and giving a little colour to this site what you see here is the proposed front cover art for the project. Yeah, its not called Magic Theatre but thats another story.

Oh yes. And you are right. The site does look different. Bit of an experiment

AW

The Show Must Go On

Greetings theatre goers.
IIt’s been a looong time since we posted anything here. Things Kula are happening but veeeery slowly. All sorts of developments, changes and twists and turns have meant that we do not have anything to show you around that (yet). Rest assured that it is all within the context of having it all work in the best and most satisfying way for all concerned and that includes you.
The Magic Theatre book is currently in revamp (and possibly retitle). Some art will begin on this during the month of April and we will post something for you then. It’s going to be great to start visulaising it a little more and we would love to know your thoughts when you see it. As you are probably aware the Kula Shaker conection for the book will not exist (well, maybe in spirit) as the book will become an entity in its own right. That said we would very much like those of you who expressed an interest to stay on board for the duration of the development.
Your loyalty will be rewarded

More soon

Wildman

curtains??

Greetings. So just as we were all primed, lines learned, pencils sharpened, costumes ready, lights, smoke and all other stage parafernalia sorted and primed the director called us together. A change of plan. A reconsideration…
We have all decided that there was something not quite right with the Magic Theatre project. Something slightly amiss that we could not put our finger on. The whole Magic Theatre story is, in and of itself, a great piece of work by Jason and something that I was really looking forward to working on. However. If this project is to go ahead it has to be absolutely right and totally aligned with the whole Kula Shaker thing. For this reason we are currently in two spaces.
One: We are talking with all concerned about a completely different approach to creating a Kula Shaker printed project. It is going to tie in far more closely with the upcoming album and everything that will be generated around that.
Two: The Magic Theatre graphic novel is looking for a new home and you can rest assured that you will all be the first to know in what form it will appear and when.

Watch this space for more news soon.

Thanks
Andrew

To Thine Own Self Be True

Well, a good workable draft of the script for the first graphic novel is completed. It has the working title of ‘Troubadour’, although that will probably change. Each of the three stories may just have the title of the character’s name, in this case ‘Anthony’. It really would spoil things for you if we gave away too much about what’s in it, except that Anthony is an actor by profession, and by nature, who goes through variety of experiences in dreams and in the so-called ‘real’ world. In his waking world, he is preparing for a stage production of a Shakespeare play. This, together with an embodiment of aspects of Kula Shaker’s music, influence his dreams and help him to a discovery about himself. There’s a few things that need nailing down a little more clearly, but that will be worked on as the artwork develops. As it stands, we have the introduction of an unusual location known as ‘Dusk’, sword fights, cups of tea and snappy dialogue. More boom than doom and gloom, I promise you. The lyrics of Crispian’s that are used are taken from all three albums and the EP, and this is a pattern that you’ll see continue in the second and third volumes as well. Quite how they do this exactly is… well, I can’t tell you everything now, can I?

Volume 2, with our lead character of ‘Joe’, is foremost in my mind right now. I start scripting that this weekend. I’m really looking forward to this one. By the way, if you’re interested in checking out my latest project, it’s here, cover character courtesy of me and artist Neill Cameron:

www.bestnewmanga.org

Jason

pre order

Greetings
Development work on MAGIC THEATRE moves on but still nothing to show in terms of art. Rest assured though that that will begin to follow very soon. We are still putting together the logistics of distribution and the best and most effective way to market the book and get it out there. With this in mind we thought there may be a way that any interested parties out there could get involved. We are going to put together a web banner that anyone interested in promoting MAGIC THEATRE can place on their website which will then link to this blog (or possibly a Magic Theatre website) we are also going to be designing a poster that will be available for download that can then be printed out and posted in places where it will have maximum impact. You could place it in your favourite pub, club or college in an effort to gain support for the project. More news on that soon.

Also being planned at the moment is the opportunity for you to get your name in the book! At some point soon we will be making available the opportunity for you to pre-order the book. This will reserve you a copy of the initial limited run. First 100 orders will get a signed copy. All pre-orders that come in before the cut-off date will get their name printed in the book by way of a thank you for your support. Its just an idea and more news of this will be posted soon.
Next thing is to get some art done.

Watch this space…

Wildman

First Script

Well, it’s been interesting to see the reaction to this project at the message boards on www.kulashaker.co.uk. For my part, I’m not far off finishing the first script. A Prologue is written, and Andrew is exploring some options to make that available to you in an interesting way. This first full script is concerned with one of our characters, named Anthony, and the theme of appearance versus reality. If I say anything more than that, I’m giving too much away just yet, but I think we’ll have some interesting images, snappy dialogue and an emotional undercurrent. That last thing is something that runs through all of the three stories. We could have started with any three of them, but hopefully this one will work as a good introduction to the ideas and purpose of the series. The second and third will up the emotional intensity quite considerably, and both will have fantasy sequences that I’m really looking forward to fleshing out. The second volume is probably the one I’m looking forward to the most, and it deals with the theme of escape. I’m sure everyone reading this can identify the impulse to run away from the stresses and strains of everyday life, to hide from the pressure and start again. Whether you make that decision to flee or to stick it out is a decision that we’re all faced with at some point in our lives, I think. I can certainly identify with that right now, as I’m going through the process of buying and selling houses. Maybe I’ll tell you more about that some other time, when my blood pressure has settled down!

Keep shakin’.

Jason.

Music and Words

Shaking the Kula

So, the project has been announced to the public. This has been a while in gestation, and I’m at the full scripting stage now. There is a number of ways in which this could be received I guess: there are fans of the music who will consider a side project like this to be a fun addition to the Kula Shaker experience; and there are those who will recoil in horror at the prospect, roll their eyes, with words such as ‘sad’ or ‘pretentious’ tripping off the tongue. And who can blame them? Really, I get that completely. However, think of the story this way: if you’re a fan of a band of any description, certain songs, certain lyrics become lodged in your memory and occasionally things will happen in your everyday life that remind you of that music, and maybe some of those words will resonate with your own experience. That’s our starting point. And then we have this dream side to things.

So far so worthy. The dream sequences introduce us to our central character, who possibly has a link to the origins of the name ‘Kula Shaker’ and associated ideas. We have three protagonists, one per chapter, who interact with him in increasingly bizarre ways. Yes, there’s something a bit more thoughtful that we’re trying to say, but also remember it’s a comic. I usually write comics about robots the size of industrial towns and samurai pandas, so this is a bit of a change for me. But not that much. It’ll be fun. And you’ll be surprised how well the lyrics work with the story, especially some of the new ones…

Jason

welcome

Welcome to the Magic Theatre blog, cataloguing the development of a new Graphic Novel by Andrew Wildman and Jason Cobley.

The Graphic Novel is a story of the development and resolution of the human spirit, inspired by the themes and lyrics of Kula Shaker; written with the co-operation and support of the band.

Click on the the dream tab above for some background information on the project and the creators and return here periodically for all sorts of news and updates.