okay...
"so, wait a minute, todd," i can hear you saying, "what's the story of the first ever perhapanauts audio comic all about?" well, i'm glad you asked.
the perhapanauts audio comic--which i continue to refer to as anything from "the perhapanauts audio adventure!" to "the perhapanauts radio drama!" to "the perhapanauts sound movie thingy!"--is loosely based on our very first storyline from First Blood/Dark Days. Entitled "MONSTERS AMONG US!" or "Chimaera Wanna Tell Ya Somethin'...!" it follows the reveal of the strange and mysterious doings at BEDLAM by CRICKET newcomer, sgt. jeff mccluskey.
produced from a script by yours truly, guided by the patient and gentle hands of elaine lee (who knows so well what works in audio and what doesn't. thank you for teaching me so much, elaine.), the adventure runs about 52 minutes and is full of twists and turns that perhapanauts fans have come to expect! (after the initial read-through which ran late into the night, elaine and i stayed up for another several hours, punching up parts that didn't play clearly and getting pretty punchy ourselves, which just made things more fun!)
elaine is also responsible for some of the background voices and some off-mic character direction.
as i've said, elaine is the writer/co-creator of the ground-breaking stage play and then graphic novel, STARSTRUCK. if you have yet to experience STARSTRUCK in any of it's incarnations, then you're missing out on something wonderful! illustrated by the incomparable Michael Kaluta, the graphic novel is available in bookstores and, of course, through amazon. the Starstruck Audio Comic is available through amazon, iTunes, and audiocomicscompany.com. she has also written a number of comics that have appeared in dc, vertigo, heavy metal, epic comics, and eclipse.
also on the production end of things--although everyone provided voices to the production as well--is lance roger axt, who is the director/co-creator of the audio comics company and the guy who actually wrangled this production, and all the talent that went with it, together. lance kept the ship running through the weekend while simultaneously taking on the task of bringing CRICKET commander brian mulcahy to vocal life...a daunting responsibility in that!
Lance Roger Axt (Sergeant Mulcahy) is the co-founder of AudioComics, through which he appeared in the productions of Starstruck, Titanium Rain (Episode One), Honey West: Murder on Mars, Battle for LA, The Domino Lady, and Molly Danger. He also oversees the company's Pulp Adventures line in San Francisco.
In addition to AudioComics, Lance has been a proud member (and as of 2010, Vice President) of the National Audio Theatre Festivals, Inc., an organization dedicated to the education and promotion of contemporary audio theatre, since 2002. He has been a regular attendee at the NATF’s Audio Theatre Workshop, and directed the world premiere of Knocking on Heaven’s Door, written by comics legend JM DeMatteis, at the 2011 ATW. He also produced the NATF’s “Audio Art of Animation” workshop in Hollywood, and is one of the co-creators of the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre, the only award of its kind in America honoring life achievement in audio theatre/radio drama.
and where would we be without our energetic, animated, generous director, bill dufris?! bill has a long list of credits which i will leave for his bio (below) to reveal, but needless to say that bill knew the entire story frontwards and backwards and guided the cast through it (seemingly) effortlessly. in that he would also be acting as editor/producer of the production, bill also knew what he might need later in the editing room and, like the master he is, had us give him multiple takes in all the right places. also jumping in to voice karl the moth man, bill brought this thing home!
William Dufris is the original voice of BOB (and Farmer Pickles/Mr. Beasley/Mr. Sabatini) in the popular children's show, BOB The Builder - for US and Canada (Series 1-9). William began his audio career in London (radio plays, audiobooks, film/animation dubbing, language tapes, etc), where he resided for 13 years. While there, he had the honor of sharing the microphone in a number of BBC Radio plays with Kathleen Turner, Sharon Gless, Stockard Channing and Helena Bonham-Carter.
These experiences led him to co-found three audio production companies - The Story Circle, Ltd, Mind's Eye Productions and Audio Comics Company, for which he produces, directs, acts and engineers .
He has been nominated over 10 times as an audiobook finalist for the APA's Audie Awards (winning in 2012 for Non Fiction - The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins), and has garnered 22 Golden Earphones Awards through AudioFile Magazine - as well as being named “One Of The Best Voices At The End Of The Century” (AudioFile Magazine), as well as 2008 and 2009.
more on the cast and the production tomorrow, but that's all for today.
smell ya later~!
todd