The PopCult Bookshelf

Perhapanauts in Monsters Among Us…or Chimera I Wanna Tell You Something
perhapanauts audio2Based on the comic book by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau
Adapted by Todd Dezago and Elaine Lee
AudioComics
Available for download from iTunes, Amazon and AudioComics
$7.99

This latest AudioComics presentation takes a fun paranormal comic book that’s been published by Dark Horse and Image, and turns it into a brisk and entertaining audio comic book. The Perhapanauts are agents of Bedlam, a top secret government agency that investigates supernatural occurances. Along with several Special Ops types, the team includes a teenaged ghost, a Chupacabra, a Sasquatch and Karl…who some people might recognize as Mothman.

This audio presentation is a great introduction to the team that spends the first fifteen minutes setting up the premise and letting us meet each team member, each of whom have very entertaining personality quirks. The Sasquatch, Big, is a well-educated genius. Molly the ghost is in denial about being dead. Chupacabra (or Choopie) is an immature tempremental dolt. Karl, or Mothman, is just a lonely awkward guy who wants to have friends, and is also a red-eyed, winged harbinger of doom. A new member is brought in and meets the team before their adventure unfolds.

That adventure makes up the rest of this audio presentation, and like the comic, it’s loads of fun–light-hearted adventure without being slapstick comedy. The Perhapanauts is more serious than The Ghostbusters, but not deadly serious like The X Files. The dialogue is clever and the plot involving. The action is intense as the team tries to subdue a shape-shifting monster that can split into many pieces.

The cast is terrific, with no weak links. The series’ writer, Todd Dezago, voices Choopie, while the rest of the team is brought to life by Christpher Price, Robin Miles, Paul Drinan, Jaime Blank, Lance Roger Axt, Joshua Hughes, Brent Askari and William Dufris. The voices are all distinctive and the performances top-notch. Dufris also handled direction and post-production, and the blending of music, dialogue, and sound effects perfectly serves the story.

This story establishes the team and gives us a great adventure with a nice twist at the end. It’s sure to whet your appetite for more Perhapanauts tales, which you can find in the graphic novels while you await the next Perhapanauts AudioComic.