Hi folks,
Wishing you the very best for the coming week from everyone at Rusty Towers!
This week on the Magnus feed is another fantastic fan-written horror story from the Rusty Fears 7 writing competition. Gigantomachia is written by Alukard for the theme, “giant” and is read by Sasha Sienna. As always, it will be available in early access on Tuesday at 4pm GMT and on the public feed on Thursday at 4pm GMT.
Meanwhile in some fantastic news from the RQ Network, WOE.BEGONE will be reaching an incredible milestone this week: 250 episodes. If you haven’t yet checked out WOE.BEGONE, it is a sci-fi horror mystery about a violent online game. The show starts as a simple investigation into the origins of the ARG but becomes something much deeper and much stranger. Every episode has a unique soundtrack, written by the creator Dylan Griggs.
Exclusive for our members, we spoke to Dylan to hear about the show.
Tell us who you are and introduce us to WOE.BEGONE
My name is Dylan Griggs and I am an audiodrama showrunner/director/producer/actor/soundtrack artist/etcetc. I run the podcast WOE.BEGONE, about a guy named Mike Walters who discovers a mysterious and violent online game. What begins as a podcast about the trappings of this pernicious ARG quickly morphs into a quest to discover the technology that makes the game possible. It’s a story about power, identity, and the nature of time. 250 episodes in, it is now also a show about cowboys, bunnies, hippies, and the largest horse on Earth (shoutout to Bluster the Gigantic Horse!). There is a lot to dig into, but if you start at episode one it all (allegedly) makes sense.
I tell people that WOE.BEGONE is a mystery/thriller/sci-fi/horror/comedy, roughly in that order, but what I mean is that it is a time travel audiodrama. The show is preoccupied with the nature of time travel, what being able to time travel would say about the world, and what complications would naturally spring up if time travel existed. Things get messy, fast. People exploit the technology to do things like make several concurrent iterations of themselves that quickly spread across the globe, create enormous surveillance networks and time travel organizations, and also (allegedly) to make a normal-sized horse transform into a gigantic horse. Never a dull moment!
What got you into podcasting?
I was an early adopter of podcasts, back when it was a literal description of audio shows that you would download in the iTunes store and load onto an actual iPod. As a kid, I remember really being into the Digg podcast DiggNation. Years later, I fell in love with audiodramas when shows like Welcome To Night Vale were first getting big. I had a job where I was free to listen to podcasts while I worked and I quickly listened through Night Vale and then other shows, like Life/After, Wolf359, SAYER, and a new show at the time called The Magnus Archives. I was drawn into audiodramas as a new medium with a unique approach to storytelling and a low barrier to entry. I was especially fond of shows that pushed things in difficult and experimental directions like Archive 81, Mabel, and Alice Isn’t Dead.
When COVID happened, I found myself out of a job, stuck at home, looking for something to occupy my time. I had recently received a new microphone to record music and one of the first projects that I did to play around with the new mic was the first episode of WOE.BEGONE. I loved the process of making the show, writing the music, and picking up interdisciplinary skills on the job. The rest is history.
After 250 episodes, what are you most proud of about WOE.BEGONE?
When I started making WOE.BEGONE (and especially after it was clear the show would be ongoing), I wanted to make sure that it was structured in a way that I could do anything that I wanted with the storytelling format. I’m proud of both the breadth and depth of the stories I’ve told throughout the seasons. There have been audiobook-style episodes, faux-podcasts, musical interludes, fully voice-acted episodes, westerns, noirs, experimental and impressionistic stories. Anything that sparks my interest is something that I can dig into.
I’m also extremely proud of the community of voice actors and fans that have sprung up around the show. There are so many wonderful talents that have brought my characters to life, like David Ault (Ty Betteridge), Steve Anzalone (Eagle), Rae Lundberg (Jamilla Gardener), and Taylor Michaels (Chance). Tay is probably reading this, hi Tay! I’ve also made great friends who have gone on to make their own shows partly inspired by WOE.BEGONE, like Athan ([REDACTED], The Grotto), Lyssa Jay (400 Words A Horror) and Tatiana Gefter (Soul Operator).
There is also a wonderful fan community in the Discord, Tumblr, and elsewhere, that is so welcoming and full of music and art and thoughtful analysis of the show. The community is the lifeblood of WOE.BEGONE. It is so motivating and inspirational to see how people discuss my show online. The energy I draw from the community is how I have been able to do the show every week, without fail, since November 2020.
Episode 250 of WOE.BEGONE comes out on Wednesday, June 10th. Start back at episode 1 if you are new to the show. And thanks for listening!
You can listen to WOE.BEGONE wherever you find podcasts, at woebegonepod.com or on the Rusty Quill website. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving a rating or a review, as this is one of the best ways to support your favourite podcasts.
Have a good week all!
The Rusty Quill team