Personal / Website News
Comic Book Review: Vanya #01
New comic book review is up at my website!
I’ve got a backlog of indie comics from Kickstarter I want to get caught up on, including the erotic jungle girl comic Vanya.
Vanya is already on issue seven of a twelve issue run, so I’ve got a wee bit of catching up to do. You can read my review of issue one right here. These Vanya reviews will also be published in forthcoming issues of the National Capital Panthans Journal.
As I go through the comic book backlog/tbr pile, expect to see reviews for Vanya, Death Nell, Yor, Sectaurs, Born of Blood, SPQR, and Alicia Carter.
Citation News
It’s been a while, but here is some new citation news!
My masters thesis, “Danza Macabra: The Reevaluation of Antonio Margheriti Through His Film Castle of Blood” is cited by an essay in the collection Un oceano di stile: Produzione e consumo di Made in Italy negli Stati Uniti del dopoguerra. I’m not sure which one, but if you know, let me know.
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. 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 external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
Game On Expo 2025
Game On Expo had its ten year anniversary earlier this month and Michele and I attended it on Sunday. It was our first time going to a fairly big-big pop culture-centric con since before Covid times. We had a lot of fun, and would definitely go again next year, and go for multiple days as we didn’t get to partake in many of the activities or panels. We mostly stuck with checking out the vendors and, of course, meeting some of the cool guests! I wanted to share the loot I took in to get autographed.
Autographed Loot
Note, some of the below images are actually slideshows. So make sure to click on the little arrows to cycle through.
Spy Hunter
First up being autographed is my Game Boy Advance copy of Spy Hunter / Super Sprint.
Brian F. Colin was one of old school video game designers who was a guest at the con. He is perhaps best known for creating the arcade classic Rampage, but also Arch Rivals and General Chaos.
One of the many games he worked on as an artist at Midway was Spy Hunter, another hugely successful arcade game that saw many ports.
Back in the bid 2010s I was neck deep in Eurospy and espionage in popular culture (which would lead to my essay on Italian Eurospy films for Michele’s James Bond in Popular Culture book). I wound up finding a never opened, CIB copy of Spy Hunter / Super Sprint (not sure where, another con or maybe even eBay), so this has port of Spy Hunter has been in my collection for quite a while.
Colin was extremely happy to sign the box for the game. He remarked he had never seen this port before. He was super nice, friendly, and energetic to talk to. Scroll through the gallery above to see the contents of the GBA game, along with some Rampage stickers I bought from Colin.
Atari 50
The next old school game designer I met was Howard Scott Warshaw.
Warshaw worked at Atari in the early 80s, his first game being Yar’s Revenge. His last game was the infamous Atari release of E. T., which was the straw the broke the camel’s back, facilitating the great video game crash in the US in the 80s.
I’m not a real big Atari aficionado, I love the history of the company more than the games. However, a few years ago I plucked up Atari 50, which is basically 50% compilation of Atari games and 50% documentary/museum about the company. Part of its content was a handful of Atari Jaguar games, an extremely rare treat to play!
Warshaw’s Yar’s Revenge is on the compilation, along with interviews with him talking about creating the game and working at Atari. Super insightful.
Warshaw graciously signed my copy of Atari 50 and I bought a copy of his autobiography, Once Upon Atari, which he also signed (see sideshow above). As Reb Brown signs copies of Yor, the Hunter from the Future as “Yor’s Truly”, Warshaw signs his stuff “Yar’s Truly”. Love it.
Earth Defense Force 2025
“EDF! EDF!”
“They killed Tiny!”
I have a lot of memories playing the three Earth Defense Force games on the Xbox: Earth Defense Force 2017, Earth Defense Force 2025, and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. These game offered a split screen, couch co-op opportunity for Michele and I to play a video game together, and one that wasn’t too hard either. Pick up a gun and shoot all the giant ants, spiders, robots, and UFOs. Hella fun. So, I have lots of fond memories of these games and playing with Michele.
Voice actress extraordinaire Erika Harlacher was one of the many VO guests in attendance for the Game On Expo. I’m not 100% familiar with her work, she does a lot of anime, which I’ve been out of the loop of for 10-20 years. EDF proper does not have characters per se, just unnamed soldiers that are canon fodder for the insect hordes. Harlacher voices the flying Valkyrie soldiers, which is really cool. Means a lot to me to have this game signed by someone involved with it. And she drew a bug by her signature too!
Note: EDF 2025 originally came out in 2014, and 2025 seemed so far away back then. And now here we are, living in the future, living in 2025. Should I expect to see UFOs fill the skyline, dropping a legion of ants and spiders on the Earth?
Cyberpunk 2077
Awww yiss. Cyberpunk 2077!
I never played the Witcher games, but I knew they were good. I love the cyberpunk genre, though never played the Cyberpunk TTRPG. I was super excited for this game when it was released. When it came out, however, it was a big, buggy mess. So, I sat on getting it for a while. Then CD Projekt fixed the game and expanded on it with the Phantom Liberty DLC, and apparently really redeemed themselves. Now it was a good time to pluck up the game, and it was amazing.
Jane Perry was another voice actress in attendance at the con. Her work I am much more familiar with, having played the Hitman games and lots of other titles she’s been a part of: Robocop, 007 Legends, and others. In Cyberpunk 2077 she voices Rogue Amendiares, one of the important characters in the last half of the game. She was a love interest of Johnny Silverhand and was part of the assault on Arasaka Tower with him. She rules.
Return of Monkey Island
Finally, my boxset of Return to Monkey Island from Limited Run Games, signed by artist Dev Madan.
I’ve played the Monkey Island games since I was a wee wee wee kid on our old 486. The before times of having proper internet, it was a S T R U G G L E getting through that first game. One of my best friends, Kris, and I would crowd around the computer shouting out all ideas to solve the adventure game’s puzzles.
I wasn’t able to play Monkey Island 2 until around two decades later when it got a digital release on Xbox Live Arcade. I had a Big Box PC version of Curse of Monkey Island (and I still do, I think?), and my PS2 copy of Escape from Monkey Island which I bought and played when I was a broke college student. I grew up playing all the point and click adventure games from LucasArts and Sierra, and still have a soft spot for them.
I was excited when the newest, and it looks like last, Monkey Island game, Return to Monkey Island, got an ornate console release. It was a fun game, with a bittersweet ending. But, when I was looking at the guest list for Game On Expo and saw Dev Madan (an icon of point and click games), listed on it, I just had to have him sign Return to Monkey Island (which he did art for), a series that has been near and dear to me forever.
“I can’t use the skeleton arm with that!”
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Ride the Stream Episodes
Michele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.
Here is their discussion of episode 15 from season 1:
And here is their discussion of episode 16:
New episodes drop every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Bernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
They have episodes online talking about the ill fated Roger Corman Fantastic Four film. Here is part one of their conversation:
Fantastic Four is Doomed Part 1 – Fan2Fan Podcast
Fantastic Four is Doomed Part 2 – Fan2Fan Podcast
Older episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page.
The Chosen Cast Interview
Matt Page (author of 100 Bible Films and the dude behind the Bible Films Blog) recently did an interview with two cast members of the Biblical peplum TV series The Chosen: Shahar Isaac (Simon Peter) and Vanessa Benavente (Mother Mary). Check out the interview on Youtube:
