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News

News Roundup 2024-11-03

Personal / Website News

Scholars From the Edge of Time

A brand new Scholars From the Edge of Time vidcast is online!

For the spooky month of October Michele and I revisit the world of sword and scary with a horror-filmed Neo-peplum film, The Head Hunter!

The episode can be viewed on YouTube here – check it out!

Panthans Journal #330

The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my convention coverage of the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. panel at Wondercon 2019.

Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journalis a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn@gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.

ECOF 2025

In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).

Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:

I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. There currently is a fundraiser going on to raise funds for the ERB plaque, and details for that can be found in the QR code in the above graphic, or by checking out the donation page at the Sulphur Springs Valley Valley Historical Society. 3.5K of 5K has been raised already.

Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #328.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #329.

“Wondercon 2019 Coverage: Tarzan, John Carter, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.: What’s New?” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #330.

A side note, I’ve done some organizing on my bibliography page. The magazines/zines/etc. section was getting rather long so I broke it up into a section for Exotica Moderne, a section for Panthans, and a section for the rest. In the future, when a particular outlet starts to appear more than a few times I’ll parse it to its own area as well.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Metal Music Studies Retrospectives

In celebration of the 10th year of Metal Music Studies, we (Ross Hagen and Edward Banchs) are compiling a section of short retrospectives on foundational and important publications for the reviews section. We are aiming for a mix of titles that includes books aimed at general audiences in addition to academic monographs and edited collections. We are looking for short retrospectives of around 1000-1500 words that would address the following threads of inquiry: 

  • What is the significance of the work?
  • What did it contribute to Metal Studies?
  • What aspects of the book still seem most relevant today?
  • Are there aspects of the book that you are critical of? 

The tone of the writing does not need to be rigorously academic; we are looking for more personal sorts of reminisces about these publications. 

If you are interested in writing a retrospective, please reply with up to three titles you are interested to write about. We’re operating on a “first-come, first-served” basis so it will be good to have some alternative titles in case your first choice is already spoken for.  We would like to have the first drafts by Dec. 1 – it’s a quick turnaround but since these will be short and less academic hopefully that won’t be too much of a discouragement.

We have reviews lined up already for the following:

  • Christie, The Sound of the Beast
  • Dawes, What are You Doing Here?
  • Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal
  • Moynihan, Lords of Chaos
  • McNeil, Please Kill Me
  • Clifford-Napoleone, Queerness in Heavy Metal Music
  • Roccor, Heavy Metal. Die Bands. Die Fans. Die Gegner. 
  • Hein, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal: Histoire, cultures et pratiquants

We would like to get 5–10 more pieces to round out the section. We’d be particularly interested in reviews of some of the early collections like Scott & von Helden’s Metal Void: The First Gathering (2010) along with other edited collections and special issues of journals.

Please send replies and any questions to both ross.hagen@uvu.edu and edwardbanchs@gmail.com.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.

Autographed Crawlspace

The folks at RedLetterMedia recently did a two-part episode on Full Moon’s Puppet Master series of films. They briefly brought up Puppet Master one’s director David Schmoeller and how he did a movie called Crawlspace with Klaus Kinski who was a nightmare to work with – so much so that Kinski became the inspiration for the Blade puppet.

Back in the late 2000s I contacted Schmoeller and asked him if I could post him my copy of Crawlspace to be autographed and he said sure! So, pictured here is my copy of Crawlspace, signed by Schmoeller (and producer Charles Band), along with a copy of “Please Kill Mr. Kinski” that Schmoeller sent as a gift.

Art of Michele Brittany

Michele has started a Facebook Page devoted to her crafting and art. If you want to check out her projects or purchase some of her journals, give the page a like and follow!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565895377463

Categories
News

News Roundup 2024-10-13

Personal / Website News

Yor #1 Review

New article up at this here website!

Folks probably know that I am a big fan of the Margheriti film Yor, the Hunter from the Future. I was excited a month or so ago when I stumbled upon that Antarctic Press was reprinting the comic in English! You better believe I ran to my local comic book store and put it on my pull list.

I got the issue in my paws and it’s pretty cool! It’s amazing how much the film adapted faithfully from the comic. You can read my compare/contrast right here.

Citations News

It’s been a while since I’ve had some citation news, but here is a new one, fresh off the presses!

My essay, “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days,” was cited by Gabrielle Berry in her essay “[Bones cracking]: Reading and listening to Foley and captions” which was published in the journal The Soundtrack, vol 16, Sept 2024 by Intellect. Super flattered!

Panthans Journal #329

The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my review of Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1.

I love the cover by Mark Wheatley!

Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn@gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.

Scholars from the Edge of Time

The September episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online!

For this vidcast Michele and I discuss the early 80s cult sword and planet film, Krull. How we have gone our entire life without watching this film is near criminal because it ruled.

Personal copies of the Krull Blu-ray and the soundtrack.

The episode can be watched on YouTube, have a listen/watch!

Looking at the rest of 2024, in October we will be discussing The Head Hunter (2018) and then (depending on holidays fall) Gentlemen Broncos (2009).

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #328.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #329.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Roger Corman’s Horror Movies: Collected Essays

Edited by Sue Matheson

Part of the series edited by Carl Sederholm

Indie filmmaker Roger Corman is known for producing and directing hundreds of B-movies, discovering industry stars (like Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, and Robert de Niro), anticipating Hollywood’s New Wave, and founding a profitable empire that included New World Pictures and Concorde/New Horizons. Entertaining, literate, and campy, his fast-paced, low-budget genre films, aimed at the youth market and generally shot in less than two weeks, included horror movies, horror comedies, and sci-fi/horror. The Beast With a Million Eyes(1955), It Conquered the World (1956), The Undead (1957), Not of This Earth (1957), A Bucket of Blood(1959), The Wasp Woman (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961), The Intruder (1962), The Terror (1963), The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963), The Haunted Palace(1963), and Dementia 13 (1963) helped make Corman “The King of the Drive-in” and the “King of Cult.” Cult classics, the gothic horror films of his Edgar Allan Poe cycle (House of Usher [1960], The Pit and the Pendulum [1961], Premature Burial [1962], Tales of Terror[1962], The Raven [1963], The Haunted Palace [1963], The Masque of the Red Death [1964] and The Tomb of Ligeia [1964]) also revived the careers of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre. As the “Orson Welles of the Z movies,” Corman was not only an auteur filmmaker and influencer; he was also a producer and distributor of horror movies. The last movie he directed was the under-appreciated Frankenstein Unbound (1990). Corman’s better-known works have been taught in courses on the history of the horror genre and cult films, while many others deserve critical reexamination.

This anthology seeks previously unpublished essays that explore Roger Corman’s body of horror films and mashups. It is open to submissions on films belonging to his Edgar Allan Poe series franchise and his well-known cult horrors, but will particularly welcome interdisciplinary approaches that can illuminate overlooked films like The Beast With a Million Eyes (1955), It Conquered the World (1956), The Undead (1957), Not of This Earth (1957), Attack of the CrabMonsters (1957), Night of the Blood Beast (1958)Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), The Intruder (1962), Tower of London (1962), The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963), and Frankenstein Unbound (1990).

This volume will be interdisciplinary in scope, including approaches from philosophy, literary studies, film studies, gender studies, history, psychology, popular culture studies, hauntology, ecology, etc. The chapters will be peer-reviewed, scholarly, and written at a high academic level.

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Thematic and structural analysis of one or more films
  • Visual style
  • Notions of evil
  • Photography and cinematography
  • The supernatural
  • Corman as an auteur and/or influencer, producer, distributor
  • Mash ups and updated horror
  • Soundscapes and music
  • Film as philosophy/philosophy in film
  • Failed parenthood
  • Comedy, black humor, and irony
  • Social and cultural contexts
  • American youth and youth culture
  • Drive-in film culture
  • Landscapes as sites of horror
  • Literary and gothic adaptations
  • Exploration of the sub- and unconscious
  • Class, sexuality, abject, gender and queer readings

This anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. It is open to works that focus on other topics as well. Prospective authors are welcome to contact the editor with any questions, including potential topics not listed above. Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume. Please submit a 250-word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution, a brief CV / bio, current position, affiliation, and complete contact information to Sue Matheson (smatheson@ucn.ca) by the 30th of December 2024. Full chapters of 6,000-7,000 words are likely due in June/July 2025 after signing a contract with the publisher.

Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter.

Categories
Peplum

Yor’s [Comic] World: Yor, The Hunter From The Future #01

Yor, the Hunter from the Future is a 1983 Italian Barbarian film directed by Antonio Margheriti (Castle of Blood [1964], Ark of the Sun God [1984]) and starring Reb Brown (best known as the lead protagonist in the MST3K-riffed Space Mutiny [David Winters, 1988]). The movie is a strongman/sword and sorcery film that came during a wave of similar other films (Ator, the Fighting Eagle [1982, Joe D’Amato], Conquest [Lucio Fulci, 1983], The Barbarians [1987, Ruggero Deodato], and so on), that were capitalizing on the success of Conan the Barbarian (1982, John Milius), though the added Star Wars-esque elements at the film’s end edge Yor into sword and planet territory. The film has enjoyed cult status, no doubt due to the presence of Brown and Margheriti’s special effects.

The film was adapted from a series of Argentinian comics titled Yor the Hunter that was created in the mid-70s by writer Ray Collins (Eugenio Juan Zappietro) and artist Juan Zanotto. For decades the comic has been inaccessible to an English-speaking audience, however Antarctic Press (Gold Digger and Ninja High School) is remedying this situation by publishing a translated edition of the original Yor comics. Slated to be released across four issues, the first was released in late August/September.

One thing that becomes apparent when comparing the two version of Yor is just how closely the film follows the plot of the original comic book incarnation. Issue one of Yor, divided into three episodes, corresponds to the first thirty minutes of Yor the movie. All the major narrative events and characters are there.

Film Yor vs. comics Yor:

Brown’s Yor is more lighthearted with a strong helping of naivety. Comics Yor is much more grimdark and serious. Film Yor is an outsider to the initial tribe depicted in the film while comics Yor is already part of the tribe and becomes a leader of it when he exposes a false god – a woolly mammoth encased in ice. Both are strong barbarians that wear a medallion and wield a stone axe. 

Film Kalaa vs. comics Kalaa:

Film Kalaa is played by Corinne Cléry (Bond girl Corinne Dufour in Moonraker [Lewis Gilbert, 1979] and O in The Story of O [Just Jaeckin, 1975]) who is both the love interest of Yor and the damsel in distress of the film. Film Kalaa does not have as much character development as comics Kalaa who is much more strong willed. Comics Kalaa initially rebuffs Yor when he selects her to be his wife, not holding a high opinion of him. Comics Kalaa is also a damsel character, who must be rescued by Yor. 

Film Pag vs. comics Pag

Cinematic Pag is played by Antonio Margheriti regular Luciano Pigozzi (Beetle in Ark of the Sun God, Francesco in And God Said to Cain [1970]) and pretty much is a one to one of comics Pag. Both are confidents/guards of Kalaa, proficient with a bow, and full of sage-like advice.

The major plot beats of the comic are present in the film.

Both the comic and film features a dino battle early in the story. In the film, Yor is introduced by him saving Kalaa and Pag from a triceratops. In the comic Yor saves Pag from a T-rex.

Ukan and his Blue People attacks Yor and friends, kidnap Kalaa and steal Yor’s medallion.

And after the battle throws Yor over a cliff, where he survives. 

Afterwards Yor and Pag enter the caves of the Blue People in order to save Kalaa. In the film Yor rides a pterodactyl in to make a grand entrance while in the comic Yor and Pag battle the pterodactyls en route to the caverns. An epic battle ensues and in both media versions end with Yor destroying a dam and flooding the caves of the Blue People.

While the film adapts the plot of the comics fairly faithfully, where it really deviates is in tone. The filmic version of Yor is much more lighthearted. Even though it has a fair amount of blood (from when Yor slays the triceratops), the overall atmosphere of the film is fantasy-adventure, akin to Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (John Korty, 1984) with a bit of spear and fang thrown in for good measure. Conversely, the comics version of Yor is much more dark, grittier, and violent. There are executions, rape, and the violence is less cartoonish. The comics version of Yor also narrates the inner feelings of Kalaa and Yor, and they ponder the nature of love in the hostile, primitive world.

After comparing the two iterations of Yor, it is interesting to note just how faithful Margheriti’s adaption was to the source material, save for the tone. It is an interesting case study in how the same story can be told the same textually, but differ greatly in atmosphere and mood. Both film and sequential art incarnations of Yor compliment each other quite well. Fans of the film may not find the camp element in present in the comics version, but can certainly appreciate seeing the original source material of Yor and how it all came about. On its own, the comics version of Yor is fun, and feels like it could have been published in the early years of Heavy Metal

Yor, the film, definitely derails itself as it progresses and veers into Star Wars territory, so it will be interesting to see if it continues to be faithful to the comics when issues two through four are published.


Being a Yor superfan, I’ve accumulated some Yor artifacts over the years, and the publishing of issue one of the comic is a perfect opportunity to show off a bit of the collection, which include different home video editions (including a German version of Yor on DVD signed by Reb Brown himself) and soundtracks. Check everything out in the slide show:

I had the opportunity to talk about Yor on the Fan2Fan Podcast, which can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn.

For more information on the Yor comics, check out the following links:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-09-08

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

After a few months hiatus Michele and I are back with H. P. Lovecast!

We have some interviews with folks we will need to connect on and get out the door, but we are going to slowly transition back into a normal schedule.

In the meantime, here is our first episode in a while! We talk about the 2022 cosmic-horror/dark comedy film, Glorious, directed by Dr. Rebekah McKendry. Check it out here, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.

Ep 61 – Rebekah McKendry's Glorious H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Scholars From The Edge Of Time

The August episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is also online. For this episode we take a gander at the 2017 sorta-Templar film, Pilgrimage, which we both really dug.

The episode can be watched on YouTube.

For September we are looking to do Krull (1983). If you have suggestions for sword and sandal/sorcery/planet movies you’d like us to cover, let me know!

Panthans Journal #328

The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my review of Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #3.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #328.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Expanding Our View of Sherwood: Exploring the Matter of the Greenwood in Comics

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project and International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS)

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell

60th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025

Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024

Session Information

According to a recent search of the Grand Comics Database, creators of comic books and graphic novels have produced approximately five thousand comics directly based on or inspired by the Robin Hood tradition. These comics span over one hundred years and come from at least ten countries; however, the true scope of Hood’s influence on the medium appears much larger. A variety of archers, both heroes and villains, also feature within the pages of comics, and some, such as DC Comics’s Green Arrow, have even made the transition to the screen. In addition, Hood and his fellows have also frequented cartoons, comic strips, and manga, although their adventures there remain largely uncatalogued.

Of this vast array of comics and related media, relatively little of the corpus seems known to enthusiasts of the Matter of the Greenwood. Although Robin Hood scholars (working since the 1990s) have started to share some comics, much work still remains to be done to more fully assess the world of Sherwood Forest depicted in their panels. Therefore, in this co-sponsored session, we hope to create a deeper connection between Robin Hood Studies and Comics Studies to highlight items from this rich corpus and provide ideas and reflections on how to find, access, and employ Robin-Hood-themed comics in our classrooms and research.

Applicants to the roundtable are invited to revise their work for publication in a special issue of the open-access journal The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies.

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com. A full PDF version of this call can be accessed from Academia.Edu.

Submission Information

The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=5826. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.

Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author’s name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).

Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.

If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Participating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.

Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:

You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.

Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.

A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.

If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Want to give some appreciation and shoutouts to some friends who have big projects that just came out or are about to come out.

Ian Welke’s Messing With Mr. In-Between

Ian Welke, friend who has been on both Scholars from the Edge of Time and H. P. Lovecast, has a new book out called Messing with Mr. In-Between.

The book can be purchased at its Amazon product page. Check it out!

Global Indigenous Horror

Global Indigenous Horror is an upcoming collection edited by Naomi Simone Borwein, who has been a presenter at the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and also published in Horror Literature form Gothic to Post-Modern.

More information and the ability to pre-order can be found at its University Press of Mississippi product page. Also – that cover is rad. Keep an eye out!

Philippe Gerber Scores

Composter Philippe Gerber, who creates music under the John 3:16 moniker and also did the theme song, “Azathoth,” for the H. P. Lovecast Podcast, has been scoring films lately! There’s two of them right now from SRS Cinema.

The first is The Final Possession, which can be found on Indiegogo.

And the next is Venus Die-Trap, (love the name), also on Indiegogo.

Check them out, consider backing/ordering the films!

Brenda S. Tolian’s Bestial Mouths

Friend and H. P. Lovecast interviewee alumnus Brenda S. Tolian has a new book coming from Raw Dog Screaming (aroooo) Press: Bestial Mouths. It’s a poetry collection! RDSP just did a cover reveal:

The collection is slated to come out November 14th and can be pre-ordered at the Raw Dog Screaming Press product page. The cover is wicked cool with all the mushrooms.

Ripple Effects Kickstarter

FanBase Press is about the launch their very first Kickstarter. This will be for a deluxe edition of Jordan Hart’s Ripple Effects.

Get notified when the Kickstarter goes live at the campaign’s Notify Me On Launch page. Consider backing! Or, if you’d like the current trade paperback edition, that can be found for purchase here.

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-08-18

Personal / Website News

Becca Boo Issue Two Review

New review is up at my website!

I take a look at Becca Boo issue 2. I had previously reviewed issue 1 and enjoyed it (read my review here), and issue 2 definitely kept up the quality. My issue 2 review can be read here.

Note: A while after publication of my review, Obscura Comics sent over the missing Kickstarter swag. I’ll be updating my review to reflect this.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Phantom of the Paradise Edited Collection

Editor: Sean Woodard
Contact: phantomparadisebook@gmail.com
Abstract Deadline: Friday, November 15, 2024
Chapter Drafts Deadline: June 15, 2025

Essays sought for a peer-reviewed edited collection focused on Brian De Palma’s film, Phantom of the Paradise.

Brian De Palma’s 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise, starring William Finley, Paul Williams, and Jessica Harper remains a cult classic of 1970s American independent cinema and popular culture. A throwback to the legend of Faust and Gothic narratives such as Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera (1910), and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), the film satirizes the modern music industry. The musical prominently features a stellar soundtrack by Paul Williams and many of De Palma’s trademark filmmaking techniques and Hitchcockian homages that he would perfect in further genre fare like Carrie (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980), and Blow Out (1981).

Furthermore, Phantom of the Paradise has a devoted fan base around the world. For example, a fan-made preservation website called “The Swan Archives”—devoted to detailing the film’s production history and cataloging and preserving its physical promotional materials and merchandise—was the subject of a 2013 Bright Lights Film Journal essay. In addition, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro owns an extensive collection of Phantom of the Paradise memorabilia, while director Edgar Wright specifically cast Paul Williams in a cameo role in Baby Driver (2017) out of his affinity his role in De Palma’s film. The film’s growing popularity has also led to sold-out repertoire screenings, shadow cast events, and fan cosplay at horror conventions. In an archived 2019 interview with The Globe and Mail, Williams commented on the film’s resurgence and its overall legacy: “Isn’t it bizarre? You can’t be quick to write something off as [a] failure. . . . I am beyond grateful.”

While academic research has been focused broadly on De Palma’s filmography, there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film. The celebration of Phantom of the Paradise’s 50th anniversary in 2024 makes it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.

The purpose of this edited collection is to place Phantom of the Paradise into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the film, its connections to other genre films, its place in Brian De Palma’s filmography, and its continued influence.

We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Brian De Palma as an Auteur
  • Paul Williams’ Career
  • Film and Literary Adaptation and Intertextuality (Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Faust, etc.)
  • Narrative, Thematic, or Structural Analysis of the Film
  • Audio/Visual Style
  • The supernatural and the Gothic
  • Body Horror
  • Monstrosity/Abjection
  • Class, Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Readings
  • Psychoanalytic Film Theory
  • Philosophy in Film/Film as Philosophy
  • Voyuerism and “the gaze”
  • Mirrors, Screens, Foils, and Doubles
  • Genre Hybridity
  • Soundtracks and Film Scoring
  • Horror Musical Film Cycles (including Phantom of the Paradise; The Rocky Horror Picture Show [Sharman, 1975]; Shock Treatment [Sharman, 1981]; Little Shop of Horrors [Oz, 1986]; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [Burton, 2007]; Repo! The Genetic Opera [Bousman, 2008]; and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog [Whedon, 2008])
  • Cult Cinema, Fandom, and Popular Culture

Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to phantomparadisebook@gmail.com as a Word document.

Final essays should be 5,000 – 6,000 words in length, inclusive of endnotes and bibliography. Citations and references shall be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. No images. A formal proposal for the collection will be submitted for consideration to a leading academic press.

Proposed Timeline

  • August 1, 2024 – November 15, 2024: Call for Papers
  • December 15, 2025: Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors
  • December 15 – June 15, 2025: Book chapters drafting period
  • June 15 – July 31, 2025: Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts; editing/revision remarks sent to writers
  • August 1 – September 15, 2025: Contributor revision period
  • September 15 – September 30, 2025: Second editorial review
  • October 1 – October 15, 2025: Contributor revisions, as neede
  • October 15 – December 15, 2025: Finalize full manuscript
  • December 15, 2025: Submit full manuscript to press for editorial board consideration and peer review process

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Elysian Fields Kickstarter

Michael Oden is revamping/rebooting his Neo-peplum comic, Elysian Fields, with a Kickstarter campaign. You can sign up to get notified when the campaign launched at this link.

I had the honor to interview Oden a few years ago about the original incarnation of Elysian Fields, and if you’re curious, it can be read here.

Arcade Autograph

My friend Nolan McBride of the Dead Ringers Podcast was a recent guest on the VH US Podcast to talk about the Albert Pyun film Arcade (check out the episode here).

Back in December 2022 after Pyun had passed away I shared my autographed copy of Cyborg (check it out here). McBride podcast appearance totally made me remember that I had a copy of Arcade signed by the awesome cult director. So, here it is!

Nick,

We shot this in 12 days and I actually got into a fight with Charles Band on the final cut and left the film. But I really liked the Cast and David Goyer’s script.

Best, Albert Pyun

Thanks for all the memories Pyun!

Alien Quadrilogy Autographs

Alien: Romulus is out in the world now. Despite not caring for Prometheus and Covenant, I’ll give Romulus a shot since I’m always curious were the Alien/Predator universe lore takes off into. But for now, since the movie is out, it’s a good enough time as any to share my autographed copy of the Alien Quadrilogy boxset.

This is signed by Veronica Cartwright (Alien) and Lance Henriksen (Aliens). I recall buying this boxset back in 2004 from a Fred Meyer I lived across the street from in University Place, WA. I was so excited to scrimp some monies to buy this set and all the supplemental goodies in it. The set is two decades old, and I’ll probably someday buy some 4K versions of the movies on it, but this will remain one of my prized gems in the library.

In Gowan Ring Concert 2007

Speaking of old, old Washington memories, while categorizing my music and getting everything imported onto my Mac, I came across a copy of Webs Among the Din 2 by folk project In Gowan Ring.

Michele and I actually got to be concert organizers and promoters and have In Gowan Ring (Patreon link) perform a tiny concert at the University Bookstore at the University of Washington – Tacoma Campus. It was a lot of fun! Michele did up posters, and I did the green room and made my custom onion cheese tart. Michele also made a recording of the event, so perhaps we will find it while we continue to unpack, and see if something can be done with it.

After In Gowan Ring concluded their tour they did a commemorative release called Webs Among the Din 2, which features a map and a listing of all their performances.

So, 17 years ago this month we got to host a folk band at our school. Very cool!

The Neverending Streamer – More Fallout Write Ups

Travis Lakata has some new Fallout episode write ups on his Substack, The Neverending Streamer.

Check them out:

Florida, Man Indiegogo

My friend Evan Jordan (one of the editors of Footage Fiends, the zine I got to contribute an essay about Caltiki to last year) is doing a crowdfunding endeavor for his feature-length movie debut, Florida, Man.

Per the Indiegogo campaign:

Florida, Man aims to explore the [..]paranormal encounters I had in addition to the rest of my weird past in the state of Florida through archival footage, re-enactments, interviews with surviving family members and other involved parties, as well as ending with a full paranormal investigation of the rural home where everything occurred all those years ago.

Check out the campaign at Indiegogo.

Categories
Essays

Just Here for the Boo!s: Becca Boo Issue Two

Becca Boo, the ditzy bombshell who awoke one morning in a grave and deduced that she was a ghost, finds herself as an actual ghost when she is hit by a truck. Though Death comes for Becca, he becomes distracted at the prospect of hooking up with a talented lady, and takes off. Becca looks through Death’s book and reads that she is bound for Hell, and uses the opportunity to flee. 

Over the next few months Becca finds herself haunting mirrors, where adolescent men summon her by repeating her name. However, urban legend icon Bloody Mary takes umbrage at Becca infringing on her turf. Bloody Mary’s anger is short lived as Becca Boo is able to charm and bed her. As the two undead ladies become acquainted with each other, a knock as the door announces someone sinister has arrived for Becca. 

The ending of issue one put Becca Boo in a narrative crossroad. The story of Becca Boo could have continued with the idea of Becca not actually being dead, but maintaining her insistence that she is a ghost, and interacting with the world accordingly. The second option is to have Becca become a ghost and influencing the living world in comedic ways, going the route of movies such as Beetlejuice (1988), Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), and Frighteners (1996). The former would have been much more challenging to write but it would have kept the comic exploring an iteration of ghost-comedy that is not often done. The latter is the safer and easier option, so it is understandable that the writers of Becca Boo decided to go the route of making Becca a ghost. 

Issue two of Becca Boo maintains the comedic tone of issue one with some fun delighters. Becca Boo dips into parody territory by having a Ringu-esque Bloody Mary, covered in blood and tattered clothing, becoming an erotic apparition. Becco purrs to Mary “You know what happens when you change a few ingredients in a Bloody Mary? You get a cosmopolitan.” She is technically not wrong, (take out everything but the vodka and replace with cranberry juice, Cointreau, and lime juice), she just has a different grasp on what “few” means. But in a strange, Becca Boo sort of way, there is some insight to be had in her proverb. 

The cast of characters in the second issue is broadened with the introduction of Bloody Mary and Death, providing Becca more opportunities to interact with others, be them living, dead, or undead, providing more venues for comedic dialogue and situations.

The art maintains the same consistency as with issue one, with all the characters looking fleshed out and detailed. The majority of issue two takes place indoors, but attention has been paid to make sure the rooms, walls, et al. look interesting and not generic. Where a time-pressed artist would simply have an empty wall to save time, Bloody Mary’s flat is adorned with weird-circular art pieces (gold records?) and plants. Unlike issue one, issue two of Becca Boo only contains one scene of sexual intercourse, but it is stretched longer over more panels, adding an underscored element of intimacy between Becca and Bloody Mary.

As with issue one, issue two of Becca Boo was a crowdfunded endeavor. The campaign met almost all the stretch goals of cards, magnets, etc., but the publisher, Obscura, failed to include the bonus items with my pledge, so I unfortunately cannot comment on them as I typically do with these indie comic reviews. Fun comic, but terrible fulfillment, which is waved away under the risks of pledging to a Kickstarter, and that these items are simply “extras.”

Disappointing fulfillment aside, the product proper of Becca Boo is what matters. Becca Boo continues to be fun and sexually playful. Despite Death’s notes indicating she has lived a “vapid..drunk..driven by libido” life, Becca’s heart is in the right place, giving readers a worthwhile character to latch onto and worry about what will happen to her as she negotiates the afterlife looking for redemption. 


More information on Becca Boo can be found at the following websites:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-07-28

Personal / Website News

Fred Phillips Interview

Back in 2018 I did an interview with poet Fred Phillips that was published at the Witch Haunt. However the website has been shuttered.

Because of this, I have republished the interview here at my website. It can be read here.

Panthans Journal #327

The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my review of Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #2.

If you’re interested in receiving copies of Panthans, contact Laurence Dunn at laurencegdunn @ gmail dot com (sans spaces).

Scholars from the Edge of Time

For the July episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time Michele and I decided to look at a film that is pretty new: She is Conann (2023) by Bertrand Mandico.

The episode can be streamed on YouTube.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

From the Archives

This following podcasts episodes and articles were published from 7/8 to 7/28:

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Occult Detectives

Edited by Michael Goodrum, Kris Mecholsky, and Philip Smith

The occult detective has a long history. Depending on how one defines the genre, occult themes coincide with the earliest detective fiction and theatre, 公案小說 (gong’an, or crime-case) stories from the Song dynasty (13th-14th century), which often featured supernatural appearances and interventions. To Anglophone audiences, however, the figure is, perhaps, most closely associated with the decades that followed the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in London in 1882. While Sherlock Holmes dedicated much of his efforts to exploding notions of the supernatural, most famously in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), other detectives both drew on and fought against the occult. Making his debut in 1898, Flaxman Low is perhaps the first to fit the (inevitably) loose model of the occult or psychic detective. Driven by a late Victorian interest in the occult and ghost-hunting, though, Low was rapidly followed by a stream of successors, a connection that continues to the present with new detectives appearing well into the 21st century in a wide variety of media (including novels, short stories, comics, theatre, television, film, games, and more). Horror and crime fused in weird fiction in the pulps; in comics such as Hellblazer and Dead Boy Detectives; in video games such as Alan Wake and Alone in the Dark; in TV shows such as Twin Peaks and True Detective; and in films such as The Exorcist III and The Sixth Sense, to name just a few.

The editors seek essays of ~4,000 words. Topics should include occult detectives and any text which sits at the intersection of detective and horror narratives. Texts can be of any medium or time period. Some possibilities include, but are not limited to, the following figures, genres, or texts:

  • Gong’an (Judge Dee and/or Judge Bao in any medium)
  • Abraham Van Helsing (in any medium)
  • Flaxman Low
  • John Silence
  • Luna Bartendale
  • Carnacki the Ghost-Finder
  • Fantastic/horror noir (e.g., Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Angel Heart)
  • Hellblazer and John Constantine (in comics and film)
  • Hellboy (in comics and film)
  • The Exorcist series (in novels and film)
  • Stephen King (in any medium)
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (in television, film, and comics)
  • The X-Files
  • Twin Peaks
  • Supernatural
  • Alan Wake
  • Ed Brubaker’s Fatale

Essays should be accessible but touch on big ideas, using a single text, author, artist, or director as a lens to comment on the genre(s) and themes at play. We particularly encourage contributions that take an international, cross-cultural perspective, and/or touch on topics of queerness, ethnicity, gender, and disability.

Proposals of up to three hundred words due by 29 September 2024 to occultdetectivesbook@gmail.com Final drafts for accepted proposals will be due by 30 March 2025. Each essay will be subject to editorial review; authors should expect to undertake at least one round of revisions before final acceptance.

Genre and Video Games

We are seeking short chapters of approximately 2,500-2,700 words for an edited collection on literary genres in video games. We invite submissions for all five of the genres: Fantasy, Historical fiction, Romance, Horror/Gothic, and Science Fiction, that the collection endeavours to explore.

The collection fits into an ongoing genre studies series and will examine how literary genres function in video games, thereby bringing video games into the existing literary canon of genre studies. Each subsection will explore key themes in the existing canon while expanding on the interactive elements of video games that update and/or alter existing conversations about genre. The essays will be educational and accessible in nature with the aim of producing a comprehensive teaching companion for future courses in game studies, game development, or the digital humanities.
This call addresses all five general genre areas the collection seeks to address. These are meant to be general categorizations, but we encourage submissions that also move into inter- or cross-genres, as many of these genres overlap and share different features in both games and literary studies.

Topics that might be considered (but are not limited to):

  • Fantasy
  • The Prominence of Fantasy Games and Nostalgia
  • Fantasy Race and Colonization
  • Non-Western Fantasy
  • Resource-Gathering and Digital Landscapes
  • Pseudo-Medievalism in Fantasy Game World
  • Historical Fiction
  • (Pre)Industrialism & economy and/or class dynamics
  • Feudalism
  • Monarchy and/or Empire
  • Colonialism
  • Myth and Storytelling (written, oral or otherwise)
  • Gender and/or sexuality
  • Disability
  • Romance
  • Player Character (PC) and Non-Playable Character (NPC) Agency
  • Queer Romance Routes
  • LGBTQ2IA+ Representation
  • Digital Sex, Consent and AI Romance
  • Romantic Subplots Across Genres
  • Horror/Gothic
  • Queer Horror and the Monstrous ‘Other’
  • Gothic Games and the Undead Past
  • Haunted Digital Landscapes
  • Consumption Horror: Parasites, Vampires, and Cannibals
  • Speculation and Apocalyptic Horror
  • Science Fiction
  • Digital Posthuman Landscapes and Mitigating Climate Nihilism
  • Human/Technology Interactions and the Rise of Artificial Intelligence
  • Space Exploration and Colonization
  • Speculative Dystopias and Projected Futures
  • Alternative Futurisms

Particular interest will be paid to pieces that engage with Indigenous and Non-Western perspectives in the chosen game or through the chapter’s proposed scholarship.

Please submit an abstract of 250-300 words alongside a brief (100 word) bio to genreandvideogames@gmail.com by the date below.
Abstract due by: August 15, 2024

Prospective draft due date: December 15, 2024

(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Carl B. Sell

Sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture


56th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (Philadelphia, PA)
On-site event: 6-9 March 2025

Submission Instructions

In this panel, we seek in particular to build upon the pioneering work of medieval-animation scholar Michael N. Salda and provide additional insights into the ways medieval-themed animation has impacted our contemporary world. Presenters might explore anime, cartoons, films, games, shorts, and videos produced through traditional ink-and-paint, stop-motion, claymation, or computer-generated imagery. Selections should represent and/or engage with some aspect of the medieval, such as artifacts, characters, settings, themes, etc., presented as central to the narrative, tangential, or appearing solely as cameos.

For ideas and support, please see our list of representative texts and resource guide devoted to studies of medieval-themed animation.

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system by 30 September 2024. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.

Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2024. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2024.

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.

For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com

The Dark Side of Lego: The Gothic Fantastic, and the Uncanny Pleasures of Lego

Lego is everywhere. The ubiquity of the children’s building is both a marvel at its popularity but also the kinds of financial muscle and cutthroat business practice that has seen Disney approach, what sometimes feel, as world domination of the entertainment and leisure industry — there’s no surprise that the Lego and Disney frequently work together.

Unsurprisingly Lego is not all fun and play and whilst much of the “dark side” of Lego can be seen to come making toys for all ages of “children” with no age restriction on who buys or plays
with them (other than a “age suggestion” on the box) there is much of it that purposely Gothic in tone and intent. In part this comes from the other franchises that Lego partners with such as Star
Wars, Jurassic Park, DC Superheroes, and Harry Potter, but they also have their own dedicated series using such themes as Ninjago, special Halloween and monsters series, as well as those promoting villains and even shark attacks in the crossover brands.

Equally unsurprising are the various compromises and missteps that have occurred over gender and ethnicity within the franchise with concerns over inclusion, the “yellowness” of the toys, cultural appropriation, and sets such as Jabba the Hutts’ Mosque/Palace. Some of this can be seen to stem from an under appreciation of the kinds of troubling identity and inclusion issues that are part
of the franchises they choose to deal with and the fandoms that follow them — Lego too has it’s more extreme fandoms amongst the faithful.

With this is what we might term real-world Lego in terms of theme parks (Legolands), shops, conventions and the parent company itself. The kinds of aggressive sales models that power Lego’s increasing global reach often pays little regard to those who work for them, other local businesses in the areas they move in to, or legal action against those deemed to be infringing on their copyrights.

This collection is interested in any aspect of the above or the suggestions below:

  • Gothic aspects of any of the series such as Harry Potter, DC Superheroes, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Mario Brothers (Luigi’s Haunted House), Lord of the Rings, Marvel Superheroes, Ninjago, Scooby Doo, etc.
  • The story arcs of any characters within those Batman, Joker, Lord Garmageddon, Darth Vader etc.
  • How any of the above play out over different platforms, bricks, books, games, accessories, theme parks, conventions, etc.
  • Gothic aspects of standard sets, Lego City, Creator, Dots and portraits, special editions etc.
  • Special sets/figures of vampires, monsters, Halloween, picture books of Dracula & Frankenstein, gothic castles, villains, dinosaurs, sharks etc.
  • Gothicism and play, mash-ups, and fluid Identity in self-creation.
  • Inappropriate Lego or fan interventions: The Simpsons, Lego Rifle, terrorist figures, Lego death camp, Breaking Bad, etc.
  • Lego fandom — Brickipedia, Legopedia, Wiki-Lego — and intersections with toxic fandoms from other franchises (ie Star Wars).
  • Issues around gender and ethnicity.
  • Ihe gothic nature of the company itself.
  • Any other areas that seem gothic in nature or outcome.

Send ideas and/or 300 word abstracts for a prospective collection of essays by 30th November 2024 to Simon Bacon: baconetti@gmail.com

Categories
Lovecraft

Bubbled Up from the Cauldron: Interview with Fred Phillips

Back in 2018 I conducted an interview with weird fiction poetry author Fred Philips that was published at The Witch Haunt. This website, however, has gone defunct. The interview can be read at a Wayback Machine cache of it, but for better posterity, I’ve republished the interview verbatim below. Enjoy! 


Fred Phillips is a poet, scholar and a bibliophile who has lived an adventurous life within various fandoms. He has two collections of poetry from Hippocampus press: From the Cauldron (2010) and Winds from Sheol (2017) and operates his own amateur press periodical, Sercon, for the Sword & Sorcery and Weird Fiction Transit (SSWFT) APA. 

Fred, would you be able to introduce yourself and tell a little bit about your background?

I was born in the same year Lovecraft died, 1937, in a Manhattan maternity hospital near 181st Street near the George Washington Bridge. I was an unwanted child; my father prospered as a hardware-man; my mother was able to afford to hire a wet nurse for me. My mother had one year of high school; in those days the youngest daughters of immigrant middle class Jewish households were expected to work their fingers to the bone to put their older brothers through college. My Uncle, Abraham Herbert Rothman, graduated from the School of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. He married a girl who had her B.A. from CCNY and he opened a pharmacy on Hill Park Avenue, Yonkers, bought a house on King Ave. near the Yonkers Reservoir. They flew and took ocean liners all over the world and changed their car every two years.

My mother was an ignorant Ukrainian mouzhik (peasant). All she wanted was that I earn enough to satisfy the three basic needs of existence: food, clothing, rent. She was so stingy she refused to allow me to have birthday parties since she knew I’d invite my playmates who would have to ask their parents for money to buy me birthday presents. Thus, I was never invited to any of my friends’ birthday parties.

At 14 I joined a Scout troop, #191,District Two, N.Y.Councils. In three years I rose from Assistant Patrol Leader to Assistant Scoutmaster. My Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster were about to recommend me to be promoted to Scoutmaster because they said I had “charisma,” the ability to inspire devotion and enthusiasm among the younger Scouts. When they met me in mufti (civilian dress) they would snap me a salute to how me respect. At Open School Week in junior high school, my art teacher told my mother, “Mrs. Phillips, if Freddy keeps going this way one day you’re going to see his name lit up in lights.” In high school, because I wasn’t six feet tall, didn’t wear expensive clothing, didn’t drive my own car, and displayed no upwardly mobile expectations, I almost never got a date.

After earning my academic diploma my marks were too low for me to qualify for anything except for city college. I clerked at the Bronx branch of a city-wide chain of retail bookstores, Bookmasters, where I met Dorothea [Dee] Nissen and began courting her. Her father had died of cardiac arrest when she was ten. She and her younger sister, Joan, had to work early; their mother licked stamps for the Democratic Party. I took her to the Bronx Zoo, to concerts, to films. I shared my extensive book collection with her. My destructive witch of a mother tried to persuade me not to marry her.

At sixteen I suffered the first of a matched set of nervous breakdowns and was sent to the Psychiatric Observation Ward of Jacobi Hospital on Pelham Bay Parkway. I was given chemotherapy, recreational therapy, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy. My first psychiatrist was the Chief Psychiatric Resident of Jacobi. My second, Dr. Robert Langs, was a colleague of Dr. John Rosen, the “God” of American psychotherapy. In our recreation room, I played through several Beethoven symphonies on the piano, entirely by ear. When I was in the throes of a serious depression, my mother visited and said my Grandmother, who had doted on me, had died, which drove me deeper into depression. My psychiatrist had to forbid her to visit me till I recovered from my depression.

While clerking at Bookmasters I had taught myself so much the other clerks used to call me “Professor.” Dee (whom I married) persuaded me to register at the SGS (School of General Studies), the night school at Lehman College. As a Bookmasters employee I was given a 40% employees’ discount. When I knew which course I wanted to take, I’d buy the finest book on the subject, take it home and read it until I memorized it. In my “survey” course, Introduction to Anthropology, I raised my hand and asked our teacher, “Would it help if we read Kroeber and Malinowsky?” Excitedly she wrote their names on the blackboard. The kid sitting behind me punched me in the shoulder and hissed, “Shaddup schmuck or she’ll assign them!” I turned coolly around, looked him directly in the eye and replied “You’re taking this course to earn an extra three points. I’m taking it because it’s my major.”

My next anthropology teacher, Prof. Ethel T. Boissevain, arranged for me to address the college’s Anthropology Society, for which she was the faculty advisor. She selected me with a group of her leading students to attend the annual conference of the American Anthropology Society, held that year at the University of Toronto, a leading Medieval study center in North America. She arranged for me to present a paper, “Aspects of the Science Fiction Fan Subculture in Metropolitan New York City, 1965-1971,” which was duly accepted as a formal part of the proceedings (the records of the convention) by the chairman because it was brand new material. In this way I brought a description of fandom to the attention of academia. I won a debate against Dr. Margaret Mead. Some of the girls who came with us asked me if I planned to teach anthropology. I replied “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

I drifted into SF fandom in NYC in 1965 when I was invited to attend a bi-weekly Friday open house, FISTFA (Fannish Insurgent ScienTiFictional Association) held on 13th Street, near 1st Ave, Manhattan. There I met the names many of whom would soon be raised to prominence among the professional ranks of SF writers: Ted White, David van Arnam, John Boardman, &c. The next year I was invited to serve as Chairman of Publications for the CCNY Science Fiction Society. As such I became editor of the society’s newsletter and changed its name to Durendal. When the other members asked, “What does it mean?” I explained “It was from a Chanson de Geste (Song of Deeds) beginning before the advent of the 7th century. This was from the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) and referred to Count Roland’s magic sword, Durendal. When he fell, mortally wounded at the Battle of Roncesvalles, two legends arose about how he disposed of it: one that he threw it into a poisoned stream, the second that he laid it under him beneath a tree and sat on it, his face towards the foe, the standard ‘heroic death’ of many renowned European heroes through the 17th century.” In 1968 I was invited to attend the first Crown Tournament of the NYC branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism; you saw The Fred Phillips Issue of the Swords & Sorcery Weird Fiction Terminus Amateur Press Association, edited by my friend, Leigh Blackmore, current President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. 

In 1972 I was appointed Poet-in-Residence for the Fantasy & Science Fiction Society of Columbia University. In 1973 at the first Meistersing (Poetry Contest) held in the Royal Province of the Eastern Kingdom, against formidable competition, I became first Poet Laureate, initiating a chain of annual Meistersing events leading to the establishment of the Honourable College of Bards of the Eastern Kingdom.

Fred Philips photo provided by Hippocampus Press.

Fred, you’ve become quite well read in the study of witchcraft. What got you into witchcraft scholarship? What are the primary texts you’d recommend on the subject?

In 1971 my wife tried to persuade me to have the credits I earned at Hunter College transferred to Lehman College (also known in those days as “Uptown Hunter”). She informed me of a student seminar slated to discuss witchcraft that would be held in Lehman’s teachers’ lounge. I came up with a handful of titles that at that time represented the “cream” of witchcraft scholarship: H. R. Trevor-Roper’s essay “On the Witchcraft Hysteria of the 17th Century”; George Lyman Kittredge’s Witchcraft in Old & New England; the 1981 3rd printing of the Iceland Review Library edition of Ghosts, Witchcraft, & the Other World from the series Icelandic Folktales I; the 1968 Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London) edition of The World of Witches by Julio Caro Baroja; the 1970 Harper Torchbook TB 1539 edition of Witchcraft in Tudor & Stuart England by A. D. J. Macfarlane; the 1985 Aquarian Press edition of The Devil’s Workshop by Christopher McIntosh. These, in essence, are only part of my collection dealing with the history of (Occidental) witchcraft. The others inhabit my occult shelf and include Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi (aka Abbe Luis Constant), the 2009 Oxford University Press edition of Grimoires:A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies, (especially in reference to chapter 8, “Lovecraft, Satan, & Shadows”), the1970 Citadel edition of The Book of Ceremonial Magic: A Complete Grimoire by Arthur Edward Waite (originally entitled The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts). The key to my collection is the 1989 University of Toronto Press edition of A Razor for a Goat: Problems in the History of Witchcraft & Diabolism by Elliot Rose (professor in the Department of History, University of Toronto) which is probably the best of the lot.

To more clearly understand witchcraft, one must be conscious also of the history of religion. Two titles I can heartily recommend to insure that end: the 1982 Chapel Hill/University of North Carolina Press edition of Messianism, Mysticism, & Magic: A Sociological Analysis of Jewish Religious Movements by Stephen Sharot (associate professor of sociology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), and the 1989 Oxford University Press edition of Religion, Science, & Magic in Concert & in Conflict, edited by Jacob Neusner (visiting professor at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, distinguished research professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida), Ernest S. Frerichs (professor of Religious Studies at Brown University),and Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher (professor of the History & Literature of Religion at Northwestern University. But these are only drop in the bucket, my resources embrace many more reliable studies of both Occidental, African, and Oriental witchcraft.

What is something you’ve learned about witchcraft during your studies?

In Old English, there was a town meeting called Witenaġemot (meeting of the wise). In the 7th century, when England (Angle-land) converted to Christianity, if someone could be found who professed to having converted to Christianity but persisted in worshipping the former Anglo-Saxon deities, he was called a “Waer-loge,” or oath breaker. This evolved into the term “warlock,” a man accused of violating his oath to the “White Christ.” The word “witch” is descended from the Old English term “Wicce,” wise-woman, that in large part gradually evolved into the term used today. Its contemporary definition is “a woman believed to have evil magical powers,” not unusual in a male-dominated culture.

You have two collections of poetry published with Hippocampus Press: From the Cauldron and Winds from Sheol. Can you tell us a little about these books and what you’d like to accomplish with your poetry?

To describe through the eyes of a Lovecraftian reader/collector a medieval milieu, a reflection of the works of renowned writers such as William Hope Hodgson, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Lovecraft himself; to immortalize in print close personal friends I made in the SCA during the decade of 1968-1878; to exhibit my abilities in literary compositions in verse based on unusual or fantastic circumstances composed in an innovative way. I also wanted my family and friends to be proud of me. Regrettably, during the 20s, the modernists, such as Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot, abandoned rhymed and metered poetry until it and other branches of aesthetics were condemned to irrelevancy. In the rest of the world, rhymed and metered poetry still sells like hotcakes. If Shakespeare was alive in the U. S. today, he’d starve to death in a month. This represents a serious decline in American culture.

It was not only one main thing I wanted to reflect in my poetry, but several. I made close friends from around the world [such as] Ann K. Schwader (recently appointed Grand Master for the Science Fiction Poetry Association) [and] Leigh Blackmore (member of the Society for the Academic Study of Magic). My work appeared in the Hippocampus Press annual Spectral RealmsWinds from Sheol was nominated for the Elgin Award by the Science Fiction Poetry Association.


Sincere appreciation to Fred Philips for his time for this interview. More information on Philips’ works can be found at the below links:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-07-07

Personal / Website News

Samson Writer Interview

Brand new interview up at this website!

I talk to writer Ben Lacy about their neo-peplum adjacent comic book, Samson. The interview can be read here.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance

The cool kids over at the Fan2Fan Podcast are continuing their marathon of episodes devoted to iconic horror director John Carpenter. They just published an episode on the Lovecraftian In The Mouth of Madness, with myself and Joshua Pruett as guests.

The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page, in the embedded player below, or in your podcast app of preference.

Sincere appreciation to Bernie and Pete for having me on. In case you missed it, Michele and/or I were on a few other Fan2Fan John Carpenter episodes, (Christine, The Fog, Prince of Darkness), so please check those episodes out as well.

Panthans Journal #326

The National Panthans Journal is a monthly PDF zine of Edgar Rice Burroughs-related reviews, essays, articles, artwork, news, etc.

Laurence G. Dunn, the editor/compiler of the Panthans Journal, has been gracious to give the many Edgar Rice Burroughs comic book reviews I penned in the late 2010s a second life. Issue #326 (pictured here, with artwork by Jim Burns) contains an updated version of my review of Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #1. Sincere appreciation to Laurence!

If you’re interested in contributing to Panthans or receiving copies of the publication, contact Laurence at laurencegdunn @ gmail dot com (sans spaces).

Scholars from the Edge of Time

June’s episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is now online! In this episode we conclude our retrospective of the pepla career of Bella Cortez by discussing the final sword and sandal film she made, Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens.

Poster for Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens from Wikipedia.

The vidcast can be watched on YouTube here. Check it out!

Michele and I have also planned out the next two episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. For July’s episode we will be discussing She Is Conan (2023) and in August we will be talking about Pilgrimage (2017). Stay tuned!

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venue: The Flames Beyond #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

From the Archives

This following podcasts episodes and articles were published from 6/24 to 7/7:

Categories
Peplum

Reborn With The Strength Of Stone: Interview With Ben Lacy On Samson #1: Nazi Smasher

Hercules, Ursus, Maciste, Goliath, Samson, et al. – all strongman characters and archetypes founds in peplum cinema, both classic and new. They are singular in their exploits, be it mythical, folklore, or cinematic only, but also interchangeable for the same reasons. The strongman is a malleable character, who can be juxtaposed against a variety of ages and settings, leading to fun and interesting scenarios. These could be tales of a Hercules-style character in space, superhero adventures, time traveling adventures that can feature a fish-out-of-water element, and others. 

Ben Lacy’s comic book series Samson is one such text that takes an iconic peplum protagonist and Hebrew Biblical hero, and applies a different spin to the character. Lacy’s incarnation of Samson leans heavily into the superhero genre (which has always has a strong link to mythology, see Marvel’s Hercules and Thor characters for examples) by having his character, a concentration camp prisoner, become the subject of Nazi experiments that leads to superhuman strength – a Jewish equivalent to Captain America. 

Variant cover by David Gallart.

Samson, written by Lacy, with Jhonesbas Craneo (Tomb of Horror) on pencils, Anton Polkhovskyi (The Cthulhu Man) as the colorist, and Nikki Powers (BurnWayward Kindred) providing lettering, is currently going through a crowdfunding campaign to realize the debut issue. Lacy has generously provided his time to be interviewed about his strongman comic. 

From classic 1960s sword and sandal films, Hollywood Golden Age Biblical pepla, and even Gladiator and neo-peplum, is this a genre you’re into? If so, how did you get into these types of films?

One of the first movies I saw in a theater was The Ten Commandments back in the early 1970s. I’ll always watch it if it’s on. The same with the last half of Ben-Hur and the few good parts of Cleopatra. I’ve also always liked the Steve Reeves Hercules movies. Not only did they have a lot of cool action, I’d never seen anyone like Reeves (this was pre-Arnold times) and I always wanted a build like that (which I never achieved). For the same reason, I liked the ridiculous Three Stooges Meet Hercules movie where a nerdy professor turns into a strong man.

What are your favourite sword and sandal films, comics, books, and so on?

In addition to the movies mentioned, I’ve liked a lot of the Busiek run on Conan. I used to read a series of books by John Jakes about Brak the Barbarian that were a lot of fun.

Various Samson pepla.

Have you watched any of the classic Italian Samson peplum films (such as Samson and His Mighty Challenge,Samson and the Sea BeastSamson Against the Back Pirate, etc.), and if so, your thoughts on them? Did you draw any inspiration or ideas from these films?

No, I’m afraid I haven’t seen any of these. I did see Samson and Delilah as a kid.

What is the general synopsis of Samson?

Samson is an epic tale that takes place over the course of fifty years from WW2 to just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During WW2 we see how the Nazis took two young boys and experimented on them, giving one of them great strength, speed, and invulnerability. He takes on the name Samson as a way of inspiring people.

Years later, after the reunification of Germany, Interpol has discovered that the Uberfuhrer, a Nazi supervillain, may still be alive and living in America. They urge Samson to come out of retirement to take him down. The first story arc follows both the younger and older SAMSON as we learn what’s happened to him and his world over those many years.

What was the genesis of this comic?

I’d always wanted to do a superhero comic (my other books are more sci-fi and adventure oriented). As a Jew, the idea of creating a Jewish superhero whose origin is very much related to his being Jewish was something I thought would be both exciting and unique.

How does your iteration of Samson compare to the Biblical incarnation?

Samson takes his name from the Biblical version both to be a sort of Captain America figure for Jews and because his real name is conveniently Samuel.

There are a lot of stories out there about Nazis doing weird science experiments and creating super soldiers, monsters, etc. How does Samson stand out from these types of stories?

This is inspired by actual events. The Nazis did experiment on Jewish twins. The two scientists in this book are based on two of the real men who conducted these experiments. Of course the experiments they actually conducted were quack science, but in a superhero universe, they succeed, but may wind up regretting it.

What was something important you learned or a surprise you encountered while writing and Kickstarting this comic?

I’ve done ten successful Kickstarters. The first time I tried to Kickstart Samson, it failed to fund. I learned that I had to expand my audience to people who were interested in superheroes. I printed off a large number of B&W Samson mini comics and gave those away to the backers of my other books and to people at comic cons.

What is the biggest goal you want to accomplish with Samson?

At this point, I want to get it funded and get issue one out there. Hopefully, when people see it, there will be more demand for issue two because I think this story will excite a lot of people.

What can fans of the sword and sandal genre look forward to in Samson? Any homages to the classic character or to the genre?

Probably more in variant covers than in the story itself though when Samson ends up in Israel and gets his first costume, he will have the more traditional longer hair and beard.

And finally any other news and projects you’d like to share?

I have two other ongoing series, Shark of War and The Vicious Vixens of Dakuwanga. People can read the first issues of both at BitingComics.com. And of course Samson still has a six days left at Samson.BitingComics.com.


Sincere appreciation to Ben Lacy for his time to talk about his Samson comic. More information on the comic, including a link to the Kickstarter campaign, can be found in the below list: