Decoder Ring Theatre

Take one hard-boiled, poorly cliched private eye, add a mysterious missing artifact and stir in six or seven of history's most culturally insesitive accents since  Hogan's Heroes  went off the air and you have the recepie for mystery, mayhem and a sweeping apology from our legal department. Here for your dining and dancing pleasure.... the mystery of The Ruby Tooth !

He has always been a lone wolf... a solitary coyote... or at least an only puppy. But today, Slick Bracer, PI is getting himself a partner! Will double the dick mean double the trouble? Will the citizens of Metropolisville be safe at last? Or will the newest cast member have a life expectancy of a red-shirted extra on Star Trek? Would it give you a hint if we mentioned this is the Mystery of Some...

Metropolisville's most manly man of mystery takes of a crazed dognapping ring, an even more crazed client, a police detective who is also... um... crazed and a secretary who is also at least slightly crazed. I sense a theme. A funky theme, with some horns and a lot of bass. Get your bad selves ready for The Case of the Kidnapped Canine !

Get ready for the Summer of Slick, as Decoder Ring Theatre proudly presents a full set of Erik Deckers' Slick Bracer , starring Peter Nicol as Slick! Action thrills! Mysterious chills! And the DRT ensemble having fun trying to bust up poor Peter in the middle of his lines. Good times! This week: one dead restaurateur and five or six desperately unlikely suspects somehow adds up to.... A Four Star...

Which is more deadly, the battle you thought was lost, or the fight you thought you had won? In the chaos of war, only one thing is certain... There Will Be Rain Tonight !

For years now, the country has been haunted by an enemy as elusive as any ghost. The head of a network working to weaken our war effort and prepared to devestate our defences at a stroke when the opportunity presents itself for their Nazi masters to strike. He has been held in check by our heroes, but with their own network depleted and diminished, how much longer can they continue the fight? If t...

There are some situations that you just can't prepare for. You can be the cleverest mystery man on the block, there will still be days that you just never saw coming. Those are the moments that cry out for a firey horse with the speed of lighht, a cloud of dust and a hearty... well, you know...

A newspaper is a powerful tool. The voice of the people, a beacon of truth in dark times and a reflexion of all that we would like to be as a city, a nation, a people. But if you happen to be the unseen hand behind Nazi fifth-column efforts, you just might get a little sick and tired of a certain crusading daily. And if you did, what choice would you have but to... Stop The Presses !

Let's see... the Nazis have decimated the Council of Mages in the Occult War and swarmed over half of Europe. They have squadrons of telepathically controlled dinosaurs and fantastic technology derived from dark magic. And their man inside Canada has run the country's masked heroes ragged trying to keep up. And it turns out that the only thing stopping things from getting a whole lot worse are a f...

Through the mists of time, from an age almost forgotten, comes a lost blade once wielded by a man who held much of the civilized world under his power. Three thousand years later, a different tyrant has similar dreams. Can the Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel keep such a powerful talisman out of his hands? Can even a disciple of an old friend defend them from the... Sword of the Sun King ?

They say that if a person is lucky at cards, it stands to follow that they must also be unlucky at love. But it doesn't take much research to prove that it's possible to be both. The stakes are in the story - see your two bickering heirs and raise you one missing will - and around this table The Sky's The Limit !

There are always more than one side to every story. And when you're dealing with a newspaper magnate, a missing heiress, a kidnapping with no ransom and an angry fishmonger, sometimes there are more sides than story. No simple matter for your average gumshoe, but just another day at the office for... Man's Best Friend .

"The one that got away" is a fine kind of tale for some. Fishermen, for example, seem to thrive on the subject. But in the detective business, where things seem to exist in a perpetually unfinished state, there are those cases that just won't stay in the drawer. The ones that never sat quite right. If only you had been a little stronger, a little smarter.... and sometimes they can weigh a man down...

They say that there are no small parts, my friends, only small actors. I've never been entirely clear on exactly what that means, or if the folks that coined the phrase intended it to be as insulting as it is. But one thing is for sure, those thin character sketches that populate the margins are usually kept there for a reason. But when left to their own devices, they tend to play familiar games....

There are few things that cry out for introspection quite like the passing of one year into the next. A time when the rustle of lost illusions crackles underfoot, like a handful of dead leaves in the wind. When past, present and future come together for a single moment to blow a raspberry at you in the shaving mirror. A time when even the handful of thing you might have been sure of shift underfoo...

When everybody's favorite junior boy detective drops by, its usually good for a twist of a certain tail, and our Square-Jawed hero kind of enjoys that, kind of like a mean kid who pulls the wings off flies. But even a bird-dog job courtesy of the Gentleman Detective is tough to smile at when it comes wrapped in... Hush Money ! 

A mysterious monster is tearing through the landscape, destroying anything that gets in its way, and headed straight for Toronto! And nothing the Home Team can throw at this unstoppable object seems equal to the task of playing immovable force. Where did this terrible creation come from? Can anything stop it? And just why was the Red Panda the last choice to stop the... Barbarian at the Gates ?

Time for a night on the town - West Coast Style! When the Flying Squirrel trails a sabotage ring to Vancouver, can a run in with the local masked hero be far behind? And when the Grey Fox turns out to be a heroine with a chip on her shoulder and a nasty temper, the stage is set for one heck of a... Girls' Night Out !

The Red Panda has faced many dangers in the service of his country, and few seem greater than being forced to share a sandbox with other superheroes. The masked marvel has never been known to work and play well with others, but is that the only reason he has been kept away from the entire Home Team, or is there something more sinister at work? Trust seems like such a simple thing, but sometimes it...

They say that crime knows no loyaties, and there is no honour among thieves. Certainly, for a nation at war, any attack upon the forces of law and order may be seen as an act of treason. But what if crime were a nation onto itself? A force of nature, bound only by its own harsh rules? Could even the Red Panda prevent the reign of... The King Of Crime ?

There may not be an ideal time to learn that one of the Red Panda's deadliest foes has escaped custody, but this certainly isn't it. The Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel may only have hours to prevent the Mistress of the Undead from departing for Berlin and if they fail, can an invasion of the dead be far behind? And all of that before they even deal with ... The Home Team !

More than a year has passed since the Occult War was lost, and little has gone well for those who stand against the forces of darkness. Many nations are now in Nazi hands, and the shadow of occupation hangs heavily over the remaining free people of Europe. Closer to home, saboteurs and traitors now lurk in the shadows which once sheltered criminal scum, and only one man can stand against them. The...

All good things must come to an end, my friends, and so our summer stroll down memory lane comes to a close with this final episode. And it just wouldn't be a finale without a big finish, would it? So call the neighbors and wake the kids... tell the arts council to make with the grant money already... it's the full-on, hard-boiled, gender-inverted Black Jack Justice starring Clarissa Dernederlande...

Holy cats, Decoder Ringers, two "Red Panda" Play It Agains in a row? It's almost like we're saving a Black Jack for the summer's big finale in a couple of weeks... But in the meantime, what could be better than an old-school creepy mystery with the cast stood on its head? Kevin Robinson as the Red Panda! Andrea Lyons as the Flying Squirrel! Chris Mott as a Newsie! Get ready for Death Danced at Mid...

We continue our summer stroll down memory lane with danger and daring-do courtesy of Steven Burley sitting in as the Red Panda with Hero van Harten as the Flying Squirrel in a little season two Red Panda Adventure we like to call... The Sweet Tooth!