In 2023/2024 the audio production companies Pocket Universe Productions (US) and AudioMarvels (UK) will produce and distribute the first season (of three) of a new fiction podcast, SHAMAN’S TEARS, based on the 1990’s graphic novel series created by comics legend MIKE GRELL, whose works Green Arrow, Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes, and his original creation The Warlord for DC, as well as James Bond, Tarzan, and his independent creations Jon Sable: Freelance and Starslayer.
The series deals with issues of identity and the environment, as Joshua Brand, the son of a Lakota father and an Irish mother, returns to the Medicine Hat Reservation he ran away from as a child. It’s here that he learns that he has been chosen to bear the mantle of protector of the earth itself when he inherits the powers of all animals as a spiritual avenger. At the same time a rogue paramilitary corporation is subverting nature in the creation of the Blood, animal/human hybrid soldiers available to the highest bidder.
PUP and AudioMarvels will be putting together a crowdfunding and outreach campaign with Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, reaching comics fans and gaming fans. We will also be working with the theatre company Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles, one of the leading lights for Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations talent in the entertainment industry. Through our affiliation with Native Voices we will be hiring in indigenous talent; bringing on board Lakota advisors; and training Native American directors to take the reigns on S2 and S3. This will make SHAMAN’S TEARS one of the only fiction podcasts to feature one of the most diverse casts and creative teams in fiction podcasting:
Mike Grell: creator, associate producer, and story editor
Jack Bowman: producer, director, and directing mentor (for S2 and S3)
Lance Roger Axt: producer, actor, logistics
Desmond Hassing: adapter (Choctaw)
Ben Dobyns: The Fantasy Network/crowdfunding and outreach
Rennie Aracuto: The Fantasy Network/crowdfunding and outreach (Filipino American)
DeLanna Studi: Native Voices at the Autry/creative, casting, advisory (Cherokee)
Randy Reinholz: advisory, actor (Choctaw)
Sign up at https://shamanstearsaudio.com/ for updates!