ARCANE FICTION LIMITED EDITION
Talk about Arcane. What is your company all about?
We're storytellers here at Arcane - this is our core, and we tell stories in many different ways. From books to audiobooks, audio dramas to fiction podcasts, comics, and immersive AR (augmented reality) motion comics, we bring fiction to life across every mobile medium. If it lives on your phone, or you can hold it in your hand, we create it.
We search for the perfect stories- through independently published authors or with the help of our col- laborative publishing partner World Weaver Press-and build them out across multiple formats. We start with a full-cast audiobook, then evolve it into a fiction podcast with original music and cinematic sound design. Next, we work with some of the best artists in the game to turn it into a comic. And when it makes sense, we take it one step further- combining the audio and visuals into the interactive AR comics. It's all about giving our fans new ways to experience the story, wherever they are.
Why did you decide to create an audio comic book company?
We moved into the comic realm because we love the artwork-ac- tion packed covers, character illustrations comics tell a story at a glance. It made sense to bring that into our process. There are also certain artists we were simply dying to collaborate with. Pairing our au- dio dramas with original comic art, adds visual depth and blends retro elements with modern storytelling. In 2026, we're taking it further by launching a fiction magazine that features the original stories, the comics, and the audio-all in one place. Best of all worlds.
Also, I'm on a mission to sup- port creatives. This medium holds space for real artists. In general, entertainment seems to be moving away from true art - even CG and everything we're doing with film is less about individual creators and more about the tools used. This is somewhere we can still appreci- ate original artists. It's an honor to collaborate with such an incredible team of creatives-from our stellar cast and visionary artists to our brilliant sound designers, incredible lead composer, and our wizard of AR programming.
Another reason we love comics is because they bring out things that society and people are often not willing to talk about - things that might be too offensive, too off- putting, or just too hard to explain. A tagline of ours is "Stories for the BOLD," because we aim to push some limits.
Talk about your idea of comic books. What makes you different from others?
Our AR comics set us apart, they are a rare medium, and not many produce them. Immersive comics take real dedication. We love that it preserves the original story - you can really engage with the charac- ters, follow the killer images of origi- nal artists, and it's not eating away at the narrative like many animation or films do. It blends the nostalgia of comics and classic storytelling with future tech. Traditional comic books aren't as interactive - you can't hear the birds singing beside you or the people screaming.
It's a whole new way of experienc- ing stories. To me, this is the perfect middle ground. Films take an original story idea and completely botch it, and when you're watching it, you're often watching it passively. Traditional audiobooks can be, well, boring. This way you're engaging with all your senses, you can still hold it and read it, you can watch it in action scene by scene, listen while you work, it's fully immersive, while maintaining it's artistic and literary integrity.
I also like to think we're courageous and don't shy away from stories that push you to stretch your curiosities a bit, that our tales are extraordinary.
Talk about the challenges that you face, and how do you overcome the challenges?
The biggest challenge is cost. We started in the audiobook space as narrators and voiceover artists, before deciding to create our own stories with full casts and all the bells and whistles - and, turns out, that's pretty costly. You can produce an audiobook for between $2-4K