I had the honour to talk to editor/writer of fiction and comics, Jeffrey Mariotte. Mariotte is also the guest of honour at the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering (see below).
Jeffrey Mariotte author photo (provided courtesy by Mariotte).
The interview with Mariotte can be read here – check it out for sure!
On the subject of the upcoming ECOF, check out this sweet new artwork for the event done by Gilead:
ECOF Poster art done by Gilead.
Death Nell Issue Two
Back in February 2023 I reviewed the first issue of Death Nell (check it out here). I meant to review the issues as they came out, but got distracted with other projects. With the physical edition of Vanya #8 still a bit from being released, and the fifth and final issue of Death Nell about to come out, now is the perfect time to pivot and get caught up on the reviews for this series.
Standard cover of Death Nell #2 by Cammry Lapka. Image from the Bad Bug website.
So here we are, two and a half years late, my review for Death Nell #2 is finally online and can be read right here.
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 there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry 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 the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chief and Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
2025-08-17 Addendum: Special Event Bags and Contents are Available for the First 50 Registrants.
Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335
“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.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“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 I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Gorky Park
Here is an old school thriller from the 80s: Gorky Park. I’ll be honest, I watched this movie back in the late 2000s and do not remember too much of it, except it took place in Russia and the big plot reveal was about smuggling special Russian foxes outside the country. In hindsight, maybe it has some porto-Jack Reacher vibes (in the “im gonna investigate this big brew-ha-ha thing”).
Personal copy of the DVD of Gorky Park, signed by Joanna Pacula.
Anywho, my copy of the DVD is autographed by Joanna Pacula! Michele and I met her at a Hollywood Collector’s show. I believe, in an effort to be budget friendly, I asked what would she rather sign, Gorky Park or Dinocroc.
She went with Gorky Park.
2025-10-19 – Addendum – here is a photo of Ms. Pacula and I from the show:
Nicholas Diak and Joanna Pacula, 2010.
Khazaddum’s Plagues Upon Arda
I am not metal expert, but I loves me some adventure metal, power metal, and female-fronted symphonic metal. Whenever I got out used music shopping, I do like to keep an eye out for metal releases that have sword and sandal or sword and sorcery elements.
The last time I was at Zia Records and combing through the metal section I came across Plagues Upon Arda by Khazaddum. I have never heard of them before, but all the Tolkien elements were there so I decided to take the gamble and pluck it up. Turns out the band is a defunct death metal band from Wisconsin. I enjoyed the album and decided to reach out to the band’s lead person, Alex Rausa, and ask if I could send him the album’s booklet to be autographed.
Khazaddum’s “Plagues Upon Arda” CD album.
Khazaddum CD booklet autographed by Alex Rausa.
He said absolutely, so I sent off my booklet (make sure you include a SASE when doing stuff like this folks, it is good etiquette) and he returned it back with his signature on one of the pages. Very cool! Khazaddum may be defunct, but they do have their music available on Bandcamp. Rausa is now part of a band called Ancient Entities, so check them out at their Bandcamp page.
New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
DeathstalkerI and II 4K
Deathstalker and its sequels, some of the most infamous sword and sorcery films to come out during the post-Conan cycle in the 80s. Sporting amazing poster art that the films could in no way live up to, these movies found other ways to be transgressive, exploitative, and challenging, and sometimes, even fun.
Shout Factory just released Deathstalker (1983) and Deathstalker II (1987) on 4K and Blu-ray, and it is a must have for sword and sorcery aficionados. Since I did a pre-order, I got a sweet double sided poster.
Personal copy of the Deathstalker / Deathstalker 2 4K/Blu-ray + Poster.
Was excited for the upgrade because my prior copy of the first two Deathstalker films was from the 4-movie Roger Corman sword and sorcery collection that Shout Factory released many years ago.
Personal DVD copy of the Roger Corman Sword and Sorcery collection.
Of note, of the four movies in this DVD release, only Barbarian Queen remains unreleased in HD. I hope that movie, along with Deathstalkers 3 and 4 also get some new releases! With the upcoming remake of Deathstalker looming on the horizon, now is a good time to do so.
Shameless self plug: back in 2022 I had the honour to appear on the Fan2Fan podcast to talk about Deathstalker 2 along with some other sword and sorcery films of the early 80s. Definitely check that episode out, it can be found here or at the embedded player below.
Deathstalker 2, Ator, and Yor: Hunter from the Future –
Fan2Fan Podcast
Slaves of Babylon Lobby Card
When I think of William Castle I think of House on Haunted Hill (1959) (which is a great film!) and his association with theater gimmick like walking skeletons and buzzing seats. I never thought about his career doing other genres, let alone the sword and sandal genre!
Slaves of Babylon Lobby Card.
While out and about at our local antique mall, I happened upon this lobby card for Slaves of Babylon (1953) which looks a little beat up, but still rad! I had never specifically heard of this peplum, but it is an early 1950s American one, and done by William Castle! So, of course, I had to pluck it up. The movie looks like it only has a bargin-bin style DVD release, but I put an order in for it. I’m curious to see what it will be like.
But you know who has seen it? Matt Page of Bible Films Blog! He did a write up of the film back in 2016. Check it out!
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Bernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
First there is a part one episode of Pete and Bernie interviewing Daniel Richardson about Slasher Trash:
Nell is a twenty-two year old student enrolled at Deus Mortem, a university for necromancy, who has been having a hard time staying awake in class. She has been overcome with sexual urges, which can barely be satiated by her own hand. Her best friend, a half troll named April, urges Nell to visit the school’s nurse, Madame Flowers who uncovers the root cause of the situation: Nell is a half-succubus who needs to feed on sexual energy. The solution: Nell needs to have a few romantic rendezvous. At the urging of April, the duo make their way to happening party where maybe Nell can find a paramour.
Standard cover of Death Nell #2 by Cammry Lapka. Image from the Bad Bug website.
Issue 02 Plot
Nell and April arrive at the party and it is boogying down: werewolves dancing with skeletons, DJ UND3ADD spinning some oontz oontz oontzes, and the arrival of a mysterious cloaked stranger whose only visible trait is the gleam of their glasses. Nell is immediately smitten and falls into a drooling stuper of sexual fantasies. To calm down her nerves, Nell tries to picture all the partygoers naked, but invertedly casts a succubus spell that makes herself naked, garnering the attention of everyone. However, the DJ rolls with it, and everyone casts away their clothes and continues to dance, but the mysterious cloaked person disappears into the crowd.
Nell casts a spell.
Since April cannot be around Nell 24/7 to keep her in check, she suggests the idea of summoning an imp to accompany Nell. The duo sneak into the office of Madame Flowers and find a spell book, but it all goes awry: April misreads the spell and summons a simp instead, and the trio are caught by Flowers and Professor Reinhart.
Nell is now bound to the simp until he feels his duties are fulfilled, which he takes to heart and bombards Nell with attention and adoration. Meanwhile April intercepts a mysterious letter left at their dorm door.
Commentary
Picking up right were issue one left off, Death Nell issue two continues the humorous and sexy hijinks of the titular character as she works to control her innate succubus powers so she can succeed in her necromancy classes.
Nell is not a parody of the “big-tiddy-goth-girlfriend” archetype per se, but she is definitely an alternative take on it. Much of the comedy in Death Nell is visual, coming from the expressions, faces, and body language of Nell which borrows heavily from anime (with Nell’s two buns, her hair is reminiscent of Sailor Moon’s odango style) but also of classic mime. Nell drools when her imagination takes over and her mind turns to sexual fantasies. She furrows her brows, clenches her teeth, dilates or contracts her pupils, has hearts/sparkles/stars float about her, and so on. It is all exaggerated, but 1) gets the point across of what Nell is feeling (which varies panel to panel as she struggles with her Succubus nature) and 2) is humorous at how cartoonish it is depicted.
A drooling Nell has a fantasy.
With all of this in mind, Nell, (and other characters in Death Nell), is extremely emote-able, and this is a credit to artist Cammry Lapka. The colours of Death Nell are vibrant, with a thick line art style. Though the characters are cartoony, Lapka also makes them sexy and attractive while also leaning into body positivity. Nell is curvy and she exudes a point on the scale of cuteness to sexiness as she sees fit. Sometimes she is in bondage/gothic-ish/fetish attire, other times she is in playful yellow pajama shirt and shorts that have skulls and bats on them, and other times she looks like a sexualized student from Monster High. This casual flip-flopping goes with the playing of expectations of the big-tiddy-goth-girlfriend archype.
The excess sexiness of Nell in a university setting does draw some issues that Death Nell is so far bypassing in order to focus on its 80s/late 90s teen sexy comedy attitude. Simply put, Nell is a vulnerable character with a big, personal issue. Stated in issue one, Nell really wants one thing: to be successful in school. Her burgeoning succubus nature is challenging that, and Nell does need support to help her, and simply put she is not getting it. As attractive Madame Flowers is, and (cloven hooves aside) a dream woman for readers, she is not a good support person, despite being in a position of power to be so. Her solution to Nell’s situation (from issue one) is to tell Nell to get laid. In issue two, in an exchange with April, it is brought up to ask Flowers again for help, but Nell quickly retracts the comment, makes a face, and says “Something tells me she’d like me to beg for her…”. Being afraid to approach an adult that is supposed to be there to help students because one is afraid that something sexual will come of it? That is neither a good nor safe sign at all. Combine that with the groundskeeper/gravedigger from issue one, asleep on a couch and mumbling his dream about Nell bending over while she digs a grave. Initially funny, but second glance, that is pretty creepy.
And that becomes the juggling issue for Death Nell: how does one create a sex comedy that is set in a school where the students are not taken advantage of? One answer is to make sure the protagonists are given their own control and agency, but that is the big “what is at stake” in Death Nell: Nell does not have control and is trying to get it, and the structures that should be in place to help her do not seem to be working. The other answer is to just go with it and take the sex and comedy at the level being asked without a deeper reading. Are folks doing deep reads into “help me big stepbrother, I appear to be stuck in the washing machine, again”? Maybe? Maybe not?
Covers and Swag Impressions
Issue two of Death Nell was Kickstarted in February 2023 and fulfilled August through October. The comic has eleven artists doing different covers, both in nice and naughty variants. The Dhaxina Dee alternative cover comes in additional metal editions for its nice/naughty variants while the Zheanhmeart cover comes with a holo cover format for its nice/naughty variants. This brings the total number of possible covers of Death Nell #2 to twenty six.
Personal copy of the Joel Souza nude variant cover.
Of all these combinations, the standout cover goes to Joel Souza’s cover which depicts Nell and April having a pillow fight. Souza’s style is an excellent take on the cartoonish/pinup style that Lapka brings to the comic. It is silly, funny, but also sexy. It vibes perfectly with what Death Nell is about, but it also adds more fun to Nell and April’s friendship (though April’s orcish features are non-existent on this depiction of her).
As with many Kickstarters, Death Nell #2’s campaign had stretch goals it met resulting in some cool swag.
Bobby Jo x Death Nell crossover art print.
Firstly, there is an art print by Bruno Sousa that depicts Nell from Death Nell and Bobby Jo, the titular character from another Bad Bug series, Bobby Jo. The characters take the idea of a crossover literally as their clothing is swapped: Nell is wearing daisy dukes and a short t-shirt that is befitting to Bobby Jo while Bobby Jo is wearing purple striped stockings and matching colour body suit, that pairs with Nell. It is a fun piece that also demonstrates the dynamicness of all the different Bag Bug series out there.
Skeleton Karma Sutra cards and a Death Nell Tarot Card.
Next there are trading cards and a tarot card. The trading cards tie into the sex positiveness vibes that Death Nell shoots for, portraying skeletons in different sexual poses with punny titles, such as cowgirl style atop a casket is called “Rock the Casket” and a vertical 69 is called “The Rib Job”.
As stated in other reviews of Bad Bug comics, the publisher including Tarot Cards with their comics is brilliant. It is a unique take on the collector cards that (along with bookmarks, stickers, and magnets) are featured heavily in Kickstarter stretch goals. The Tarot Card for Death Nell #2 is of The Fool and shows Nell about to walk off a cliff while she is distracted. By her side is a zombie dog who also looks distracted. The Death Nell Fool Tarot Card is a perfect parody of the Rider-Waite version of the card, which too shows a distracted person with a puppy at their side about to walk off a cliff. The Death Nell version is an inversion of it all: Rider-Waite is during the day, Death Nell at night. Rider-Waite has an alive white dog, Death Nell an undead one. Rider-Waite has the person holding a bag on a staff in one hand and a flower in the other, Death Nell has Nell holding her school backpack in one hand and her striped knickers in the other. It is brilliant!
Conclusion
With its quirky, vibrant art style and great emotive expressions, Death Nell continues to allure in issue two. Nell and April are extremely likable characters, get along fabulously, and it is fun to see them both interact and play off each other. Nell needs the support of April (and possibly her new simp companion) as she tries to navigate her identity crisis (coming to terms being part succubus and the associated sexual urges that come with it) and unfortunately not receiving the proper or serious support from the faculty of her school. Despite these roadblocks, Nell is determined and will certainly overcome her nature while solving the mystery hinted by the contents of the envelope left at her dorm room door.
For more information on Death Nell and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
With a writing and editing career that spans decades, Jeffrey J. Mariotte has done everything. From working in the comics industry (at major publishers IDW, DC, and Wildstorm), penning novels and comic books of popular IPs (such as CSI, 30 Days of Night, Buffy/Angel, Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek, and many others), to his own fiction work that encompasses a variety of genres (especially the western), Mariotte’s canon is impressive and prolific.
By his own admission, one thing Mariotte has not yet done is be a guest of honour at a pop culture convention. That career milestone is about to be crossed off his list as Mariotte will be the guest of honour at the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering that will be held in Willcox, AZ the 25th to the 28th of September. Mariotte, who wrote the Tarzan novel Tarzan and the Forest of Stone, is the perfect guest for this event being held in the town that is central to the mythology of the American west as it is the birthplace of Rex Allen and the burial spot of the youngest of the Earp brothers, Warren Earp.
Jeffrey Mariotte author photo (provided courtesy by Mariotte).
In anticipation for this upcoming event, Mariotte has graciously allowed me to interview him about his writing, westerns, working with IPs, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Tarzan.
As scholar of sword and sandal films, my obligatory first question has to be peplum related. Growing up, did you watch any old school sword and sandal films? Was it a genre you liked or had interest in?
I definitely did. The animated skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts both fascinated me and scared the crap out of me. Around the same time, I found Ben-Hur and Spartacus riveting (except I found the leper colony scenes in Ben-Hur disturbing, but the chariot race more than made up for it). My parents also took me to see Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in the theater in 1962, I don’t think they were intentionally trying to mold a horror writer, but it didn’t hurt.
From those roots, I graduated to swashbucklers on film and TV. I loved Disney’s Zorro, Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, and their ilk. Also, Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan, it should go without saying, and later the Ron Ely TV version. I spent four years, from the ages of 5 to 9, in France, where my father worked for the US Department of Defense and where old buildings, bridges, etc. were really old. Every antique store had swords and other forms of ancient weaponry galore, and I was enthralled by all that. I also fell in love with comic books there, which will become important later in this interview. In the summer between junior high and high school, I went back to France on a student trip, and I came home with a WWI-era Austrian light cavalry saber (in 1969, you could strap that to your suitcase and still get onto an ocean liner). In high school I took up fencing and archery, and I continued fencing in college.
Sword and sandal, of course, leads to sword and sorcery. You worked on a few Conan novels in the Age of Conan line: Ghost of the Wall (2006), Winds of the Wild Sea (2006), and Dawn of the Ice Bear (2006). How did you get involved with writing Conan, and was Robert E. Howard an author who had an influence on you?
My discovery of Conan came with the Lancer paperback series, particularly Conan the Barbarian, with Frank Frazetta’s Conan wrestling a huge ape with a red cape. Once I read one – and they tied directly in with my fencing interests and growing sword collection – I had to read them all. And the comics. And then Leiber and Moorcock and everybody else. The early 1970s were the golden age for sword and sorcery fans.
Lancer paperback of Conan photo provided courtesy of Oliver Brackenbury of New Edge Sword and Sorcery.
When the Age of Conan MMORPG came out, I had a friend who worked for Ed Pressman, who was somehow involved with the Conan rights and an executive producer on the first two movies (uncredited on Destroyer). That friend was dealing with Ace books on the tie-in novels, and he came to me and asked if I wanted to write them. The remit was to write books set in Conan’s Hyborian Age, but without Conan as a main character, fleshing out the rest of the world. I mostly did that, but I did slip in a Conan cameo appearance, and they let me keep it, so I became the first writer in the 21stcentury to write Conan into a novel.
I don’t know that Howard was an influence on me stylistically, but in terms of inspiration, he absolutely was. I admire his work tremendously and his imagination even more. As an adult, I was lucky enough to meet Mike Moorcock and Fritz Leiber and L. Sprague de Camp and many of the other writers who toiled in those fields during my early days of discovery. Later I also met Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway and Barry Windsor-Smith and Neal Adams, and a bunch of the folks who made the early Marvel run so great.
The Age of Conan is still going, albeit far from as popular as its heyday, but it is one of those few post-World of Warcraft MMORPGs that still survives. Did you ever play the game perchance? Or perhaps dive into any other MMOs out there?
I have the game box with its cool physical elements, but I gave my free code to play to a friend, because I don’t play MMOs at all. I was actually involved with two – I also wrote and edited a comic book that tied into the 2009 MMORPG Freaky Creatures, which apparently never really caught on with its target audience.
What was your introduction to the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB)?
I wish that I could remember the exact progression of that process. It started with Johnny Weissmuller’s movies, as mentioned earlier. They were seemingly on TV every week in my childhood and watching them created a fascination with jungle adventure movies that has never waned. At some point, I became aware that there were books behind them. I was also aware of the book All in Color for a Dime, by Richard A. Lupoff and Dick Thompson, because of my growing comics hobby. I read some of Lupoff’s novels, and I ran across his Burroughs book Master of Adventure. That was my entrée into the world of Burroughs scholarship. While I was attending San Jose State University, I met Dick, who just lived up the bay in Berkeley with his wife Pat, and that started a friendship that lasted the rest of his life.
Somewhere in between those things, I think after my discovery of Conan, but it might have been before, and getting to know the Lupoffs, I had read at least a few of the Tarzan books, some John Carters, some David Inneses, some Carson Napiers, and maybe a few others. Sadly, I didn’t keep reading journals or have the encyclopedic memory that a lot of Burroughs fans and scholars seem to.
Burroughs had written a handful of Westerns: The Bandit of Hell’s Bend (1924), The War Chief (1927), Apache Devil (1933), and The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940). Have you read some of his Westerns and if so, any impressions you have about them?
I love ERB’s westerns, especially the two Shoz-dijiji books. After thirty-one years living in California, I moved to a 40-acre chunk of land in southeastern Arizona’s Cochise County. I was near the south end of the Sulfur Springs Valley, just north of Douglas. When he was at Fort Grant, ERB was at the north end of the same valley. So those books, which take place in my old stomping grounds and involve Apache people and customs that I’ve also studied and written about, were wonderful discoveries. Of course, John Carter spent time there as well. I’d still love to do something fictional based around Ed’s period at Fort Grant.
What are some of your books that showcase your scholarship and writing about Apache peoples and their traditions that you’d like to spotlight?
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “scholarship,” but Apache characters and culture have played roles in many of my books, including the Desperadoes comics series, Deadlands: Thunder Moon Rising, and my Cody Cavanaugh traditional Western novel series (currently out of print but due to be reissued sometime soonish).
Regarding Western literature, what would you say have been the biggest changes and shifts in the genre between Burroughs’ time to now?
The most substantive change, I think, is that today’s Westerns can be more realistic. Note that I didn’t say they “are,” because some definitely are not. But the option exists, in today’s Western fiction, to explore the rampant racism and sexism of the era, and on the flip side, to acknowledge that minorities and women were integral to the “settling” of the American West. In Burroughs’s day, if a character in a Western lived in poverty, it was probably a humorous minor character who was made fun of because he was poor. The truth is that a lot of people spent everything they had to go west, in search of their fortunes, but those fortunes never materialized. Diseases were romanticized, and generally easily cured through the accumulation of wealth, the wisdom of a kindly old doctor, or the love of a good woman. And of course, the single most significant fact of westward expansion was the genocidal effect on the Indigenous population—which, in some ways, continues today. Now, Western writers are able to address all of these situations in a more genuine fashion, pointing out the difficulties and terrors of the westward movement without relying on the stereotypes.
Going back to your adoration of Jason and the Argonauts, one cannot help but think of Harryhausen’s Weird Western The Valley of Gwangi (1969). Do you have any affinity to other Western subgenres, such as the Weird Western, Acid Westerns, neo-Westerns, etc.? Are these subgenres ones you like to write in?
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen The Valley of Gwangi, though of course I’m aware of it. I should really track it down one of these days. I love Weird Westerns and actually began my career in Western literature with those, specifically with my 1997 comic book series, Desperadoes, which was very definitely Western horror. I tried to use real places and some real people and situations in the book, but all overlaid with supernatural horror. The series ran from 1977 to 2007, and I’ve recently written a short story involving those characters (in my collection Byrd’s Luck & Other Western Stories). I have an artist ready to go on what will be the last Desperadoes story, bringing the adventures of those characters to some kind of satisfactory conclusion. What we don’t have yet is a publisher willing to take it on.
I’ve also written several Weird Western shorts – the short-fiction collection mentioned above is split, with half of the stories being traditional Westerns and half Weird Westerns. And I wrote one of three novels based on the Deadlands RPG for Tor Books. Finally, I’m the unofficial “official” reviewer of Weird Western books for both True Westand Roundup magazines (Roundup being the official magazine of the Western Writers of America, of which I’m a proud member).
As one last example, most of my original novels are set in the west and sometimes include aspects commonly seen in traditional Westerns. In my horror novel Missing White Girl, for example, the sheriff’s deputy who is the primary protagonist also owns a ranch and holds some ideals more closely related to the Old West than to the new one.
Hardcover of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone
Your contribution to the Burroughs canon is with your novel Tarzan and the Forest of Stone(2022). What was the genesis of this project? How did it come about?
Speaking of the Sulfur Springs Valley, in 2019 my friend Bob Boze Bell of True West Magazine fame was the guest of honor at the Dum-Dum that Frank Puncer put on in Willcox. I accompanied Bob, and we had a grand old time getting to meet Burroughs fans and listening to scholarly talks and so on. Some of the folks from ERB, Inc., including Jim Sullos and Christopher Paul Carey, were also there. I got talking to them, and by the end of the event, Chris and I had pretty much agreed to do something together. Then he pitched me on writing a Tarzan novella, and I jumped at the opportunity. It was a true gift.
Bookplate for Tarzan and the Forest of Stone.
What obstacles did you encounter combining Tarzan with the Western? What was something neat you learned in the process of doing so?
I don’t remember any particular obstacles. I was putting Tarzan in a setting that was largely unfamiliar to him, the desert landscape of northern Arizona is as different from the deserts of northern Africa as the moon is to the Earth, but with the understanding that Tarzan is at home in nature, and not a guy who needs a lot of time to get acclimated to new things. I had a lot of fun with the opening section, involving Tarzan’s visit with a writer we all know and love, and I tried to get that part right, which meant learning about the house and grounds, the views from there. I also learned a lot about the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe’s The Chief, which at the time was the fastest way to travel from coast to coast. I love trains, so really enjoyed discovering the details of that journey (and finding out that its real schedule fit my story just right).
You have a tremendous history of dealing with other IPs and media tie ins, be it from the publishing side such as working for IDW, DC, and WildStorm, to also an author of numerous novels set in the Buffyverse, Star Trek, CSI, and so on. Working with the Tarzan IP, when compared to other IPs, what was that like? What was similar and what was different?
I’ve written a ton of licensed fiction, as you say. Tarzan was different in several ways. First, as a character, he’s one of the very few who’s known to almost everybody around the world. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, maybe Superman and Spider-Man, and that’s about it. So, I knew there would be a lot of fans, some of them hardcore Burroughs enthusiasts who don’t want other people messing with their guy, some of them fans of the existing stories and willing, even anxious, to read new ones. He’s also appeared in virtually every form of mass media, from the books to movies and TV, radio, newspaper strips, comics, and more. Basically, nobody was going to pick up the book not knowing who Tarzan is and a bit about his background. That’s part of why he’s fun to write, but also part of why it’s scary, everyone’s already got an opinion, got their version of him in their head. I wanted to try to stay true to how I see him while not negating how somebody else sees him.
Scifi IPs that Mariotte has worked on.
Most of the other IPs I’ve written are well-known, but not that well-known. I’ve written Superman, Spider-Man, and Zorro, and those probably come closest. But Buffy and Angel, CSI, NCIS, etc., are considerably more modern. There are at most a few decades of stories in existence about them, and most people’s impressions of them were formed from the same source: television. Other novels exist, but I was writing mine at the same time that those novels were coming out, so there’s a basic continuity that everyone sort of agrees on. And in some of those cases, if I have a question, as a writer I can basically go to the source for an answer. I knew people in the CSI production office when I was writing CSI. I’d spent time with Joss Whedon and Anthony Zuiker, so when I wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, CSI, The Shield, and Las Vegas, I’d actually spoken with Whedon and Zuiker and Shawn Ryan and Gary Scott Thompson, the creators of those properties. That doesn’t mean I can’t make mistakes in continuity, but it means they’re less likely to happen. I’d have to have H.G. Wells build me a time machine to talk to Edgar Rice Burroughs, and sadly, I don’t think that’s likely to happen.
Having written across a variety of mediums (books, comics, etc.), your own work and other IPs, what project have you been a part of that was unique to you and put you out of your comfort zone or was incredibly off beat? Perhaps the most unexpected outlier in your bibliography?
I’d have to say that’s my one solo nonfiction book. I cowrote behind-the-scenes episode guides for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but those were not entirely my work, and they involved properties that I’d also written novels about. The one I wrote by myself isCriminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers & Other Deviants (which was not my title, because I would at least have used the Oxford comma). It’s not too far out of my zone because it’s true crime, but “true” isn’t typically used in connection with my book output. This one was licensed nonfiction that described all the criminals mentioned by name in the first five seasons of the Criminal Minds TV series, along with crimes that inspired episodes but weren’t specifically mentioned.
That obviously required tons of research. The ones named on the show were no problem, but many episodes use elements of real crimes and criminals, and I had to be familiar enough with both the show and the real-life counterpart to identify them. I did most of the writing during the months of November and December, so while other people were watching Thanksgiving Parades and Christmas specials, I was digging deep into the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Edmund Kemper, and the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The research phase was a real immersion into the darkest depths of human behavior, and very unpleasant. But it also led to the writing of my crime novel Empty Rooms, which I believe is one of my best books.
You are the Guest of Honour for the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering that is being held in Willcox, AZ, at the end of September. Congratulations! While the programming is certainly still being finalized, is there anything you can share that you’re doing at the event?
Thank you! I’m very much looking forward to it. My professional connection to the Edgar Rice Burroughs community came about entirely as a result of having attended the Apache Devils Dum-Dum in 2019. Frank Puncer, who put on that Dum-Dum, is also the driving force behind this one, and I’m looking forward to seeing him and everyone else. And I’m now an official member of the Apache Devils chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles.
As for my duties at the ECOF, I know I’m supposed to give a keynote speech, which I should probably start working on one of these days. I’ll have a table where some of my books will be available for sale. And I will, of course, be available to talk ERB with anyone who is so inclined.
A final question, aside from the ECOF appearance, what else do folks have to look forward to coming from you? Any new publications or projects you’d like to mention that readers can keep an eye out for?
Funny you should mention that, because this past Saturday, as I’m writing this [7/26], Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. announced my next project at the San Diego Comic-Con (an event I attended every year from 1983–2013 but haven’t been back to since). I’m in the midst of writing Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn, an authorized sequel to ERB’s short novel Beyond Thirty, which was originally published in a 1916 issue of All-Around Magazine. In it, naval officer Jefferson Turck and Victory return to Grabritin, and…stuff happens. I don’t know what else I’m allowed to say about it now, so I’ll leave it there.
ERB SDCC announcement graphic for Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn.
I’ve also become a publisher of Western fiction, as a partner in Silverado Press. So far, we have four books out, two books in the Galloway’s Gamble series by my partner Howard Weinstein, Byrd’s Luck & Other Western Storiesby me, and Silverado Press Presents: Western Stories by Today’s Top Writers, which I edited. We have a new Silverado Classics line launching when I can get around to it, republishing influential classics of Western literature with scholarly essays describing their place in the world of Western fiction.
Sincere appreciation for Jeffrey Mariotte’s time for doing this interview. For more information about Mariotte, news, and his works, check out his website and social medias:
Alas, I could not keep the momentum going so I missed a week, but this is still pretty prolific for me getting these reviews written and published.
Vanya #7 cover done by Sean Joyce. Image from the Bad Bug website.
My review of issue seven of the neo-jungle girl series Vanya is now online and can be read here. Technically, I am now all caught up on this series! I do have a PDF of issue eight, but not the physical copy and associated Kickstarter swag, and since I like to cover that sort of stuff, a review of issue eight will have to wait until it arrives (which should be in the near future).
Upcoming: Interview with Jeff Mariotte
Want to give a heads up to my readers to come back this Wednesday. I conducted an interview with Jeffrey Mariotte and it is going online on the 6th! You don’t want to miss it!
UncoveringStranger Things – Italian Edition
Uncovering Stranger Things, edited by Kevin Wetmore and published by McFarland in 2018 (see their product page here) now has an Italian edition!
Publisher Cue Press has published a translated version of this collection (it looks like back in 2023?) and here is the cover art:
Italian edition of Uncovering Stranger Things published by Cue Press.
I segreti di Stranger Things can be purchased at Cue Press at this link here. If you want to read my essay about Stranger Things and synthwave music in Italian, it is called “Notti perse e giorni pericolosi: Il disfacimento delle relazioni fra Stranger Things e synthwave” in this publication. Check it out for sure!
Aside from a brief snippet of my Castle of Blood/Danza Macabra masters thesis being translated into French (see below!), this is the first time something I’ve written has appeared in another language (in its entirety). Career milestone unlocked!
Panthans Journal #339
The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my review of issue two of the adult/neo-jungle girl series Vanya: The Lost Warrior. Of course my write up can also be read at my website here.
National Capital Panthans #339.
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 AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.
Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.
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 there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry 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 the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chiefand Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335
“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.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Calls for Papers/Proposals
Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path or I am sharing on behalf of my colleagues. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain
This session is sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America.
American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1935-1910) achieved lasting fame as Mark Twain, an identity that served as both his pen name and the persona he cultivated for the public. Twain’s writings and his distinctive character have dispersed across time and space, and the resulting Twainian tradition incorporates these elements in many ways.
Importantly, his works and iconography have long been the focus of adaptation. This process begins with the illustrations commissioned for the initial publication of his texts, Twain’s own attempts to rework and expand his stories, and contemporary caricatures of his person, and it continues with retellings of Twain’s stories, linked texts (such as prequels, midquels, and sequels) connected to his work, recastings and restagings of his tales, and new adventures for Twain himself. These adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of Twain appear in diverse forms and formats including anime series, artworks, cartoons, comics, films, games, historical fiction texts, home video releases, graphic novels, illustrations, memorials, musical theater productions, mysteries, performances, plays, radio broadcasts, science fiction works, sculptures, song lyrics, stamps, television programming, theme park attractions, and tourist sites.
Each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy. They also highlight both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired. A resource guide for the session can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/TwainianRegenerationRG.
We seek proposals that engage with these texts in the belief that each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy and highlighting both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired.
Friday and Saturday, October 17–18, 2025 (Eastern Time) Virtual conference (digiHPAC)
Deadline for proposals (academics & community members): September 1, 2025
ABOUT: The Harry Potter Academic Conference returns for its 14th annual gathering, which will be a fully online format known as digiHPAC. We are a non-profit, interdisciplinary conference that provides a forum for scholarly inquiry surrounding the Harry Potter literature and related cultural phenomenon. Open to scholars of any experience level, from established academic researchers to community members and students, this is a space curated to be inclusive and welcoming to all. The conference is held in person at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in even-numbered years and online in odd-numbered years.
PRESENTATIONS: digiHPAC presentations are presented over Zoom, live or pre-recorded, in 30-minute windows (20 minutes for presentations and 10 minutes for Q&A). Panel discussions, teaching sessions, or other alternative proposals may request a longer presentation time. Topics can include, but are not limited to, close textual criticism, diversity and inclusion, psychology, philosophy, political science, and film, music, religious, and fandom studies. Past presentations have been accepted on the Harry Potter book and film series, the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the Potterverse in dialogue with other works. More information about HPAC can be found at harrypotterconference.com.
PROPOSALS: Please submit abstracts of 150–250 words describing your proposal at harrypotterconference.com/submit. Multiple abstracts may be submitted but will be evaluated individually. Submission deadline is September 1, 2025, and acceptance notifications will be sent by mid-September 2025. Any questions? Please email Patrick McCauley (mccauleyp@chc.edu) and copy harrypotterconference@gmail.com.
Please see our website for HPAC’s statement on our commitment to maintaining an LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive space in the fandom.
Cinema’s First Epics in Focus: Silent Epic Film from Literary Adaptation to Contemporary Epic Narratives
Though epic cinema is most commonly associated with the mid-century triumphs of Hollywood, its origins extend far deeper into the history of the medium, reaching back to the earliest days of film, long before the advent of sound. The first documented uses of the term “epic” in relation to film stem from the nascent Italian industry, where monumental productions like L’Odissea (1911, dir. Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan) not only astonished audiences with unprecedented scale but employed vast promotional efforts to assert a distinctly national— and as Maria Wyke and Pantelis Michelakis have noted, overtly nationalistic—cinematic identity. This movement towards epic during the silent era, often drawing inspiration from classical epic poetry and Christian narrative, has been understood to be important in the broader context of the nationalist fervor that swept through Europe in the years leading up to and following the First World War, yet has been curiously overlooked by film scholars, due in large part to the fragility of early film materials and inconsistent archival practices which have led to the loss of many key works. This neglect is particularly regrettable when we consider that the silent epic was central to the major artistic and ideological shifts that defined the early cinematic project, deeply enmeshed in the ontological debates over cinema’s status as a visual and rhythmic art—debates that were especially vibrant in early French and German cinema—and later in the drive toward naturalism that would come to dominate Hollywood, championed by figures such as André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. The continued presence of the epic, from the silent era through to the sound era, underscores its fundamental role in cinema’s dialogue with other arts as well as its longitudinal development, and in recognizing the centrality of early epics to the history of film, this edited volume seeks to reassert their study, not only as historical artifacts but as key contributions to an ever-evolving art of cinema.
Building on the conversations initiated during the Cinema’s First Epics in Focus conference (May 2025), we aim to build a comprehensive edited volume which gathers a selection of expanded papers from the event, complemented by new scholarly contributions that critically engage with the silent epic and its reverberations across film history, media theory, and related fields. We hope to move beyond the framework of film philology completely, opening up the field to more interdisciplinary approaches that consider aesthetics, temporality, material culture, and the shifting meanings of “epic” across media in interconnected relation. We believe this collection would fill a significant gap in the scholarship and could serve as a foundational reference for future work on both epic and early cinema as, to our knowledge, no existing volume addresses the silent epic across such a broad yet coherent set of methodologies and global perspectives. We are particularly interested in contributions that interrogate the intersections between epic form and silent cinema through innovative and open methodologies—whether from film and media studies, classical reception, visual culture, performance studies, or archival research. By foregrounding these diverse perspectives, the volume seeks to move beyond narrowly textual or genealogical approaches, and instead open up a wider discursive field through which the silent epic can be understood as a transmedial and transhistorical phenomenon.
While the volume retains the conference’s original focus on adaptation, national identity, cinematic scale, and the episteme of early film, the discussions brought forth by participants have revealed key thematic axes that we now wish to foreground:
Genre:
The volume seeks to examine the epic as a contested and evolving genre. Contributions may explore the tensions between prescriptive and descriptive models of genre, the shifting boundaries between epic and tragedy across media, and the historical and theoretical slippages in the definition of “epic” across literature, cinema, and other arts. We welcome work that revisits classical, romantic, and modern theories of genre in light of early cinematic practice.
Time and Temporality:
Essays may address the intersections between epic time and cinematic time, considering how film reconfigures notions of epic duration, rhythm, and repetition. We are particularly interested in studies that employ film theoretical methodologies—such as montage theory—to reframe literary epic, and vice versa.
Material Culture and Reception:
We encourage research on the material and institutional contexts of silent epic film: distribution networks, live musical accompaniment, promotional ephemera, newspaper reception, and archival challenges. To what extent do these material elements participate in constructing the epic as a form? How might production and reception conditions shape our understanding of the epic mode in film? How important was this surrounding context for the epic’s formation as a cinematic mode in the silent era?
The Silent Era:
What makes the silent period uniquely generative for the epic form? We invite proposals that attend to the technological, stylistic, social, economic and industrial specificities of the silent era, and their formative impact on the emergence of cinematic epic traditions.
Adaptation and Intermediality:
How are epic modes rearticulated through the visual and narrative strategies of early film? What happens to epic’s narrative authority, scale, or temporality when it migrates across media? How does medial transposition function for the epic—what is gained, lost, or transformed in the process of adaptation? We welcome contributions that consider the semiotic logics at work in each medium and how these shape the reception and reinterpretation of epic structures, characters, and themes.
Identity:
We welcome analyses of the epic as a cultural and political form, examining how epic narratives serve as mediators of national, social, or class identity. How does the epic negotiate questions of inclusion, exclusion, and transformation within diverse sociopolitical contexts, both in its production and reception?
In addition to these central themes, the volume remains open to broader considerations of silent epic film, including (but not limited to):
Representations of mythological, biblical, or historical themes;
National cinemas and epic aesthetics;
Theatricality, realism, and expressionism in silent epic form;
Gender, class, ethnicity, colonialism, and spectatorship in early epic cinema;
Archival recovery and the status of lost or restored epic films;
Scale and mise-en-scène in silent epic film;
Modern cinema and silent epic film;
Comparative studies of silent epic film, particularly on marginal or non-angloeuropean film.
We are currently preparing a formal book proposal to be submitted to a major academic press, with Blackwell and Routledge among our intended publishers.
Submission Details:
Please submit your complete text (maximum of 8000 words), along with a short biographical note (max. 150 words), to the editors by September 15th, 2025. Contributions may be written in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, but accepted papers must be submitted with an English version for publication.
Contact:
Vítor Alves Silva (University of Porto) – up202204445@up.pt
João Paulo Guimarães (University of Porto, ILCML) – guimaraesjpc@gmail.com
Larson Powell (University of Missouri Kansas City, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Film – Emeritus) – powelllar@umkc.edu
We look forward to receiving your proposals and continuing the vibrant conversations sparked by the conference.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Lord of the Rings (Bakshi Version)
Decades before Peter Jackson amazed audiences with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi put out the rotoscoped masterpiece of The Lord of the Rings. I’m a huge Bakshi fan (Cool World FTW!), and I remember watching this movie when I was young and, frankly, being kind of terrified by it.
Personal copy of the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings film, signed by Peter S. Beagle and Steven E. Gordon.
Anywho, I met Bakshi once, at SDCC back in 2006, where he signed some of my other movies, but at the time I didn’t have a copy of LOTR. However, in the years since I’ve procured a copy and had it signed by two folks.
The first is Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, but who also did the screenplay of the Bakshi LOTR. He was a guest at a Glendale Vintage Paperback Show where he signed my DVD.
Next animator/cartoonist Steven E. Gordon sign my DVD. Gordon worked with Bakshi on a couple of projects (like Fire and Ice). He is a staple of the different comic book conventions in the LA area. He did a pinup girl commission for me one time – I’ll have to share that!
New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-rays
Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959) have two brand new HD/Blu-ray releases from Artus films! Check these bad boys out:
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-rays from Artus Films.
As far as I can tell (looking at dvdcompare.net) there has not been an English/state-side Blu-ray release of either Hercules or Hercules Unchained yet (which is rather strange since they are iconic, important films in the peplum genre). So if you want a Blu-ray of these films, Artus seems to be the only release currently (but there is no English audio or subtitled on either). PeplumTV.com has a few musings about the possible print source of these releases, which can be read here.
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Bernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
Cyanide Constellations and Other Stories (Photo provided by Sara Tantlinger)
Sara’s new book can be pre-ordered from Dark Matter Ink – here is the book’s product page. The release date is October 21st, just in time for Halloween!
