It's an exciting week here in the Decoderverse, my friends. The Mass Market Edition of the first Red Panda pulp novel Tales of the Red Panda: The Crime Cabal is now available! If you missed out on the Direct Market edition, here's your chance to enjoy this in-continuity Pulp Mag style adventure of the Terrific Twosome of Toronto set between seasons 1 & 2!
If you've already enjoyed the book in it's earlier edition, not much has changed. It has had a darned good editiorial thrashing courtesy of our new series editor Erin Fife, and we've incorported the "August Fenwick" identity into the story, but otherwise the story itself is unchanged... but we could still use your help! Visit the AMAZON.COM page and contribute a review, a rating, some tags or "tags for serach"... post the link in your blogs, facebook, myspace or any other corner of the internet that is yours! Help us reach new readers and new fans for your radio heroes!

In what has become our favorite Canada Day Tradition, Earth's first and finest source for all things audio SFF Audio has posted a grand and glorious review of Season 4 of The Red Panda Adventures! Not only is it a swell review but the series has been awarded the coveted SFF AUDIO ESSENTIAL award for the third time (and fourth for the podcast at large). Pop on over and read it for yourself!

You’ve probably noticed the new ads in the shows, and yes… it’s true. There is some advertising in place for the foreseeable future, and it has us comfortable about our basic operating costs being covered in a way that we’ve never been.

But it is moments such as these that make a fellow wonder what could be. It’s great to be able to keep the wolf from the door, but can we grow beyond this point… create even more, expand our reach and continue to bring our own brand of adventure, mystery and comedy into more lives for years to come?

I feel certain that the answer is “yes”, but it will never happen with ad revenue alone. To grow beyond this point we will need stable, predictable support from you, the listeners.

Since 2005, we’ve been bringing these stories to a strong and growing audience. You’ve spread the word, helped us pay the bills and always demanded more. Now you have the opportunity to ensure that DRT can keep on doing that voodoo that we do so well for the long term. If you’ll look at the sidebar on the right, you’ll see we now have an option to “subscribe” - in the financial sense.

You don’t need to pay to get our shows. You never have and you never will. But I do ask you, who have grown to care about what we do… what is a new story worth to you? Is it worth a buck? Then perhaps a $2 monthly contribution is right for you. More? There is a lovely $5/month button right there for your dining and dancing pleasure.

If these shows have become important to you, and you feel a personal stake in helping Decoder Ring Theatre to grow, please join the team today. If you would like to set up a regular contribution at another amount, please contact us and we’ll see what we can set up!

Decoder Ring Theatre has wrapped our recording sessions for the season, as our players head their various ways for different summer gigs, but we won't be missing a beat with our releases. Our masked Pulp Heroes will continue to keep 1930's Toronto safe for a few more episodes before the Season Four finale... and then we have a full Summer Showcase coming up. We have western adventures with Blaze Bing, Rodeo King written by Phil Bledsoe... Crasher and Magic of the Movies author Tim Prasil returns with one of the best new audio stories I've ever read... we turn our Spotlight to Icebox Radio, one of my favorite new audio groups that deserves to reach a wider audience... and we kick things off on May 30th with the first of a two part story by Bill Cunningham that combines the dark suspense of the hero pulps with the pulse-pounding thrills of the movie serials... The Knightmare! All this and much more!

Here's a nice bonus feature for fans! Decoder Ring Theatre was asked to create a special radio adaptation of two chapters from Dennis Richard Murphy's wonderful new book Darkness at the Stroke of Noon, available from Harper Collins. You can hear the results right HERE!

I have been remiss in not plugging Lesley Livingston's shiny new book Wondrous Strange, mostly because it was an invitation for people to wonder where their copy of Tales of The Red Panda: The Crime Cabal was... But now that we're proceeding apace with the mailings of the pre-orders (see The Tales of the Red Panda blog for more) I can at last plug with a degree of impunity. DRT fans will recall the divine Ms. Livingston as the voice of "Control" in Deck Gibson: Far Reach Commander, and a number of memorable supporting turns, such as the vile Mrs. Mynack in the Red Panda Adventure The Sweet Tooth. Thanks to the good folks at Harper Collins Ltd., she has now moved from the stylish but unsatisfying ranks of the "brilliant but unpublished" to become... well, I guess you just call it a writer. In any event, you should buy her book and read it. Learn more from her website HERE

It's an exciting time here in the Decoderverse, my friends. Not only are we enjoying our shiny new Web HQ, but you're about to get a chance to see your favorite Gumshoes at long last!

Yep, Black Jack Justice will be making it's Webcomic Debut on Tuesday the 16th of December over at Addictive Comics! It's the new Scott Sigler joint, so you know it's going to be (a) Awesome and (b) Huge. Come on by and see us!

By now you must have noticed the shiny new digs. Yes, it was time the ol' website got a bit of a wash and a brush-up, wasn't it? Here's how it works in a nutshell... You'll always find our latest episode right on the main page. After that, you just have to look on the "Shows" page, and it'll be right there. Unlike our podcast page, we'll now be listing the episodes from the start, to make it easier for new listeners. But if you're not crazy about the changes you can always pop by the original Podcast page, which will carry on unchanged at decoderring.libsyn.com

Here's a photo from a recent recording session after a hasty bit of math revealed that we had just finished recording our 100th episode! It was Black Jack Justice 32, though that won't actually be the 100th episode that airs, I'll be more like the 106th or 107th.... but never mind. Pictured are: (front l to r) Peter Nicol, Andrea Lyons, Kevin Robinson, Hans Messersmith, (back) Gregg Taylor, Chris Mott.

Yeah, I know... I've been pretty lazy lately. Preoccupied, you might say. It ends now. To shake you out of your summer doldrums, we present the latest in our exclusive content for vistors to our Fan Boards at Audio Drama Talk.com- It's another live recording from our long, long ago past... and what it lacks in recording quality and coherent plotlines it... well... aw heck, it's a rare track! A B-Side! Go get it, wouldya? It's DRT Deep Cuts #5 - Oil Be Home... LIVE! EDIT: The thread is still there... but the "Deep Cuts" files have been moved to a permenant home on the fan boards... just click here!

EDIT: Holy Cats! I've been too preoccupied to strut about our recent rave review for Season Three of The Red Panda Adventures over at SFF Audio.com. Check it out!

Are you one of the few that still haven't got the hang of visiting our fan boards at http://www.audiodramatalk.com yet? Well get with it - that's where all the cool freebies are and this week we've got TWO.

First of all, yes, it's our latest installment of Decoder Ring Theatre Deep Cuts, and it's our All-Deck Gibson Special! Celebrate the return of Matt Wallace's interpid space adventurer with this behind-the-scenes special. It's available for direct download only on the Fan Boards, so head on over to: THIS THREAD!

EDIT: The thread is still there... but the "Deep Cuts" files have been moved to a permenant home on the fan boards... just click here!

And just in case that's not enough for you, how about these special Decoder RingTones, made by special request from our listners! Download a Zip file with 2 special Ring Tones, 1 Black Jack Justice and 1 Red Panda Adventures! Come by THIS THREAD to get 'em!

And if you'll cast your gaze to the picture by this post, you'll see a great Bruce Timm-style Red Panda created by AudioDramaTalk member LeeshaJoy! I think he's pretty swell. So get off yer duff and come on by!

-GT

Well, there was a huge response to our last installment of Decoder Ring Theatre Deep Cuts - our special releases of exclusive outakes, rarities and other weirdness - so let's keep it rolling. As always with Deep Cuts, this is an exclusive for our Fan Boards over at AudioDramaTalk.com... so stop on by and pick up the new B-Side while it's fresh, and say hi while you're there! You can find it at This Link! NOTE: There is some strong language in some of these outakes. And a lot of giggling.

EDIT: The thread is still there... but the "Deep Cuts" files have been moved to a permenant home on the fan boards... just click here!

 We'll be back next Saturday with our thrill-packed Season Finale of The Red Panda Adventures: The Field Trip! Don't you dare miss it! - GT

Well, we had a lot of fun the other week with our first release of Decoder Ring Theatre Deep Cuts... so let's do it again! Deep Cuts is our name for our vast collection of out-takes, B-Sides, rarities and assorted bric-a-brac for fans of our shows, and it's only available for direct download from the Fan Boards at AudioDramaTalk.com! Our last release was very much of the "out-take" variety, so here from the other side of the coin is the rarest rare track we've got... a very rough recording of a live show we did almost 10 years ago as a fundraiser of the studio recordings of the original "goofy" Red Panda mini-series. It's DRT Deep Cuts #2 - Dynamite Dame LIVE, and you can only get it via THIS LINK! EDIT: The thread is still there... but the "Deep Cuts" files have been moved to a permenant home on the fan boards... just click here!

In other news, I've been negligent in not mentioning that the fantastic portrait of our masked heroes done for us by Chuck Lukacs is available for sale as a print from his online shop... I've got one of these, and they look fantastic! Get yours today at: http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com/html/print_gallery.html

Here's a fun new feature I'm running over at our fanboards at audiodramatalk.com - DRT Deep Cuts! From time to time I'll be posting outtakes and other strange stuff in THIS THREAD - including today's post, taken from a rcording session this very morning for RPA #48.

These are posted at You Send It, so the link is good for 1 week or 100 downloads only! It's the ultimate B Side/rarity/easter egg thingie! So check back often at audiodramatalk.com and collect & trade 'em all!

(warning: these are not always going to be completely clean.) EDIT: The thread is still there... but the "Deep Cuts" files have been moved to a permenant home on the fan boards... just click here!

Well, the return of the masked protectors of 1930's Toronto caused quite a stir this week, and I've been asked by several folks for an update on the progress of the Tales of The Red Panda pulp adventure novels promised way back when chapter one of The Crime Cabal appeared in Astonishing Adventures! issue #1. I can report that the book is done and the long, dull search for a publisher is underway... and promise you that when you can at long last pick up a copy for your very own, you'll be the first to hear about it!

 And meetcha back here next Saturday for an episode you'll have to hear to believe - The Terrible Two! -GT

Welcome one and all to Decoder Ring Theatre's shiny new Podcast page. We're gearing up for a new series of releases starting this fall... We'll be taking Canada's Greatest Superhero back to his 30's crimebusting roots in the all-new Red Panda Adventures... followed by crime and punishment with that hardest-boiled of Private Eyes, Black Jack Justice. In the meantime, and to warm-up the podcasting airwaves, we'll be re-running our original Red Panda mini-series, originally recorded as a pilot project in 2000 and released through our website www.decoderringtheatre.com last year. If you already have these six thrilling (and rather silly) episodes, don't worry - all-new stories and characters are on the way! Check this space or add us to your podcast list and you won't miss a single thrilling adventure! And remember, we love to hear from you. Drop us a line at info@decoderringtheatre.com