This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Welcome to Red Panda Report.
Buckle up for two-fisted pulp action as I talk about the terrific Twosome of Toronto.
Red Panda Adventures, episode 30, originally aired December 1st, 2007. The episode is called
Tis the Season. Here's the copy written by Greg Taylor, the writer and director of the
Red Panda Adventures, as well as the voice of the Red Panda. Yes kids, there's a man
in red on the rooftops, but it ain't Saint Nick. In this very special slice of two-fisted
pulp justice, with all the trimmings, we tip our fedoras to the great Will Eisner and the
classic Christmas stories he wrote for his much-loved mystery man, the Spirit, and in
so doing turn 1930s Toronto on its ear. Please enjoy with our best wishes, Tis the Season.
So I have many multi-layered reasons that are deep-rooted and go far back into my life,
which is really two ways of saying the same thing, to dislike Christmas. I don't like
Christmas, I don't celebrate Christmas, I haven't celebrated Christmas for decades,
possibly, and that's something we can talk about at another time, doesn't really matter
right now. However, Tis the Season, this episode of Red Panda, episode 30, has joined Die Hard
and Gremlins and I don't know what else, I guess Ron Howard's The Grinch, I didn't see
the other one, Ron Herron and Jim Carrey's The Grinch, as fantastic movies, stories,
whatever that I love, despite the fact that they are Christmas based, Christmas themed,
whatever, because the storytelling is so fantastic. Greg Taylor is not only an excellent writer
in general, he is very skilled at a multitude of different things. He's a novelist, he can
write audio dramas, he directs them as well, he's a voice actor, fantastic voice actor,
and he also is able to write a rhyming, I think a Christmas Carol or a Night Before
Christmas style, I know, a Night Before Christmas style type of thing. I don't know if Will
Eisner in the Spirit wrote rhyming dialogue like Twas the Night Before Christmas, but
this certainly contains it and it's fantastic. The whole thing is written in verse and Stephen
Burley does a fantastic job narrating the whole thing. I've mentioned Finn's Golem recently,
Finn's Golem, so, Dakota Ring Theatre has a long history, it's, you know, 12 seasons
of Red Panda, I believe 10 seasons of Blackjack Justice, if not 12, and also they did a bunch
of summer audio stuff collaborating with other people who are making audio dramas and just
audio shows in general, because they weren't just dramas, they were comedies, they were
whatever. Finn's Golem is this, think of Total Recall and then make it cooler, and that's
what Greg Taylor wrote, and Stephen Burley starred in it, and he has this very interesting
quality to his voice, and he did the whole thing of Finn's Golem, and it was amazing.
I don't know if it's in the Dakota Ring Archives, I'm sure it is, if you look for it, Finn's
Golem, you can find it there. It's an audio adaptation, audio drama adaptation of the
book that Taylor wrote also, so I really gotta get that book, because the adaptation is great,
but without Stephen Burley, I'm not sure. Now, I'm sure it's fantastic, but Stephen
Burley really does a great job, and he's the narrator here, and he does a fantastic job,
so just the whole thing is really fantastic, it's really fabulous. It's about doing the
right thing, it's about justice, it's about Harry Kelly. It's about Harry Kelly, he stars
in this thing, and yeah, so young Harry Kelly is an agent of the Red Panda, he's been moved
from a spotter to a runner, I believe is what they said, or a runner to a spotter, one of
the two, so we get to track Harry Kelly's career throughout the whole Red Panda series,
basically, more or less, overall. And this is a big deal for him, he wants to go sing
for his mom in this Christmas thing, but then he finds out about this plot where these terrible,
they say rat-faced Jake, this terrible game creature, excuse me, led by a bad fellow named
Jake, wants to steal all this stuff that Red Panda's alter ego is sending to these orphans
somewhere, orphans who are kids with no mom or no dad. Red Panda is himself an orphan,
at this time his parents are dead, he's the last living member of his family, the soul
heir to everything, somehow. Well, we won't talk about how, but anyway, that's his deal,
that's his story, and so maybe for that, in part, he has sympathy for these kids, but
I'm sure also Kit is very strongly pushing him to give to these kids, because she definitely
adds an edge of humanity that I believe is missing from his character. He wants to help
people in the macro, I think is how you say that, and she wants to help people in the
micro, she wants to help everyday people in everyday ways, and what better way, like they
give money to the poor box and things like that when they take it from criminals, but
you know, directly giving stuff to these kids at Christmas is a great, you know, it's a
great gesture, especially in the culture, whatever. All my qualms with Christmas aside,
that's a wonderful thing to do, and you should do it at any time, not just when there's,
you know, Christmas cheer in the air. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it just tells a fantastic
story, it's a lot of fun, the whole thing rhymes, which is wonderful, and the performances
are fantastic, even like there's some lines that you could tell, well, like, we're difficult
to pull off, and yet they did it, and it all sounded fantastic, so, anyway, it's a lot
of fun, I'm not going to blather on about it, because it's just, it's a really great
fun episode, you should check it out. I think I called my episode for the title, or my thumbnail
for it on YouTube, is A Very Merry Harry. Anyway, yeah, it's just great. Shannon Arnold
is the voice of Harry Kelly, and she does a fantastic performance, and the whole crew
does a great job. There's even some special decoder-ing theatre humor in the middle of
it, because in the break, they go on with this little skit about the guy who's doing
the voice of Jake, I can't remember his name, sorry, I remember Stephen Burley, for sure,
which is kind of like the point of the skit, that he's carrying the whole show, and so
this other guy wants to, is it? No, I'm not going to guess. Anyway, anyway, it's a funny
little skit in there, and it shows some of the personality and some of the, well, at
least the decoder-ing persona of the people who are doing the show. So, Greg, Clarissa,
and I guess Shannon is probably the other person who drops in there and does some stuff.
It must be Peter Moyle, I think, is the last one. Pretty sure of that. Anyway, and yeah,
it's a lot of fun. Very fun episode, light, but like, you know, it's not like adding to
the overall lore of the Red Panda. It's just really fun and really cool and really enjoyable.
I mean, it kind of adds to Harry's mythos for who he becomes later or what he becomes
later, but I don't know if Taylor had that in mind at the time. I kind of think he did,
but regardless, it's very cool, very fun.
I hope you enjoyed that. Like, share, and subscribe. I invite you to comment, ask questions,
and share your thoughts with me. It's always more fun when you're part of the conversation.
Until next time, be well and hold high the lamp of justice. Visit MJMunoz.com for more
of my work and help me build up the Fortress fiction.