It’s been almost 2.5 years since my last “Peplum Ponderings” (which was on Messalina [1960]), so hoping 2024 is a good year to bring that series back.
Starting off with a “Peplum Ponderings” of the 2011 Uwe Boll film, In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds. Check it out here!
The next few “Peplum Ponderings” will probably be on the pepla of actress Bella Cortez.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
And, coinciding with the above article, Michele and I talked about Two Worlds on the January episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time, which can be watched on YouTube.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Marx Warriors of the World
In early February Michele and I attended the AZToyCon over at the Mesa Convention center. The con was 90% Funkos, but there was some neat stuff here and there.
One of the things I spotted was a vendor with a Tupperware full of CIB of these late 50s/early 60s plastic figures form a company called Marx. The line was “Warriors of the World.” I had never seen or heard of these before, but I loved, loved the vintage box art on them. There was a handful of Viking ones, but quite a few Roman solider ones, so I plucked up three of them.
Look at those boxes!! Are they not awesome? I wanted to open all three, but I didn’t want to risk accidentally tearing a box, they have older style flaps inside. I did manage to open Tiberius:
There’s the box, a little card with a bio, and the figurine proper, all handprinted. It’s about the size of a classic green plastic army man. But I really dig it! Once I get a proper curio cabinet in my office, I’ll open all three boxes and put these bad boys on display.
Autographed Stuff
Ship of Dreams
In early January iconic horror writer Brian Lumley passed away. He and Gary Myers are probably the two most important authors at shaping Lovecraft’s Dreamlands after Lovecraft has passed away. We have not had a chance to discuss Lumley’s work on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast, but we hope to in the near future.
One of Lumley’s Dreamlands entries is the book Ship of Dreams, which I have this awesome, limited edition, autographed copy.
The cover art by Allen Koszowski is spectacular. Here is the back cover:
Friends’ Stuff News
Neverending Streamer Substack
My friend Travis has a new article at his Neverending Streamer Substack. It’s about episode 4 of the Marvel streaming series Echo. Subscribe and check it out here.
Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has a new article at his Bible Films Blog called “Which Bible Films Celebrate a Significant Anniversary in 2024?”. There’s a lot of films on the list with movie birthdays so check it out here.
Angela Sylvaine Short Story Collection
Angela Sylvaine will be having her first short story collection published this spring by Dark Matter Ink. It is called The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls and is already available for pre-order at the Dark Matter Ink Store.
Of course, Angela has been on our HP Lovecast Podcast twice: talking about her novella Chopping Spree and talking about her debut novel Frost Bite. Click the links to have a listen and then consider supporting her work!
Granger (Dolph Lundgren) is a retired special forces soldier who runs a martial arts gym in Vancouver, Canada. Sometime in the past he lost his squad during a battle, and each anniversary since then he sips a whisky in their honour. While partaking in his yearly ritual in his home office, he is assaulted by black robed assailants – Dark Ones – which he dispatches with his fists and firearms. In the midst of the skirmish, warrior-wizard Elianna (Natalie Burn) appears, summons a portal, and takes Granger back in time to the ancient kingdom of Ehb. When they manifest by a lake, Elianna is stabbed by a Dark One. After Granger kills the foe, he is besieged by the king’s right hand man, Allard (Aleks Paunovic), who knocks Granger out and takes him to the forest fortress. There Granger meets the king (Lochlyn Munro), who tells Granger he is a chosen one and part of a prophecy where he is to slay the Holy Mother (Christina Jastrzembska), an evil witch who has brought a plague upon the land.
After being tended to by healer Manhattan (Natassia Malthe), surviving an assassination attempt by a wench (Michaela Mann), and consulting a blind fortune teller who lives in a tree (Elisabeth Rosen), Granger is briefed again by the king and sets off into the forest on his quest. Though wanting to go solo, Granger is joined by Allard, Manhattan, and a small squad of the king’s soldiers. Granger and company are ambushed twice by the Dark Ones, with the second time Allard sacrificing himself to allow Granger and Manhattan time to escape.
While fleeing, Manhattan injures her leg, so Granger leaves her in a safe area by a stream and sets off alone to the Dark Ones’ camp. He deduces the Holy Mother wants him alive, so he strolls into the camp unimpeded and gains audience with the Holy Mother who informs him that the king is actually an alchemist named Raven, who is the real villain in the kingdom. He unleashed a plague that killed off many and took over the throne. Granger is actually a child from the prior royal family that the Holy Mother took to the future to hide from Raven, and now that he is back he needs to fulfill the prophecy: find the “catalyst” and defeat Raven.
The Holy Mother, who turns out was one of the Dark Ones who assaulted Granger in his house, passes away, leaving warrior Dunyana (Heather Doerksen) as the new leader of the Dark Ones. She and her men escort Granger to the outskirts of the dark forest where he is supposed to venture in to search for the unknown “catalyst.” Before entering the forest, Granger uses his new kingly abilities to make Dunyana the new leader of Ehb.
Granger enters the forest and encounters a dragon. As he is about to fight the dragon, Manhattan appears and throws a rock at the beast. The two escape and encounter a squad of Raven’s men, who are quickly dispatched by the dragon that was in pursuit. Granger and Manhattan flee the forest and run into Raven and his small army who take the two captive and back to the forest fortress where he intends to execute them. Just as he is about to kill the duo, the dragon arrives and starts attacking the fortress. Dunyana and her men, who have been waiting in hiding nearby, deduce that the dragon is the catalyst, and charge into the battlefield.
Raven makes his escape with Granger in pursuit. Arriving at the lake, Raven opens a portal to the future where he intends to unleash his alchemy plague. Raven and Granger hop in and find themselves in Granger’s house. Granger easily dispatches Raven by drowning him in his bath tub and stuffing his vial of plague solution into his mouth. Granger returns to his home office to do a new toast to his new fallen comrades. While doing so, an amulet given to Granger by Manhattan begins to shimmer.
Commentary
In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds (2011) is a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court-style neo-peplum and the second film in Uwe Boll’s In the Name of the King trilogy. As of 2024 it is the second to last video game inspired/adapted film that Boll has directed, the last one being In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission (2014). Like the first film in the series, the only connection Two Worlds has to the Dungeon Siege PC games of the aughts is being set in the kingdom of Ehb.
Two Worlds can be best summarized as diet Army of Darkness (1992). Both are low budget affairs that involve a time traveler unwittingly thrown to Medieval times, being part of a chosen one prophecy, having to kill an ominous villain (Bad Ash/Holy Mother), and questing to procure a “thing” (Necronomicon/the catalyst [a dragon]). While Army of Darkness has gone on to enjoy decades of cult film appreciation, Two Worlds is fairly run-of-the-mill. There are two primary issues with Two Worlds that hold it back from being a better film: Lundgren (and how he is portrayed/portrays himself) and the writing.
Lundgren is a proper action star, from bigger budget, A-list, popular films (Universal Soldier [1992], Rocky IV [1985], The Expendables [2010]) to direct-to-DVD fare (Diamond Dogs [2007], Icarus [2010], Silent Trigger [1996], etc.). In 99% of Lundgren films a viewer will know exactly what to expect: Lundgren bringing the martial arts, fisticuffs, and gunplay. Sadly, Two Worlds falls into that 1% category where Lundgren is not on his A-game.
Per IMDB trivia there are two reasons in tandem that are throwing off Lundgren: that this is a paycheck role and that he injured himself early in production. Paycheck roles are not bad per se, they can be fun or elevate an otherwise unremarkable film. Paycheck gigs can be an indicator of enthusiasm for the actor in some instances, with some going through the motions to collect their salary (see the advent of geazer teasers), while others still take their part seriously (such as Nic Cage during his financial troubles, he still brought “Nic Cage” to everything he did).
However, coupling a paycheck role along with Lundgren injuring himself and you have the performance of an actor who definitely does not want to be there. Lundgren must have been in some serious pain because he looks uncomfortable in every shot he is in. This is not the uncomfortable of a fish out of water scenario, (which is what should be going on in this time travel tale), but of someone in legit pain. Because of this, it can be assumed that Boll had to drastically alter the film’s action scenes to accommodate Lundgren. He has one scene in the forest where he punches, kicks, and spears soldiers part of an ambush, but a good chunk of the film shows Lundgren resting, sitting, or laying down. Narratively, the film tries to justify Lundgren’s lack of physical performance by showing scars on his back, that he was previously wounded in battle, and still takes medication to combat his lingering injuries. It is, pun intended, only a bandaid for the film. For these reasons, it appears Lundgren is not able to bring his full Lundgren-ness to Two Worlds, especially since he is no stranger to fantasy roles having played He-Man in Masters of the Universe (1987), but commendable for him sticking it out.
The second major fault with Two Worlds lays with its writing, specifically in two arenas: the film does not lean in to its main, unique feature, and the film has no narrative stakes and will unfold the same way regardless of the presence of the Granger character or not.
Firstly, Two Worlds does not take advantage of its premise: that of a special forces person thrust into Medieval times. This movie should have had multiple scenes of Granger using his special forces expertise to dispatch enemies, infiltrate camps, and gather intel. Army of Darkness leaned into this attribute with the character of Ash (Bruce Campbell), even though that character is a normal person: he trains Arthur’s army, has a shotgun, uses a chemistry textbook to make explosives, outfits his car with a giant rotor and so on. The character of Granger exclaims he wants to sneak into the Holy Mother’s camp, but the king instead outfits him with a squad of soldiers, ruining an opportunity for modern day covert activity action. There is one sequence where Granger sneaks up on an unsuspecting soldier as they are cooking and then stabs them. Granger then proceeds to walk into the Holy Mother’s camp unimpeded, as he is expected, rending his stealth kill unnecessary. Movies such as The Final Countdown (1980) and G. I. Samurai (1979) narratively take advantage of modern tech/skills in historic times, Two Worlds does not.
Secondly, this is a film were the events that unfold do not “count,” like a movie that ends with everything being a dream, lowering the narrative stakes. If Granger had not time traveled back to the era of Ehb, the movie would end in the exact same way as if he did: Raven may or may not attempt to kill the Holy Mother, but regardless he will still take the time portal and – surprise – end up in Granger’s house. At that point, the movie would end in the same fashion of Granger defeating Raven as he would be an intruder in his home. The only reason for Granger to travel to the past is because the prophecy of him being the chosen one dictates it. Unfortunately, the plot of the film leans too heavy on the chosen one prophecy as it is used as hand-waving justification of why the movie unfolds the way it does. Why does Granger need to head into the woods? Who knows – prophecy. What is he questing for? Who knows – prophecy. Why do the Dark Ones, if they are the good guys, attack Granger in his own home? Who knows – prophecy. And so on. It’s a panacea for bad writing.
Boll, to his credit, salvages what he can with an injured actor and a script that was no doubt in flux. The woodland battles look good and the use of sweeping shots of tree-covered mountains give the film an epic quality to it. The choice to film in winter is an interesting one. Everyone in this film is obviously cold, with their breath visible in every shot, but this cold factor adds a gritty element to the film.
As a neo-peplum film, Two Worlds is sword and sorcery in the post-Lord of the Rings vein. There is not an emphasis on bodies in Two Worlds as one would find in 80s barbarian films. Like a peplum strongman character, Granger primarily uses punches and kicks to dispatch his foes. He is given a sword towards the film’s final act, which he unsheathes when he encounters the dragon, but he does not actually engage in combat with it.
Aside from the brief shot of his back in his gym at the beginning of the film, Lundgren/Granger’s body is never on display in Two Worlds, so no Ivan Drago shots to be found. Though he is not portrayed as a traditional strongman character, Granger does share some characteristics with Conan in that they are both orphaned very young and grow up learning how to fight (Conan as a gladiator and Granger as a special forces member). In a related observation, the kingdom of Ehb is similar to Conan’s Hyborian Age, a prehistory fantasy setting that allows wiggle room for magic and history proper.
There is a genre meta reference when Granger asks Allard if he is into “swords and sweaty sandals.” However, the jab sounds like it is trying to ape Airplane’s (1980) “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?” except it comes off as needlessly homophobic in Two Worlds. The reference is welcomed, but it could have been delivered in a non-derogatory manner. In fact, this is another missed opportunity in that Granger could have brought up pop culture references of fantasy and peplum films to help him make sense of his time traveled predicament.
Boll has a reputation for making bad movies, particularly video game adapted films, but In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds is one of his better works. The movie proper is competent and scratches an epic fantasy itch. If Lundgren had been able to perform at his 100% his presence would have elevated the film to a more memorable status and provided a much needed wink-and-nod to make the greater narrative more digestible.
Check out my book review of Vilioti Vintage by Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa, which can be read here. he book contains an interview with Ken Holewczynski, the dude behind Exotica Moderne, a magazine I’ve contributed to many times. So, definitely check out the review and the book proper.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
My first podcast guest appearance for 2024 is over at the Fan2Fan Podcast!
In this episode we talk about the classic Italian gothic horror film, Castle of Blood. This was a lot of fun to revisit as it has been years – I dived deep into this movie over a decade ago when writing my thesis and since then I’ve grown to appreciate it more.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website, via the embedded player below, or through your favorite podcast app.
And, of course, I’d be remiss without showing our copy of Castle of Blood, autographed to Michele and I from both Barbara Steele and Edoardo Margheriti, son of director Antonio Margheriti:
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.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Issues 3 & 4
At the tail end of 2023 issues 1 and 2 of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which has been previously Kickstarted, was unleashed upon the world. I received my copies:
The Fall 2023 issue has an advert for H. P. Lovecast, how cool is that! Also, a reminder, I did a write up about issue 0, which can be read here.
On February 15th there will be a new crowdfunding campaign to publish issues 3 and 4. You can sign up for when the campaign goes live at this link. There’s details there of what to expect from the new two issues. Check it out!
Recent Pepla Acquisitions
Recently plucked up copies of Gold for the Caesars and The Tartars, both from Warner’s Archive Collection. If it’s a peplum film Warner had a hand in back in the day, they kept decent prints of them over the years and give them decent releases:
The Tartars star pepla starlet Bella Cortez. Michele and I are probably going to do a retrospective of her pepla appearances, talking about different movies of the next few episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. I’ll be turning those discussions into articles for my Peplum Ponderings series which has been severely neglected.
Rest in Peplum Jesse Jane
This past week erotic actress Jesse Jane passed away. Jane appeared in many adult movies, including two pirate porno pepla: Pirates 1 and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge. Had the honor, way back in the late aughts, to meet not only Jesse Jane, but co-stars Stoya and Riley Steele at a meet and greet: won a raffle and received copies of both of the Pirates films in which the actresses autographed. Here is a mini-slideshow (NSFW images):
I have a polaroid somewhere as well documenting the meet and greet, soon as I find it I’ll add that to the gallery.
Autographed Stuff
Here is a summary of some of the autographed stuff from my library over the past two weeks on social media.
Robot Jox
Actor Gary Graham passed away on the 22nd. He didn’t star in anything I’d consider peplum, but he starred in lots of sci-fi movies and shows. Michele and I met him at a Hollywood Collectors show way back in the day. I had him sign my copy of Robot Jox:
As you can see, I’ve had quite a few people autograph Robot Jox over the years: Graham, director Stuart Gordon (RIP), producer Charles Band, and writer Joe Haldeman. It’s a fun mecha film. We see lots of mechs in anime and video games, but live action, not so much (but the ones we get, like Pacific Rim, turn out to be cult hits later on).
The Plain Janes
Here are copies of The Plain Janes and Janes in Love signed by author extraordinaire Cecil Castellucci.
And:
When we lived in Orange we would see Castellucci at many of the local cons and she was always awesome to say hi to. Michele moderated a panel on Star Wars at a Long Beach Comic Con that Castellucci was a panelist on.
With a show-not-tell approach, this is the question that Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa’s book, Vilioti Vintage (2022), seeks to answer via interviews with twenty luminaries from the retro and vintage scenes. Per Vargas’ introduction, Vilioti Vintage is not a retrospective but instead a look to the contemporaries of vintage who seek to recreate it through different means. In its representation of neo-vintage, Vilioti Vintage casts a wide net, not just across occupations (artists, designers, musicians, photographers, pinups, publishers, et al.) but geographically (United States, Australia, England, Germany, Indonesia, and others), for its featured subjects. The end result is a resource that hits upon all the different avenues regardless of approach to the neo-vintage subculture.
The interviews begin with Scotty Morris, lead vocalist for American swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Morris shares his thoughts about some of the songs in the BBVD canon and talks about the importance of the movie Swingers(1996) in catapulting them (and by extension the retro scene) into greater visibility. However, with nearly three decades of being part of the music-business, it feels like Morris is reserved, or rehearsed in his answers.
The second interview is with Vegas-based burlesque performer Hazel Honeysuckle who is overt in naming her sources of inspiration. She is much more candid than Morris, talking in depth about her origins and even relating some fun anecdotes, such as when she was a guest on the Netflix series House of Cards (2013-2018).
Tom Ingram, the creator of the Viva Las Vegas festival, holds no punches and brings a candidness to his interview. While other interviewees in Vilioti Vintage name drop the folks who inspire them, Ingram takes the opposite approach of speaking about dubious business partners and other obstacles he has faced over the years. He comes across as weathered and weary of the corporate aspect of running an iconic festival, but he has definitely seen it all and exhibits his learned wisdom.
Filmmaker Chris Magee, who takes on a John Peel-esque role of presenting Americana music on his Bopflix YouTube channel, is not afraid to speak his mind on political issues. While folks in the retro and pinup scenes espouse mottos such as “vintage aesthetics not vintage values,” Magee follows through with these promises, illustrated when he talks about his drawing the line in the sand and saying a firm “no” to displaying confederate flags in music videos.
The fifth interview is with Jason Croft, founder of Bachelor Pad magazine. Croft’s observations of the retro revival happening during the 90s coincides with Morris’ recollections in one of the many displays of networkedness showcased in Vilioti Vintage. Croft’s answers come across with extreme enthusiasm and really dives into the history of Bachelor Pad. Though Vilioti Vintage mostly focuses on the noir to atomic age of vintage and retroism, Croft’s description of running a cheesecake website during the halcyon web 1.0 days adds a small element of vaporwave retroism to the book.
Croft’s interview is followed by artist Nathalie Rattner who talks in great detail about the technical aspects of creating pinup art. An interesting aspect about Rattner’s interview is her embracement of the corporatization of vintage. While Vilioti Vintage seems to take the angle that businesses swoop in on the newest trend, capitalize and cannibalize it, then move onto the next thing, (a sentiment certainly echoed with other interviewees in the publication), Rattner speaks freely of her art appearing on merchandise and advertisements and the associated boon it brings.
The next interview is with Don Spiro of Zelda Magazine, who brings in a contrasting perspective to the world of publishing when compare to Croft. While Croft’s rag seems on the up and up, Spiro talks of the death of his business partner, having to scale back Zelda to an annual publication, and how demand for his portrait work has dwindled due to the shift in models using selfies for self promotion instead of commissioning a professional.
Rockabilly musician Wes Pudsey, who has performed at Ingram’s Viva Las Vegas, brings in an Australian perspective of Americana, relating fun stories of being on tour, such as when his vehicle got stuck in a low clearance situation while in Germany.
Ken Holewczynski, publisher of Exotica Moderne and owner of House of Tabu, brings perhaps the most offbeat perspective to Vilioti Vintage. While other interviewees speak of events in their youth that set them on their retroist path, Holewczynski is fairly new to the scene having only gotten into tiki culture a few years ago. His past is with comics and industrial music, which do not tint his glasses when assessing tiki culture. It is probably this idiosyncratic background which has allowed Holewczynski to flourish and publish a high quality magazine and create desirable tiki mugs and glassware where others have faltered.
Italian burlesque star Albadoro Gala brings a continental touch with her philosophical answers. Gala has the most memorable yarn in Vilioti Vintage when she relates the tale of how she got her namesake when a crazy old lady attacked her with a knife.
Ralph Braband, owner of Rhythm Bomb Records in Germany, echoes similar sentiments of Spiro in the difficulties of running a business, starting with great highs but dealing with current world woes. He offers realist answers of how his music business has weathered Covid-19 and the actions he had to take to do so.
Hairstylist Tom Vacher offers up an amusing story from his youth of getting to the car of two strangers – a couple who were into vintage clothing and driving an old school car. He was smitten immediately with their vintage lifestyle. He follows this up with stories of operating in the hair business in both the UK and in Australia.
Marcella of the Puppini Sisters has the most bubbly interview of the lot. Like Morris, she has experienced the whirlwind of a major record label swooping in on her music and then whooshing out. Though her and her singing partners, Kate and Emma, look the pinup part with their old school aesthetic with a modern twist, Marcella is adamant that they are musicians first while style comes second.
After Marcella’s interview, Vilioti Vintage loses a bit of its steam with the next handful of interviews of Harry and Edna (radio hosts from the UK), Maryann Lant (a European rockabilly musician), Aldi_ Hydrant (Indonesian clothing designer), and Tamara Mascara (drag queen) being on generic side. The answers in these interviews are short, and lack many of the personal details that prior subjects exhibited. The folks are interesting none-the-less and offer nuggets of wisdom and insight into their craft, their responses are simply not up to the caliber of prior interviews.
Vilioti Vintage regains its footing with Beck Rustic’s interview. Rustic is the owner of the Swelltune record label in the UK. He dives into an amusing story of how his label was accidentally started when he wanted to print a commemorative vinyl of the festival he hosts only to pounced upon by music acts to become involved. He gives candid responses on the impact of social media and streaming on the music business.
Australian burlesque artist Porcelain Alice showcases the most inspiration in her interview to readers. She offers approachable advice for those who want to get into the business: there’s no qualifications required! One doesn’t need to know how to dance and there is no gatekeeper stopping someone from trying. For outsiders looking in at the retro world who might feel intimidated, Alice helps breaks those intimidating barriers down.
Vilioti Vintage ends with an interview with Natty Adams, an author and clothing designer based in New Orleans. Adams offers detailed and thoughtful answers into how he got started in his line of work and how he taps into a plethora ofhistoric eras for inspiration.
To compliment the subject matter, Vilioti Vintage bookends each interview with a series of high quality photos depicting their interviewees in their most fashionable or glamorous style. With each interview running around ten pages and the book in its entirety clocking in at around one-hundred and eighty pages, Vilioti Vintage aims for both quality and quantity. The end product of Vilioti Vintage looks to carry the torch brought about by the RE/Search publication Swing!: The New Retro Renaissance (1998) (the shout out to RE/Search in Vargas’ acknowledgments lends credibility that this was a desired outcome).
Taking the book as a whole, there is definitely reoccurring themes and observations from each interview which reinforces a complimentary nature. The interviews were conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, so many subjects address how they operated during the dark times. There’s a philosophy to look to the past in order to deal with modern problems, and Vilioti Vintage, be it by happenstance or by design, reinforces this notion; that there is value to bring forth elements of the past and merge it with the present to create something new that lies in the realm between utility and homage. Vilioti Vintage is an invaluable resource for both appreciating and understanding the neo-vintage subculture.
Michele and I recapped a majority of our accomplishments and projects on the last episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast, however I’d like to do a personal breakdown here.
Publication Accomplishments
Honoured to appear in five physical publications this year:
Links to all podcast appearances can be found on the Podcast Index page. Sincere thanks to Bernie Gonzalez, Peter Charbonneau, Hercules Invictus, and Sherri Nunn for having me be a part of their programs.
Conference Accomplishments
Michele and I attended CoKoCon 2023 and ere on two panels. It was also our first time ever vending at a con. Thank you to Hal and Dee Astell for having us.
2024 Looking Forward
I am hoping that 2024 will be as successful as 2023 was. This year will see a decade of me writing (since the publication of my first essay in James Bond in Popular Culture).
On the podcast front, Michele and I already have the first half of 2024 planned for H. P. Lovecast. We’ve also already recorded a few episodes with the folks at Fan2Fan Podcast, so expect those episodes to drop throughout 2024.
My essay on peplum cats, currently titled “Hic Sunt Leones: Peplum Strongmen and the Nemean Lion Legacy” was accepted last year by editor Simon Bacon for his collection, Cats: A Companion. The manuscript was sent to the publisher in early December, so hopefully this book winds up being published later this year! Nice to have a publication already on the docket.
I still have a pile of reviews I want to get done that have been piling up. I also have a list of essay ideas I have approval on, I just need to write and get out the door. It’s been a while since I’ve submitted to Exotica Moderne, so hopefully I can get an essay or two to them this year.
The main project for 2024, however, is the Emmanuelle Legacy book. On my timeline I have submit a manuscript to the publisher in October, which will be here before I know it. I have an intro and an essay to write, along with editing other folks’ essays. I’m super excited to try and realize this project, so it’s going to be nose to the grindstone for this one.
Thank you to all the folks who support me and my endeavors. You are sincerely appreciated!
Horror Literature.. Review
The collection, Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, that Michele and I edited has just gotten a new review from the Journal of Ecohumanism, and it is a very positive one!
The review (along with the rest of the journal) can be read in its entirety here.
New Episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast
New episode to kick off 2024! We kick off the new year interviewing Pat Shand about his three issue comic book miniseries I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter.
The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout site, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 28 – Pat Shand and I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter –
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
H. P. Lovecast on BlueSky
H. P. Lovecast is now on Blue Sky. If you’re using that social media please consider giving us a follow there! The username is: @hplovecast.bsky.social .
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.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
The Neverending Streamer Substack
My friend, Travis Lakata, has started a Substack called The Neverending Streamer. Give him support and subscribe – check it out here: https://travislakata.substack.com.
Rest in Peplum Jennell Jaquays
Fantasy artist Jennell Jaquays passed away last week. She did lots of fantastic work. Her covert art for the Dragon Mountain boxset is probably one of the most iconic pieces of 90s 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
My copy of the box proper hasn’t survived the 30+ years, but the contents have! Here is book 1 of the module which sports the legendary red dragon.
Legends of the Lance Newsletter
While digging through my old Second Edition stuff I happened upon these five issues of the Legends of the Lance Dragonlance newsletter. Apparently these are extremely rare! I love how they look though and the art on them is aces.
Endless Armies Jeff Grubb Autograph
For this roundup of autographs, since I was going through my D&D stuff, figured I would show of my copy of Endless Enemies autographed by Jeff Grubb.
Way back in the 2000s my comic book store was Spy Comics in Federal Way. Apparently that was also Jeff Grubb’s comic book store to go to as well. The owner, Richard, arranged an in store event with Jeff Grubb who was on hand to autograph stuff he wrote. I got a few things signed by him, Endless Armies being one of them. Somewhere there is a photo of the event, I hope I can find it!
A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast, and the last one for 2023, is now online.
This is a recap episode where Michele and I talk about what we accomplished with personal projects and podcast stuff for 2023 and what to expect for 2024. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference
Lots of citation news for The New Peplum. Two books have recently been published that cite essays in The New Peplum.
First is “The Performance of Plasticity: Method Acting, Prosthetics, and the Virtuosity of Embodied Transformation” by David LaRocca, published in Plastics, Environment, Culture, and the Politics of Waste by Edinburgh University Press. The editor of this tome is Tatiana Konrad, who wrote the essay “Laughing at the Body: The Imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody Films” that appears in The New Peplum.
Next up is Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Warfare on Film edited by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos and published by Brill. This collection contains five essays that cite contents from The New Peplum:
“Brad’s Biceps and Dwayne’s Delts: Stardom as Physicality and Digital Spectacle in Troy (2004) and Hercules (2014)” by Djoymi Baker (who also wrote the Hercules essay in The New Peplum)
Swords Made of Rubber: Cinematic Antiquity through the Lens of War” by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos
“Romans and Zealots in the Global War on Terror: Asymmetric Warfare and Counterinsurgency in Risen (2016) and Ben-Hur (2016)” by Oskar Aguado-Cantabrana
“Atalanta as Celluloid Warrior in Jason and the Argonauts (2000) and Hercules (2014)” by Patricia Salzman-Mitchell
“Rockules’ Revenge: The Portrayal of the Veteran Warrior in Brett Ratner’s Hercules” by Owen Reese
Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of the above books so I can’t say what specifically is mentioned. Once I suss that out I’ll add the information to the page for The New Peplum. As always, even years later, I am super happy and flattered to see scholars still citing the essays in The New Peplum.
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 for the year of 2023. Next week this section goes blank, so wish me luck as I crank out a new batch of essays to be published in 2024. Thank you to everyone who took an interest in my publications for last year. You not only supported me, but you supported the different publishers and editors who gave me venues.
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’.”
Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.
New Publication: The Journal of Stoogeological Studies Vol 1
The debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies is out now!
I received a draft PDF of the first issue and its 88 pages of essays, reviews, and other musings all about the Three Stooges (and, as of 12/27, there’s supposed to be a bit more content added this week, so it’s getting even bigger!). I’m honored to have a short piece in this journal called “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy.” I am no expert on The Three Stooges or a super fan or anything, but I love writing about sword n’ sandal stuff so this was a unique venue to talk about the genre in an eccentric way.
For information on procuring a copy of the zine contact editor Will Sloan (website is https://www.willsloan.ca).
New review up at my website! I take a gander at the first issue of the sex-comedy comic book Becca Boo the Bimbo Ghost.
The review can be read here. I enjoyed the comic and chipped in the for Kickstarter for issue 2, so expect a review of that when it is published. The issue 2 Kickstarter can be found here.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Brand new episode of H.P. Lovecast Podcast is now online!
Episode 59 Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.
Michele and I finally conclude our annual Mimic series discussion by talking about Mimic 3: Sentinel. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
My publisher, McFarland, is doing a holiday sale on ALL their titles. Use code “HOLIDAY23” at checkout to receive 25% off your order. The sale appears to go on for the entire month of December, but McFarland suggests placing orders before the 16th in order to receive them in time for Yuletide.
This is a perfect opportunity to scoop up books I’ve participated in. For editing:
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’.”
Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.
John 3:16, the composer of the HP Lovecast podcast theme song, “Azathoth,” has released the track on Bandcamp!
Here is the link to check it out, stream it, or purchase it via name your own price. Sincere thank you to John 3:16 for being a super supporter of our podcast, sharing our content, and of course, creating this awesome tune.
CFP: The Mummy Edited Collection
Michele is teaming up with Sean Woodard to do an edited collection on The Mummy series. They have a CFP listed at UPENN, but I am also sharing a copy below.
Essays sought for an edited collection focused on Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise.
The 1999 Universal reboot of The Mummy, starring the indelible duo of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, remains a tentpole of ’90s popular culture and cinema. Not only did The Mummy launch two sequels, a spin-off series, and a reboot, but it has lived on as a cult film, loved by fans for its mixture of horror, action/adventure, and humor. The film has also developed a strong meme culture on social media — one of the most viral examples contains a photo of a car bumper sticker proclaiming: “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.”
While academic research has been focused on various releases of The Mummy (1932, 1959, 1999, and 2017), there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film franchise. The recent “Brenaissance” in Fraser’s film career and the film’s anticipated 25th anniversary in 2024 make it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.
The purpose of this edited collection is to place The Mummy into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the franchise, its connections to other genre films, and its continued influence.
We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Resurgent interest in Brendan Fraser/“Brenaissance”
Stephen Sommers as an auteur
Representation of Egypt in popular culture and early filmic representation
Eastern mythology/culture/religion
Exoticism of non-western cultures
Post/De-colonialism
Heroic representation
Body horror
Eco-horror/Ecocriticism
Gender representation
Toxic depictions in film
Queer/LGBTQ+ representation
Meme/GIF culture
Psychoanalysis
Generational nostalgia
Element of music/film scoring
Genre hybridity
Film cycles/reboots/retcons (such as The Scorpion King, The Mummy animated series, Universal Classic Monsters, Hammer Studios, Dark Universe, etc.) and related adventure/archaeological-driven films (such as Ark of the Sun God, The Sphinx, The Librarian franchise, etc.)
Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to mummybookproject@gmail.com as a Word document. Final essays should be 6,000 – 8,000 words in length, including endnotes and bibliography, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The collection is being considered by a leading academic press.
Proposed Timeline
October 1, 2023 thru December 15, 2023 — Call for Papers
January 15, 2024 — Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors
January 15, 2024 thru June 15, 2024 — Book chapters drafting period
June 15, 2024 thru July 15, 2024 — Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts
August 1, 2024 thru October 1, 2024 — Double-blind Peer Review Period
October 1, 2024 thru November 15, 2024 — Contributor revision period
December 1, 2024 — Final editorial acceptance decisions
December 1, 2024 thru January 15, 2025 — Layout design, indexing, and proofing stage
January 15, 2025 thru February 15, 2025 — Copies of chapter proofs sent to contributors for copyediting review
March 1, 2025 — Final manuscript submitted in hard copy and digital formats to publisher
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:
