LONG OVERDUE ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Hi folks – you may have noticed that the cupboard has been bare of late, and by that we mean this blog! Truth be told, we have been so busy the past few months, there’s been little time to blog! But, this weekend we have several big announcements to make, and rather than spring ‘em all on you at once, a “bring-you-up-to-speed” post is in order in preparation.

• The Battle for LA recording session went wonderfully. Everyone had a great time (as is almost always the case at these sessions), and Karen and Tom are hard at work for the next behind-the-scenes video, while Lance begins work on the first voice-over edit. Estimated time of delivery: winter of 2013. CD and Mp3.
• Thanks to everyone who dropped by our tables at APE in San Francisco and New York Comic Con! Elaine and Bill will be at Coast City Con at the Double Tree Hilton in Portland, ME this coming weekend, where Bill will entertain with a few readings…as well as a live 5 minute teaser of something really special we have planned for next year! Plus we’ll have a booth where you can buy CD’s and download cards, as well as Starstruck graphic novels. In Portland this weekend? Come by the Double Tree, we’d love to see you!
• We’re happy to say that comics legend TRINA ROBBINS will be adapting her Honey West story “Killer on the Keys” as our next HW AudioComics offering in 2013. It’s the mid-60′s in Los Angeles, and someone is out to off the star attraction of the Sunset Strip’s grooviest club, the Purple Pussy. How will Honey catch the killer? Last time around she was a movie extra…this time she’s a go-go dancer!
• Also happening in 2013 will be the remaining chapters of our first Domino Lady serial, “Moxie’s Gamble” and “Blood is Thicker” by Rich Harvey, and directed by Lance Roger Axt. Mind you our first Pulp Adventures trilogy…could wind up being a tetralogy…either way Karen Stilwell, Peter Carini, Peter Papadopoulos, Bill Chessman, Kevin Donnelly, and Mandy Brown are coming back for more!
• Finally, we’ve some outstanding reviews come in for our 2012 slate, and you can find them on our press page here!

Okay, big news coming Friday…hold on to your hats…
 

 

Teasers…

Every Friday we hope to have something new to share with you: in this case there’s a lot brewing behind closed doors, so we’ll have to settle for a few teasers. In this case quite a few teasers!

• We’re finishing up casting as we speak for Battle for LA: a full cast list will be ready to roll next Friday. Which, if you’re familiar with the prose story, will feature…well, let’s just save that for next week. And we’re happy to say that the team of Tom Spingola and Karen Stilwell will be on hand to record the behind-the-scenes exploits of Battle for AudioComics’ forthcoming YouTube channel!
• We’ll have several press releases going out in the next few months, some at comic book conventions, some on a national level. Some will be announcing projects that have already leaked into the atmosphere, others will be (hopefully) complete surprises…
• With two convention appearances this fall (APE in San Francisco and NYCC in Manhattan), we’re already looking forward to next year, which may include a convention of a very different kind, one dedicated not to comics and graphic novels, but to audio drama and audio books…
• AudioComics offerings (except for Horrorscopes) are now officially available through Audiobooks.com, and if that weren’t enough we’re exploring another distribution outlet, not to mention AudioComics will be one of the first companies to be showcased on an incredible new streaming app that will turn the audio book world on its head…
• Honey West CD’s will be available through Amazon.com starting the first week of September; you may also be able to hear her on your favorite community radio station next year…
• 2013 will see, or in our case, hear the releases of the second and concluding chapters to our first AudioComics Pulp Adventure starring The Domino Lady: “Moxie’s Gamble” and “Blood is Thicker,” both penned by Bold Venture Press founder Rich Harvey. And you thought the character of Dan Carley couldn’t get any slimier…

Now how’s that for an end-of-the-month entry? See you in September…

AudioComics is goin’ APE!

Well, not “ape” per se, but APE. As in Alternative Press Expo!

While Elaine Lee will be meeting and greeting fans at NYCC on one end of the map, Lance Roger Axt will be doing the same the very same weekend at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, CA October 13 and 14 at The Concourse, 635 8th Street (zip code 94103). With over 5,000 attendees a year, APE is one of the country’s biggest alternative/indie/DIY comics conventions, the one where the cool kids who know they’re cool when no one else does go to shop for books.

You’ll find steampunk, Modesty Blaise, classic comic strips, Will Eisner graphic novels, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, webcomics-to-print books, Drawn and Quarterly, arts-and-crafts, Stuart Ng Books, the legendary Sergio Aragones, and this year, for the first time ever, AudioComics at APE 2012. Lance and his trusty assistant will be there both days selling Starstruck, Titanium Rain, and Honey West compact discs and download cards along with a special selection of compact discs from our friends at the ZBS Foundation (including, quite possibly, the newest in the Ruby series).

And yes, there will be some surprise freebies!

Lance and “Kato” will be booth 137A. So drop by and say “hi!” We’d love to see you!

Big news to come…

Well, you may think that we’ve been resting on our laurels for the past month…or perhaps just resting…far from it! We’ve been slowly putting together distribution deals, prepping at our own pace our fall line-up, as well as putting together plans for 2013! There’ll be news galore in the weeks to come, but here’s what we can give you right now: some great new reviews have appeared for Honey West, with Titanium Rain and The Batsons to follow. You can find those on our Press page; also, Elaine Lee has provided us with her newest piece at the Huffington Post regarding the recent tragedy in Colorado. It’s worth your time to read, and we hope you will. You can find it here.

“June is busting out all over…”

Or at least it did! Busy month, so let’s hit some highlights: first off, we are very happy to announce that Elaine Lee’s first entry at the Huffington Post received enough support to warrant an ongoing blog series! YAY! Her second post on the HP, “From Web to Print,” can be found here, and we’re looking forward to entries number three, four , five, fifteen, ninety-three, etc.

We’ve also been the subject of some really fun podcast interviews we’d like to share with you: we’d like to thank Fred Greenhalgh at Radio Drama Revival! in association with WMPG in Portland for putting together the Skype hook-up for RDR’s Titanium Rain special, which aired on WMPG FM June 28, and is now available for your listening pleasure on the podcast here with extended (and uncensored) scenes and interviews with Bill, Lance, Elaine, and Josh and Kat. And you will find on the previous RDR podcast (6/22/2012) the piece Elaine wrote for the National Audio Theatre Festivals’ 2011 Workshop show, The TransMars Tango (following an episode of Fred’s ongoing serial The Cleansed), directed by Brian Price.

Mike Faber, Mike Gordon, and Bobby Nash interviewed us for the Earth Station One podcast; 3 very cool dudes. The link is here!

Finally, new links to downloads and CD’s: Titanium Rain is now available on CD and Mp3 through ZBS and CDBaby, and you’ll find downloads through Artistxite and 7Digital. (And don’t forget…it’s still only $4.99 on iTunes!)

Honey West: Murder on Mars is now available on CD and Mp3 through ZBS, as well as Artistxite and 7Digital. (And don’t forget…it’s also only $4.99 on iTunes!) And Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War is now available for download through eMusic, not to mention we’ll have some Batsons links soon as well!

More news and views:

First and foremost, mastering has begun on our second Batsons piece, The Trouble with Fang! We should have it ready to go in the next week; my thanks to those who pre-ordered Fang! a while back and have been patiently waiting; you folks will find a little something extra as a “thanks for holding on” gift with your download. And for the rest of you, yes, Fang! will be available through many of the usual suspects this month; here’s a shot of the artwork, care of the Fonteseses:

Also, you can now find The Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War through CDBaby: here is the link (you will note that with CDBaby, it’s one continuous piece over three separate tracks; simply put, it was easier to enter it as a single).

Titanium Rain and Honey West CD’s are almost done and will be in the mail before too long. We’re happy to say that our good friends at ZBS will be including the CD’s and Mp3 releases of these two titles as part of their online catalogue, as well as (again) CDBaby. Links to come!

Titanium Rain Kickstarter/IndieGoGo contributors: be checking for updates! That means your inboxes and spamboxes!

Finally, we are proud to announce that Bill Dufris has won his first Audie (the audio book equivalent of the Oscars) from the Audiobook Publishers Association. No longer can he say “always a bridesmaid…” His award is for the reading of the non-fiction title The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins, published by AudioGo. NICE JOB, BILL-O!

So what are you guys up to?

Damn good question. Right now Bill Dufris is holed away in the studio, finishing mixing on his four pieces, while Lance continues to mix The Domino Lady and prep for the opening of our website store in the next week, and work with CJ Henderson the adaptation of Battle for LA. Elaine is updating the Starstruck website, and is starting in on the scripts for the Galactic Girl Guides series, with every episode clocking in at 10 – 15 minutes. A lot of potential projects have come our way, and we’re still sorting through the 30 or so projects that came our way last year. One major announcement for everyone: the first five AudioComics pieces of 2012 (Honey West: Murder on Mars, Titanium Rain Vol. 1, The Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War, and The Batsons: Carmilla’s Crush and The Trouble with Fang) will be released in May.

However, there is one thing we can share with you, and that is the artwork for the Mp3 of our first Domino Lady piece, Rich Harvey’s “All’s Fair in War.” There are a number of artists we plan to work with in the future on CD and Mp3 art, especially on original pieces: Lee Moyer is one, Jay Piscopo is on the radar…we can add Paul Sizer to the list. Paul’s art was originally part of Warren Ellis’ “Remake/Remodel” project; he kindly made a few changes, and voila!

Ain’t she purty?

…WITH FLYING COLORS!

A lot done, a lot more to get to, so let’s get to it:

On November 5 and 6, The AudioComics Company recorded the first volume of Titanium Rain and Honey West: Murder on Mars at The Studio in Portland, ME with marathon sessions for each recording, and endurance levels at their highest for both director and cast. And yes, boys and girls, it was a blast.

It began with a marathon read of both pieces the day before at Bill’s home, with Honey West up first, followed by Titanium Rain, with Elaine Lee, and Josh Finney and Kat Rocha all in attendance to hear the straight reads (an hour for each…not bad!). A lot of new faces, and a few old friends from Starstruck showed up as well (wait a sec, isn’t that Brent Askari, or Kalif Bajar, as has-been teen idol Ricky Valentine from Honey West? I think it is!) From 1963 to 2031 in the same night…

(Yes, reading graphic novels is research…)

Moving into The Studio for Titanium Rain the following day, our Marines were given a crash course in the proper way to say “OOO-RAH” as the testosterone levels exceeded acceptable levels for the ground sequences; nope, nobody was facing music stands for this show! Bill went so far as to stage how the Marines in the piece stood, squatted, and fired weapons at Chinese soldiers. Internal monolgues and radio reports were read in different iso booths; pilots sat and stood at attention before commanding officers; the poker was played, now with real poker chips; and everyone was ready to collapse at the after-recording dinner!

Most importantly, Josh and Kat were pleased; when you get the seal of approval from the writers regarding the creative process that goes into a audio drama recording. Here we delved into the book of Maggs (DIRK Maggs, that is), whose voice-over sessions are legendary for the physicality that goes into every read from every actor. A few tweets from the happy creators:

“Lance Axt was excellent as Alec. I was impressed how he could keep up such a level of intensity after 10 hours.”

“The cast selected by AudioComics was damn near perfect. And the brit who flew out to voice Happy? This woman is going to be famous. Serious.” That would be Elizabeth Knowelden. AND WE TOTALLY AGREE.

“Had to also explain it ALWAYS had to be “OOO-rah” and never “HOO-raw” because that mistake could get your ass kicked.”

“One regret? I really wish Major Graves had more scenes because the actor AudioComics got to play him took a handful of line & MADE it art. Well, at least Major Graves has a lot of scenes in book 2. Yes we are already discussing it as an audio drama.” Word to Chris Price: we’ve got more work for you!

“Creating smoking holes gives our lives meaning and increases our manliness!”

“Actor Colin O’ Leary totally rocked his role as Piso in the Titanium Rain audio drama.”

“Seeing the AudioComics Company in action, I can honestly say they are on to a VERY good thing. Titanium Rain is in good hands.”

Moving on to…or maybe we should say back to…the groovy sixties for Honey West as Carrington MacDuffie went undercover to find the killer of B-movie starlet Zu Zu Varga. People were amazed with my stamina, how about Carrington’s? After eight hours, she was still on the mark for every read. And yes, we have started a trend! What trend? Bringing in members of the comics community to do supporting roles! Gary Guzzo, former publicist for Marvel, joined us to play Charlie April, Honey’s right hand man, the bookie with a heart of gold.

So, yeah, it was a great weekend!

We want to thank everyone involved: Elaine, Josh and Kat, Jim Begley, our cast members from Maine, Los Angeles, and Austin, Phil and Maria for the photos, and Fred for the video support. Oh yeah, and we want to again thank our Kickstarter supporters as well, without whom, The Studio would not be possible.

Like I said, a lot done, but a lot more to do! A Pulp Adventures update for you soon!

(Liz heading back to Hollywood…sniff…)

The cast of “Honey West: Murder on Mars”

Carrington MacDuffie: Honey West

William Dufris: Lt. Mark Storm and Mike Murphy

Tom Pakuski: Fred Simms

Gary Guzzo: Charlie April

Kristina Balbo: Debra Daye

Dennis St. Pierre: Lance Bannon

Brent Askari: Ricky Valentine

Harlan Baker: Roger Stone

Lance Roger Axt: Howard Deutchman

April Singley: Monique Martin

Michael Howard: Max Rice/Istvan Vak

Elizabeth Knowelden: Beatrice Cooper

and Christopher Price as your Announcer

Additional voices by Phil Wells and William Dufris

Adapted for audio (from her mini-series) by Elaine Lee

Directed by William Dufris

Recording in Portland, ME November 6, 2011

Odds and ends…

We’re back, if only for a brief interlude:

The next month-and-a-half is about to be a busy one, to say the least, with four projects being recorded, not to mention Lance’s work with the NATF in less than two scant weeks, and the remaining days of our crowdfunding extension, so let’s get to it:

First, we want to give a big thanks to those who supported Titanium Rain on IndieGoGo:

James Cornell, Algernon D’Ammassa, Caine Door, Thaddeus Howze, Elizabeth Knowelden, Patrick McEvoy, Judy Molner, Keith Reagan, Stephen Edward Vale, JK Woodward, Rodger Axt, David Hammond, Karen Stilwell, Michael Thomas, Adam and Comfort Withers, Lewis Davis, Craig Foley, Bryan Glass, Fred Greenhlagh, Christopher Schager, Sandy Sherr, Kevin Donnelly, Mike Rocha, and Kevin Lansford (along with our “anonymous” contributors).

Right now we are just over two weeks into our Kickstarter extension at http://kck.st/p93Hg7. Currently we are at 43% funded, and eleven days remaining; make a contribution! And remember that a $10 contribution can go a long way and is thoroughly appreciated, not to mention you are pre-paying for your digital download of Titanium Rain!

All names from both campaigns will eventually find their way to the AudioComics Company website, which is undergoing a slow make-over. In the next few months expect to see more pages and a different layout, all on a different server, courtesy of our wonderous web designer Kat Rocha.

On November 5 and 6, The AudioComics Company will re-enter The Studio in Portland, ME to record Titanium Rain on Saturday, and Honey West on Sunday. Bill Dufris will direct both works, with Jim Begley, one of the best engineers in Maine, supervising in the control room. Josh Finney and Kat Rocha, and Elaine Lee will all be in attendance, and our acting company for the weekend currently includes Lance Roger Axt, Carrington MacDuffie, Elizabeth Knowelden, Phil Wells, Brent Askari, and Gary Guzzo (with more actors to be announced later). Maria Myshrall will also be hand as our official photographer.

Then on November 19, Lance Roger Axt will take the director’s chair at Broken Radio in San Francisco to record the first two Pulp Adventures pieces, The Green Lama and the Curse of Liberty Island and The Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War. The previously announced third piece, The Green Lama and the Case of the Forgotten Gods, will record in 2012 (also in the Bay Area), giving writer Algernon D’Ammassa more time to re-work the script (he’s a very busy guy right now). The cast features the previously announced Craig Neibaur as The Green Lama and Karen Stilwell as The Domino Lady, as well as Perry Aliado, Mandy Brown, Peter Carini, Bill Chessman, Kevin Donnelly, Suzan Lorraine, and Peter Papadopoulos.

In addition, Lance is co-producing the upcoming National Audio Theatre Festivals Tony Hawkins Advanced Workshop in Los Angeles October 21 – 23 focusing on voice-over in the animation industry, with workshops (in and out of the studio) with Lucien Dodge (Pokemon), Corey Burton (Thundercats, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and comics/animation legend Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show, Dungeons and Dragons, Scooby and Scrappy Doo). There are still a few slots available, but only a few: you can register at https://www.regonline.com/audioartofanimation. Plus Elaine is working on several other scripts and an exciting Starstruck project, Bill is editing and mixing and editing and mixing, and Lance is working on the adaptation of …okay, we can’t talk about that yet.

It should also be noted that the planned audio adaptation of the romance webcomic Somewhere in Between has also been moved to 2013, as creator/writer/artist Megan Levens, much like Green Lama writer Algernon D’Ammassa, is inundated with projects (as are we) and thus we’ve moved the piece up a bit (okay, A LOT) to accomodate everyone’s schedules.

Finally, we can announce that in late February, we will take pre-orders for the digital downloads of The Batsons: Carmilla’s Crush, The Batsons: The Trouble with Fang!, The Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War, Titanium Rain Volume One, Honey West: Murder on Mars, and the compact disc releases of Titanium Rain Volume One, and Honey West: Murder on Mars, all of which will be released in spring. Then we gotta start prepping for the rest of the year!

So it’s going to be a busy-as-hell month-and-a-half for everyone, but we can’t wait for you to hear the results!

Finally, the Kickstarter link one last time: http://kck.st/p93Hg7!