Posted in: Comics, Vault | Tagged: radio apocalypse, ram v, vault comics

Radio Apocalypse, New Ram V, Anand RK, Aditya Nidikar Comic From Vault

Vault Comics has announced Radio Apocalypse, a new comic book series "a mix-tape for the end-times, a story of the resilience & joy of music, love & the human spirit" from writer Ram V, artist Anand RK, letterer Aditya Bidikar and designer Tim Daniel.

In his newsletter, Ram V says.

Back in 2015 when I was putting my very first book together, I'd only just begun to meet other writers, artists and comic creators in the UK. I was already thinking about Radio Apocalypse at the time. I'd discussed the idea with a few editors / publishers and the consensus was that music and comics don't work. In that, while comics can be adjacent to music, they do not function with music being an integral part of the narrative.

This was, to me, absurd of course. A significant part of my drive behind writing and creating art is the idea that you can achieve a form of narrative synesthesia. One sense bleeding into the other. Words evoking sounds, colours invoking tone, panels creating rhythm. But also, music and lyrics heard while reading adding to the experience of the story.

Anand and I first did this with Grafity's Wall. Then again, more prominently, with Blue in Green. Now Radio Apocalypse might be our most overt and most music-inclusive story.

Back in 2016 when Anand and I had first begun playing with the idea I discussed it with Kieron Gillen, whose Phonogram had always been a favorite. His first reaction to the idea was, "Yes, there is something fascinating about broadcasting into the unknown isn't there?" Fast forward to 2020 – people locked indoors, devoid of social contact, bereft of the hope that is to be found in each other, had begun to sing and play. Musicians were playing out of their balconies. People were singing opera to anyone who might hear them on the street. Not quite Cellists in Sarajevo, but there is something intimately human about sharing music with each other.

Radio Apocalypse is the story of the last functioning radio station on the planet. I'd like to think there is something intimately human about these stories in much the same way.

While in Kieron Gillen's newsletter, he says;

After the triumph of Blue in Green, Ram V and Anand RK's next book is Radio Apocalypse over at Vault. It sounds hugely exciting but I thought worth highlighting the alt cover, as shown above. A homage cover to a homage cover is the sort of meta I live to see, and I can't wait to see what they bring to the table this time.

The Vault PR continues;

Long after the rock out of space struck the world and turned it all to dust, in Bakerstown stands the last Radio Station on the planet. Radio Apocalypse broadcasting into the unknown, a beacon in the dark for those who wander the lost places. Now change is coming to Bakerstown. Among the refugees flocking into an already precarious settlement, an orphan boy Rion, caught in an indiscretion, will twine his fate with the Radio Station. And in doing so, begin this mixtape of love and heartbreak and interminable hope. This soundtrack to the end of the world.

"Back in 2017 when Anand and I first started collaborating on comics we discussed Radio Apocalypse," said Ram V, "but as circumstances would have it, we ended up working on other projects. We've both gone on to do well received work in comics. All that while, Radio Apocalypse grew and mutated and developed in the back of our minds, into what it is today. It is a story of the resilience and joy of music, love and the human spirit even in the bleakest of times and we've been raring to tell it for over three years."

"Some of my favourite things to do in art is world-building," added Anand RK, "especially when this world is so similar to ours but just not quite it? To design specifics of this world, how characters inhabit it, how physics and biology of it work, the culture that shapes it. I find this immensely exciting and satisfying. Radio Apocalypse is one such project and I can't wait for Ram and me to tell this story."

RADIO APOCALYPSE #1 will hit store shelves in April 2021, and will debut with a special Vault Vintage cover from Nathan Gooden and Tim Daniel that pays homage to Kieron Gillen's and Jamie McKelvie's legendary Phonogram #1.

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