'Penguin Random House will adapt five 2000 AD graphic novels into full-cast audiobooks, with original soundtracks and sound design, alongside audio versions of Rebellion's prose fiction.'
- Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/2000-ad-signs-audiobook-deal-penguin-random-house-1285123?)
'Richard Lennon, Audio Publisher at Penguin Random House, said:"This is a really exciting new partnership which helps us reach even more listeners in this hugely popular and ever-growing section of the audiobook market. We're looking forward to helping tell some of Rebellion's incredible stories and to creating some truly groundbreaking recordings, particularly as we explore turning some of British comic book history's true greats – Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, to name but a few – into audiobooks for the first time."'
- 2000AD website news (https://2000ad.com/news/rebellion-penguin-random-house-sign-graphic-novels-and-fiction-audiobook-deal/)
Interesting idea. Wonder how it will work and I'm intrigued to see how they deal with such visually driven story but will be fascinating to find out.
I still have the audiobook of 'The Apocalypse War' kicking about somewhere. It was very good!!
Any guesses which ones will be adapted?
The 2000ad audios by Big Finish were excellent. Although they were original stories rather than adaptations.
Be interesting to see how these turn out.
nikolai dante please
Really hope these will be receiving physical CD releases and not just st download, for the collectors out there!
Vinyl releases would be equally lovely for the audiophiles out there!!!
This is great news.
Fingers crossed we get a re-release of the BBC stories as well ?
Literally just stumbled across this one!
Hopefully this will include the Big Finish audios, since they're no longer available. If they do more Strontium Dog, can we have Simon Pegg back as Johnny? Wonder if Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nick Briggs have pitched for the contract as outside contractors?
Details included in the latest thrill-mail.
The five adaptions are Brink, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Slaine - The Horned God, Judge Dredd: America* and Judge Dredd: The Pit.
* This is what the thrill-mail calls it.
Good on Tharg for grabbing those Licensing groats, but creatively I do have to ask what is the point. I love audio books, a huge addition to my life over the last 15 years, but audio comics? Never understood those, and the various dramatisations made me cringe.
This reminds me of when Father Ted was reading Dougal a bedtime story and it was a Superman comic, and he was describing all the pictures.
That list does make me wonder how these will work. 4 out of those 5 have very specific visual strengths that lend so much to the stories.
So let's take Brink as a specific. So much of Brinks success is INJ's superb ability to convey the claustrophobia of habitats, so there is an unlying tension in the atmosphere of the stories throughout. Secondly the genius of those story via conversation elements of Brink work because of the 'acting' INJ's art brings to the characters and the way words spoken are given specific meaning and intent.
Now that's not to say that smarter writers than me, used to conveying things in audio form can't work these challenges out. Or audio actors can't add the depth of meaning to conversation that INJ's art does... but why do it. Why strip out 50% of what makes those tales so good and specific? To leave you with the challenge of how you make the story as strong without them?
Still my doubts aren't important and I'm almost more interested than I was because of them. I'm interested to see if folks can manage this... but I guess colour me sceptical for now.
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 December, 2020, 01:42:14 PM
Good on Tharg for grabbing those Licensing groats, but creatively I do have to ask what is the point. I love audio books, a huge addition to my life over the last 15 years, but audio comics? Never understood those, and the various dramatisations made me cringe.
I've been listening to the recent Audible adaptiation of Sandman and it hasn't grabbed me. The whole way through I'm just thinking about the comics. Would it work better if I hadn't read them (many, many times) before?
A friend elsewhere just pointed out that these audio versions make great stories accessible for the visually impaired, and suddenly I felt (even more) like a right prick.
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 December, 2020, 02:55:06 PM
A friend elsewhere just pointed out that these audio versions make great stories accessible for the visually impaired, and suddenly I felt (even more) like a right prick.
Oh that's absolutely a fair point but for me the issue is make stories that are designed for that medium rather than translate stories that are designed for a different form. The only reason not to is shared experience (which I recognise, I'm fortunate enough that I'm not in this position so I no doubt lack insight), which I utterly get, but are these stories popular enough to justify a demand for that?
Mind there maybe and I there's no doubt Audible know a lot more about this than me.
Audible has them all up on pre-order for £22.74 or 1 credit each with a running time of 8hrs20 mins and with a release date 04-03-21
I'm definitely going to try at least one of these. I'm another Big Finish audio fan so am VERY interested to see how this turns out. It could open up a whole new window of fans too, which can't be a bad thing.
a physical cd or vinyl release puhlease ...
Are these traditional audiobooks or are they more like the Sandman release which was like an old radio play?
Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 20 March, 2020, 09:14:49 AM
I still have the audiobook of 'The Apocalypse War' kicking about somewhere. It was very good!!
Any guesses which ones will be adapted?
I have fond memories of these BBC adaptations. They were on Radio 1 I believe, around drive time? I bought them later on cassette.
The Day The Law Died and the previously mentioned Apocalypse War.
It's interesting seeing 'The Pit' appear as a full-cast audio play. I wonder if this is itself adapted from some kind of script workings done for the MC1 TV series. (Ditto 'America'.)
I'd also like to see these on CD. Audible are releasing a stack of BBC audios these days, and I'm not a fan of the only-accessible-through-Audible model.
Joseph Fiennes is Joe Dredd!
Sheila Atim is Halo Jones!
Colin Morgan is Slaine!
Cast announcements: Click! (https://2000ad.com/news/richard-armitage-sheila-atim-and-joseph-fiennes-to-star-in-2000-ad-audiobook-adaptations/)
I'm someone disappointed to see Paterson Jospeh listed as "Narrator" in both Dredd stories. "The Pit" is an epic story and I was hoping the scale of it would come across in the production. I'd like to think there are more unnamed background cast but that wouldn't be economically viable, I suppose.
I'll hold off judging it until I've actually heard it, but I think it's a wrong move going having some of it read to us rather than performed for us.
I'll grab Audible for a month to listen as these come out, but if they're good (and I suspect they will be), I'll be looking for more permanent ownership.
I've finally managed to get the Future Shock audio thingies to work on my ipad and have to say the adaptation of comics into audio works pretty well - very reminiscent of Hitch-Hiker's Guide in style and tone and indeed sound design (no surprise there for a Sci-Fi comedy written in 1980). And yeah, I too remember that BBC Apocalypse War audio adaptation as being pretty decent. High hopes for these, especially Brink which I really think could come to life in an all-new way with the right sound effects and cast. Quite the challenge to render all those 'tech-splainey' pop-ups in audio form!
Between this and SpaceSpinner 2000, I feel more realxed about the idea of losing my eyesigth as age creeps up on me. Not actually expecting that to happen, but, y'know, if it DOES, looks like I can retain my osbession with a print comic happily...
I wonder if we will get any trailers for these
Audible seem to have a "play the start of something as a bit of a taster" option on their audio books. I'm sure we'll see it switched on closer to release date.