Let’s hear those comments on Page 5! 

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For fun, here is Gregg’s original script for this page.  If you like you can compare this to the comic page to see exactly what we cut out. 

Let us know if you think we did a good job.

TRIX: Jack’s eyes narrowed and his jaw set hard behind his smirk. Donna Ryan. Wife of industrialist Clarence Ryan. The Ryans drew a lot of water in this town. This might be more trouble than it was worth. Jack glanced at me. I shrugged a little. We did need the case, but did we need the headaches? I was doing mental arithmetic; adding up the pros and cons on an invisible ledger. Jack’s eyes drifted back to Mrs. Ryan. I wondered what he was adding up.

JACK: The Ryan dame looked down at her shoes. Her whole body was shaking, trembling in a way that had nothing to do with the draft through the office window. She’d touched up her face before she came in, but this close I could see that a lot of tears had wandered past those eyes in the last few hours. She was terrified. Terrified of everything. Everything she had and everything she’d lost. We knew who she was and she was almost sure we’d use it to our advantage. That tore it. I’m different things to different people, but I’m a blackmailer to nobody.

JACK: All right, Mrs. Ryan. Take a breath and relax a little. I won’t promise that everything’s gonna be fine, but we’ll do our best to make it so. Your letters have come home to roost, have they?

DONN: In a manner of speaking. It was just last night when a messenger arrived at my home. He delivered an envelope which contained a single letter, in my own girlish hand, written shortly before the war. It also contained this:

JACK: Trixie?

TRIX: Single page, handwritten. On the letterhead of the messenger company – probably written at their office. The text is short and to the point: “Reply tomorrow – 8pm Metrolite Hotel room 314”.

JACK: That’s it?

TRIX: That’s all.

JACK: That’s odd.

DONN: Why odd? You said you’d handled this sort of thing before.

TRIX: Yes Mrs. Ryan, but usually the… I’m sorry, but the blackmailer-

DONN: -Oh!

TRIX: -will include a little more information about their terms. An amount would be a common thing to include, or at least a more direct suggestion of consequences.

DONN: I can well imagine the consequences.

JACK: These kind of people don’t usually have that much imagination. Could mean anything. Could mean our mutual friend is new at this. That might work to our advantage.

DONN: I see.

TRIX: It’s your party, Mrs. Ryan. How do you want us to handle this?

DONN: I- I’d like you to… take care of it.

JACK: Forgive me ma’am. It’s not that we’re dense, it’s just that could mean anything. Including a whole range of services we don’t supply.

TRIX: I know this is difficult for you, but we’ve got to be specific if we’re to cut to the happy ending. 

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Happy New Year. 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Years and that you’re ready for a very good 2009.

Since this is our first post on the Black Jack Justice Blog of 2009 (I took yesterday completely off and just watched Football.  I hope you did the same.  At least the “took off” part.  The football was pretty crappy.  I have high hopes for the Florida/Oklahoma match-up though.) — where was I?  Oh yeah…

Since this is our first post on the Black Jack Justice Blog of 2009, I thought I would give you a few teasers about what we are working on for ol’ Square Jaw and other Decoder Ring Theatre properties for the coming year.

BLACK JACK JUSTICE

We’ve been very pleased with the reception that Justice Served Cold has gotten from the DRT fans and the many new fans that have clicked over from The Rookie to check it out. 

So, we plan to continue adapting the Black Jack Justice stories.  Some of you may have assumed this was the plan (and in many ways it was) but it really did depend upon the reception we got.  So thank yourselves for this if you love Black Jack Justice.

Stories #2 and #3 are already in the works.  The Rookie Artist, Mark Hester (who still thinks it’s weird to type in the third person) will be drawing #2 — in a very different style from the one The Rookie fans are use to.   BJJ artist extrodinaire, Sami Kivelä, will be returning with #3.  He is also doing the adapting of the story himself (from Gregg Taylor’s script) — so you know it will rock.

We’ll be searching for some outstanding artists to work with us on future stories and may even do some “comic-only” (or “comic-first”) stories.

THE RED PANDA

The great reception for Black Jack Justice also convinced us that we should do The Red Panda.  We won’t kid you here — naturally we planned (hoped) all along to do The Red Panda — But the reception and the comments really did make it a done deal.

Again we are looking for the right artists to bring RP and TFS to life.  If you know someone — or you ARE someone — please, PLEASE visit our NEW TALENT SEARCH PAGE.

ADDITIONAL DECODER RING THEATER STORIES

I’m really not suppose to say anything about this (seriously!) but that’s never stopped me before. 

We had a mind-blowingly good artist contact us recently (look for a sample of his artwork on the Art of Addictive Comics Blog — Coming soon!) and he wants to do… well, let’s just say “another of DRT’s Podcasts” – they might DECK me if I use this SPACE to announce it. 

It just so happens that Scott is good friends with the author of this particular story (we have been discussing some of his other stories — I don’t think we have FAILED in our MONOLOGUES with him — but I can’t tell you who it is yet.) so it has a better than equal chance of happening.

If it all comes together — it will KICK SERIOUS A**! (that’s not a hint.  Just capitals. ) 

Personally, I would like to see us do some of the Decoder Ring Theatre Showcase stories down the road.  Let us know your favorites.

OTHER COMICS and BLOGS   

Naturally we are happy with our readers from DRT and Black Jack Justice and hope you will continue to support all of the stories that AC and DRT team-up to do.

But don’t forget to check out all the other stories and blogs we have planned.  I won’t go into all of them on this post (it’s long already) but we will keep you informed. 

Not everything will be everyone’s cup of tea — but you may discover something you like. 

So be sure to give everything a look. 

See ya,

Mark

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Welcome.

We’re glad you could make it because we are VERY EXCITED.

We have quite a bit of ground to cover in this first post so let’s get started. 

GREGG TAYLOR — THE MIND BEHIND BLACK JACK JUSTICE & TRIXIE DIXON 

First up, Black Jack Justice creator and writer, Gregg Taylor has a few words of welcome for everyone.  Take it away Gregg —  

“Over at Decoder Ring Theatre, we’re in our fourth season of providing all-new, full-cast audio drama in the tradition of the Golden Age of Radio. Our detective series, Black Jack Justice has always been one of our most popular offerings, fuelled by my lifelong love for all things Noir, Pulp and Hardboiled.

“Audio Drama fires the imagination as few other forms can. It is not a passive medium, but requires the active artistic participation of the listener to create the world along with us. Every listener has their own image of Jack Justice, Trixie Dixon and the inhabitants of their world, and giving them physcial form at last was not something to be undertaken lightly.

“Thank God Sami Kivelä was there to perform this alchemy for us. His feel for the characters, their world and the classic elements of noir storytelling has amazed me, and I know you will feel the same as the weeks go by.

“With Mark Hester’s inks providing dramatic shadows and graceful light, it’s easy for me to forget that these stories weren’t created for a visual medium at all and get lost in another time, another place and the ‘Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of.’ “

Thanks Gregg. 

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE BLACK JACK JUSTICE BLOG?

Glad you asked.

It might be a long time — maybe never — before webcomics rival the biggest offline comics in terms of readers and reach.  But one thing we have them beat on, hand’s down, is the ability to interact with the readers — almost real time.

Addictive Comics plans to take full advantage of this!

That’s the main reason we have created this blog — and similar blogs for each of our comics.  At first we envisioned having a comments area below the artwork on the actual comic pages.  But experiments with this proved that it was far too limiting for what we wanted to do.

We want, encourage and NEED the readers to comment on anything and everything.

And the Wide-Open nature of a Blog is PERFECT for this.

IS THAT ALL – JUST COMMENTS?

Heck no!  Although comments from you ARE the MOST important part of every blog, we also love the blog as a place to present some of our other work and air some of our thoughts. 

Expect to see extra artwork and writing by the creators, more of our thoughts on the pages and much more.

To get us rolling in the right direction — here is a bonus piece from Black Jack Justice Artist, Sami Kivelä, proving he’s not just a one-of-a-kind detective artist –

Spider-man, Iceman and whatever the woman is called — Copyright Marvel Comics

ONE LAST IMPORTANT NOTE

The comics are on a Page-a-Week Schedule (for many reasons), but we have no such constraints on the blog.  We plan to post more frequently — whenever the mood hits us.  Possibly daily.

We’ll always start a new post for each new Comic Page but there may be several posts between them.

Plus the comments are always available and we hope that you will use them frequently. 

So be sure to hit the Black Jack Justice Blog often between Tuesdays (the update day for the Black Jack Justice Comic) to check out what’s new and to read the comments left by other readers.

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That’s all for now.  We open the first comment area for your comments on –

• The first two pages of the Black Jack Justice Comic
• The Black Jack Justice Blog
• Black Jack Justice and Trixie Dixon
• Sami and Mark’s Artwork
• Gregg’s Story
• Addictive Comics
• ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT

Thank you for joining us and PLEASE participate,

Scott, Mark, Gregg, Sami and the whole Addictive Comics and Decoder Ring Theatre Gangs

PS — You thought we forgot, didn’t you?  Here is the Flying Squirrel drawing by Black Jack Justice inker, Mark Hester, that we promised you. 

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