#sable podcast

[lanedoodlesgood]

Took a little break to write a short story/potential prologue for my reboot of SABLE, an audio drama I worked on years ago. I burned out pretty hard on writing, but honestly, sitting down and just letting the words flow felt so freeing. If you were a fan of Sable and have missed it, I’m sorry. Hopefully what I’m starting to work on will be worth my absence.

Heres a little segment from the prologue.

[sablepodcast]

I'm Back

Hey there! Haven't been here in a long time, and I apologize. The last couple years have been interesting for sure. For those who don't know (cause I did a terrible job of updating) I got back into comic illustration, and have made a career out of it doing freelance gigs!

I have also recently come out as non-binary. All pronouns are accepted, so no need to worry about misgendering or things like that!

Sable episodes are being slowly reuploaded and being made available to purchase here https://gumroad.com/lanedoescomics . Seasons 1 and 2 are available to purchase As of right now. Seasons 3 and 4 and the shorts will be made available soon...i just need to find some of the files. I've been using the same external hard drive for a few years, but apparently some old episodes of Sable were saved to a hard drive on a computer that has long since died. So, trying to find ways to recover them, or, if I just moved them somewhere on the external that they were never supposed to be in. I'll keep you all updated!

I'd love to bring Impromptu Fiction back, but I need to reformat it. Also, have to get a dedicated way to record since I've moved and not really made a room "podcast safe" yet.

so yeah! I'm here. Will probably be updating more of my artwork here than anything else, but, I am back!

Hope you all are well.

[headofscience]

Hi, where can we find the SABLE podcast?

that’s an easy one, you can check out @sablepodcast or go directly to the RSS feed on https://sable.libsyn.com/ 

Enjoy! 👍

[oftenquietlyqueer]

I may have gotten half way through the newest Sable podcast episode (Germany), shouted ‘The Mad King Archimedes!’ and spooked my family.

[arcane-antler]

Visit Original Link

@sablepodcast I said I would make a cover of this song when I first heard there would be a song and now, months later, I finally deliver!

I hope you enjoy

[thatqueerpodcastfan]

Sable

Title: Sable

Person Responsible: Lane Lloyd

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Fantasy/Scifi

Rating: 2.5/5, Meeeh

How far did I get: End of season 2

Warnings: Graphic descriptions/descriptions of body horror and violence, themes of death, extreme psychological distress, gaslight-y themes, and violence

Notes: Sable is a universe of malicious Old Gods, secret societies of magic users, corrupt governments, and more. The first season covers a war between a violent cult and an organization of mages and the violent, horrifying crimes that led up to it. The second season covers how a small town sheriff copes with her town preacher committing unspeakable acts, the zany reality bending that ensues, and the musical smile-worshiping zealots possibly responsible.

This podcast has its ups and downs. To be honest I’ve listened to two seasons and while I’m not sure if I like it or not, I can see why people would like it without reservation.

Episodes are a single voice narrating a given story with very very few background noises, music (sans the main theme), or voice-alteration and are in a way like an audio book. The audio quality and pace of narration is good, however there is a lot of rambling in the outros. Likewise, I sometimes find myself a bit frustrated with the narration. I do not like shock value (i.e. gore) or iconoclasticism much, which seem to be staples in this method of story telling. The first season almost put me off altogether when one of the characters ended up in a mental institution and almost all female characters were either villains or victims. These things did clear up in season two, but I did have to take a long break between seasons. 

However. I said that podcast has its ups and I meant that. For starters, the imagery that Lloyd invokes is inventive and horrifying. I love me a good monster as much as the next person, but Sable scratches a particular itch that I have for new and good horrors. Season plots are multi-faceted and always leave me guessing. The motivations and unique circumstances that characters come from are well-illustrated and consistent. In terms of story and character construction, Sable is a solid podcast.

Also there are multiple non-straight and polyamorous characters! Whoo!

Score Breakdown

Quality: 0.75

Concept: 0.5 (inventive and expandable but not much connective tissue)

Execution: 0.5

Interaction: 0.25 (content warnings would be much, much appreciated)

Miscellaneous: 0.5

[bythebyandbithebi]

I'm like three episodes behind on @sablepodcast right now and given the things that Lane has been posting today I'm TERRIFIED to get caught up

[podcake-archive]

Must Listen May: Sable Review

When it comes to May, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t really horror shows. I’m sure most of you don’t quite get my selection for this month beyond the fact that they rhymed and that I don’t have reviews set up for October to truly relish in the whole scary story thing. So excuse me for my eagerness. 

To start off our dual review month we have a humble little story called SABLE, a series I’ve certainly acknowledged and had featured on this blog multiple times over the past few months but not in as much detail as it truly deserves. 

SABLE is a supernatural horror podcast about terrible things happening in a small and mysterious American town that hides something sinister beneath it’s ordinary exterior. Deep down lies a deep secret three hundred years old and counting and our narrator is here to let us in on the dark and dreadful details. 

This is the first podcast of the creator Lane Lloyd who acts and writes for it independently, grafting a rather firm fist impression into the podcast scene with a riveting tale of blood, guts, and glory. 

If there’s a central strength that lies within SABLE, it’s most definitely in its effortless strides in description. I’ve listened to my fair share of horror podcasts but none have given me the same inspired, semi-Gothic imagery SABLE prides itself off of.

While most settle for modern settings through an eerie filter, SABLE is poetically gory, visceral, and disturbingly fantastical from the get-go. It wastes no time getting to the bloody bits, providing some downright sickening visuals that make the skin crawl. Squeamish listeners won’t exactly be eager to listen in on vivid descriptions of eye gauging, ripped jaws, self-mutilation, torn skin, and displayed organs put up like pretty little set pieces for everyone to gawk at...but that is probably my favorite thing about SABLE. 

I love the gore. I love how unhinged and violent it can be, it testing just how much the mind can take and how much the stomach can figuratively digest. It certainly leaves a certain taste in your mouth, to say the least. 

If there’s anything I enjoy, it’s horror shows that know how make you feel horrified. The same a comedy podcast should make you laugh, I place horror in a category that encourages the story to tackle the weird and eldritch as much as they can from any angle possible. 

Many are capable of pulling this off, but SABLE takes the creepy aspect to as many heights is it possibly can without sparing some occasional humor and even some casual domestic details that make the ride less predictable. Simply put, if a show slides itself into a specific genre, it should try its best to encompass that genre of choice while making it unique to their idea to the point it can stand on its own:

The Meat Blockade is a comedy that prides itself on a Kafka inspired city setting and surrealism, The Once and Future Nerd is a fantasy-adventure story told from the perspective of average teenager cliches who have to survive by becoming more genre savvy, and SABLE is a horror story that builds itself from the ground up not just with gore but perspectives beyond that of run-of-the-mill humanoid characters and the interesting dialogue that sparks between them. 

And SABLE certainly shows its capabilities to be a strong storyteller by providing viewpoints from less than human creatures we even see ourselves sympathizing and being terrified of in the same breath, namely the strange creature only known as Crow, an ancient protector of the small town itself, introduced in episode one.

This is something I’ve noticed I don’t see a lot of in horror fiction in general and it’s easily becoming one of my favorite tropes-this ability to step outside of the mindset of an everyday human to catch a gander of a monster’s mind. 

And with that said, I see now I’ve grown to enjoy SABLE for the same reasons I love shows like SAYER-both being podcasts taking on foreboding atmospheres and unpleasant tones for the sake of eliciting just the right amount of terror, unsettling calmness, and satisfying conclusions. But while SAYER is a sci-fi show told from via narration of a manipulative and emotionally distant A.I that preys on personal fears to play up a quiet and psychological affect, SABLE is more keen to reading a troubled artist’s eerily descriptive dream journal. 

In other words it’s very, very weird but with a certain aesthetic in mind that keeps it all wrapped up in the same head space. The images provided complement and play off one another to give a strong and solid visual, never allowing images of ancient bird abominations, witches, and sentient trees to clash since they’re been so nicely placed under the same umbrella. 

As a first time podcast, Lloyd is clearly well versed in all the basics in providing an excellent audio drama, though it does fall prey to some common shortcomings. 

Pacing in the first few episodes is a bit hurried, granting us plenty of impressions of how strange the town the setting takes place in and getting a read on Crow while still keeping him mysterious, though a rushed take on getting through the recent plot that runs through the “Boggs” episodes. 

As a show built on a single actor, SABLE can grow slightly disorienting with its attempts to encompass multiple voices: some with accents, some without, some who speak in hoarse whispers, sometimes people with accents impersonating other people with even broader accents-the list goes on. 

We luckily have a talented actor guiding us, capable of providing some riveting performances through the slightest change of tone. He’s expressive and clear and often times witty and weird, even if the provided range for so many individual voices can vary from soothing on the ears to slightly ridiculous. 

And though I can talk circles about the imagery, there is a certain line of disbelief that gets threaded on pretty often. Yes, I am treading back a bit on what I said before, though I am an avid believer that there can be too much of a good thing if there’s not enough balance to weigh it out.

The same way I love SAYER’s atmosphere but find the overall negative tone to be a little too weighty to keep people engrossed and allow the slightest hint of hope, SABLE’s obsession with staying as dark and gruesome as possible has a similar effect.

This is less to do with tone and more to do with narrative stakes. When we’re being handed so many different sets of scary imagery, we’re put into a cycle that forces us to find another image that tops the last one we just saw. Thus it becomes some sort of strange competition to out-gore the other gore. Sometimes so much can be going on, so many strange visuals are meant to be processed at one time that it can stop being scary and start being expected. There’s at least one creepy centerpiece per episode and no matter how creative can lessen its impact if its growing more and more expected each time. 

There’s little breathing room in between even with just characters talking or traveling to a distinct location-normally because the context has already warped the scene to be fucked up from the get go-making listening to SABLE an exercise in just how much you can take in a sitting. 

I’m all for pushing boundaries on a limited platform like audio but “the breather and the bleeder” rule still applies nonetheless and I feel as though a balance has yet to be struck entirely.

None of these images are ever without rhyme or reason but it can grow overwhelming to deal with so much being thrown at you, even if the effect of being disturbed is still coming to its likely conclusion. 

Yet I have to say that the show does set out a goal of being more than just scary by still telling a coherent tale around it all. It’s rich with interesting ideas and some excellent world building, showing itself to be a very inspired story with some genuine effort and talent going into each and every part.

It has a distinct vibe and energy behind it that shows it has no interest in blending in with the other horror shows and I would highly encourage anyone who has even the slightest interest in providing solid imagery, be it scary or not, to give it a listen.

SABLE is something of a grotesque picture book for anyone who gets a kick out of a truly engrossing setting. As far as other horror podcasts go, SABLE is certainly more noticeable in this department and seems to take some strides I wish others would do more often. It’s strange and sick but at least it’s all this with a end-all goal and some well done twists and turns that keep you engrossed long enough to fully understand where it’s headed without being monotonous or repetitive. 

It’s eerie but not hopeless, it’s gory but not kill-happy, and it doesn’t get too lost in its own world building to avoid being coherent, instead having a nice blend of freaky with easy-to-follow if not disturbing details and dialogue that makes it plausible to understand. 

It packs a punch with a purpose and if there’s anything all of these strange ideas should add up to in a story, it should be that it’s all for a reason. And that’s what really makes SABLE so excellent beyond the obvious: that it has a story to tell and uses the violence and strangeness as tools rather than just pointless garnish.

With some patience and a strong stomach, it’s certainly a unique audio experience that I think horror fans looking for something new will certainly find themselves getting wrapped up in the spindly roots of.