Arnold and Jacob Pander first achieved comic book stardom with their first project, Grendel: Devils Legacy, written by Matt Wagner which starred Christine Spar. The Brothers have since gone on to work on a number of projects including Accelerate written by Richard Kadrey and Tasty Bullet which Arnold collaborated on with Jonathan Vankin, but for the most part, the pair have worked together on comics and film projects. Among their many projects are Triple-Xnot to be confused by the Vin Diesel movie of similar title, Batman: City of Light, Exquisite Corpse, and Ginger Fox. The duo have also directed many music videos, short films and commercials in addition to writing and directing the feature film Selfless.
Their new release is Secret Broadcast Redux, a full color digital version of the comic the pair released through Oni Press in 1998. When the comic was initially released, it was accompanied by a soundtrack and music videos. Redux includes a new coda to explore what happens to the characters after the events of the story and an all new soundtrack.
ALEX DUEBEN: For people who dont know, what is Secret Broadcast?
ARNOLD PANDER: Secret Broadcast is a two-part short story with a companion soundtrack of electronic music, Secret Broadcast Redux. The story follows Toby who seeks spiritual enlightenment through his beat driven pirate broadcasts with the assistance of his girlfriend Gina and his DJ buddy Carlos. Its really a story about finding a your personal voice in a commercial media saturated world.
JACOB PANDER: And the creative forms that youthful rebellion can take as it expresses itself. It also reflects the world we saw around us in Portland in the late nineties.
AD: Talk a little about the music scene in Portland in the nineties and the pirate radio happening in Europe. For people who werent there what that scene was like in the nineties and what you and others were trying to do?
AP: When Jacob and I were living in Amsterdam writing and drawing the Triple-X International for Dark Horse comics, we discovered House Music and Techno on the pirate station, Radio 100. We thought it would be cool to have a parallel story in America about pirate radio.
JP: It presented an exciting context for both the theme of free expression as well as the new electronic music culture that we were discovering while living and working in Europe.
AP: We returned to Portland to finish Triple-X and in the late 90s a small pirate station had sprung up called Subterradio, playing new electronic music that had a focus on DJ culture labels like Ninja Tune, Mo Wax, OM and Ubiquity. It struck us as serendipitous and when Oni Press asked us to come up with a story for their flagship venture, we decided this would be a cool way for art and life to blend. As we created the comic and the first CD soundtrack, there were fundraisers and other events to support the fringe station that was starting to impact programming on some of Portlands commercial stations as electronic music gained popularity. Tobys voice and metaphysical musings were heavily inspired by Subterradios maverick, DJ Shmeejay.
AD: So why was this a good time to return to Secret Broadcast?
JP: Weve always pushed to find ways to combine our comics and film projects, and the original release of Secret Broadcast was a real multi-media vision, which has always played a major roll in our approach to projects. The original release ultimately included the comic, the CD, and music videos that we self produced for Jamal-ski and Pistel at the time, both landing airtime on MTVs Amp. But unless you had a major budget to cross promote these different mediums it was very difficult for them to be experienced as a cohesive whole. A lot has changed since the original printing. Now we see all forms of media converged on the web where digital comics can cross-pollinate with YouTube videos, social networks, games and music. It really felt like the perfect time to release Secret Broadcast.
AP: We launched Panderbroscomics.com inspired by this zeitgeist in new media or Transmedia, and the creative possibilities of convergence entertainment that will more than likely be experienced online. Secret Broadcast really bridges the 20th century era of word-of-mouth to the digital modus operandi of the 21st century with the same spirit of artistic rebellion.
AD: Talk a little about the two big changes to the book - the addition of color and pulling together a new soundtrack - why did you make both decisions?
JP: Much of our printed work originally appeared in B/W, and as weve set out to digitally publish a number of our existing projects and new ones weve been making an effort to bring them to the world in the way wed originally environed them. We enlisted colorist Grace Alison who really captured the atmosphere of the underground DJ era. We also decided to add two new pages to the ending that helps illuminate the fate of the Secret Broadcast characters.
AD: Any tracks from the new soundtrack that youre especially excited by?
AP: Theyre all my little babies. (Laughter) Well, adopted at least. Like any compilation people are bound to pick their faves, but we were really excited to get a brand new single from legendary British producer, Howie B. Also we had first heard Meat Beat Manifesto on Amsterdam pirate radio, so getting Jack Dangers to be on the record really captured the origins of the project. Mark Pistel was really instrumental in getting that to happen.
JP: The music in Secret Broadcast Redux reflects the evolution of the project in an exciting way, with amazing tracks from a couple of electronicas godfathers, as well as new emerging voices that that continue to push the genre.
AD: The book was originally published by Oni Press, one of their first publications, but now youre releasing the book yourselves through Pander Brothers Comics. Why was this a good time to publish work yourselves?
JP: The last few years were devoted heavily to producing our feature film and other directing projects, but with the advent of new digital publishing platforms we became excited about the prospect of releasing a number of our classic books in color, and also experimenting with new approaches to hybrid storytelling by combining our love of movies, comics and music.
AP: We have a number of comics that no one has seen or are out of print. The cool thing is we created a lot of characters and stories that still resonate today. With digital comics we have the ability to release some of our previously published books with an updated look, and get new stories out more consistently. Hopefully we will connect with new readers and some of our previous fans as well.
AD: Talk a little about Jack Zero. This comic was first published in Dark Horse Presents years back and then you colored it and released it digitally. What is it and why you released it digitally?
AP: Jack Zero was also born out of living in Amsterdam and being homesick during a harsh winter. I connected with a writer and beatbox comedian named Joel (Zeroboy) Blumsack who had a number of alter egos including, Jack Zeroa misunderstood marksman whose Wild West affiliations launches him into pulp fiction infamy and thus into unintended adventures. We rereleased it with sepia tone color and all-new full-color covers, plush some cool extra true Wild West profiles in the back pages.
AD: Will we see a print copy of Secret Broadcast or Jack Zero soon?
AP: Later in the year well be making our digital releases available as print on-demand books.
JP: Currently the digital books are available on Graphicly.com and Panderbroscomics.com, including the energy drink conspiracy adventure, Tasty Bullet, co-authored by Jon Vankin. We plan to expand this to more digital platforms soon, including Kindle Fire, NOOK, iBooks, Google Books and Kobo.
AD: You mentioned Triple-Xnot to be confused with that Vin Diesel moviewhich is possibly my favorite book of yours. Will we see a new edition of it one of these days?
JP: Thanks. That book means a lot to us since we spent most of our 20s writing and drawing it for Dark Horse Comics in the early 90s. We are planning to color it and add more pages including a prologue that sets up the conflict in the U.S. and also what befalls our hero at the end that will open it up for more adventures for Hans and company. The biggest change is we will be giving Triple-X a brand new title that will be announced closer to its digital re-release.
AP: The whole Vin Deisel thing totally caught us by surprise. One day a bus drove past us with a huge XXX on the side and we were like, what the hell!?It really prompted us to focus on Hollywood with our comic and graphic novel properties and hopefully see them to the screen or the web with our own vision intact.
AD: After Selfless, are you planning another movie?
JP: Thats definitely in the plans now that our comic book site is up and running. Arnold has been in L.A. the last two years and were working with DJ2 Entertainment to develop our comics as motion pictures.
AP: Weve been writing a lot and assessing the new distribution landscape. Later this year well begin developing our next indie feature. The experience of making Selfless was an amazing journey and really taught us a lot about every aspect of the process. You can watch the trailer at: www.selflessthemovie.com.
AD: Portland has changed a lot over the years - its grown in size, become a (perceived, at least) center of hipster culture, become a big filming location. What do you love about the town and from your perspective, how has it changed?
AP: It really has changed. Portland is going through a major identity shift with all the new people moving in from different parts of the country. There are a lot more voices now so it broken into a lot more subcultures.
JP: Its very boutique in a way. You have these aesthetic microcosms from one end of the spectrum to the other. Theres a lot of unique small businesses and DIY movements that make Portland a kind of incubator for new ideas.
AP: We did our part over the years to help the underground art and electronic music scene but its really just taken off into something new and cool.
JP: The last few years weve focused on independent film and watched the film community grow around us. Hollywood has flirted with Portland off and on but our hope is to keep the local film industry thriving whether those TV shows continue or not.
AD: What are you working on now?
JP: Were currently drawing a yet-to-be-titled vampire comic series based on one of our original screenplays.
AP: The Twilight franchise made it difficult to sell a vampire script in Hollywood, but its a story that we love and have wanted to tell, so were giving it a life as a graphic novel. Were having a blast drawing it and will be releasing it in winter 2013.
JP: Its a sexy thrill-ride that puts the amp back into the Vampire genre.
Their new release is Secret Broadcast Redux, a full color digital version of the comic the pair released through Oni Press in 1998. When the comic was initially released, it was accompanied by a soundtrack and music videos. Redux includes a new coda to explore what happens to the characters after the events of the story and an all new soundtrack.
ALEX DUEBEN: For people who dont know, what is Secret Broadcast?
ARNOLD PANDER: Secret Broadcast is a two-part short story with a companion soundtrack of electronic music, Secret Broadcast Redux. The story follows Toby who seeks spiritual enlightenment through his beat driven pirate broadcasts with the assistance of his girlfriend Gina and his DJ buddy Carlos. Its really a story about finding a your personal voice in a commercial media saturated world.
JACOB PANDER: And the creative forms that youthful rebellion can take as it expresses itself. It also reflects the world we saw around us in Portland in the late nineties.
AD: Talk a little about the music scene in Portland in the nineties and the pirate radio happening in Europe. For people who werent there what that scene was like in the nineties and what you and others were trying to do?
AP: When Jacob and I were living in Amsterdam writing and drawing the Triple-X International for Dark Horse comics, we discovered House Music and Techno on the pirate station, Radio 100. We thought it would be cool to have a parallel story in America about pirate radio.
JP: It presented an exciting context for both the theme of free expression as well as the new electronic music culture that we were discovering while living and working in Europe.
AP: We returned to Portland to finish Triple-X and in the late 90s a small pirate station had sprung up called Subterradio, playing new electronic music that had a focus on DJ culture labels like Ninja Tune, Mo Wax, OM and Ubiquity. It struck us as serendipitous and when Oni Press asked us to come up with a story for their flagship venture, we decided this would be a cool way for art and life to blend. As we created the comic and the first CD soundtrack, there were fundraisers and other events to support the fringe station that was starting to impact programming on some of Portlands commercial stations as electronic music gained popularity. Tobys voice and metaphysical musings were heavily inspired by Subterradios maverick, DJ Shmeejay.
AD: So why was this a good time to return to Secret Broadcast?
JP: Weve always pushed to find ways to combine our comics and film projects, and the original release of Secret Broadcast was a real multi-media vision, which has always played a major roll in our approach to projects. The original release ultimately included the comic, the CD, and music videos that we self produced for Jamal-ski and Pistel at the time, both landing airtime on MTVs Amp. But unless you had a major budget to cross promote these different mediums it was very difficult for them to be experienced as a cohesive whole. A lot has changed since the original printing. Now we see all forms of media converged on the web where digital comics can cross-pollinate with YouTube videos, social networks, games and music. It really felt like the perfect time to release Secret Broadcast.
AP: We launched Panderbroscomics.com inspired by this zeitgeist in new media or Transmedia, and the creative possibilities of convergence entertainment that will more than likely be experienced online. Secret Broadcast really bridges the 20th century era of word-of-mouth to the digital modus operandi of the 21st century with the same spirit of artistic rebellion.
AD: Talk a little about the two big changes to the book - the addition of color and pulling together a new soundtrack - why did you make both decisions?
JP: Much of our printed work originally appeared in B/W, and as weve set out to digitally publish a number of our existing projects and new ones weve been making an effort to bring them to the world in the way wed originally environed them. We enlisted colorist Grace Alison who really captured the atmosphere of the underground DJ era. We also decided to add two new pages to the ending that helps illuminate the fate of the Secret Broadcast characters.
AD: Any tracks from the new soundtrack that youre especially excited by?
AP: Theyre all my little babies. (Laughter) Well, adopted at least. Like any compilation people are bound to pick their faves, but we were really excited to get a brand new single from legendary British producer, Howie B. Also we had first heard Meat Beat Manifesto on Amsterdam pirate radio, so getting Jack Dangers to be on the record really captured the origins of the project. Mark Pistel was really instrumental in getting that to happen.
JP: The music in Secret Broadcast Redux reflects the evolution of the project in an exciting way, with amazing tracks from a couple of electronicas godfathers, as well as new emerging voices that that continue to push the genre.
AD: The book was originally published by Oni Press, one of their first publications, but now youre releasing the book yourselves through Pander Brothers Comics. Why was this a good time to publish work yourselves?
JP: The last few years were devoted heavily to producing our feature film and other directing projects, but with the advent of new digital publishing platforms we became excited about the prospect of releasing a number of our classic books in color, and also experimenting with new approaches to hybrid storytelling by combining our love of movies, comics and music.
AP: We have a number of comics that no one has seen or are out of print. The cool thing is we created a lot of characters and stories that still resonate today. With digital comics we have the ability to release some of our previously published books with an updated look, and get new stories out more consistently. Hopefully we will connect with new readers and some of our previous fans as well.
AD: Talk a little about Jack Zero. This comic was first published in Dark Horse Presents years back and then you colored it and released it digitally. What is it and why you released it digitally?
AP: Jack Zero was also born out of living in Amsterdam and being homesick during a harsh winter. I connected with a writer and beatbox comedian named Joel (Zeroboy) Blumsack who had a number of alter egos including, Jack Zeroa misunderstood marksman whose Wild West affiliations launches him into pulp fiction infamy and thus into unintended adventures. We rereleased it with sepia tone color and all-new full-color covers, plush some cool extra true Wild West profiles in the back pages.
AD: Will we see a print copy of Secret Broadcast or Jack Zero soon?
AP: Later in the year well be making our digital releases available as print on-demand books.
JP: Currently the digital books are available on Graphicly.com and Panderbroscomics.com, including the energy drink conspiracy adventure, Tasty Bullet, co-authored by Jon Vankin. We plan to expand this to more digital platforms soon, including Kindle Fire, NOOK, iBooks, Google Books and Kobo.
AD: You mentioned Triple-Xnot to be confused with that Vin Diesel moviewhich is possibly my favorite book of yours. Will we see a new edition of it one of these days?
JP: Thanks. That book means a lot to us since we spent most of our 20s writing and drawing it for Dark Horse Comics in the early 90s. We are planning to color it and add more pages including a prologue that sets up the conflict in the U.S. and also what befalls our hero at the end that will open it up for more adventures for Hans and company. The biggest change is we will be giving Triple-X a brand new title that will be announced closer to its digital re-release.
AP: The whole Vin Deisel thing totally caught us by surprise. One day a bus drove past us with a huge XXX on the side and we were like, what the hell!?It really prompted us to focus on Hollywood with our comic and graphic novel properties and hopefully see them to the screen or the web with our own vision intact.
AD: After Selfless, are you planning another movie?
JP: Thats definitely in the plans now that our comic book site is up and running. Arnold has been in L.A. the last two years and were working with DJ2 Entertainment to develop our comics as motion pictures.
AP: Weve been writing a lot and assessing the new distribution landscape. Later this year well begin developing our next indie feature. The experience of making Selfless was an amazing journey and really taught us a lot about every aspect of the process. You can watch the trailer at: www.selflessthemovie.com.
AD: Portland has changed a lot over the years - its grown in size, become a (perceived, at least) center of hipster culture, become a big filming location. What do you love about the town and from your perspective, how has it changed?
AP: It really has changed. Portland is going through a major identity shift with all the new people moving in from different parts of the country. There are a lot more voices now so it broken into a lot more subcultures.
JP: Its very boutique in a way. You have these aesthetic microcosms from one end of the spectrum to the other. Theres a lot of unique small businesses and DIY movements that make Portland a kind of incubator for new ideas.
AP: We did our part over the years to help the underground art and electronic music scene but its really just taken off into something new and cool.
JP: The last few years weve focused on independent film and watched the film community grow around us. Hollywood has flirted with Portland off and on but our hope is to keep the local film industry thriving whether those TV shows continue or not.
AD: What are you working on now?
JP: Were currently drawing a yet-to-be-titled vampire comic series based on one of our original screenplays.
AP: The Twilight franchise made it difficult to sell a vampire script in Hollywood, but its a story that we love and have wanted to tell, so were giving it a life as a graphic novel. Were having a blast drawing it and will be releasing it in winter 2013.
JP: Its a sexy thrill-ride that puts the amp back into the Vampire genre.