Kickstarting Another Chapter for the 'Intergalactic Nemesis'

Facts are facts: It's not an epic science fiction pulp extravaganza if it's not a trilogy. And so Austin's own live-action graphic novel The Intergalactic Nemesis is revving its engines for the third and closing installment.

If you don't know the Nemesis, it's the live action graphic novel that was a comic that was a radio drama that was a stage show that was a coffee shop dream project, and is now arguably Austin's biggest international cross-media success story (A Broadway success and Conan O'Brien-endorsed, no less). Today, Jan. 5, it returns to the Stateside at the Paramount for one last Austin double bill performance before heading out on another globe-trotting tour. At 3pm it's the original show, Book One: Target Earth, followed at 7pm by Book Two: Robot Planet Rising.

If you've never seen this mixture of live performance, robots, aliens, mesmerism and two-fisted future librarians, this will be your last chance locally until 2014. The shows are hitting the road, and at the same time creator Jason Neulander and his cast will be working on Book Three: Twin Infinity.

The two-year process starts with a Kickstarter appeal. All money raised will pay for actors Dana Uribe and Chris Gibson, plus composer Graham Reynolds, impeccably dressed Foley artist Buzz Moran, and stage manager Jessie Douglas, to rehearse and refine the show.

The first stage in writing the closing chapter, according to Neulander, is "to take the radio version of that script and perform and record it in front of a live audience." On Jan. 29, the audio drama will be performed, for the first time ever, in front of an audience of 70 people at KUT's new Studio 1-A. A $100 Kickstarter contribution secures you a pair of tickets for the recording: If you're feeling really generous, $500 gets you into the KUT recording plus four tickets for the grand world premiere of the completed show in 2014.

Find out more about The Intergalactic Nemesis here, and find their Kickstarter page here.