The following is an interview with Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and writer James Aquilone on Monstrous Books’ recent release of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker audiobook. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Aquilone about what Kolchak fans can anticipate from the expanded audio edition of the story, the incredible cast involved with the audiobook’s production, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Monstrous Books has been delighting fans of Kolchak: The Night Stalker with incredible, new additions to the Kolchak mythos, and you recently released an expanded audiobook version of Jeff Rice’s original novel. What are you most excited for audio book fans to experience with this updated edition of the book?
James Aquilone: We’ve put together an updated version of the original novel by Jeff Rice, which was the basis for the 1972 TV movie, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and spawned all the other Kolchak media. We’ve restored elements to the book that had been deleted from previous editions, as well as added brand-new essays from David Dastmalchian (Late Night With the Devil), Rodney Barnes (Killadelphia), and Mark Dawidziak (The Kolchak Companion), which are included in the audiobook.
BD: What can you share with us about your collaboration with actor William Katt, and what made him the perfect voice to bring Kolchak to life for today’s listeners?
JA: I’m thrilled to have William Katt join the Kolchak family. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since I was a kid watching The Greatest American Hero. His voice is so iconic to me. I can still hear him bickering with Robert Culp from the show. William was one of the first people I thought of when I was thinking of doing an audiobook, and it’s so exciting that he said yes.
BD: Having contributed so many incredible stories to the Kolchak universe in comics and prose, are there any new mediums that you may want to explore to further expand the world and characters?
JA: Funny you should ask that, because we’re about to announce something very big, and it’s something Kolchak fans have been anticipating for a long time. But I can’t say anything about that just yet. We are close to publishing the Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters series of comics, which has stories by David Dastmalchian, Rodney Barnes, and Steve Niles.
BD: Are there any upcoming projects for Monstrous Books – whether past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JA: We’ll be launching a Kickstarter for the second issue in our new comic book series, The Omega Eleven #2. It’s a time travel epic with fantastic art by Zac Atkinson and a ton of interesting characters that we’ll be revealing soon.
BA: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about the Kolchak: The Night Stalker audiobook?
JA: You can go to the Monstrous site or you can pick up the audiobook wherever they’re sold like Amazon and Audible.
