Audio Adventures - The Movies In Your Mind
I’m going to take something of a guess here and say the majority of people who read this will have listened to at least one Black Library audiobook. They are something of a pillar to the hobby these days, as technology has allowed us the supercomputer in our pocket to connect to a wireless bean in our ears to transmit sounds from the 41st Millennium, Mortal Realms, The Old World or the stadiums of Nuffle. It has become such a massive part of the hobby that BL has given whole new areas of recognition to names not known outside the hobby. Names like Jonathon Keeble, Stephen Perring**, John Banks and Toby Longworth spring to mind, and as you read this, I can imagine you hear the tones, the words of books long listened too, possible multiple times. But this is not the only audio entertainment GW has created over the years, for they have also stepped into the arena of the Audio Drama. And this is my area of love.
To describe why Audio Dramas are such a wonderful experience to me involves two major things. One is being a child listening to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds with my dad (possibly at far too early an age, but then I was John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness at age 7…so…that possibly explains a lot of my love of quantum horror and…well, me***). The soundscape of the world is a constantly expanding wonder, creating both an unforgettable journey and the best ending seen outside the top levels of found footage movies. Over the years, the Listen and Read books came and went, and the Discworld Tapes**** became part of my routine.
Then, my world was rocked by Dirk Maggs.
The BBC radio station Radio 1 began playing a serialised audio drama adaption of Batman:Knightfall, with a smattering of chunks of amazing ear-experiences every Saturday that pulled me in and transformed my love into an obsession. From there, I would hunt out and discover Dirk Magg’s other works, Judge Dredd, Superman, Spiderman***** and of course the incredible ID4UK, a side-qual to the Independence Day movie that I will always prefer on every level to the film. Where ID4UK truly wins out is how for the first quarter, it’s played as a Radio 1 broadcast, with jingles and songs until the moment of attack, where it shifts into full soundtracked audiomovie. ******.
If you wish to know more, I was lucky enough to interview Dirk in 2013, which you can hear HERE
Also, friend of the podcast Under Consultation have done a more recent interview which you can hear HERE
All of this is an explanation of why such things are a massive and major part of my mindset.
When I returned to the tabletop fold after many a year of being away, it was like entering a brand new world. When I had bowed out around 2004, there was no Audiobooks, no Audio Dramas. On my return I was swamped with the sheer amount that had been released in the proceeding decade, getting straight into the Hunt for Ghal Maraz with the Stormcast, revisiting 40k through mini-episodes and sprawling epics. Since then, the Warhammer Crime and Warhammer Horror imprints have released truly top of the line listening experiences, with Bozgat’s Big Adventure and No Way Out being some notable mentions.
However, the very pinnacle came with the casting of Brian Blessed as Gotrek in both of the RealmSlayer dramas, and not just for the big man Brian himself. Realmslayer and it’s sequal, Blood of the Old World have a certain Maggs-ness about them, being not just about the sound, but the layering of sounds. There is a richness found in those releases that was not apparent in those that came before, a whisting wind barely on the edge of hearing that tells the tale of the sad story of Snorri Nosebiter, a bombast to the bass when Gotrek goes on the attack. The very medium has an element of fludity and playing around that sings of the best of audio productions. Its a taught, well considering production and should be rewarded as such. This has continuied with later releases such as Dredge Runners (highly reccomended) it has not yet reached the same heights.
All this is basically a long way to say three things. 1) you should listen to more Dirk Maggs. 2) I wish Maggs to turn his hand to a Black Libairy release, which I know won’t happen as the man did a series of Aliens productions for Audible, and is currently is making the Sandman Acts for the same company, and finally, 3) I just wanted to wax lyrical about my love of Audio.
Until next time, I remain……
*still the best joke GW has ever done
**No-one else will be Ciaphas Cain
***The store owner in Sharjah asked me if I knew who the Prince of Darkness was and to my eternal embarrassment, I did a really theatrical “DRAAAAACULA”
****actually, it was the Diggers audiobook first
******I’m still sore there was no Hulk Maggs production
******I am also ashamed to admit I used the first third as a practical joke to scare the living hell out of my younger brother