The Clackity is the debut, middle-grade novel from Lora Senf, released in the summer of 2022. The book evokes shades of The Nightmare Before Christmas,Labyrinth, Edward Gorey, and 90s-era Nickelodeon.
Personal copy of The Clackity.
The story of The Clackity is centered on preteen Evie who lives with her aunt Desdemona in the town of Blight Harbor. When Desdemona goes missing in the town’s old and abandoned abattoir, Evie investigates with the hopes of rescuing her. She meets the titular Clackity, a nefarious shadowy being that is part Cheshire cat, part Oogie Boogie, and 100% can not be trusted. The Clackity tells Evie where Desdemona has been taken to, but in return she must venture into another world, with a black sun and purple sky, to visit seven houses, and bring back John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer from Blight Harbor’s past. Within each house is a test that challenges Evie’s wits and bravery. Aside from negotiating the houses, Evie must keep pace ahead of the pursuing Pope while also completing all her tasks before black sun down.
The Clackity is overflowing with vivid imagination, an amalgamation of child-like nightmares. Each house Evie visit has its own personality. One has a maze of repeating doors that must be entered in a certain order (think of those forest mazes in the original Zelda on the NES), another a gingerbread house, and one is even a house made from a witch who turns into a tree. There is a bag of holding, magical boats, distorted forests, enchanted flowers, birds that become shadow tattoos, infinity pits, and so on. If a child’s imagination can dream it, Senf grabs it, reworks it, and turns it into a wondrous component of The Clackity.
In addition to how varied and versatile The Clackity is, the prose is beautifully executed. Narrated in first-person perspective, Evie (by way of Senf) describes the world (both real and unreal) around her in a creative ways. Interspersed in the text of the book are black and white illustrations by Alfredo Cáceres that are a cross between Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Tony Di’Terlizzi. The illustrations capture Senf’s set pieces and underscore the novel’s atmosphere.
If there is a theme for The Clackity it is about bravery combined with a “fake it till you make it” ethos. Evie puts on the bravest face she can, and even changes her looks (hair cut, mascara, etc.) to give the impression that she is a warrior, even if she doesn’t feel it it. As she adventures through the seven houses, her bravery is put to the test, and often times she freezes with fear. The Clackity normalizes that it is ok to be afraid of big things, and that bravery isn’t sudden: it’s something to strive toward, mimic, and eventually you become it. It also underscores that even in moments that we lose our brave face, there is a safety net of others (shadow birds, witches, etc. in the case of The Clackity, but in real life, friends, family, etc.) to be there to be supportive. A person is never alone, there is always someone.
Even though The Clackity (book and monster) can be scary, the story is incredibly fun. Readers root for Evie in her highs and lows in her quest to rescue her aunt, feel and empathize with her emotions, but also have their imagination sparked by Senf’s descriptions of the unreal world. A creative and spooky endeavor, The Clackity is a fantastic dark, adventurous story.
Welcome to the second instance of my biweekly news roundup. I am digging this schedule more than my prior weekly schedule. There is a lot of content below, so make sure you scroll through it all.
Alicia Carter and Robot #1 Review
The physical first issue of the crowdfunded pulp/sword and planet inspired comic The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carterand Robot arrived last week.
One of my favorite things is finding new citations of the essays by the authors who appeared in the books I edited.
Dr. Hannah Mueller’s essay, “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus,” which appeared in The New Peplum, has been cited in Dr. Amanda Potter’s essay, “From Female Stereotypes to Women with Agency: Elite Women and Slave Women in Howard Fast’s 1951 Novel, Spartacus (1960), and Starz Spartacus (2010–13)” in Gender, Power, and Identity in the Films of Stanley Kubrick, edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Dijana Metlić, and Jeremi Szaniawski.
Super congrats!
The Kubrick collection has been published by Routledge and the product page can be found here.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Updates
New episode of H. P. Lovecast is online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.
In this episode we talk about the second film in John Carpenter’s informal apocalypse trilogy, Prince of Darkness. This episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout page, in the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
On the 30th this month our September Transmissions episode will publish. This episode will have Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke.
Looking to the future, for October we will be covering the movie Mimic 2 (we covered the first Mimic film almost a year ago – here is the link). We are also solidifying our Transmissions guests as well.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
The folks at Fan2Fan Podcast are collecting top five Halloween season films from their guests and I was honored to contribute mine.
The episode I appear on with my top five was published last Wednesday and can be heard at this Fan2Fan Libsyn page. Present in this episode was also Joshua Pruett. His top five movies can be heard on this Fan2Fan episode. Keep an eye out for Michele’s list!
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Footage Fiends Zine
Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:
Exciting news: my good friend @DVDBoxSet and I are starting the first ever zine exclusively covering in-world camera films (found footage, mockumentary, faux doc, screenlife, hybrid, etc.) and we're now accepting pitches for the first issue!
This, of course, inspired me, so now I am working on an essay about the 1950s Italian cosmic horror film, Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (one of the first films to have a found footage scene). If you’re interested in submitting, check out the Tweet thread above for more information.
The Warrior and the Sorceress Re-Release
Shout Factory, under their Scream Factory label, is did a re-release of the Roger Corman 1980s sword and sorcery (sword and planet since it takes place on another planet?) film, The Warrior and the Sorceress.
My copy of The Warrior and the Sorceress with the poster.
I have not seen this film before, even though it is included in the four movie DVD release Shout Factory did a few years ago that contained Deathstalker, Deathstalker 2, and Barbarian Queen (side note: if you want to hear me talk Deathstalker 2 with the Fan2Fan Podcast crew, click here). Of course I had to pre-order the Blu-ray incarnation, plus it comes with a poster and the cover is reversible to a Cthulhu-looking one.
Emmanuelle director Just Jaeckin passed away earlier this month.
The filmmaker may be gone but his legacy lives on. Later in September Cult Epics released two Blu-rays of Jaeckin’s work: Madame Claude and The Last Romantic Lover. Commentary on the discs is done by Jeremy Richey who wrote Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol (read my review here). Check out the Cult Epics website for more info on these releases.
Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign
Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.
Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting!
The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carter and Robot is a brand new comic series by Tristan Vick, with Chris Awayan on art and Mirza Wirawan on colours. The debut issue of Alicia Carter and Robot (ACaR) was Kickstarted in February 2022 and released by Vick’s own publishing imprint, Regolith Comics.
SFW cover for ACaR by Karen Darboe (for preview/thumbnail purposes)
ACaR is described on its Kickstarter campaign as an “action-packed sci-fi adventure” in the vein of classic pulps such as “Northwest Smith, Flash Gordon, and John Carter of Mars” with comedy thrown in. The Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character homage is immediately noticed in Alicia Carter’s last name. The comic shares the sci-fi pulp DNA in the same vein as Star Wars does.
Personal copy of ACaR with NSFW Toshio Maeda-inspired cover by Awayan.
Carter is an infamous space thief whose latest escapade has her stealing a crystal from the reptilian criminal Klaven Skullvek and the two bounty hunters in his employ: the cybernetic Armitage and sniper Kira. While being pursued, Carter crash lands on Junk World, an entire planet converted into a garbage dump by Nova Corp. Amnesic from a head wound during her rough landing, Carter is rescued by Garbage Disposal Unit 3 (GDU-3), a bipedal robot that salvages treasures from the refuse. Together, Carter and GDU-3 team up to evade Skullvek and his henchpeople and escape from Junk World.
Alicia Carter.
Carter as a character is a fun, rogueish heroine in the Han Solo/Star-Lord sense. As a sword and planet character, much like John Carter, she appears to be incredibly agile and able to leap large distances – or at least within the gravity on Junk World. If Carter has any fault it is due to the temporary amnesia she only suffers from for a handful of pages. If anything, this selective amnesia robs her of precious character development as it otherwise doesn’t advance or effect the plot at all. On the other hand, Carter is extremely animated and emotive. She pops off the comic’s pages with gestures and facial expressions that make her both endearing and easy to read, which is definitely in part due to the art and colour work of Awayan and Wirawan respectively.
GDU-3 (The Robot).
GDU-3 is quite fleshed out as a robot character. While he has protocols he must follow, he exhibits numerous human-like traits, such as he collects books and other trinkets for his own collection. His relationship to his parent company, Nova Corp, is very like that of Robocop to OCP – he follows his directives, but with the help of others, is able to overcome some of his programming to be more capable and free.
The art of ACaR is excellent. The Awayan and Wirawan team are able to make the muted, drab garbage planet of Junk World look interesting. All the characters look distinctive, at appropriate times stepping into cartoonish territory, but only for added comedic affect.
No expense was spared on issue one of ACaR. The comic clocks in at thirty-six pages of content including a gallery of all the alternative covers. The back cover of the comic has a bit of texture on it as well. In addition, folks who contributed to the ACaR Kickstarter received a plethora of fantastic loot as part of the campaign’s stretch goals.
Trading cards.
Firstly, there was six trading cards, one for each character. The backs of the cards contain stats (strength, speed, charisma, etc.) along with a biography of the pictured character. Hopefully the trading card trend will continue in successor crowdfunding campaigns. They are fun but they also provided paratextual information to supplement the world and character building in the comic.
Stickers and magnet.
Next, two chibi-styled stickers of Carter and GDU-3 along with a magnet of their ship were part of the stretch goals.
Foil art print by Shikarii.
Finally, a holofoil art print of Carter looking bad ass by artist Shikarii is also part of the package.
The Kickstarter campaign was also an avenue to pre-purchase exclusive cover variants of ACaR done by different artists, with most covers also having a NSFW incarnation. Interestingly, most Kickstarter comic book campaigns that have numerous NSFW covers also have corresponding content that is adult in nature (nudity, sex, and violence). Though ACaR has a handful of risque covers (see personal copy above), the comic proper is fairly PG-13. There’s no nudity and barely any profanity (swear words are replaced: “helios” for “hell,” “frack” for “fuck” and so on). The violence is cartoonish, with only one scene showing blood (on a regenerative character at that).
ACaR is off to a great start. Carter is a fun heroine and GDU-3 a shocking fleshed out, unique character. Unknown if future issues of the series will be episodic in nature, with a different adventure in each comic, or one large arc spanning multiple issues, but the intergalactic antics of Carter and GDU-3 look promising and exciting.
More information about Alicia Carter and Robot and the team behind it can be found at the following locations:
I am revamping my news roundups for the time being. I don’t think I am quite prolific enough to merit a weekly aggregation, so instead I’ll be switching to biweekly. Think that will also help reduce the clutter of news articles at my website. I’m doing some other changes as well, so read on!
Personal / Website News
Not changing anything in the “Personal / Website News” section. If anything, they might get longer (such as this week’s) as I’ll be sharing more news in each biweekly post.
New Website Articles
I’ve published two articles at my website over the past two weeks.
I haven’t quite written enough essays here on cocktail and tiki culture, so I felt one was overdue. I’ve got a handful of other cocktail pamphlets like this from the 70s, so expect some more write ups of a similar ilk in the future.
Next, there is a new issue of Weird Tales that will be coming out very soon. This issue will focus on the sword and sorcery genre so I thought it would be awesome to help do my part to promote the issue by doing some micro interviews with some of the authors and poets within. I put out a call on social media for interested parties and this aggregation of short-form interviews is the result.
The article currently contains interviews with Brian W. Matthews, Teel James Glenn, Dana Fredsti, and Dave Fitzgerald.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Updates
For August we got a little off track with H. P. Lovecast as we had to hunker in and prep for CoKoCon (see below) and other projects. This means that while August had only one episode of H. P. Lovecast (our dive into Douglas Wynne’s collection Something in the Water and Other Stories), September will have three episodes!
First, we have a Fragments episode that contains our interview with Wynne about his new collection, Something in the Water. The episode can be streamed at the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout page, via your podcast app of preference, or via the embedded player below.
Second, our primary episode for September will be on the movie, Prince of Darkness, direct by John Carpenter. This episode will drop on Sunday the 18th. This episode will act as a companion episode to an upcoming Fan2Fan appearance (see below).
Personal collection.
Finally, for September’s Transmissions episode, we will be interviewing Ian Welke about his new novel, Union Station, and Brenda S. Tolian about her debut short story collection, Blood Mountain. That will drop the last day of September.
In no particular order, three episodes were recorded:
Discussion on John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness
Top Five Vampires Films
Top Five Halloween Films
Our forthcoming H. P. Lovecast Podcast episode on Prince of Darkness will act as a companion episode to the Fan2Fan In the Mouth of Madness. Check out both episodes when they are online!
For Scholars at the Edge of Time later this month, (Thursday, September the 22nd), Michele and I will be discussing Son of Samson.
Personal copy of the recent Kino release.
Finally, to have on the radar, I’ll be doing a reading on the HWA New York Chapter’s Galactic Terrors vidcast. That will be in November.
All of these appearances, along with their publish dates (if known) have been added to the Podcast Index page. As always, if you feel like I’d make a great guest on your podcast, please feel free to reach out to me at vnvdiak@gmail.com.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
I am going to cease doing peplum-specific news go forward. While one of my expertise is peplum, my interests run in a variety of subject matters. Instead, I’ll have a section called “Miscellaneous Tidbits” (temporary name until I can think of another) where I’ll post news relevant to my research or projects I’m working on. Could be peplum, could be something else.
However, if folks do have their own peplum news they want to share with me to promote here, I am still very much available to do that. I am here to help others.
Blog and Adventures
I’ll be adding a new section that will appear time-to-time, and that will be “Blog and Adventures.” I’ll kick it off for this post with a re-cap of CoKoCon.
CoKoCon 2022 Experiences
CoKoCon is a Phoenix fan convention in the old school sense of the early days of fandom: smaller, more intimate crowd taking over a bit of hotel convention space. This is the first in-person version of CoKoCon since 2019 due to the pandemic.
Hal C. F. Hastell and Dee Hastell are the two primary folks behind CoKoCo. Despite us being still fairly new to the Phoenix area and not really knowing anyone, they extended an invitation to us to be on a few panels. We are both extremely flattered and appreciative. Michele and I wound up on two panels: Pre-Code Hollywood Horror Films, and Swords, Sandals, Sorcery, Planets and Other Worlds.
Our first panel was Saturday and we got to the Tempe Double Tree around 9am-ish. This was our first appearance at any sort of public event, let alone a con, since the Covid Pandemic started. We were a little bit nervous as we both have evaded getting Covid thus far. We were so relieved that CoKoCon has strict mask mandates and vaccination or negative Covid test requirements. We felt so much better: everyone was masked, all spaced out. We felt super safe.
We also got a cool swag bag filled with books, stickers, and other goodies. There was also a nice program booklet which had our brand new H. P. Lovecast Logo as an advert! We were pumped.
The Pre-Code Hollywood Horror Films panel started at 10:0am. Hal was the moderator with Michele and I as panelists. Michele is an expert on silent cinema, particularly the city symphony genre, but because of her interest in mummies, she had seen a lot of Universal Horror films. So, she was the big subject matter expert. I’m not too much of a specialist of the period, but know enough since it is all precursor to my Italian genre film/exploitation film studies (but I do love Busby Berkeley musicals). We spent all August prepping for the panel by watching quiet a few Pre-Code horror films: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Kongo (1932), King Kong (1933), Island of Lost Souls (1932), and Life Returns (1934). Michele watched a plethora of even more films.
Pre-Code Horror from our collection.
I suspect this might have been a panel that Hal had wanted to do for a while, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We talked about how transgressive and ahead of their time these movies were compared to the films released in the years following the Hayes Code going into proper effect. We all agreed that Life Returns was a terrible film while Kongo was the most controversial and squeamish film we all saw. Definitely worth an experience.
After the panel we meandered around the con for a little bit. We ran into Beth Cato, steampunk author and baker extraordinaire. She gave us ooey gooey delicious cookies and a ribbon for our con badges that proclaimed we had taken part of her baked delectables.
We visited the dealers’ room which housed a handful of authors with tables along with the art that was up for auction. We met authors Adam Gaffen and David Lee Summers.They were cool folk and of course, we had to pluck up some books (can’t walk away empty handed!).
Michele and I returned Monday for the Swords/Sandals/Sorcery/Other Worlds Panel which was at 1:00 pm. This is a panel of Michele’s own creation which she has moderated at other cons, such as Long Beach Comic Con and LA Comic Con. I brought the sword and sandal knowledge while artist Gilead brought the sword and sorcery expertise. I believe this was the first time Michele had an artist instead of a writer on her panel, so it was nice to get a different perspective.
Gilead is an amazing artist. I had to purchase his original painting “Ziggurats and Tentacles” which was part of the art gallery/auction.
“Ziggurats and Tentacles” by Gilead. Now hanging in our living room.
This panel was a lot of fun. Gilead brought a list of sword and sorcery resources (websites, podcasts, Discord servers, etc.) and invited folks to copy it and check them out. He was super knowledgable about all facets of sword and sorcery.
Overall, CoKoCon was. a blast. It was a low-key event for us, which is exactly what we needed during these pandemic times. The 2023 conference is already being planned and has GoH information at the CoKoCon website. We will definitely be back!
The CoKoCon Facebook page is uploading photos, so keep an eye there for photos of the event.
There’s no time like the present to indulge in the stories of the heroic, mythical, and magical past. Streaming services from Amazon and HBO launched brand new fantasy shows, The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon respectively. Young adult fantasy continues to be a lucrative market and indie fantasy comics books are being realized via the power of crowdfunding.
Vanguard literary magazine Weird Tales pioneered pulp, cosmic horror, and sword and sorcery stories. Their upcoming issue, #366, is devoted to tales of heroic fantasy with new stories, poems, and essays contributing to the contemporary fantasy canon. A few contributors to this sword and sorcery special issue have graciously shared tidbits of their poems and stories along with their relationship with the genre.
Brian W. Matthews
Story Title
“Temm the Riven”
Story Synopsis
A knight is tasked by his king to save the realm, but to do so, he must return to his childhood home and confront the evil of his past.
Primary goal to accomplish with your story?
I wanted to create an effective blend of fantasy and horror. Clive Barker does it so well, but he blends horror with urban fantasy. I wanted to take a stab at injecting horror into an epic fantasy setting.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like R.E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
I’m more of an epic fantasy person. Nothing against heroic fantasy. I just never had much exposure to [Robert E.] Howard.
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
I grew up reading Tolkein and Donaldson and Zelazny and was taken by their characters and how the setting forged who they were into who they became. This is particularly true of Stephen R. Donaldson. He makes his characters quite human, injects common sense and self-preservation into them, and then puts them through the grinder of the fantasy setting to see what kind of person/hero they can become.
It recounts the life/career of a storyteller, and as a Celt a Seanache was an important part of the Celtic culture and means a lot to me.
Primary goal to accomplish with your poem?
I think all cultures, especially warrior cultures, the propaganda of narrative and drive much of their agendas. This is a tale of someone embracing that warrior ethic.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like Robert E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
Absolutely the R.E.H. type of tale. My own approach to poetry is very much in the shadows of Howard’s poetry. I much prefer the “in the streets” fantasy as opposed to the ‘from the place window’ type of story that has a grand, expansive view.
My own fantasy series of Altiva stories, which often contain poetry as part of the narrative, are very “down to earth.”
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
Clearly Howard is prime, but so are the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nancy Hansen, and even the Lin Carter books. All very much in the same “in the trenches” feel, though Ms. Hansen’s stories have a very wide world view they never feel ‘effete’ or fantastic—they stay grounded. And, Moorcock is the perfect mix of a grand vision but a very personal, human story telling. The characters never feel like analogs, they feel like real people.
It’s a classic hero’s journey with really nasty monsters.
How about: It’s a twist on the classic hero’s journey in a fresh fantasy milieu, with some really nasty monsters…
Primary goal to accomplish with your story?
Dana: We pretty much wanted to write a story that was original, but stayed true to the elements that make sword and sorcery so much fun to read. I was dying to return to the fantasy world I’d created a few years ago for another short story. It had strong characters, both male and female, with a really unique setting and all the makings of a truly great series. Dave and I couldn’t wait to build on the promise of the original story.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like Robert E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
Dave: I admire the beauties of high fantasy, but if pressed, I have to confess I prefer to play in the rough-and-tumble gutters and back alleys of low fantasy.
Dana: I definitely prefer heroic fantasy, and more specifically, the darker entries in the genre. I love a good mix of fantasy, swashbuckling, and horror.
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
Dave: Both REH and Tolkien, but also Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné series, Jack Vance’s Dying Earth stories, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, and so many others (RBT, Holdstock, Tanith Lee, Burroughs’ Warlord of Mars…). I especially love the blend of the outré and the strangely familiar in all these series.
Dana: While I love the works of Robert E. Howard, the king of dark S&S for me is Karl Edward Wagner and his Kanenovels and stories. I don’t think there’s a better anti-hero out there. I’ve reread them at least a half dozen times, my old Wagner paperbacks are very well-loved! I am also a huge fan of Jonathan Maberry’s epic S&S novel Kagen the Damned.
Sincere thanks and gratitude for all who partook in this collection of short form interviews to talk about their sword and sorcery texts. If you’re interested in reading these stories and poems when they are published, make sure to pre-order issue #366 of Weird Tales. The product page for this issue can be found here.
