The bars and cocktail lounges of New York City ushered in the craft cocktail renaissance in the mid aughts. Many of the vanguard establishments central to this movement have had books published detailing not only their ethos to mixology, but showcasing many of their recipes as well. Death & Co. has their Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails (2014), Apotheke has Apotheke: Modern Medicinal Cocktails (2020), Cienfuegos has Cuban Cocktails: 100 Classic and Modern Drinks (2015), and so on. The folks at iconic and influential NYC speakeasy Please Don’t Tell (PDT) have, of course, their own book, The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender’s Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy (2011).
PDT book from my personal collection.
Flipping through the pages one will see a plethora of inventive, intoxicating libations accompanied with pop-art style illustrations.
Corresponding artwork for the Cinema Highball.
However, one might do a double take of the recipe on page 90 for the Cinema Highball: a rum and Coke variant made with movie theater buttered popcorn infused rum.
Cinema Highball recipe.
A cocktail that captures the theater-going experience of grabbing a handful of popcorn, stuffing it all into one’s mouth and then chasing it down with a titanic cup of Coke (Hey! Free refills) all while the previews are still going on? It HAS to be made.
The recipe is fairly simple, with most of the effort going into making the popcorn rum. Per the directions the ingredients are:
1 750 ML bottle of Flor de Caña Silver Dry Rum
1 oz fresh popcorn
1 oz clarified buttered
Popcorn, rum, and ghee.
If the Flor de Caña sounds a little pricy to be used in this fashion go with a Bacardi Silver, that way if the end result isn’t successful a nice bottle of rum wasn’t squandered.
Though this cocktail uses a fairly nice rum, for the popcorn the opposite is needed. Unless a movie theater is super close by and a bag of popcorn can be easily obtained, the best route to go instead is the most unhealthy, syntheticy, buttery, popcorn imaginable. This isn’t a place for organic, artisan popcorn – it’s trying to re-create a movie theater experience afterall. The popcorn used here is from Dollar General and is probably as bottom of the barrel as one can get (note the “gluten free” in air quotes),
The final component is the ghee. More so than the popcorn, this is what is going to give the rum the movie theater butter popcorn flavour. Smelling ghee is just like smelling the butter squirter at the concession stand.
Get a glass pitcher and pour the rum into it. Follow this by an ounce of popcorn. The best way to determine an ounce of popcorn is to look at the bag it came in. The popcorn used here comes in an eight-ounce bag, so eye-ball an eighth of the bag. This doesn’t have to be exact though, error on the side of more popcorn. As stated above, the ghee is what is going to provide most of the flavour.
The popcorn is going to get soggy and float to the top.
Give it a stir once or twice over the next hour. Little globules of synthetic butter will swirl around in the rum.
Close to an hour grab a sieve. A big one. Put a bowl under it to capture all the rum that will be pressed through.
After an hour a few popcorns will have sunk. There will be a nice “healthy” hue to the rum.
The butter will be concentrated on the top.
Dump the pitcher of popcorn rum into the sieve and use the sieve-stick to press as much rum out from the popcorn. Don’t press too hard though or the popcorn will actually smoosh through the sieve holes.
The popcorn leftover will be highly rum soaked. It’s not really salvageable for anything else and kinda gross if consumed.
Pour the rum through another strainer back into the (cleaned) glass pitcher. The extra strain will grab any small popcorn atoms that made it through the sieve.
Add the ounce of ghee, stir, and let it set for twenty four hours.
After a day all the ghee will have floated to the top. The rum will have a cloudy, yellow-ish colour.
Pour the pitcher into a glass bowl. The ghee will stay floating and congregate into little, buttery islands. Place into the freezer for four hours which will cause the ghee to harden.
After four hours the ghee will have frozen into manageable clumps that can be easily removed. Strain the rum into a bottle.
Once bottled, the popcorn-infused rum is ready to go!
Grab a high ball glass, add ice cubes, two ounces of rum and four to five ounces of Coke (or Pepsi, RC Cola, etc.) to taste. Use a bar spoon and give it a once or twice stir. Don’t over stir because it will release the carbonation from the soda.
The end result is, well, a popcorn tasting rum and Coke! It does legit taste like having a sip of soda after eating a handful of popcorn. There is definitely a popcorn odor to the rum which certainly adds a nice component. The popcorn texture is missing, which is part of the filmgoing experience, but can’t be helped. Infusing the rum with popcorn was probably unnecessary and the step could possibly be skipped and instead go straight to infusing with ghee. However, “ghee-infused” rum doesn’t have the same ring to it, so the popcorn has to remain. Actually eating popcorn while drinking a Cinema Highball, now that is a pleasant way to consume this cocktail.
Overall, not bad! The Cinema Highball doesn’t replace a traditional rum and coke and definitely doesn’t replace a Cuba Libre, but it does take minimal effort to make the popcorn infused rum. It would be a nice practice cocktail for mixologist beginners who have not dived into the realm of spirit infusions. The Cinema Highball is a novelty drink, but a fun and tasty one that definitely goes with watching a movie in the comfort of your own home.
Good day everyone! No new content at my website these past two weeks (or, I guess, for the entire month of March for that matter?). And for good reason: deadline for not one, but two essays! First, an essay for a book about cats in cinema was due at the end of the month. Well, I hunkered in this month and got my essay (about the Nemean Lion in sword and sandal cinema, of course) completed and submitted this past weekend. Second, not a looming deadline, but I wanted it done ASAP, I took my Rene Girard/”The Call of Cthulhu” presentation I did at AnnRadCon in 2022, edited it to be in essay format and got that sent off to an editor for an upcoming magazine issue.
So, very cool to get those two gigs off my plate! Cross fingers for acceptances and smooth rewrites! But now, my plate is more cleared off so I can get to those to-dos that have been accumulating.
Fan2Fan Appearance
Both Michele and I have made recent appearances on the Fan2Fan Podcast who just hit 30,000 downloads. Congrats F2F!
First up, hosts Bernie, Pete and guests Josh, Scott, and Michele and I all got together to talk about the classic 90s monster film, The Relic. The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via the embedded player below
And just for fun, here is my autographed copy of C.H.U.D. signed by producer Andrew Bonime (RIP):
Sincere appreciation for Bernie and Pete for having us on. We always have a blast being on talking pop culture. Check out their archives and give them a follow on Twitter or Facebook.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Helping proliferate a CFP for Black Metal bands contributing essays to a forthcoming collection on antifascist black metal.
The collection is slated to be published by Red N’ Noir in Greek with a self-published English edition to follow. Submissions or requests for more info can be sent to sbarbalexis@gmail.com.
CFP – Russell Crowe
My editor for A Hero Will Endure has a new CFP that is live: a call for papers on essays about Russell Crowe. More info on the CFP can be found at the UPENN Listing. Abstracts are due July 25th.
I don’t have much to share along the lines of writing and podcast news for the last two weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I have been extremely busy, it just happens I didn’t get a chance to do an article for my website here. However, a quick run down of things that have happened/currently are happening:
Appeared on a handful of Fan2Fan Podcast episodes, taking about monster movies, anime, and TV show themes. Expect those to be published over the next few weeks/months. In the meantime, I encourage folks to check out the Fan2Fan archive, they have some great episodes with some cool people.
Turned my Rene Girard/”The Call of Cthulhu” presentation I did at a prior AnnRadCon into essay format and sent it to the new horror-lit magazine, Dark Dead Things. They launch their debut issue this month, check them out!
Completed an interview with the authors of the upcoming book Heavy Music Mothers that is slated to be published this May from Rowman & Littlefield. The interview will be published here the week before Mother’s Day.
Just interviewed Michael Cisco for the H.P Lovecast Podcast, slated to be released part of our Transmissions programming.
Currently working on my peplum cats essay that is due at the end of the month. Wish me luck! (Note: was turned in on 3/26, yay!)
Reviewing the book Buzzworthy. I’ve been posting cocktails I’ve made over on Twitter.
And, of course, the Emmanuelle CFP (see below). Working on promoting that everywhere I can.
So, lots of cool stuff going on! Also, expect Footage Fiends issue 01 to drop very, very soon! Excited to see that be published.
I also got my contributor’s copy of A Hero Will Endure.
Nice to have the book in my paws. It’s been a long journey!
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Publishing Recap
Starting with this bi-weekly update I will be including a new section called “Publishing Recap” where I will keep a cumulative list of published texts (physical or at other venues) for the year so far. The idea here is to give more visibility to each text and not let them disappear into the website newsfeed.
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Signum University Press has an open CFP (that closes April 1st) on the 50th anniversary of The Princess Bride (both book and movie). Details on the CFP can be read at the downloadable PDF while press submission guidelines can be read at this link.
If you have a pop culture-centric CFP that need proliferation, feel free to share it with me and I’ll post it on my bi-weekly news updates. I’m here to help folks out.
Michele and I recently did an appearance on the Fan2Fan Podcast where co-host Bernie Gonzalez talked to us about H. P. Lovecraft. It was really awesome be asked to be on the podcast and to talk about Lovecraft things outside our own H. P. Lovecast Podcast. The dialogue has been broken up into two episodes.
The first episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website or via the embedded player below.
Sincere thanks for having us back on as guests, we appreciate it!
A Hero Will Endure Published!
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is officially out! The collection is available for purchase at the Vernon Press website.
This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling”. When my hardcover copy arrives I’ll be sure to share it.
There are a few essays in the collection that cite content of The New Peplum. As soon as I can verify what and were I will add the citations to the The New Peplum page.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Personal copy of Emmanuelle vs. Dracula. Note: decades prior Kristel starred in Dracula’s Widow (1988).
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Rest in Peplum Stella Stevens
Ok, Stella Stevens wasn’t in any peplum movies, but she was in an episode of Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman is a total peplum character and also The Poseidon Adventure (1972) being named after the Olympian, so I am calling it valid.
1960s kitten bombshell Stella Stevens passed away from Alzheimer’s at the age of 84 on the 17th (CNN Link). Stevens is probably best known for being in The Nutty Professor (1963). and the original The Poseidon Adventure. My first exposure to Stevens was in her Bond Girl-esque role opposite Dean Martin in The Silencers (1966).
I had the honor to meet Stevens at a convention back in 2010. She was a total doll and so swoonerific. She autographed my copies of The Silencers, Hard Drive (1994) (a straight to Cinemax erotic thriller) and a cute pinup photo of her. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate the items as of yet during my unpacking, but once I do I’ll post them here.
She will be greatly missed!
Fist of Jesus Blu-ray
A recent acquisition, I got my paws on a Blu-ray of Fist of Jesus:
Only 15 minutes long, I gave it a quick watch. It was funny: Dead Alive with Jesus. I’ll be doing a proper write up later (maybe for Easter?). The movie can be ordered at the Fist of Jesus website.
At a functional level, genre labels provide a short hand of attributes and qualities to assist in categorizing a text. By calling a film or a book or any sort of media a “comedy,” or “fantasy,” or “horror” and so on denotes that the text exhibits a large quantity of aspects associated with that label, with the assumption that genres are not absolute and that texts can straddle multiple genres (though some purists may argue for concrete borders on genre definitions). As time progresses and forms of media explore the limits of ur-genre boundaries, the development of subgenre labels come into being to assist in fine tuning categorizations: it’s not just a horror film, it’s a slasher film.
“New Edge Sword and Sorcery” can be thought of as a subgenre of the sword and sorcery genre, which is turn can be thought of as an offshoot of the fantasy genre. New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine acts as the first stake in the ground to lay the foundations of/crystalize the burgeoning subgenre.
What is New Edge Sword and Sorcery (NES&S) and what makes it distinct when compared to sword and sorcery proper? This is the question editor Oliver Brackenbury addresses in the final column of the first (zero) issue of New Edge magazine: a flexible iteration of sword and sorcery that embraces not only marginalized and outsider protagonists, but genre content creators as well (the magazine looks to be more rooted in literary New Edge, but the subgenre philosophy posited by the publication is certainly applicable to NES&S in other forms).
To illustrate these aspects of the subgenre, New Edge magazine is divided into 50% short fiction and 50% non-fiction that entails interviews, essays, and reviews. The non-fiction half of issue zero of the magazine contains the following: an extremely thoughtful, long-form interview with Milton Davis, one of the leading figures of the sword and soul subgenre; nice, succinct piece from Brian Murphy on the prevalence of the outsider in sword and sorcery fiction; a review on The Obanaax, and essay from Cora Buhlert about C. L. Moore and their S&S protagonist, Jirel of Joiry; and more. The fiction portion contains some great pieces, with “The Ember Inside” by Remco Straten and Angeline B. Adams being particularly stand out with its unique take on storytelling as a concept proper while the opening story, “The Curse of the Horsetail Banner” by Daniel R. A. Quioque offers up illustrative combat sequences with a hero that, against all odds, really overcomes the masses.
Peppered throughout issue zero of New Edge are a variety of black and white illustrations to accompany the various pieces, giving the whole issue a feel of classic RPG books.
The first issue (technically zero issue) of New Edge is both informative and fun. Old and new guard fans of the sword and sorcery genre will certainly appreciate the stories within, while the non-fiction pieces are thoughtful with the Davis interview being particularly insightful. The current trend of fantasy genre media seems to be sweeping toward titanic epics in the George R. R. Martin vein, which isn’t an antithesis of new edge per se, it is just a different approach via different modes. Fantasy is en vogue again, and it is the perfect opportunity to showcase that there are different, more inclusive ways to explore the genre, and that is were new edge (the subgenre) comes into play. New Edge (the magazine) acts as a portal for readers to enter the realm of new fantasy stories built upon the pillars of the old.
More information about New Edge the magazine and the genre can be found at the following links:
The Bram Stoker Preliminary Ballot has been published and like last year on the podcast we are looking to spotlight some of the authors on the list and help get the word of their works out and entice readers to consider their works. Because of this, we are also flipping the order of episodes this month: Transmissions in the first half, normal episode at the end.
For this special episode of Transmissions Michele and I interviewed David Aquilone about Kolchak the Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary and Donna Lynch about Girls from the County.
The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player above, or through your podcast app of preference. Give it a listen and consider checking out Aquilone and Lynch’s works.
Scaredy Cats Podcast Appearance
Back in 2021 I had the honor to be a guest on the Scaredy Cats Podcast to talk about the influential slasher film, The Slumber Party Massacre (episode link here).
Host Sherri invited me back on the podcast, along with co-host of the Schitt’s Simply the Best Podcast, Katie, to talk about the 2015 meta-horror-slasher film, The Film Girls. It was a lot of fun to watch the film and then discuss it.
The episode can be streamed at the Scaredy Cats Buzzsprout page here or via your podcast app of preference. Sincere gratitude to Sherri for being asked on.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Severin DVD (left) vs Full Moon Blu-ray (right) of Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade.
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
A Hero Will Endure Preorder
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiatoris available for preorder at the Vernon Press website.
This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiatorand Industrial Music Sampling” and is slated to be released later this month.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Kickstarter
The Kickstarter for New Edge Sword and Sorcery is now live!
The Kickstarter campaign can be found here. The project is currently (evening of 2/12) at 71.77% funded with 19 days left. Consider backing it!
Miss Corsair Debonair YouTube Channel Launch
Pinup/stockings model Miss Corsair Debonair (who I interview for Exotica Moderne issue 14) has launched a YouTube channel (found here).
Her first video (which can be found here or in the embedded player above) has her showcasing a vintage pair of tan RHT stockings. One of her kitties makes a cameo! Check out her video, consider subscribing so you can see her next stockings/nylons/kitties video.
Death Nell is an erotic horror comedy (in the Beetlejuice vein) comic published by Bad Bug Media in early 2023 after a successful Kickstarter campaign of their first issue in the summer of 2022. Issue one is written by Bill Stoddard with Cammry Lapka (Cat Tails, Black Market Heroine) doing art, Bruna Costa on colours, and Erek Foster (The Surgeon)providing lettering.
Nell, her undead cat, and April.
The titular Nell is a twenty-two year old student at the Deus Mortem school for necromancers where she spends her time sleeping during class and fantasizing about her teacher, Professor Reinhart, instead of paying attention. At the suggestion of her best friend, April (who is a half troll), Nell visits the buxom school nurse (curse lifter?) Madame Flowers. It turns out that Nell’s sleeping issue is from exhaustion due to her insatiable desires despite a regime of self pleasuring. An alchemy spell later and the root cause is discovered: Nell is part Succubus and she needs to om nom nom on the sexual energies of others. Thankfully there happens to be a party coming up that promises lots of action…
Grave digging attire.
As a playful, lighter fare, Death Nell can be placed in a similar camp of monster-school stories such as Nicholas Doan and Gwendolyn Dreyer’s Monster Elementary, the Monster High media franchise, and even the prequel film of Monsters Inc., Monster University. Death Nell’s art reflects its comedic tone, as the colours are vibrant (the fun gothic colours of purple and black) and the characters realized in an anime/manga-inspired fashion (drool, bonks on heads, pursed lips, etc.). The women of Death Nell do adhere to a specific type of depiction: eye liner as big as bats and hips as thicc as gravestones. It’s a fun style that juggles sexy and cartoonish – Hot Topic patrons will definitely approve (and mimic!).
Madame Flowers.
Death Nell’s comedy falls in line with school sex comedies of the 80s and the 2000s. This can be both a blessing and a curse depending on perspective. Because she’s an attractive succubus, the faculty of Nell’s school begin to lust after her (the aforementioned Madame Flowers, the graveyard undertaker Edgar) with only professor Reinhart seemingly immune to her passive powers. In reality, this, of course, is a big no-no in classroom power dynamics, yet it is also an extremely common plot device in pornographic stories (“teacher, there has to be something I can do to pass this class!”). The tone of Death Nell is much too lighthearted to even approach levels like David Mamet’s Oleanna, but might find itself in “Penny Pax spends times in detention” territory. The nudity and sexual acts are presented in wanton abandon.
NSFW version of the issue one cover with art by Lapka and Costa.
As is SOP with mature comic books made possible via crowdfunding, the first issue of Death Nell comes in a variety of alternative covers, with nude variants of each. The campaign to fund issue two of Death Nell (which ends February 15th) follows suit.
There was also additional, fun swag that came with copies of Death Nell issue one:
Art prints
Art Prints that have a crossover with Bag Bug’s other erotic series, Vanya.
And cards.
The first issue of Death Nell is fun-n-flirty, school sex comedy. Nell has to deal with typical college problems of being socially awkward and get good grades, while also finding out who she is as a person. Er, succubus.
We’ve all been there.
For more information on Death Nell, check out these links:
Digging through my archives I came across an article I wrote for my zine as part of S. T. Joshi’s Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. The article was in dire need of editing and spell checking, but it still seemed like a fun piece on retroism and sword and sorcery.
Michele also has an episode on her top 5 vampires which can be heard here. Sincere appreciation for Fan2Fan for having us on as guests!
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Collection of Emmanuelle comics by Guido Crepax (personal collection).
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
For our monthly appearance on Scholars from the Edge of Time, Michele and I discuss the 1959 Biblical plum film Solomon and Sheba (see below). The episode can be viewed on Hercules Invictus’ YouTube channel.
James Bond and Popular Culture Review
Michele’s book, James Bond and Popular Culture, has a brand new review online!
Lex “Hugin” Karrila has an autobiography being published this year by Running Wild Productions: 40 Years a Black Metal Punk. The books covers his 40+ year musical career from his punk days to his later metal, industrial, dungeon synth, and other extreme genres with projects such as Uruk-Hai, Hrossharsgrani, BoneMachine, and many more.
I had the honor to collaborate with Karrila on a few songs for his Ceremony of Innocence project and have done a deep analysis of his Hrossharsgrani album Pro Liberate Dimicandum Est which is part of my essay in the upcoming A Hero Will Endure collection (see below).
In conjunction with the book, a double album is being released that provides an aural sampling of Karrila’s musical career. Included on the compilation is the Ceremony of Innocence track “Our Fire Burns” which I did lyrics and vocals for, so that is very cool (note: my old website has a discography section, I might have to bring that back!).
The German edition of the book is slated to be released this April (Bandcamp page for Running Wild Productions, keep an eye there) while an English edition will be published later this year.
A Hero Will Endure Preorder
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is available for preorder at the Vernon Press website.
This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling” and is slated to be released in February.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Rest in Peplum Gina Lollobrigida
Iconic Italian starlet Gina Lollobrigida passed away on the 16th this month.
My autographed 8×10 of Lollobrigida.
She didn’t star in too many historic epics, however she did star opposite of Yum Brenner in King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba.
The barebones Blu-ray of Solomon and Sheba.
Michele and I decided to make her and this film the primary focus of our Scholars from he Edge of Time appearance this month (see above).
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Kickstarter
The folks at New Edge Sword and Sorcery will be launching a Kickstarter very soon to fund publishing of issue 1 (issue 0 can be found on Amazon).
Personal copy of issue 0.
You can sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live at this link.
Note: This essay was first published in the autumn of 2018 in the Letters from Thanator zine that is part of S. T. Joshi’s Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. This essay has been updated with corrections to spelling, word usage, and various clarifications.
A Game Called Quest is author S. J. Larsson’s third book, after 2016’s Megalodon: Apex Predator and 2017’s Total Immersion. Published with Severed Press, (as with his other two titles), A Game Called Quest concerns brother and sister Donny and Amanda, joined by friend Kevin, as they play a video game on the Atari 2600 entitled Quest which seemingly has VR capabilities that puts them into a fantasy world called Quintarria. The novella itself has issues: misspellings pop up more frequent than they should and Larsson doesn’t appear to be up to task to convey the story at an appropriate pace and consistent fashion. Despite these shortcomings, A Game Called Quest is noteworthy for its attempt at blending retro-modernism in the form of 80s nostalgia that has surfaced in the past decade along with the neo-peplum/sword and sorcery genre. The ongoing wave of 80s nostalgia is mostly preoccupied with the era’s horror aspect, (as evident in the Netflix series Stranger Things), and Miami Vice-esque aesthetics and for the most part eschews the sword and sorcery element that were popular during the decade. A Game Called Quest’s intersection of 80s retro-ism and sword and sorcery is its strongest facet and deserves exploration.
Personal copy of A Game Called Quest.
This short-form article will first provide a plot summation of A Game Called Quest followed by an attempt to unearth both the 80s retro-modernism and sword and sorcery elements in the story. Next, additional contextualization will be pointed out between the text and the real world, specifically regarding the usage of Pac-Man and how A Game Called Quest relates to other early console fantasy games, some that flirt with ARG (alternate reality game)-elements, akin to Quest’s VR immersion.
A Game Called Quest centers on Donny, a fourteen year old freshman trying to purchase a copy of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 on launch day, but is thwarted by class bullies Brian, Duff, and Ernie. His punk-rock sister Amanda takes him and Kevin, a not-quite-a-friend of Donny’s, to purchase something else to cheer them up. They wind up in a mysterious trinket store where the eccentric proprietor, Royee, rents them an Atari game he created himself: Quest. The three take the game, along with its various peripherals, back home and play it. They are plunged into a fantasy world called Quintarria, with Donny assuming the role of a wizard and party leader, Amanda an elf archer, and Kevin a dwarf warrior. The three set off to save the kingdom, leveling up by killing monsters and bosses while gaining new skills and abilities in the process. At the same time, they also combat the real world bullies who intrude on them. The novella ends with the trio beating the VRgame, besting the bullies, and returning Quest to Royee, whose shop mysteriously disappears.
The 80s was perhaps the last gilded age of the sword and sorcery genre until the Lord of the Rings trilogy attempted to revive it twenty years later. The decade prior saw the cumulation of literary sword and sorcery, with folks like Lin Carter who edited many fantasy anthologies that gave visibility to both new talent and older, obscure works. The 80s saw the genre transcend the literary world and into other mediums, particularly in the cinematic realm. Examples include film adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s Conan such as Conan the Barbarian (1982, John Milius) and Conan the Destroyer (1984, Richard Fleischer), esoteric fare such as Hundra (1983, Matt Cimber), animated endeavors like Fire and Ice (1983, Ralph Bakshi) and even Italian derivatives such as Ator, The Fighting Eagle (1982, Joe D’Amato) and Conquest (1983, Lucio Fulci). The genre was also explored in video games, such as Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, Legendary Axe and Golden Axe, and tabletop games as with Dungeons and Dragons.
Despite the popularity of the genre, sword and sorcery elements are greatly lacking representation in the current 80s nostalgia trend. Outrun, the aesthetics that dominate 80s retro-ism and so named after the Sega arcade game of the same name, concentrates on components such as neon-magenta colours, vector gridlines, VHS tracking artifacts and faux VHS boxart, a setting sun broken by clouds, fast cars and palm trees. Synthwave, the music genre heavily inspired by the 80s, focuses mostly on horror elements (especially John Carpenter films and his music), as well police elements such as those in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, William Friedkin), and cyberpunk and 8-bit/16-bit video game aesthetics. Movies and television shows such as Stranger Things, Kung Fury (2015, David Sandberg), Turbo Kid (2015, Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell), and so on, also focus on these facets of the 80s. Stranger Things comes close to tackling the sword and sorcery genre during this time period, with the children in the show playing Dungeons and Dragons in season one and the arcade game Dragon’s Lair in season two. However, depictions of Frank Frazetta-styled barbarians and ruggedly harsh but fantastic worlds are absent in the present day trend of retro-modernism. Most sword and sorcery depictions appear in shows such as Game of Thrones, but even that series has its own identity and does not rely on 80s homage. The Fox television show Son of Zorn is perhaps the closest example of sword and sorcery done in a retro-modern fashion. Son of Zorn was a live action sitcom with a cartoonish He-Man inspired character named Zorn inserted into the “real world” à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Robert Zemeckis) and Cool World (1992, Ralph Bakshi). The show was not a success and was cancelled after its first season.
Therefore, while the greater outrun, synthwave, and retro-modernism movements are concerned with exploring the horror, retro-tech, cyberpunk and Miami Vice elements of the 80s, A Game Called Quest differentiates itself within 80s revivalism by centering itself at the crossroads of retro-gaming and the sword and sorcery genre while borrowing heavily from other popular and cult 80s stories. To begin with, A Game Called Quest shares much in common with The NeverEnding Story (1984, Wolfgang Petersen): both involve bullies harassing a young protagonist and a sequence in which the youth visits a store and procures an item (a book in The NeverEnding Story and a video game in A Game Called Quest) that transports them to a fantasy world full of magic and populated by fantastic beasts and denizens. There are also shades of Labyrinth (1986, Jim Hensen) and Tron (1982, Steven Lisberger) present in A Game Called Quest as well, with both films involving heroes going to another world, with Tron complimenting the video game aspect and Labyrinth the fantasy aspect. Though made in the early 90s, it should be pointed out that A Game Called Quest’s plot anticipates Full Moon Entertainment’s Arcade (1993, Albert Pyun) in which teenagers are transported into a virtual video game world.
Regarding the 80s sword and sorcery elements, attention should first be directed to the novella’s cover. The artwork is a stock piece of art called “Dwarf Knight on Winter Cold” by Vuk Kostic1 that depicts a heavily armored dwarf in a forest during a winter’s night. The placement of the artwork against a solid red background and the typeface of the title has the cover replicate the box art of an old Atari video game. Though the dwarf isn’t quite in the Frazetta or Boris Vallejo style, it still evokes 80s fantasy elements. The story proper, of course, is submerged in video game sword and sorcery, with a party of adventurers fighting dragons, dark elves, snow imps, trolls, chimeras, and more. While the sword and sandal and the sword and sorcery genres share some overlap, A Game Called Quest contains elements of the neo-peplum genre, having been written post-1990, and by playfully making use of the genre tropes in a unique fashion.2 Basically, a contemporary-written book that leverages the sword and sorcery genre but via an 80s retro-gaming framework.
There is some fortuitous irony in that Donny is able to get Quest over Pac-Man. Various times through the story, Donny or Kevin exclaim how Quest is the greatest game ever.3 This is in stark contrast to the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man that Donny had been pining for. This was the first home console port of Pac-Man, though it differs wildly in quality to the superior arcade version. Though initially a best seller, the port’s poor quality eventually had a negative impact to both Atari (who had manufactured an excessive number of cartridges)4 and the overall image of the video game industry. These would be elements that led into the video game crash of 1983.5
Poor reception of Pac-Man aside, there is a greater link between Pac-Man, Quest and fantasy games as they appeared on early consoles. The 2600 port of Pac-Man was programmed by Tod R. Frye who would go on to program the Swordquestseries of games for the 2600. Swordquest consisted of three games, Earthworld, Fireworld, and Waterworld with a fourth release, Airworld, being unreleased (though a version would appear on the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration compilation released in late 2022). The Swordquest games were not RPG games but instead adventure-puzzlers. Taking place in a fantasy world, players would move between rooms, dropping off items and solving puzzles. The innovative feature of the Swordquest games, much like Quest, is the ARG/metagame aspect of it: accomplishments in the game could impact the real world. In Swordquest, clues are unveiled within the game and crossed referenced in an accompanying comic book. Solving these puzzles would offer the player opportunities to win real world treasures created by the Franklin Mint: the Talisman of Penultimate Truth from Earthworld, the Chalice of Light from Fireworld, the Crown of Life from Waterworld, the Philosopher’s Stone from Airworld and ultimately the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. The series was ultimately cancelled after the limited release of Waterworld and Atari was purchased by Tramel Technology.6 It is quite uncanny that Quest attempts to blend a video game with the real world in its narrative while the Swordquest series was, in every practical sense, actually able to perform this feat.
A Game Called Quest is not the best written work as Larsson doesn’t posses either the technical writing or storytelling acumen to truly accomplish what they set out to do. However, the fragments that do exist, the intersection of 80s nostalgia and the sword and sorcery genre via retro-gaming, is a stand out, well executed aspect of the novella. It’s definitely aninteresting take on the sword and sorcery genre as well as a refreshing nostalgia piece that attempts to work with specific80s tropes that are not as popular as others.
A few of the tenants of neo-pepla is that while it is applicable mostly to the sword and sandal stories, it has a universality that is can be applied to stories with shades of sword and sandal and encourages different styles (especially post-modern) of storytelling as well. The genre is also not restricted to films, but instead is a true transmedia genre thatcan be found in television, video games, comic books, music, literature, and other media as well. Nicholas Diak, introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, ed. Nicholas Diak (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017), 6-14
S. J. Larsson, A Game Called Quest (Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018), 18, 130.
Steven L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 236.
Diak, Nicholas. Introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, 4-19. Edited by Nicholas Diak. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017.
Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Larsson, S. J. A Game Called Quest. Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018.
The second issue of the neo-peplum comic Born of Blood was released late 2022 by MERC Publishing.
I’ve done a write up of the issue which can be read here.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Personal copy of Emmanuelle 4 signed by Brinke Stevens.
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
New Episode of H. P. Lovecast
A new episode of H. P. Lovecast is now online. This episode was recorded last month, but with all the moving and getting settled, we are publishing it now. It’s a recap episode where Michele and I talk about accomplishments of 2022, personal projects, and goals for 2023. Check it out at our Buzzsprout website, at the podcast player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
A Hero Will Endure Cover Reveal and Table of Contents
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator has a (draft) cover reveal and a table of contents! Here is the cover (might be slightly changed):
Draft cover.
And here is the table of contents:
Introduction: On Comets, Cakes, and Toys – Marking ‘Gladiator Days’ for (More than) Two Decades – Rachel L. Carazo
Chapter 1 “A Vital and Adrenalized Contributor”: DreamWorks, Gladiator, and the Establishment of a Movie Studio – Kimberly A. Owczarski
Chapter 2 ‘Wailing’ and ‘Moaning’: Gladiator’s Music Phenomenon and Legacy – Matthew Hodge
Chapter 3 “What We Do in Life, Echoes in Eternity”: An Ecocritical Reading of the Scenery and Landscapes in Gladiator – Stefano Rozzoni
Chapter 4 Maximus – The Twenty-First-Century Hybrid Hero: The Bridge Between Traditional and Counterculture Hero Archetypes in Gladiator – Kristen Leer
Chapter 5 “Father! I would butcher the whole world, if you would only love me…”: The Character of Commodus, between Historical Reality and Cinematographic Representation – Livio Lepratto
Chapter 6 “Commodus is not a Moral Man”: Nemesis, Narrative Construction, and Historical Reconstruction in Gladiator – James Shelton
Chapter 7 Games for the Throne, the Thread of Love, and Women and Heroes: Mythic Gendered Arenas in Gladiator and Game of Thrones – Loraine Haywood
Chapter 8 “…But Not Yet”: Reflections on Juba, the Spirit Guide and “Eternal Echo” of Gladiator – Ashley Weaver
Chapter 9 Ecce homo heroicus! The Enduring Maximus, Twenty Years On – Peter Burkholder and Krista Jenkins
Chapter 10 Roman Religious Figurines that “hear you […] in the afterlife”: Maximus’ Lares, His Vilica, and the Pomerium of Elysium in Gladiator – Rachel L. Carazo
Chapter 11 Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling – Nicholas Diak
Chapter 12 Gladiator and Contemporary Roman Customs: The Myth of Maximus on the Roma and Lazio Soccer Fields – Antonio Valerio Spera
The collection is set to be published this February by Vernon Press which has a product/pre-order page.
Matt Page has a review of the newly resorted 1948 Biblical peplum film Queen Esther starring Ottilie Kruger (in her only non-stage acting role per IMDB) as the titular character (from the Book of Esther).
This past Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for me because I received not one, but two! Joseph S. Pulver. Sr. edited Lovecraftian anthologies that contain Nick Mamatas autographs.
The first is The Leaves of a Necronomicon which Nick Mamatas graciously autographed to me. Copies can be ordered via this link at Books Inc.
Next is the Dreamlands anthology New Maps of Dream. This anthology was actually released back in 2020, but the edition with autograph pages from the contributors was delayed due to the sheets being lost in the mail. However, this edition is now released and can be purchased at PS Publishing.
HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 09 – Kaaron Warren, Christine Morgan, and Matthew M. Bartlett –
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Emmanuelle à la Crepax
Italian erotic comics artist Guido Crepax has been having his body of work republished by Fantagraphics. At the tale end of 2022 the publisher released The Complete Guido Crepax: Erotic Stories 1 which contains all of his Emmanuelle adaptations:
I had trade paperback editions of Emmanuelle 1 and 3 but missing 2, so having this collection released was an excellent surprise.
Of course, if anyone wants to write about sequential art versions of Emmanuelle, I happen to have a CFP open…..
Funko Toga and Sandal Homer
Michele gifted me this rather adorable Toga and Sandal-themed Funko Homer Simpson named Obeseus.
It’s not shown in this picture, but he’s holding a drumstick. I love it!
Xiphos – The Rise and Fall of Athens
The Rise and Fall of Athens is the debut album of the martial/neo-classical outfit Xiphos.
As can be seen from the cover and title, the neo-peplum album is about Ancient Greece. Two of the members of Xiphos, Miklós Hoffer and Troy Southgate, and also a part of the neo-classical outfit H.E.R.R. who have an album called XII Caesars that explores the same subject matter.
Hoffer was gracious to autograph a copy of the album to me. Copies of the limited edition digipack can be ordered by PayPaling 11.99 euros to mgahoffer AT hotmail.com
