This post, the first in a long while, is going to be about something that I think any comic book fan could appreciate. A podcast series devoted to the the Golden Age of Radio. The podcast group, Decoder Ring Theatre, is basically that. They have two main shows, their superhero show, The Red Panda Adventures, and their detective show, Black Jack Justice. Decoder Ring Theatre was started in 1999 by Gregg Taylor, who along with his friends created six episodes of The Red Panda adventures for traditional broadcast and were very silly, while Black Jack Justice was originally a one act play about a bad day in the life of a old-time detective radio series. After trying out various other podcast ventures, Gregg returned to create the first decoderringtheatre.com and included the original six Red Panda adventures, and soon started receiving emails asking for more. So he started getting equipment, writing scripts and getting actors together into what would become Decoder Ring Theatre. The Red Panda adventures lost their silliness and started playing to the more serious, straight style of classic radio, and the play-within-a play along with the characters were adapted into the sister show, Black Jack Justice. I've been a fan of the series for about 4 or 5 years now, and love it very much. Being both a comic book fan and history buff, these shows have a special place in my heart. The main actors for Red Panda Adventures are as follows: Red Panda/ August Fenwick played by Gregg Taylor, The Flying Squirrel/ Kit Baxter Fenwick played by his wife Clarissa Der Nederlanden Taylor; while the main actors for Black Jack Justice are: Jack Justice played by Chris Mott and Trixie Dixon played by Andrea Lyons. Regular supporting actors are Peter Nicol, Steven Burley, Michael Booth, and Scott Moyle. The group also does a Summer Showcase which always brings new, fun material to the airwaves. Just go to
www.decoderringtheatre.com and click on the shows page to listen to all the old and new episodes of Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice. New episodes of the shows come out on the 1st and 15th of every month, and you can either just click the play button and listen to the episode on the site, download it or subscribe via Itunes or whatever podcast service you use. Click on the books link and you will see that Gregg has written three pulp novel style Red Panda books, all available at amazon.com, while at the very bottom of the main home page is the link to their cafepress store where one can buy tshirts, mugs and other fun stuff. And if you go to
www.addictivecomics.com you can read the first episode of Black Jack Justice in comic book form! If one wishes to become a member of Decoder Ring Theatre, all one must do is make a regular contribution, using one of the convenient Pay-Pal buttons on their home page and get access to all sorts of neat stuff. Visit
www.decoderringtheatre.com and get hooked on this fantastic audio podcast series today!!
