Red Panda Adventures

The Red Panda Adventures is a lighthearted radio drama series in the style of old time radio that follows the 1930s adventures of "Canada's greatest superhero", the Red Panda, and his trusty sidekick, the "fearless fighting female", the Flying Squirrel, as they protect the citizens of Toronto, Ontario from villains ranging from gangsters and supervillains to the supernatural forces of darkness. The series was created by Gregg Taylor of Decoder Ring Theatre and earned the company multiple Podcast Award and Parsec Award nominations. In 2010 the series won the Parsec Award for excellence in Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Long Form), and earned Decoder Ring Theatre the Podcast Award for best podcast in the Cultural/Arts Category.[1] The series has spawned a series of novels written within continuity and in the style of the classic pulp fiction stories of the 1930s and 1940s. "The Tales of the Red Panda" books includes the 2011 winner of the Pulp Ark Award for best New Pulp Fiction Novel, Tales of the Red Panda: The Android Assassins.[2] Decoder Ring Theatre was profiled on the BBC Television program "Click" in February 2011,[3] leading to new exposure for the Red Panda Adventures in the UK. The radio drama series also inspired a spin-off series of comic book adventures published digitally by MonkeyBrain Comics, and collected in trade paperback edition by IDW Publishing.[4] The comic books, written by series author Gregg Taylor and illustrated by artist Dean Kotz have been highly praised by industry media outlets such as Comic Book Resources [5] and Bleeding Cool.[6] Both the audio drama and comic series have been featured in the Toronto Star,[7] and the Television program "Innerspace" on Space, the Imagination Station [8]

Current series

Seasons 1-9 of The Red Panda Adventures each ran for 12 episodes. Seasons 10 and 11 were each six episodes long, with a new episode released on the first of every other month, alternating with Black Jack Justice.

Episodes

Tales of the Red Panda Novels

The Tales of the Red Panda novel series is written by Gregg Taylor and styled after Golden Age hero pulp magazines like The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Spider. The novels tell new stories set in the same continuity as the audio drama, with events from one sometimes being mentioned in the other.

Mask of the Red Panda Comics

Announced on December 13, 2012 on the official Facebook page, Mask of the Red Panda was a 3-issue digital comic miniseries available via Comixology. The first issue was released February 27, 2013, and received positive reviews.[9][10] As with the novels, it featured an all new story in the same continuity, written by Gregg Taylor. The art is provided by Dean Kotz, and it is published by MonkeyBrain Comics. IDW Publishing released a trade paperback edition of the miniseries in February 2014.

After the initial three-issue series a Kickstarter campaign was run to create a "full-cast video comic" of the series. The intent was to raise money for not only the video, but also to fund new issues of the comic. At the close of the campaign, Taylor announced that enough money had been raised to provide for at least 8 new issues of the series.

Beginning with issue 4 in March 2014, the comic series was renamed The Red Panda. Taylor began telling comic stories in two parts, adding bonus features to the digital releases.

Dramatis Personae

The Terrific Twosome of Toronto

Agents and Allies

The Forces of Evil

Former Foes

Foes Mentioned But Never Seen

Other Groups and Persons of Interest

Original Universe Red Panda Mini-Series

Recorded years earlier, the original Red Panda mini-series was made up of six episodes set during World War II and was the original appearance of the Red Panda character. The name and the character's hypnotic powers are all that remain of the original Red Panda in the current series of podcasts. In episode 24 of The Red Panda Adventures, it was revealed that the world of these stories still exists in an alternate universe from which travel is possible. The original series had a far sillier tone, parodying many tropes of the patriotic superhero radio dramas of the 1940s, right down to product placement and appeals to buy war bonds. The lack of punching/kicking sound effects during fight scenes (mostly composed of enraged grunting and cries of agony) in the series unwittingly adds to the hilarity of these episodes.

Dramatis Personae

References

  1. "2010 Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists". Parsec Awards.
  2. "PULP ARK 2011 AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED!". ALL PULP.
  3. "BBC Click". BBC TV. 18 February 2011.
  4. "IDW Red Panda Trade Paperback". IDW Publishing.
  5. "CBR Review by Ryan K Lindsay". Comic Book Resources. 27 February 2013.
  6. "Six Strikes of the Red Panda". Bleeding Cool. 29 March 2013.
  7. "Meet Red Panda, Toronto's Newest Masked Avenger". Toronto Star. 16 February 2014.
  8. "Red Panda Feature on Innerspace". Space. 2 April 2014.
  9. http://www.fanboycomics.net/blogs/tony-caballero/1945-mask-of-the-red-panda-1-advance-comic-book-review
  10. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=5724
  11. 1 2 Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 17: Merlin's Tomb. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2006
  12. 1 2 Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 22: The Black Hand. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2007
  13. Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 21: The Big Top. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2007
  14. 1 2 Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 37: The Third Wave. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2008
  15. Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 6: Death Danced at Midnight. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2006
  16. 1 2 3 Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 13: The Hand of Fate. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2006
  17. Taylor, Gregg. Tales of the Red Panda: The Crime Cabal. Age of Adventure Publishing: 2008.
  18. Taylor, Gregg. Red Panda Adventures episode 7: Red Panda: Dead or Alive. Podcast. dir. and prod. Decoder Ring Theatre. Toronto, ON. 2006

External links

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