If you like inter-dimensional transport and getting caught in acid rain; if you’re into dog parks, if you have a third eye, if you like gathering at midnight to worship a glowing, menacing cloud: Night Vale is the town that you’ve looked for… tune in and try to escape. Okay…now that my butchering of a 70's jam turned thematic tribute has concluded, let’s fall under the spell of the creation and the utterly maniacal fandom that accompanies the sci-fi/horror podcast, “Welcome to Night Vale.”

The evil offspring of creators Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor began as a side project of misfit theater kids in 2012. The agreement amongst the troupe following the inception of the show was that all manner of nonsense was game.

In an interview with The Guardian on March 2014, Fink said, “We agreed early on that we could write whatever we wanted, it could be weird and poetic, but it needed to have strict continuity.”

In collaboration with Commonplace Books, the podcast is published twice monthly on multiple platforms. “Welcome To Night Vale” remains a top five regular on iTunes and even took the show on tour internationally in late 2013.

Narrator and mainstay of the program Cecil Palmer, played by Cecil Baldwin, ushers the town with a haunting but charismatic presence. The ambiguities of the show, in that none of the characters are ever directly described in any specific way, make for a true theater of the mind experience. The show portrays the everyday life and routine of a people who embrace the darkest impossibilities.

Fink said “In Night Vale, it’s aliens. In real life, it’s cancer… but it’s still the same thing. Cecil is giving you an example of dealing with the terrifyingness of life. I think that’s partly what people are connecting to.”

Some components that stand out from the usual macabre sensibilities are the progressive character choices, the featuring of unknown musicians and the shamelessly verbose execution of language. (See what I did there?)

Characters range from a five-headed dragon to strong female leaders and both feel completely natural in this world. The protagonist is a person first and gay second unlike most media where sexuality becomes an entire identity. There’s someone for every listener to relate to in Night Vale, and it never feels like a club that you’re not allowed to attend.

The weather segment of the fictional public affairs show acts like a platform for musicians who are otherwise unknown. The music sprawls across genre lines from Indie, Rap, Experiential, and Rock with no boundaries. This outreach to acts offers promotion and a break in the narrative to build suspense. The featured artists information and contact pages are also made available at the end of the episode to make the content more accessible.

Since “Welcome to Night Vale” harkens back to a radio shows of old, it’s a boon that Fink and Cranor so obvious share a love for the English language in all its forms. Whether a character speaks in a strong and simple tone or a tongue twisting Elizabethan eloquence, both characters feel real. You might want to keep that dictionary handy, though!

With much success on multiple media platforms, Fink and Cranor have decided to also release a novel to unveil more of the world within Night Vale. This text will feature old and new characters while exploring parts of the city that the 30-minute podcast cannot contain. Watch out for the book release later this year from Commonplace Books in October 2015.