News Roundup: October 2026

Personal / Website News

Well, October was a wash for writing. I worked on a few things, but nothing published at my website or elsewhere. Car issues still plague Michele and I. The last two weeks have been hectic at work (in a good way!). My goal to get some spooky comic book reviews up in time for Halloween did not happen. However, I can still share some fun stuff and other news. Here is to a better November!

Scholars From the Edge of Time – Gladiators 7

Italian genre cinema star Richard Harrison passed away last month, so to commemorate his contributions to peplum cinema, Michele and I discussed a film of his, Gladiators 7 (1962), on this month’s Scholars from the Edge of Time.

I believe the movie is on Tubi or Youtube, but I have one of my trusty, low grade movie packs, in this instance, Gladiators, that has the film on it. Spoiler: I dug the movie, Michele not so much. You can watch our discussion on YouTube.

National Capital Panthans Journal #353

The October issue of the National Capital Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a reprint of my review of issue two of “Snow” of the Cavewoman series. My original review can be read here.

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.

PangoBooks Bookstore

I have an online bookstore at Pangobooks were I am selling books I no longer need, duplicates, etc. I have lots of horror, sci-fi, non-fiction, OOP, and weird books, so make sure to check my store out. Purchases help me out greatly!

Michele also has a store, so check that out as well.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2026.

Peplum Stuff

New peplum movies and autographs this month. Lets break it down!

New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions

The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal acquisitions.

The Messenger

I was surfing on Youtube earlier in the month and happened upon a video called “The Most CONTROVERSIAL Halloween Blu-Ray EVER” by The Lost River Drive-In. Click bait title got my attention, I was curious as to what’s up, and give it a watch. Long story short, an early Halloween 2 blu-ray release removed a credit for producer Moustapha Akkad and replaced it with the studio name. Fans for rightfully mad.

I am no expert on the Halloween series of films, so I had no idea who Moustapha Akkad was. One Wiki-rabbit hole later and I was like whoa.

Akkad has done exactly three things: he is the main money behind the majority of all the Halloween films (up to Halloween: Resurrection in 2002), and directed two historic epics, one being a sword and sandal film about Muhammad called The Message (1976)

Decades of Michael Myers and a film on Muhammad. Holy moly talk about going from one genre extreme to another. Learning this factoid, I had to pluck up a copy, which got a 4K release fairly recently.

Masters of the Universe

I missed the Masters of the Universe (2026) film when it was in theaters. Apparently it was pretty good, so I was bummed I missed it on the big screen, but I pre-ordered it as soon as it became available. Limited edition steel book of course.

Excited to give this a watch! I didn’t grow up with He-Man per se, but I caught episodes now and then (the first cartoon I was REALLY into was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Back in the 2010s I went to a few Power Con conventions, which were devoted to He-Man and She-Ra and had a lot of fun. But, yeah, I got a good feeling about this one.

Sword and Sandal Autographs

Two sets of autographs on peplum-related things were acquired in October. I love getting things signed, specially when it is in my field of study!

Pompeii with Kiefer Sutherland

There is a local collectibles business called Inked who seem to specialize in getting celebrities to autographed Funkos. They also do a mail in service where folks can send in their memorabilia to get autographed. They recently had a session with actor Kiefer Sutherland. I said “why not?” and decided to send in my copy of the neo-peplum film Pompeii (2014) to be signed.

In the first half of October I got my Blu-ray sleeve back, all signed I silver sharpie by Sutherland. I do not have many neo-peplum movies autographed, so I personally think this is quite cool. I have not watched the film since working on The New Peplum, I think it is time for a rewatch in the near future. Maybe as a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode.

The New Peplum with Tony Amendola

In early October Artists Assemble Productions did a horror con in Mesa. It was a big event for the Aliens (1986) film as many actors and actresses were guests, but other horror celebrities were also in attendance.

One of the guests was Tony Amendola, perhaps best known for appearing in the Stargate SG-1 series. One of the movies he had a small part in was the BBC docu-drama Pompeii: The Last Day (2003).

Folks who have read The New Peplum will probably recognize this movie as it is has almost an entire essay dedicated to it, “Sounds of Swords and Sandals: Music in Neo-Peplum BBC Television Docudramas” by Nick Poulakis. So, of course, I had to get my book signed!

He told me as he signed it that he was born August 24th, which is the day that Mount Vesuvius erupted! How cool is that! Anywho, very happy to have him sign my book, really meaningful to me.

Of note, a few weeks later I started playing the game Mafia: The Old Country, and he is in it! I was doing a mission to steal some whisky from an impound at a port, and his character walks right in! Same likeness and everything.

Autographs from the Archive

Here are some autographed treasures I have shared on social media this past month.

Red Spirit Lake + We Await

Charles Pinion is a cult filmmaker, probably best known for his SOV movie, Twisted Issues (1988). The first movie I saw of his was American Mummy (2014). I wound up befriending him on social media and he is a really cool dude.

I posted my copy of Red Spirit Lake/We Await for him to sign, which he graciously did.

Of note, he was a guest on the Fan2Fan Podcast last year, talking about making 3D movies. Give it a listen!

Episode one:

Episode two:

Joe Lansdale Autographs

On October 12th Joe Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale came to Scottdale to the Poisoned Pen to promote their respective new books. Michele and I, of course, had to go because Lansdale is the man.

I was first exposed to his work via the Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) movie, which was amazing. Probably my favourite Don Coscarelli film (next to Beastmaster of course!). We met him at a Vintage Paperback Show in Glendale, CA sometime in the 2010s and he signed my DVD of the film.

Later on I would get a copy of his novella, Under the Warrior Star, which is an Edgar Rice Burroughs/John Carter pastiche. Last year when I was asked by New Edge Sword and Sorcery to create cocktails for sword and sorcery characters, I made a cocktail based on this novella for the sword and planet issue.

Anywho, I had to have Lansdale sign my copy of NESS that contains the recipe I created in homage to his novella. He was very excited to do so! Aside from NESS, I had an armload of other books he wrote that he also autographed, so check out the gallery above to see all of them.

Jeffrey J. Mariotte Autographs

In attendance in the audience for the Joe Lansdale/Kasey Lansdale signing event was Jeffrey Mariotte! He’s a long time friend of the Lansdales (read his Substack here), and he has had a plethora of books publish this late summer and early spring. So, I came prepared and brought some of this with me for Mariotte to sign.

First was my copy of Billy the Kid: Cheat the Hangman:

Next was my copy of Flesh of all Sorrows, which I did an in-depth review that can be read here.

If you’re curious, I have lots of other Mariotte signed books. Last year at the Willcox ECOF event, which he was the guest of honour at, he signed lots of my Star Trek comics and other books. Check out that gallery at the bottom of my ECOF diary.

Werewolf

Red Letter Media did their annual Halloween Best of the Worst episode and the first movie they discussed was Werewolf (1996). The movie was already made infamous due to being on MST3K.

I have a non-MST3K version of the film! Well, I also have the MST3K version, but still. My copy is autographed by the late, great Richard Lynch! He was a guest at a Hollywood Collector show back in the day, and I, of course, had a pile of campy films for him to sign, which included Werewolf. Lynch passed away a few years later, which is a shame because he was always a great presence in otherwise low budget affairs (such as Werewolf).

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

New episodes of Michele Brittany and Travis Lakata’s vidcast, Ride the Stream, have been published online at YouTube.

The duo continue their discussion of the series Dark Winds with episode 6 of season 2:

Make sure to subscribe the Ride the Stream YouTube channel to see when new episodes drop. There is also a BlueSky social media as well.

New Fan2Fan Episodes

Brand new episodes of the Fan2Fan podcast are now online. It was October, spooky month, so seasonal themed episodes!

First there is “Spooky Screenings: Deathwoods, Camp Miasma, Hope, Buffet Infinity & More“:

Then “Horror Movie Marathon Madness Part 1“:

Followed by “Horror Movie Marathon Madness Part 2“:

And “Spooky Screenings: Resident Evil, VHS Mixtape, and Onslaught“:

And finally “Spooky Screenings: Buddy, Hokum, and The Cycle“:

Older episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference. There is also the Fan2Fan Facebook page. Give them a follow!

T. A Simmons’ Scion of Torn

Four years ago I had the honour to interview T. A. Simmons, the author of the comic series adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ book I am a Barbarian (check out that interview here).

Simmons is back with a new novel, Scion of Torn, which is a sequel to Burroughs’ Outlaw of Torn (which Simmons also adapted into a comic strip [see the ERB comics website on how to subscribe and read those]).

Super congrats on the new book! A kindle version of the story is readily available at Amazon.

Cozy in the Apocalypse

My friend Naomi Simone Borwein (author of Global Indigenous Horror and essayist for Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern) has a new book out! She’s a co-editor and contributor to Cozy in the Apocalypse published by Angry Gable Press.

The book can be purchased at Amazon.