Having just launched my horror site, “All The Hells”, how I could I not listen to an audio drama called “After Hell”?

“After Hell” a supernatural drama, a mix of police procedural and “28 Days Later”-style Armageddon story. It’s enthusiastically presented and – the key to any good audio drama – uses an intelligent sound design to create spaces, describe scenes, illustrate scenes in detail.

I was sent one of the new CD copies from SciFind Ltd., UK based aggregator of all things scientifically fictional. I was sold on the concept, sight unseen – or sound unheard.

I love audio drama – as anyone who has heard my delightfully self-indulgent (yes, delightfully!) “Wretched Goo Of The Imagination” podcasts will tell you. One of my first forays into media production was the recording of a thrilling audio space adventure with my older brother. It was entitled “Face To Face With The Planet Scanodon!” and recorded in the living room of our Ohio apartment on glorious reel-to-reel tape. I wonder if my parents still have that tape in storage somewhere.

And I have not grown up – have not “changed my principles”, let’s say – that sounds better – one iota since then. Here is the planet Scanodon at The Cyclopedia Of Worlds:

And, heck, here’s a movie of the planet Scanodon at The Cyclopedia Of World’s video channel, that you can watch till your eyes cross:

The quality of writing and production design may have improved since I was seven years old, but the subject matter…remarkably the same.

Writer-director Joe Medina at Ollin Productions has put together something he should be proud of with “After Hell”. I think Orson Welles would agree with me, if he were animated and rotting next to me in some kind of horrific horror story way, that audio drama – radio drama, we used to call it – is it’s own, self-contained media form. Audio drama, like music, engages the mind and imagination directly – and can – in partnership with our brains – describe atmospheres, textures, spaces, and all manner of impossible absurdities (see again, The Wretched Goo Of The Imagination) with ease. I love it. And will do more of it myself some day, when I finish these several dozen other projects.

Well done, to Ollin Productions and the entire “After Hell” crew. Keep up the good work. We want more. We need more.

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1. Interview at Innsmouth Free Press
2. Avatar (2009)
3. Secrets Of The Worldbuilders!

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Marooned on the mysterious Eye Sockets Island, I seek safety in a tunnel while fanged Terrible Lizards lurk outside. The cave is damp and darkish and scrawled with the most upsetting graffiti imaginable. Fortunately, I have brought my Jude The Obscure series of action-adventure novels.

← Episode 3 of the Imagination | Episode 5 of the Imagination →

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I have finally recovered the Libsyn podcast page from voracious Terrible Lizards.

They brought it up, unscathed, in a series of hair balls. Why Terrible Lizards have hairballs is anyone’s guess.

In any case, you can go to rabbitandcrow.libsyn.com at once and celebrate by listening to rabbit + crow podcasts until you freak right the hell out.

Then check back tonight at 8pm Pacific Time for the newest ripping episode in Neal Romanek’s podcasting adventuredom, entitulared: “Eye Sockets Island Of The Imagination”.

In other news:

One of y’all had asked for more stories and not so many faggy poems and whiny political rants and breezy rambles about my L.A. lifestyle. Happily, in the next weeks I’m making available a few short stories. They’ll be available here, and I’ll also have links to them on the “fictions” link at nealromanek.com.

I may even podcast them for those of you who can’t read. And the blind too. I podcast for the blind.

We’re still waiting for word back from the Comic-Con 2006 crew as to whether or not we will have our Writers Table at the show (July 20 – 23) – “we” being myself and Warren Hsu Leonard of Screenwriting Life. Apparently, Comic-Con have had a record number of applications and there is much back-log and log-jam and back-jam. But time grows short. I grow anxious. I may have to make some calls. Or at least call Warren and have him make some calls.

Comic-Con is a great place for artists and illustrators to meet other artists and illustrators. In fact, you can’t swing a cat without scratching out the eyes of an artist or illustrator. But there is a dearth of good writers. There are lots of passable writers in comics. Not many good writers. So hopefully we’ll be able to help out with that.

Again, check back tonight for the next ” —– of the Imagination” terror-cast.

Related posts:

1. Comic-Con Countdown
2. Comic-Con 2006 – Day 2
3. Comic-Con 2005 – 10 Artists

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