We’ve seen comics become movies or movies become comics, but we’ve never seen something quite like this. This week from Archaia, “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” made it’s big transition from audio podcast in the style of old-time radio to it’s very first graphic novel, written by series creators Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and featuring the art of Randy Bishop, Lar deSouza, Joanna Estep, Tom Fowler (who also provided the cover), Evan Larson, Chris Moreno, Natalie Nourigat, Joel Priddy, Evan “Doc” Shaner, and Jeff Stokely. It’s a smorgasbord of artistic talent featuring adaptations of all the radio show’s skits and characters, and for fans of the series it’s a real treat.
However, there’s a chance that you’ve never heard of “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” before. Maybe you’re not big into podcasts. Maybe you’re just not a big fan of hilarity. I don’t know. Anything is possible.
I’m here to tell you exactly why you want “The Thrilling Adventure Hour,” and then the writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker will tell you exactly why you want it as well.
As a podcast, “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” is one of the best. I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts so perhaps I’m not the best judge overall, but with the very few that I do it’s easy for me to note that “TAH” is the most entertaining. It’s light-hearted, done in good fun and rather good about aping various styles and offering up concise parody that doesn’t devolve into gratuitous audio slapstick. It’s smart, it’s sharp and it’s the type of show that has built a lot on its history, improving over time and taking chances in the same way that television shows or comic books do after prolonged periods of time.
So when I saw that “Thrilling Adventure Hour” was being translated into a graphic novel, I was filled with a great deal of anticipation. The audio adventures of these characters are definitely entertaining, but seeing all of them appear in a graphic novel is the perfect way to expand on the ideas and the characters present in the recurring segments of the show, as well as offering up an interesting take on the material and the characters that I’ve grown to enjoy over the course of the show since I’ve started tuning in.
The graphic novel pretty much hits all of the notes of the podcast rather perfectly. It’s a rather diverse book, an anthology of sorts, and it offers up readers all sorts of genres and art styles to choose from. It’s the kind of book that actually delivers something for everyone, whether you’re a fan of the show or not. The book is easily accessible, essentially just operating to the uninformed as a random assortment of stories ranging from horror to sci-fi to Western and more; yet for those familiar with the various characters it gives us a new dimension with which to approach them, whether its finally seeing what characters like Captain Laserbeam and Croach the Tracker look like or even just getting more of a look at the apartment and world of Frank and Sadie Doyle.
There are so many things to appreciate about the book’s visual style. It’s easily what makes the read so appealing; the wide arrange of talent on the book offers up a rather unique experience to the overall perception of the material, because it all inherently comes from the same place and in that way shares a certain link. Yet the book couldn’t be more diverse visually; Evan “Doc” Shaner’s art couldn’t be more different from Lar deSouza’s, as deSouza offers up more of a Saturday Morning Cartoonish vibe for his segment (perfectly appropriate for the character) while Shaner brings in a sleek and dirty ol’ look at the Martian Western frontier. The styles clash on the one hand, but the way that these stories slightly connect allows the visual clash to offer up a unique form of synergy throughout the book.
Then again, I’m a huge fan of the show so I could be seeing it through glossy star-struck eyes. Yet I find it very hard not to appreciate all the different styles of art present in the book for a litany of different reasons, each individualized to the particular story or segment in question.
Continued belowAnd for my money you can’t go wrong with the adaptation of “Beyond Belief” with art by Tom Fowler, an adaptation of the fan-favorite skit featuring Paget Brewster and PF Tompkins as married mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle. It’s always my favorite skit on the show and I’d be lying if I didn’t note it was my favorite in the book. If anything, the section of the book dedicated to “Beyond Belief” shows why this transition from podcast to comic works so well; Acker and Blacker have such a great feel for what works for their characters and how to make even an ongoing story accessible and Fowler’s work is absolutely beautiful, perfectly mimicking Tompkins and Brewster’s inflections and taking the universe of these characters for a definitive ride into the haunts that the Doyle’s — er, well, haunt. It’s easily the most on-point story of the book and it makes a great night cap to our first visual experience with “The Thrilling Adventure Hour.”
But that’s just my thoughts on the matter. How about some thoughts from series writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker? Well, ok then.
Sit back and read on as I chat with the Bens about the book, translating it into the graphic novel medium and more.
So, Ben and Ben, you guys are a writing duo that have worked together on many projects for quite some time now. It’s different for every partnership, but how does the flow of work come about? Where does one Ben end and the other Ben begins, so to say.
Ben Acker and Ben Blacker: We outline everything together. Then one or the other of us takes the first draft and we pass drafts back and forth until we’re done.
How did the decision come about to turn an audio podcast into an anthology book?
BA/BB: We look at the stories we tell, the worlds we’ve built, to be able to jump from one medium to the next. If you listen to an old Superman radio show, it’s different from “Smallville,” “Man of Steel,” the comics, but it’s all Superman. We love comics and always have, so as we talk about trying to move from one medium to the next, comics seemed like the most fun ever.
We all know the old-time radio influence on The Thrilling Adventure Hour, but what are the comic influences?
BA/BB:There’s a big Tick influence there. The world in the Tick was silly. Even the characters were. But they took their stuff seriously. We read old comics when we were kids—Stan Lee’s Spider-Man and Daredevil and FF and more—in the form of Marvel Tales and hand-me-downs from fathers and uncles. Those stories transported us to another time and place. It was really evocative.
Of more recent stuff, we love what our pals Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka, or people of whom we’re fans of—Garth Ennis, Brian Bendis, and others—have done by really grounding their characters in emotion. They let the big, cosmic stories have emotional impact. Making the characters real and relatable has always been important to us, and seeing how these guys did it helped inform how we might.
Each short in the book comes with a different artistic talent. How did you go about assembling the artistic teams for the book?
BA/BB: Some we know. We’ve been pals with Evan Larson forever. Some we met via fan art they did for the show on twitter—Joel Priddy, Tom Fowler, and Natalie Nourigat came to us that way. The rest we found via relentless searching for talent whose artistic voice was in line with the stories we wanted to tell. Not one of them failed to deliver, by the way. They knock us out individually and collectively.
Were there any inherent differences in writing for the comic artists vs. writing for the actors performing the parts?
BA/BB: There were. For the stage show, we write dialogue and sound effects. That’s it. For the artists, we had to be detailed and sparer in our dialogue. We found it to be interesting that the collaboration with the artists felt akin to the collaboration we do with our actors. We provide a foundation, but it’s up to our collaborators to bring The Thrilling Adventure Hour to life for the audience.
Continued belowWhat do you think the comic version of the Thrilling Adventure Hour offers that the audio version does not? And even vice versa?
B&B: The comic version shows you the world and demands you provide the voices in your imagination while the audio version flips it and tells you every aural nuance while demanding you fill in the action in your head. Someday we’ll do something you can hear and see at the same time.
How did you find the challenge of writing a twenty- or so minute script versus boiling down the adventures to a more “limited” (I use that word lightly) space?
BA/BB: With the help of our editor, Joe LeFavi. Our first drafts were the wordiest comics ever written.
What do you find different about the TAH comic than, say, the work experience on the Wolverine graphic novel or even Supernatural?
BA/BB:The TAH characters come from deep within us. We know who they are and what they do and how in our bones. Wolverine and The Supernatural Brothers are three characters we love and we are glad to boss them around and play in the sandboxes of those worlds, but they are different sandboxes. It’s a different muscle doing what’s right for someone else’s voice than for your own.
The show has its own form of continuity; do you feel that the graphic novel fits into this anywhere, or is its intention to be much looser?
BA/BB:We thought of the stories in the graphic novel as fitting in between the podcast episodes. We know where and when they take place, but it’s not important to the reader. If you haven’t listened to a single podcast, don’t worry, it’s cool. We’re not mad at you. We made this graphic novel to welcome you into the worlds of TAH. If you’re a listener, you’ll be able to easily place these tales into the continuity.
For people who are not familiar with the podcast, what do you see as the basic pitch for the comic? Do you hope there’s an easy crossover point, or are you at all nervous?
BA/BB: We believe so strongly in the material that we could never be nervous about it. We just know people are going to love it. If you love any genre, there’s something for you in this book. If you love comedy, there’s something for you in this book. If you love strong characters with distinct perspectives, then you’ll love this book. Like the stage show and the podcast, we believe there’s something for everyone in the Thrilling Adventure Hour.
I’ve read that there were plans at one point, but given that the show is spilling out of the digi-radio and into this book, do you feel or have you thought about there being any room for the Thrilling Adventure Hour in other forms of media now as well? Perhaps, and I’m just, y’know, spitballing here, Beyond Belief: The Movie?
BA/BB: There are LOTS of plans! Follow us on Twitter (@ThrillingAdv), like us on Facebook and check our website for updates about endeavors in other media, upcoming shows, and some other big announcements.
Any other plans for comic-based work in the future?
BA/BB: We have a Deadpool annual coming out later in the year from Marvel, which was a blast to write. We got to team with Doc Shaner, who did the “Cactoid Jim” story in The Thrilling Adventure Hour graphic novel, so that was a real kick.
We have some other stuff in the works, but it’s too early to talk about. Check back with us soon!
“The Thrilling Adventure Hour” is available now from Archaia, and the Thrilling Adventure Hour Podcast is available now via iTunes.
