Black Jack Justice
 |
Black Jack Justice was a podcast radio drama series in the style of old time radio private detective shows, written, directed and produced by Gregg Taylor for Decoder Ring Theatre. It followed two detectives, Jack Justice (voice by Christopher Mott) and his partner Trixie Dixon (voiced by Andrea Lyons), who divided the voice-over narration duties of the show.
Stage Play
The original Black Jack Justice was a stage play written by creator Gregg Taylor. The play was a comedy about a very bad day on an old time radio show. The writer, Martin Bracknell, wakes up from a drunken stupor and realizes there is no script for the night's episode that is just about to go on the air. The last portion of the play features the cast attempting to put on the show anyway, making it up as they go along.
When Taylor decided to begin producing radio dramas for podcasting, he decided to actually produce Black Jack Justice as a series along with Red Panda Adventures.
Podcast Series
The first season of Black Jack Justice was 12 episodes long. From season two until season eleven, there were 6 episodes per season. On Sept 1st 2016, Decoder Ring Theater announced (in their "Season Eleven Spectacular" show) that season twelve would consist of an audiobook-style adaptation of the first novel, with Christopher Mott and Andrea Lyons alternating reading chapters, for "about 30" episodes.
Gregg Taylor also announced on the same show that "Chris Mott told me he was going to have to [...] sign a union card," making Mott unavailable for future work on Black Jack Justice and ending the series. Taylor's commentary continued "I never wanted to do a final episode for Black Jack. It doesn't feel like it needs one. [...] I felt like if it had to end [...] the best ending would be to go back to the beginning and do their very first case together, which is the story of the first novel."
The next season, Season 14, consisted of an audiobook-style adaptation of the second novel, Dead Men Run with Andrea Lyons alternating reading chapters with Gregg Taylor.
Episodes
Novels
In April 2012, Gregg Taylor published the novel, Black Jack Justice, detailing the first meeting of Jack and Trixie. This was followed by Dead Men Run in April 2015.
Webcomic
In December 2008, the Addictive Comics website began posting a comic adaptation of "Justice Served Cold," the first episode of the audio series. The art was done by Sami Kivelä with inks by Mark Hester. The script was simply the audio drama script, which resulted in some very word-heavy comic pages. The 13-page adaptation wrapped up in March 2009. Despite the promise of more Black Jack Justice, as well as an adaptation of the Red Panda Adventures, no new pages have been posted since.
Dramatis Personae
- Jack Justice: A World War II vet (Army sniper), Jack is as hard-boiled a private detective as they come. Voiced by Christopher Mott.
- Trixie Dixon: An independent woman, Trixie is every bit as hard boiled as her partner. Voiced by Andrea Lyons.
- Lieutenant Victor Sabien: Jack and Trixie's on-again/off-again friend on the police department. Voiced by Gregg Taylor.
- Freddie "The Finger" Hawthorne: Jack's best friend. Freddie is a small-time hood who often ends up in situations way over his head. Voiced by Peter Nicol.
- Sergeant Otis Nelson: Bumbling police detective working under Lt. Sabien who often gets caught up in Jack and Trixie's cases.
- Theodore "Button-Down Theo" West: A small fry at Braithwaite's, a large rival detective agency, who carries a rather large torch for Trixie.
- Alf McKinney: The house detective at the Metrolight Hotel. He also has a thing for Trixie. Voiced by Gregg Taylor.