Late into the night an inebriated Becca wanders into the local cemetery. After flirting with a statue, she falls backwards into an open grave and passes out. Upon waking up the next morning and seeing herself in the grave, Becca arrives at the logical conclusion: she has died and became a ghost. Feeling a sense of purpose to complete some unfinished business, Becca deduces she can put her sexual prowess to use and “sleep her way into heaven.”
Blonde, beautiful, and sporting a set of bangs that puts many anime characters to shame, Becca recalls the ditzy, airhead trope found in the likes of Three’s Company, Clueless, and Romey and Michele’s High School Reunion. Depicting such characters can be a challenge: are the readers laughing at Becca or laughing with her? Is the comic mean-“spirited” (pun intended) or not?
On one hand, there is a sequence where Becca is sitting on a bench next to a handsome stranger who, depending on interpretation, takes advantage of Becca’s lack of common sense in order to bed her. While the scene becomes the catalyst for Becca’s plan to use her sexual attributes to get into heaven, the circumstance pushes Becca into one-dimensional territory, marking her as easily manipulated. The story progresses at her expense.
On the other hand, Becca Boo is extremely self-aware with both the titular character and the narrative itself, giving readers winks and nudges in a playful way. Right before Becca makes love to her ex-girlfriend Nadja, Becca seizes an opportunity to re-create the famous pottery scene from the 1990 film Ghost. She even calls out “I’m ‘Ghosting’ you” while embracing a confused former lover. The scene is extremely funny and shows that the comedy comes from Becca, that she is the one directing it, and it is not directed at her.
Becca Boo: The Bimbo Ghost is created by Sun Khamunaki who is probably best known for her articulate and detailed cheesecake comic covers done for publishers like Zenescope. Though created by Khamunaki, the story proper is written by Garth Matthams (The Living Finger from Darby Pop [a fantastic publisher]) who maintains the lighthearted tone and writes Becca with her heart in the right place.
Khamunaki’s body of pinup-esque art sets a high bar for quality to be followed in the pages of Becca Boo and artist Kenan Halilovic and colourist Anna Jarmolowska certainly succeed. There are not many characters featured in Becca Boo, and because of this, lots of panels are devoted to really fleshing out how the characters are depicted. The little details of Nadja’s tattoos to Becca’s facial expressions that really sell her mannerisms greatly elevate the comic. Another important detail of Becca Boo are the colours which are both bright and light. White and blue dominates the palette on the pages, which both radiate a warm, sunny feeling yet at the same time gives the comic an ethereal quality, which of course, goes hand-in-hand with showing a ghost/“ghost” character.
Issue one of Becca Boo is a short affair, clocking in at only twenty pages. However there is an extensive gallery of pinup covers that depict Becca in a variety of styles, from cartoonish to superhero-ish. The debut of Becca Boo: The Bimbo Ghost was realized via a Kickstarter campaign in early 2023. As with many Kickstarted comics there was a lot of supplemental loot and stretch goals to be had.
Firstly there is a series of seven trading cards, each one adorned with a different cover art used for issue one.
There is also a two-sided bookmark and a sticker.
And a thick-paper print of the Khamunaki cover of Becca in white stockings.
An option of some of the comics was to have Khamunaki and Matthams sign copies and have a corresponding certificate of authenticity accompany them.
Becca Boo is sexy and lighthearted. The premise has lots of wiggle room to take the character in different directions, hopefully developing her even more during her ghostly journey.
I had the honor to interview Ian Ross from Flesh Field about their newest album, Voice of the Echo Chamber, their first album in album two decades! Back in the aughts I listened to Flesh Field all the time and even caught them live in Seattle in 2005. I’m so happy to see the project resurrected. So, check out the interview and check out the new album!
The New Peplum Citation
Dr. Connie Skibinski’s essay “Crazy Man-Killing Monsters: The Inimical Portrayal of the Amazons in Supernatural‘s ‘Slice Girls'” cites Valerie Estelle Frankel’s essay “Hercules, Xena and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup” from The New Peplum.
Dr. Skibinski’s essay has been published in the open access journal Thersites and can be read here.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Will Penny (Tiki Surf Witches Want Blood) has a new Kickstarter going on for the next project via his Sex and Monsters endeavor: Skinny Dipper.
From the Press Release:
Chillwave pioneer Nite Jewel is making her comics debut alongside a variety of talented writers and artists in Skinny Dipper. This 32-page comic zine launches October 31, 2023 from Sex and Monsters and is accompanied by an original soundtrack single from the internationally lauded singer/songwriter.
Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, R.H. Barlow, and H.P. Lovecraft, Skinny Dipper is a meditation on love, death, and the mysterious lure of the ocean. The zine features the talents of Emily Roberts, April Snellings, Jelena Đorđević, and more – and is perfectly complimented by Nite Jewel’s hypnogogic siren song, which serves as a haunting electro-pop soundtrack for
the story.
Both the Skinny Dipper zine and soundtrack single will be available from Sex and Monsters on Kickstarter starting October 31, 2023 (www.sexandmonsters.com/skinnydipper). The zine features 32-pages of art printed on silk matte stock with spot UV coating. The single will be available on 7” vinyl in a deluxe gatefold cover featuring artwork by Emily Roberts. The music will also be available to stream online and can be purchased digitally from Gloriette Records (https://nitejewel.bandcamp.com/music).
In the late 90s through the aughts the industrial scene saw a new trend of incorporating orchestral sounds into the genre. Ronan Harris via his VNV Nation project took hold of this orchestral-electro strain, infused it with trance and synthpop elements to develop a new genre: futurepop. The formula was a success and futurepop began to pop up in the music of projects such as Icon of Coil, Apoptygma Berzerk, Covenant, and others.
Concurrently with the development of futurepop, Ian Ross of Flesh Field was taking orchestral-electro in a completely different direction. Ross took the emerging aggrotech genre, tuned down the harshness that one would find in acts such as :wumpscut: and Suicide Commando, and incorporated orchestral elements to create a unique brand of industrialism, counter to futurepop.
Ross’s formula was also a success and Flesh Field dominated the club scene at the same time of VNV Nation and other futurepop acts. But like Roy Batty in Blade Runner, Flesh Field burned very bright yet very quick. Flesh Field only released three albums between 1999 and 2004 before Ross retired the project, abdicating his spot in the industrial pantheon that no successor act attempted to claim.
But, volcanos only stay dormant for so long. Nearly two decades later Flesh Field has unexpectedly exploded back into the industrial-electro scene with a brand new album, Voice of the Echo Chamber (VotEC). Released on November 3rdfrom Metropolis, Flesh Field’s new album is both familiar and new. The anger present in older Flesh Field tracks is focused in VotEC as Ross tackles gun violence, mass shootings, and what compels individuals to walk down this dark path of no return. It is a strong, complex album, and Ross has generously answered some questions about his new offering and comeback to the music scene.
Ian Ross headshot from Facebook.
For Voice of the Echo Chamber (VoeTC) were there any old lyrics or songs that you’ve had sitting in your repertoire that you were able to incorporate into the new album, or is the entire album built off song writing and composing done fairly recently?
In between albums I like to create new sounds, loops, samples, and drum kits. I had quite a few of these left over from the Tyranny of the Majority era that I had never used before, so some of them did end up on VotEC. Similarly, I used a melody from an unreleased track I wrote around 2008 called “In Perpetuity” in the beginning of “Rampage” on VotEC. I always liked the melody and wanted to make sure I used it somewhere. Other than that, everything else is entirely new. I started writing in March of this year and finished up in early August.
Personal copy of Voice of the Echo Chamber.
Your new album contains the Flesh Field trademark elements of electro and orchestral, but also contains quite a few samples of firearms: reloading, shooting, etc. This has a strong resonance of the film scores of Jóhann Jóhannsson, especially that of Sicario (2015). Are you a fan of Jóhannsson’s work?
I haven’t seen Sicario, but it’s totally possible that I have heard Johannsson’s work before and enjoyed it without knowing it was his. His is not a name I’m familiar with, but I did check out “The Beast” a bit ago based on your question, and I definitely thought it was cool. I’ll have to start listening to more! On VotEC, nearly all of the firearm samples are original. Michael Prince from Diet of Wires is a very good friend of mine, and when we were talking about what I was trying to do with the album, he offered to record some of the firearm samples using his own collection. There are samples from every weapon mentioned in the track “Arsenal” spread out through the album with the exception of the .38 revolver. We didn’t have one of those.
Personal copy of Strain.
Autographed by Ian Ross.
Autographed by Wendy Yanko.
Since your last full album, Strain (2004), there’s been new waves of electro-industrial bands that have popped up. Have you heard your influence on newers acts in the past few years? Or, have any projects reached out to you to express your impact on them?
I haven’t really kept up with what’s happening in the genre at all in the last fifteen years or so. If there are newer bands that have taken influence from Flesh Field, that’s amazing. I know how important to me certain bands are that have influenced me, so it’s really humbling to me when I hear that Flesh Field has had the same impact on others. I’ve had a few artists tell me this recently. It really is an honor every time I hear it.
You had a working relationship with Metropolis who released Strain. How was it to reach back to them to see if they would be interested in releasing a new Flesh Field album? Since the passing of Dave Heckman last year, how has working with Metropolis changed?
Dave Heckman did so much for so many bands and for music fans in general. I really feel privileged to have known him and worked with him. Metropolis has always been great to me, so they were the first label I went to with VotEC. They have continued to be just as awesome under Gail. I sent them an email sometime in July I believe letting them know VotEC was coming and asking if they were interested, and they got back to me the next day saying they were. Everything has been great with them since. Nina has really helped me out with Spotify and social media, two things I really knew (know?) nothing about how to utilize properly.
Personal copy of Belief Control.
Autographed by Ian Ross.
Autographed by Wendy Yanko.
It looks like you’ve maintained a lasting friendship with folks from Imperative Reaction, recently with them providing music and art for VotEC and you remixing their songs. How long do all of yall go back and how have you’ve supported each other over the years?
Imperative Reaction and Flesh Field go back a long way to the early aughts. We’ve toured together, we’ve remixed each other, and they have crashed at my place on two occasions during separate Imperative Reaction tours. There are fun stories! We’ve shared the stage during tracks (I sang along with him on “Rift” onstage during a show, and he of course performed “Voice of Dissent” with us onstage). Ted has always been like a kindred brother in music to me. It really has been awesome to get to know him.
Personal copy of The Azoic’s Forward.
“Evolution” remixed by Flesh Field.
Flesh Field has a legacy of remixes of other fellow industrial and synthpop acts music: SMP, Collide, The Azoic, Glis, many others. With a rejuvenated Flesh Field you’ve recently done remixes for GenCAB (“The Badge”) and System Syn (“The Light Was a Lie”). A three part question regarding your remix work; first, how do you get involved with remixing other artists? Are these brokered by labels or do the projects reach out to you (and you them)?
When I remix other artists or other artists remix Flesh Field, it’s usually one of four ways: because we know each other somehow (The Azoic, Assemblage 23, Dubok, Imperative Reaction, for example), we’re label-mates (Project-X, Individual Totem, L’ame Immortelle for example), the label had organized them, or the bands reach out directly to me or I to them. The remix I just did for System Syn happened because Clint and I go way back, and I wanted to do something for him to say “thank you” for the artwork he did for Voice of the Echo Chamber. Plus, I really dig the track “The Light Was a Lie” and had ideas for remixing it the very first time I heard it. With GenCAB, Jim at Metropolis put David Dutton and me in contact since we were both inquiring about remixes after finishing our respective albums. He’s a really cool guy, and really talented. I chose to remix “The Badge” and he chose to remix “Catalyst,” which turned out awesome. I’m hoping to put out the GenCAB mix out along with some other stuff as a follow-up to Voice of the Echo Chamber. Still trying to figure out what that looks like.
The Light Was a Lie cover art included in Bandcamp download.
Secondly, what is your philosophy when remixing another artist’s song? Is it to Flesh Field-ify their song? Or is this a chance to step out of the Flesh Field box and do something else?
I like to start from scratch and rebuild the track as if it were Flesh Field. The majority of the time, I only ask the artist for the track BPM and the vocals. No MIDI files, no samples, no loops. I figure if the artist or a label wants a mix from Flesh Field, it should sound “Flesh Field-y,” so I don’t really use remixes to experiment any more than I use Flesh Field to experiment.
The Badge cover art included in Bandcamp download.
And finally, in your canon of remixes is there a specific one you’re especially proud of?
Tough one. There are a few that I’m really happy with, but might sound dated today, like the remixes I did for Croc Shop, or Individual Totem, or Cesium 137. I think the one I had the most fun with out of any remix I’ve ever done was the remix I just did for GenCAB, and I think it’s musically evident from the very beginning of the remix how much fun I had. I love the way David does vocals, and they gave me all kinds of ideas, particularly for the chorus. Listening to the new GenCAB album Signature Flaws really inspired me to up my game when it comes to vocals on anything I do post VotEC. The amount of thought and effort he put into those vocals makes me want to try harder on mine.
Personal copy of Viral Extinction.
A technical question regarding creating music in the 2000s to creating music now. You mentioned in a different interview (DiscoveringBands) that you had to procure new, modern equipment. How does this impact old samples and music composed back in the day? Are you able to salvage some of your library from back then to use on new equipment, or is there versioning and compatibility issues? If Flesh Field decides to play live and decide to dig into some old classics, will you have to re-create your songs anew?
I do think I have some backups on digital audio tape of some of the old tracks for live performances, so if I ever needed them, I should be ok as long as my DAT player still works. It’s almost a quarter century old now, though. I don’t know how playing old tracks would go over though without Rian or Wendy performing onstage, so if I ever did play live again, that would be something to consider. I did revamp “My Savior,” “Overload,” and “Cyberchrist” for live performances only right after Belief Control was released to try to update the sound on them a bit. Those versions have only ever been played live.
Personal copy of Crackdown.
Flesh Field music has been featured in films, TV shows, and video games. For example, years ago you appeared with other industrial acts in the xbox 360 game Crackdown (2007). In your interview with We Have a Technical you talk about sounds in games and how to realize them as music. When you have downtime, are you yourself a gamer? If so, any particular genres of games you’re drawn to?
I definitely USED to be a gamer, but I rarely ever play video games anymore. I used to be very into online FPS games (PC only – I can’t hit anything on console). The last game I got really into was Ark: Survival Evolved. My children loved watching me tame dinosaurs in that game. The problem was that the children got attached to the pets. I had four tamed dodo birds that my kids loved, and one night while they were in bed and I was playing, I accidentally punched a triceratops, and the triceratops killed all my dodos. So, I had to stay up for another few hours re-taming four new dodos and naming them with the same names as the dead ones just so my children wouldn’t be traumatized. I will play Battlefront with my son from time to time.
Dodo from Ark: Survival Evolved for adorable reference.
KMFDM was one of the bands that had to deal directly with mass shootings (Columbine), and many years later responded to gun violence very, very, very tongue in cheek with their song “Me and My Gun” on their album Blitz(2009). VotEC has a gun centric song with “Arsenal” that lyrically recalls “Me and My Gun.” However, your song doesn’t go the route of KMFDM irony and instead goes with a scary, dark, sinister perspective. How do you juggle such subject matter, making sure your message is that of condemnation and not endorsement?
“Arsenal” was the second track I wrote for the album, and the first track I wrote lyrics for, and I had that exact concern, particularly on that track. With this type of subject matter, I didn’t think it was enough to just hope that people understood from the context of the entire album what I was actually trying to say, especially since people will likely be buying one track at a time instead of the whole album, which means that they won’t have the full context. I included a statement in the liner notes explaining the context due to that fear, but I don’t know if that will be enough since that statement isn’t included with the downloads. I don’t want to explain everything on the album too much, since that might ruin the experience of it for some, but I do try to talk about the overall point of the album as much as I can during interviews.
VotEC has been out for a week and some change. Fans have been excited on social media and places like Reddit for your new album and now it has dropped. What has been the feedback so far? Are you feeling reinvigorated for your next endeavor?
The response has been amazing. I really didn’t expect it to land as well as it has, at least so far. I’ve received a number of messages telling me how great it is to have Flesh Field back, and the same is true for me. I feel whole again.
Sincere appreciation and gratitude to Ian Ross for his time in doing this interview. For more information about Voice of the Echo Chamber and Flesh Field’s resurrection check out these other interviews:
For the month of October we have the honor to interview filmmaker Jesse Terrell about his Lovecraftian short film, Sights Unseen. The episode can be streamed via the embedded player below, at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, or through your podcast app of preference.
In October Michele and I appeared on two episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time.
First, for our typical 4th Thursday of the Month, we talked about the classic Mario Bava sword and sandal film Hercules in the Haunted World (1961), perfect for the Halloween season. That episode can be found on YouTube.
Next, on the 5th Tuesday, Michele talked about the neo-peplum film Centurion (2010) and I talked about Mondo Balordo (1962).
And finally, I made a good and forgot to share September’s Scholars from the Edge of Time episode. I flew solo on this one and talked about Ironmaster (19830. Here is its YouTube link.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Thomas Simmons’ titanic graphic novel, I Am a Barbarian is on Sale for $49.95 through the month of November.
I had the honor to interview Simmons and artist Mike Dubisch about their graphic novel which can be read here. Check out the interview if you want to know more about the comic and if you are interested in purchasing, contact Simmons at cedar.run.publications@gmail.com.
Samson at Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has a new article on a Biblical peplum film at his Bible Films Blog!
Intergalactic thief extraordinaire Alicia Carter and her robot companion GDU-3 have just fled Junk World in a stolen space freighter belonging to reptilian bounty hunter Klaven. Klaven, none-too-happy to be stranded on a world of refuse along with his fellow hunters Kira and Arms, sends an SOS to his brother Vardak for rescue. Vardak is more than interested to help Klaven, for a price of course: a percentage of the bounty on Carter and the value of a crystal she has stolen. Meanwhile the freighter Carter is piloting beings to break down, experiencing issues with both the gravity and the hyperdrive. Carter and GDU-3 set about fixing the ship, with things getting quite personal in the close quarters.
Shikarii Cover for Issue #2.
Issue two of Alicia Carter and Robot (ACaR) picks up right after issue one with the duo having fled their bounty hunting pursuers. The minor amnesia subplot present in ACaR #1 is thankfully nowhere to be found, allowing issue two to better align its focus on true character development of Carter and GDU-3 as they bond. GDU-3, after encountering robot space leeches, expresses fear, something not really explored with robot characters. Carter’s backstory gets expanded upon as well, revealing she has partaken in sapphic rendezvous, specifically with the main antagonist’s wife.
The pulp elements hinted at in issue one of ACaR also appear to be dropped. Instead, the story embraces a more Cowboy Bebop approach regarding spacefaring adventuring. However, if there is a word to describe the tone of issue two of ACaRit is “horny.” The first half of the issue sees the narrative push Carter and GDU-3 as close to having sex as possible without actually having sex or showing nudity. The cramped access ducts of the space freighter force the two to straddle each other. GDU-3 sends some of his tendrils to fix various apparati of the ship and in the process rubs/vibrates against Carter’s labia majora that protrudes through her suit.
Is GDU-3 an innocent robot who is merely trying to fix the ship who is accidentally getting Carter all steamed up? The bend in his tendril suggests otherwise. Coinciding with the in-panel suggestive antics are innuendos galore as repairing the ship allows for many out of context verbal opportunities such as “I can barely reach the shaft,” “it’s getting harder,” and “Ah yes! It’s in!”
The sequences do give the scifi-adventure story overtones of 80s sex comedies, but at the same time does challenge the relationship between the two. Will Carter and GDU-3 remain platonic partners on the run from other criminals and assassins? Develop a true friendship? Or perhaps a more intimate relationship? (Some of the alternate covers for issues one and two definitely hint at the latter)
Story-wise, author Tristan Vick devotes issue two to characters, not just Carter and the robot, but introducing new characters and adversaries as well. The stakes are increasing against Carter which sets up the dominos for even more action in subsequent issues while in the process having the characters become even more interconnected as they not only pursue Carter, but some pursue each other (such as Kira and Vardak).
Chris Awayan and Mirza Wirawan both return to issue two on art and colours respectively. The images of space proper, instead of being void and black, are instead popping with colour and activity. The artistic depiction of Carter, though it retains an emphasis on showcasing her bust and bottom, still portrays her in a warm fashion. Carter is a thief, a Han Solo-esque character, yet her facial expressions depict her with a girl next door quality.
As with issue one, issue two of ACaR enjoys a bounty of Kickstarter loot (that is if one contributed to the campaign). The art print done by the Xong Bros. showcases Carter and GDU-3 in a manga style. Carter sitting atop of her robot companion is reminiscent of some of the Masamune Shirow/Ghost in the Shell covers.
The swimsuit print done by Rocha is fun and flirty.
And there are trading cards, fridge magnets, and stickers of the characters done in a chibi style.
As with many Kickstarted comics, there are numerous alternative covers for issue two, with Shikarii’s version depicting the bounty hunter Kira (shown at the beginning of this review and in the fridge magnet above) being the most standout. Shikarii has an iconic hyper-realistic style that is always a pleasure to see.
ACaR issue two plays more naughty than nice in its narrative, but it scratches the itch to see Carter and GDU-3 taking the next step in their galactic adventure as thieves on the run. It is both playful and fun to see the two characters interact (sexual overtones or not) as they are both extremely likable. The art and colouring are also well done, with an emphasis on vibrant purples and pinks that pop on the page.
