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Sheer Delights: Bachelor Pad Nylon Nightcap #1

Since 2007, Jason “Java” Croft has been creating and publishing the digest-sized pinup magazine, Bachelor Pad (for more information about the history and production of Bachelor Pad check out the interview with Croft in Vilioti Vintage. My review of this book can be read here). Filled with comics, reviews, articles, and of course, many images of pinup/cheesecake/glamour models, Bachelor Pad is the de facto leader in literature for the “mature” and “sophisticated reader.”

Bachelor Pad Nylon Nightcap #1 cover promo image provided courtesy from Jason “Java” Croft.

With almost twenty years of publication, the need to innovate and experiment with Bachelor Pad has led to the creation specialty lines of issues: spotlight issues, Nightcap Edition (which focuses on topless pinups), and Tattoo Nightcap (which focus on topless tattooed models). Nylon Nightcap is the newest endeavor from Bachelor Pad to deep dive and showcase an iconic component of pinup photography and history: the stocking. Per Croft

“I am always looking for new ideas or new themes to expand the Bachelor Pad brand. I like to mix things up. I like to give myself a challenge every once in a while. Nightcap editions have always been our most popular issues (nudies girls, who knew?). Several years back we started doing our Tattoo Nightcap and way back when we did a X-mas Nightcap. This [Nylon Nightcap] seemed like a natural addition to the lineup. And, when you think of the types of retro pin-ups we feature, the classic stockings and garter look are right at home with what we do. It really is the foundation, if you will, to most pin-up looks.”

The inaugural issue of Nylon Nightcap showcases eight models (Heather Marie, Annette Coquette, Abby Dandy, Leela Minx, Peach Venom, Alaina Rose Lee, Lady Gold Moon, Miss Penelope Pink) and a story + photoset from Miss Corsair Debonair. If these names sound familiar, they should be, as most have appeared in prior issues of Bachelor Pad Magazine, with many of them making their Nightcap debut in this stockings-centric issue, an aspect that Croft is proud of:

“Most of the models had been in regular issues of the magazine. Three had been in other Nightcap projects. Six made their first Nightcap appearances with this issue. I don’t think we’ve ever had that before. I think that says something when lots of folks want to make their Nightcap debuts with this particular issue.”

For veteran readers of Bachelor Pad, seeing their favourite pinups in their (debut) appearance in a Nightcap iteration provides a more intimate venue to appreciate their craft. For brand new readers of Bachelor Pad, Nylon Nightcap provides an excellent introduction to these retro-inspired models.

Since Nylon Nightcap’s focus is on stockings, the photosets contained within showcase a variety of stocking colours and styles that guarantee an appeal to everyone. Colour-wise, Marie Heather is blue, Annette Coquette is white, Abby Dandy with black-brown, Leela Minx with transparent, Peach Venom and Lady gold Moon with black, Alaina Rose Lee with red, and Miss Penelope Pink with tan-brown. Style-wise, all the models wear stockings save Peach Venom who sports a pair of French-cut pantyhose. Abby Dandy, Leela Minx, Alaina Rose Lee, and [especially] Heather Marie all show off their seams while Annette Coquette’s white stockings feature small white flowers on down her ankle sides. With all this variety and emphasis on hosiery, Croft made sure to account for this in designing the issue:

“Fundamentally, it’s still your standard Bachelor Pad Nightcap issue. I still try to give each layout its own personality and try to write fun copy for each model. The big difference this time was to keep in mind that we were doing an issue focused on nylons and the legs that wear them. So, in the layouts, you see a lot more full-length photos as well as shots of just legs. Had to make sure the nylons were the focus of what people were looking at.”

To further cement this nylon philosophy home, the last comic in Nylon Nightcap (by Becca Whitaker) depicts a pinup wearing layers of different stockings, stating “I didn’t know which ones to pick, so I wore them all!”

Heather Marie promo picture provided courtesy from Jason “Java” Croft.

The first pinup in Nylon Nightcap, Heather Marie, wears a killer colour combo of black gloves and blue-seamed and blue topped stockings with matching blue garters, posing on a blue sofa. She appeared in Nightcap #14.

Annette Coquette brings a cabaret vibe with her gemstone garters and seductive teacher glasses while posing in front of a piano. This is her debut Nightcap appearance, but she previously appeared in Bachelor Pad #50.

Abby Dandy promotional image provided courtesy from Jason “Java” Croft.

Abby Dandy is the third model showcased in Nylon Nightcap and she projects the classic Irving Klaw/Eric Stanton fetish vibes with her black corset and seamed black-brown stockings that look delicate with a vintage vibe. The presence of a floor length mirror ensures readers are treated to double Abby Dandy. While this is her Nightcap debut, her prior appearance was in issues #69 and #68, sharing a photoshoot with the iconic Bernie Dexter in the latter.

Stack of Bachelor Pad issues from personal collection. Issue #68 is on top, autographed by cover model Bernie Dexter.

Following Abby Dandy is the photoset for cover model Leela Minx who brings a radiant Claire Sinclair vibe. Leela Minx’s outfit is a translucent black nightie with transparent black seamed stockings. The purple background goes with the purple ribbon that she uses to tie herself up with while sitting on a chair, recalling retro-bondage photography, but with a much more feminine touch. She previously appeared in Bachelor Pad #64.

Next, Nylon Nightcap takes a slight break from the singular photoshoots to showcase a collection of different photos of Miss Corsair Debonair along with a short missive of her’s. Debonair is a veteran of Bachelor Pad and sums up her experience initially becoming featured in the magazine:

“In 2020 as I was testing the waters with pinup photography and using myself as a subject, I sent a submission to Bachelor Pad as my biggest goal. Bachelor Pad has high standards for image quality and doesn’t churn out issues as fast as photographs come in, so I knew if I could make it into Bachelor Pad, my images were on the right track. Those first ones weren’t accepted, but Java gave me some great tips and I continued to improve until I made it in.”

Bachelor Pad #58 and Nightcap #12 from personal collection.

Debonair’s prior appearances include the Christmas themed issue #58 and Nightcap Edition #12.

The photos of Debonair in Nylon Nightcap include bonus photos from her prior appearances in Bachelor Pad which had not been published before. These photos are coupled with a short commentary piece about wearing hosiery written by Debonair.

“I’ve been so busy that I wasn’t able to do a whole new set of photos for this issue, and Java said it wouldn’t be right to do a Nylon issue without something from me. So, I wrote about what first attracted me to nylons and how I wear them now.”

Following Miss Corsair Debonair’s section is Peach Venom who previously appeared in Bachelor Pad #65. Peach Venom has a fun set, with her black pantyhose and elbow length gloves, and a powerful look underscored by her yellow eye makeup, all giving her a distinguished aura.

Burlesque performer and tiki aficionado Alaina Rose Lee dominates the colour red that emit from her seamed stockings, heels, straps, hair, and bedroom-boudoir set with fluffy blankets and valentines’ pillows. Lee can also be seen in Bachelor Pad #57.

The second to last pinup is Lady Gold Moon, who like Abby Dandy, channels a retro-dominating look with her black stockings and top. Lady Gold Moon enhances the vibe she is going for by using props such as whips while her set echoes an old school “man cave” with wood paneled walls. It would not be hard to imagine that there is a camera club outside frame taking pictures of her sultry poses. Nylon Nightcap is Lady Gold Moon’s Nightcap debut, but she can be previously seen in Bachelor Pad # 69. 

Stack of Bachelor Pad issues from personal collection. Tattoo Nightcap #6 is on top.

The final model showcased in Nylon Nightcap is Miss Penelope Pink, complete with her iconic look of pink hair and sporty tattoos. Miss Penelope Pink made her Bachelor Pad debut in Tattoo Nightcap #6. Miss Penelope Pink recalls:

“I’ve been a long-time follower and fan of Bachelor Pad for many years. I was so excited to see that Java added a special Nightcap edition specifically for tattooed models. It blended my love of vintage/pinup and tattooed look perfectly, I just knew I had to be part of it!”

Miss Penelope Pink brings her love of vintage and hosiery to her photoshoot, wearing a pink corset that matches her hair with garters that connect to old school solid brown stockings. For Miss Penelope Pink:

“I wear stockings for most of my shoots, nothing beats the look of nylons! I’m inspired by classic pinups of the 50s and have quite the collection of stockings: seamed, Cuban heel, different color stocking tops. For this shoot, I wanted to pair my nylons with a corset, as I have several and just love being cinched down.”

Between the photosets, Nylon Nightcap features stockings-centric comics by Jaimie Filer, Misha Pinup Art, Jerry Carr, Carlos Carrillo, and the aforementioned Becca Whitaker. An erotic short story by Sasha Dahl about a display worker at Marshalls working on a lingerie display who winds up attending to a peculiar customer’s needs rounds out the features of the magazine.

Overall, the inaugural issue of Bachelor Pad’s Nylon Nightcap is a tremendous success. The photoshoots are professionally shot with interesting and retro sets. The pinup ladies are all exciting and gorgeous to look at, with each one showcasing a different facet of the allure of stockings. Aside from the nylons continuity, the issue in its entirety is adventurous and fun, as was the intent of Croft:

“With all my issues I want it to be fun for the readers, and I want for those people who are involved to be proud to be in it. I think I accomplished both of those. On top of that, I got to see a lot of models who weren’t in the issue get excited about the concept. So, we made a showcase for those who were in it and inspired others to want to be in future issue. I would call that a success.”

With the publication of Nylon Nightcap, Croft reflects on its impact of readers and models and the future for the new line of the themed magazine:

“The response has been amazing. Besides other models and photographers being inspired, our readers have really taken to it. It really struck a chord with pin-up fans. But, I’m really not surprised. It’s fun to have themes every once in a while. Sometimes folks need a creative prompt. And I’m happy to supply it. […] I already have people asking about the next [issue of Nylon Nightcap]. My hope would be to be able to do another at the end of 2025. All I need is for folks to start sending me those photos!”

Sincere appreciation to Jason “Java” Croft, Miss Corsair Debonair, and Miss Penelope Pink for their time providing quotations to use in this write up. For more information on Bachelor Pad, Nylon Nightcap, or the models, artists, and writers featured within, check out the following links:
 
Bachelor Pad Links

Model Links

Artist and Writer Links

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Essays Peplum

Game of the Year: Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

Non-PC videogaming during the 90s was predominately dominated by three companies: Nintendo (Super Nintendo, N64, and the Gameboy), Sega (Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast), and, in the latter half of the decade, Sony (Playstation). It was an era of innovation (graphics and online capabilities), experimentation (FMV and system add-ons), and transition (12 bit to 32 to 64, cartridges to CDs), and these three companies trailblazed the gaming Wild West. Of course, other companies would throw their hats into the ring to partake in the Console Wars, though most would fail miserably: Atari with the Jaguar, 3DO Company with the 3DO, and Philips with the CD-i (SNK’s Neo-Geo is an outlier console). These consoles failed for just reasons (lack of gaming libraries, hard to develop for, poor performance), but remain a curious aspect of gaming history, though practically inaccessible to revisit with retrogaming in mind. Emulation of these systems is difficult and out of reach of a typical gamer, hardware is expensive and prone to break, and console exclusive titles do not see releases.

That is until the past few years in which failed console games have started to be resurrected with re-releases. Atari 50, released in 2022, is a museum/compilation hybrid release that contained nine Atari Jaguar titles, providing the first opportunity in thirty years to play these games. In 2024 Limited Run Games re-released the maligned 1993 3DO game Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, allowing gamers to experience one of the worst video game titles in existence. 

Cover art for Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, also released by Limited Run Games in 2024, is title born out of these resurrected titles. Back in 1993, Philips released two Legend of Zelda games on its CD-i console: Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (the same year the Super Mario Bros. movie was released [Nintendo seemed to be a bit more laissez-faire with their properties back them]). The two Zelda games became notorious for their poor quality, horrible controls, and most famously, their cartoon cutscenes. Someone looked at these two Zelda games and said, “But what if they were remade – but made good?” The end result is Arzette, and it is an AMAZING game.

Released across all major gaming platforms, Arzette is a fantasy adventure game with some light Metroidvania elements, an homage to the two aforementioned Zelda games, and a love letter to a different style of retrogaming that has not been accessible for some time. 

The river level in Arzette. The colorful backgrounds done in an drawn/painted style are like this for every level.

The first thing players will notice about Arzette is its art style and animation. The narrated intro to Arzette is done in a colour-pencil, storybook style. The game proper shies away from the pixel art that has dominated retrogaming and instead embraces a painted aesthetic, which gives each level a unique look. The enemies are also done in a similar style, at times giving them the appearance of vaporwave artwork. The cutscenes of the game are straight poorly animated cartoon style as used the in CD-i Zelda games, and almost reminiscent of rudimentary Flash animation during the format’s heyday. All of this gives Arzette a distinct and unique charm. It does not look like any other game out there right now, while at the same time evoking the imagery of early 90s non-pixel gaming. 

Cutscene of Arzette and the Ice Lady. The animation is crude and the style purposely campy and low budget.

The music of Arzette, composed by Jake Silverman, is an absolute banger and compliments the game’s visual aesthetics. The score is firmly in the realm of fantasy, but it almost has a pirate, tropical vibe to it at times (it would not be out of place in a Shantae game at all). It is upbeat and carries the feeling of exploration. Even the tracks for more sinister looking levels (such as the volcano level) and boss fights sound positive instead of aggressive and menacing. This is a whimsical game and the soundtrack underscores this. 

One of the many criticisms of the original CD-i Zelda games were its controls and gameplay, such as requiring the character to duck in order to access the inventory or having to stab gems with the character’s weapon in order to collect them. Arzette pokes fun at these restrictions without breaking the gameplay. For example, gems and other items can be walked over to be collected (as is standard in 99.99% of these types of games), but in order to talk to another character, they need to be “attacked” with the sword. The sword is (per the story) enchanted in such a way that bad people get damaged while good people do not. As for the ducking to access the menu, Arzette offers a difficulty option that brings in some of these Zelda aspects, such as the duck-menu, into the game. 

On the subject of difficulty, Arzette is an extremely forgiving. The easier settings provide unlimited level continues with enemies spawning health regenerating items. Harder difficulties take away the level continues and health item generation and even bring in the aforementioned Zelda broken gameplay aspects. However, the levels in Arzette are fairly small, broken into even smaller sections. Dying on a screen only sets the player back to the beginning of that screen, so major progress is never lost. This makes Arzette quite accessible to younger or newer gamers, but it does perhaps come at the cost of being almost too easy, even on higher difficulties, for seasoned gamers. Once all of the game’s powerups are collected, Arzette becomes extremely overpowered, regardless of difficulty. 

World map screen for Arzette. Level selection at the bottom, level progress at the top.

As each level is in bite-sized chunks, they invite multiple replays for exploration to find hidden collectables. As with other Metroidvania style games, many areas of Arzette are initially inaccessible until later in the game when a specific item (double jump shoes or a different colour magic shot for example) is procured. A handy menu on the world map indicates progress of each level’s collectables and the system menu indicates game completion percentage. In this regard, Arzette provides quality of life mechanics that were absent in older games, and still sometimes missing in present day titles.

If there is a fault with Arzette it is with its story and characters. The story of Arzette is fairly standard sword and sorcery fare: the evil Daimur (a stand-in for Zelda’s main antagonist Ganon) who was defeated and imprisoned many years ago is set free. He and his band of cronies (which include a horseman and a business suit wearing dragon) set out to conquer the land of Faramore while shrouding it in darkness. Princess Arzette sets out to relight the beacons to bring light back to the kingdom and then defeat Daimur again. This is not George R. R. Martin levels of storytelling, but it is serviceable, and certainly expandable if Arzette sequels are realized.

Arzette and Maki in the bakery.

The characters of Arzette, save the titular character herself, are one dimensional. The majority of characters simply appear during a cutscene, a fetch quest is given/completed, and they scamper off to become dialogue repeating NPCs. This is unfortunate because the world of Arzette looks like it contains some interesting characters (an ogre who likes to garden, a bourgeois frog, a clumsy but well-meaning guard, etc.) that could really take advantage of the game’s camp-style cutscenes. These are missed opportunities to really flesh out the side characters, expand on the world building, and have more of the game’s fun cutscenes. Thankfully, Arzette the character has some great character building: coping with the death of her King father and being the only competent one in the kingdom to stand against Daimur in battle. She also is a problem solver as she develops an alternative way to deal with Daimur than how he has been dealt with in the past. The game also drops hints that Arzette may be a non-heterosexual character, such as her agreeing to a date with the Maki the Baker and her blushing at the physical advances of the Ice Lady. Though the game does not fully commit to this representation, the overall character of Arzette is multifaceted and as far from a stock heroine as seen in games past.

Arzette has been released digitally across all the major gaming consoles, making it readily procurable by almost anyone (in stark contrast to the Zelda CD-i games that command large prices on eBay). In addition to this, Limited Run Games did physical releases of the game for the different platforms, and its collector’s edition incarnation is fully stacked with swag. 

Outside slip case of the Collector’s Edition.

The game comes packaged in the iconic big-box format, evocative of PC game packaging of the 90s. 

Inside box.

The game proper comes with both a standard case as well as a jewel case akin to how CD-i games were packaged back in the day.

Xbox version with clip case, and a CD case with a sleeve.

There is also a soundtrack, a poster map, and a titanic tome of art, lore, background images and information and more. 

Art book, poster, and soundtrack.

There is also a pin of Arzette and a display of Mortar, the pompadour-sporting merchant, though a display of Arzette proper would have been preferred.

Pin and stand.

Overall, Arzette is a fantastic game. The gameplay is a solid adventure/platformer/Metroidvania with a variety of collectibles. The art style is genius, both as an homage to a gaming style that has not been explored in decades but also stands on its own right. The music and the overall presentation of the game is singular and whimsical. The main protagonist has the makings of becoming an iconic videogame character. If Arzette is the result of taking two broken games and turning them into something successful and fun, it would be incredible to see if Arzette can be built upon even more via a sequel title (which, post credits, do hint at).

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Essays

Crimes under the Crux: Andrew Nette’s Orphan Road

Fifty years ago, the Great Bookie Robbery occurred in Melbourne, Australia when a gang of well-prepared robbers made off with millions from a bookmaker that was never recovered. While the large sum of missing monies was well known, what was not as known was a secret stash of diamonds that were absconded with, their purported fate even more mysterious.

Five decades later, Gary Chance, a former soldier of the Australian army who served in Afghanistan, now turned criminal, finds himself in a botched robbery of a cult. Though the operation is a bust, he gains a new partner, Eva McCulloch, another criminal who had eyes on the cult’s hidden fortune.

Both searching for that one last job to put their respective criminal lives behind them, Chance and Eva accept a mission from Vera Leigh, an aging socialite/madame/S&M dungeon owner who needs monies to fight ruthless property developers. The new job: track down the mythical diamonds from the Great Bookie Robbery from ages past. With only sparse clues at their disposal, the duo accepts the gig, which will take them to the United States and different cities in southeast Australia, while also being pursued by former accomplices, cult members, criminals, and a retired police officer who all have eyes on the diamonds themselves.

Andrew Nette’s Orphan Road is an Australian crime novel, though with a greater emphasis on the adventure aspects of the criminal underworld rather than the criminal element proper. The protagonists of Orphan Road are “good” criminals in that their adversaries are all unsavory characters themselves, be it a ruthless developer, White Nationalists, a greedy former police officer, and so on, making the morals depicted in the novel black and white, rather than the grey area that is found in more noir-ish crime stories.

The lead protagonist, Chance, is incredibly fun to follow. He is akin to a Jack Reacher-style character: former military, nomadic, off the grid, cunning, finding themselves in the middle of bigger criminal schemes, and extremely proficient at bedding the ladies. The big difference between the two characters is that Reacher is far more noble and near invulnerable compared to Chance, while Chance is a much more grounded character and less of a Gary Stu. 

The adventure/mystery of Chance trying to track down diamonds, for all purposes lost to history, it fairly exciting, especially considering the roadblocks and dead ends he and his cohorts encounter. There is a tiny bit of globetrotting, fisticuffs, and gunplay, but the forefront is the mystery. Nette crafts a new mystery (the diamonds) and anchors it to a real-world event (the robbery), which gives the story credibility and buy in from the reader. This does cause a small problem: how does one graft this new mystery when decades have passed and most historic players are long dead and leads dried up. How can in-world amateur sleuths and professionals alike fail to find the diamonds, but Chance is able to get a new trail? The clue is fairly lackluster, a newspaper clipping that, in theory, anyone else would have access to, but its serviceable to get the heroes on their adventure. 

The strongest component of Orphan Road does arise from Nette trying to work within these real world confines of lapsed time inherent in old cold cases, and that is its critique on the past and nostalgia. The majority of players in Orphan Road are fairly old, in their 70s and 80s, having served in Vietnam, or East Coast American Mafia of the 80s, or lived through other events. The Melbourne that Chance remembers has been demolished and gentrified, which is supposed to be the ultimate fate of Leigh’s establishment. Leigh, herself, tries to retcon the past by positing it was a time when criminals had class, code, and honour. Chance is quick to point out this rose-coloured view of old school crime, and even confirms it firsthand when he encounters the American mafia, still holding onto their old ways as if in a Scorcese film. Everything in Chance’s mission is old: the archive of files and photos around the diamond caper, the Ford Falcon that is driven, the Luger that is the sidearm, the ruins of burnt down buildings, and even the cult at the beginning of the novel, who worship the lost continent of Atlantis. While there are many adversaries in Orphan Road, the spectre of the past is the prominent one. 

The weakest component, on the other hand, is the end of Orphan Road. Not so much the end-end proper, which does nicely wrap up all loose ends of Chance’s adventure – diamonds and all, but it is the in between the book’s climax and then end revelation. After the climax, the adventure resolution is still not within hand, so the book changes its focus from a time-is-of-the-essence thriller to a leisurely explore around and let a large passage of time elapse pace, which kills the momentum. This is unfortunate because everything up to this point is a real page turner, coupled with heightened stakes as Nette is unafraid to kill off a pivotal characters. 

There is a passion from Nette on display in Orphan Road, and this is no doubt due to his love of the pulp genre, police procedurals, and gritty crime cinema, all of which he has written essays and commentaries about. With Orphan Road, Nette is able to seize a historic robbery, make it even more interesting, and throw in characters like Chance that are easy to become invested in, while at the same time not resorting to the tried-and-true method of pulling rabbits out of the pop culture reference hat. Orphan Road is anchored historically, despite being contemporary, and it succeeds extremely well. 

For more information on Orphan Road and Andrew Nette, check out these links:

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Essays

Your Mountain Is Waiting: Review Of Zeena’s Transcend Album

In 2023 multimedia and multidiscipinary artist Zeena unveiled her newest musical endeavor, Transcend, at the Movement of the Triangle series exhibit at the Snow Gallery in New York City. Though the exhibit took place last June, Zeena’s music was preserved as a digital-only album published via Bandcamp.

In the 80s and early 90s Zeena made gothic and death rock music while part of Radio Werewolf. Years later she would begin releasing her own music while exploring different genres. In 2020 Zeena realized her debut solo endeavor, Bring Me The Head Of F. W. Murnau, which was part silent film score, a hint of experimental-industrial, and a large dose of field recordings. Concurrently, Zeena explored a spiritual angle through her music, which listeners got to preview with her live performance of “Sethian Dream Oracle” that was released on the John Murphy tribute compilation All My Sins Remembered in 2016. Transcend can be thought of as the next canonical entry in Zeena’s spiritual music output.

Transcend balances two genres – new age and ambient – though neither in an expected fashion. Ambient music, in the Cryo Chamber vein, can conjure up images of deep space, forgotten cities, desolate alien landscapes, and so on, with an emphasis on droning and emptiness. It can certainly be a lonely genre. Transcend has some of these aspects of “alone-ness” yet it is hardly lonely. The album places an emphasis on the self, but acts as a companion in the process – a guide. The listener’s journey with Transcend may be as an individual, but the album provides a presence, ensuring the listener is not by themselves. Transcend also invites internal exploration, which is the opposite of other ambient varieties that prompt external exploration.

Transcend contains three tracks: “Ascent,” “Parting Clouds,” and “Gone Beyond.” The track list may be small but the runtime is substantial, coming in at over fifty minutes of music. If one takes the names of the three titles along with the album name, visuals of climbing a mountain are conjured up. Going a step further and bringing in an element of a silent film score (as Zeena had done with the aforementioned Bring Me The Head Of F. W. Murnau), transforms the listening experience into an aural version of a bergfilm. Transcend is a three act mountain film without the visuals, yet rife with both movement yet contemplation, depicting the overcoming of obstances, be them physical or psychic. 

Act one, “Ascent,” is the initial mountain climb. The ambiance has a calming “awww” to it, but slowly as the song progresses, a breathing pattern begins to emerge, before becoming dominate over halfway through the song. The song’s breathing has two functions: to invite the listener to partake in breathing exercises, but also to convey the sense of exertion as one climbs the album’s metaphorical mountain. 

Act two, “Parting Clouds,” is the resting song. The listener is sitting on an outcropping, seeing the land through wispy clouds, taking in the imagery and a respite on their journey. There is the simile of a string instrument that flutters in the song, adding an essence of alpine folk. The final act, “Gone Beyond,” is a mirror of “Ascent,” with the heavy breathing surfacing again like a train starting to gain momentum. Though the song is the album’s last, it is the next step in the listener’s journey as they resume their quest up the mountain, into the sky, and beyond. 

The cover art of Transcend is a part of a larger piece titled Ladders that was created by Zeena. The imagery of the ladders, of course, invokes the feeling of going “up,” which ties into the theme of the album. However, the shadow play of the ladders, that they all appear to be going in different directions, with one even bent, generates a German Expressionist cinema vibe to the piece (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari-esque). Such evocations can be found a-plenty in Zeena’s prior album, Bring Me The Head of F. W. Murnau, which also tie into the bergfilm vibes of the album as well.

In Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss quips “You’re off to great places, today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” Though the passage is whimiscal, its text is certainly appropriate for Zeena’s Transcend. There is a concept to conquer, be it a literal or metaphoric mountain – or something else, for the betterment of the self. Transcend is the soundtrack for that journey, with a great place (spiritually, mentally, or something else), waiting at the summit. 

If you want to learn more about Transcend or the other music works of Zeena check out the links below.

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Essays Peplum

Peplum Ponderings: Vulcan, Son of Jupiter (1962)

Plot

On Mount Olympus, Jupiter (Furio Meniconi) is irate at the current state of affairs of his children and other gods disobeying and doing their own things. Of specific concern is the goddess Venus (Annie Gorassini) who is absconding to Earth and using her beauty and charms to seduce the men who catch her attention. Jupiter and his wife Juno (Edda Ferronao) come to the conclusion that the only way to tame Venus is to have her married to a husband that can control her. Two suitors come to mind: Mars, the god of war (Roger Browne) and Vulcan, the god of fire (Iloosh Khoshabe).

While working in his forge, Vulcan is baited into a brawl with Mars. Jupiter intervenes and punishes them both. Mars has had enough of his controlling dad, so he and Venus escape to Earth with the help of Pluto (Gordon Mitchell) where they ally themselves with Milos, king of the Thracians (Omero Gargano). Mars proposes to Milos a plan to construct a giant tower to Mount Olympus where they can then invade and overthrow Jupiter.

Mars, Venus, and Milos discuss the tower.

Vulcan, in pursuit of the wayward duo, is stabbed by Pluto and left for dead on a beach on Earth. His unconscious body is happened upon by Aetna (Bella Cortez) and her siren companions, collectively known as the Daughters of Neptune. They pluck up Vulcan with the intent to take care of him, but their quest to do a good deed is short lived as they are all captured by lizard men and imprisoned. The daughters hatch an escape plan that involves having fellow prisoner Geo (Salvatore Furnari), use his short-stature to hide in a basket, and is carried out to the sea and dumped into the water. Geo plays a conch that was given to him by the Daughters which summons a Triton who takes him to Neptune (Amedeo Trilli) who is briefed on the situation.

Vulcan captured by the Lizard people.

Geo, with the aide of the Tritons, break back into the prison and free Vulcan and the Daughters of Neptune. Vulcan and Aetna make their way to Neptune’s underwater kingdom where Aetna does a belly dance for Vulcan. However her routine is interrupted by Mercury (Isarco Ravaioli) who arrives with the news of Mars’ plan to overthrow Jupiter. Concurrently, Milos’ soldiers capture all the now-freed prisoners and put them to work on Jupiter’s tower construction project.

Vulcan returns to land in order to stop Mars and forces Geo to guide him to Milos’ camp. Aetna, who is in love with Vulcan, wishes to accompany him, but Vulcan rebuffs so she follows the duo in secret. On her trek she is ambushed by a group of cavemen but is rescued by Vulcan and Geo. Together all three travel to Milos’ camp. En route, Aetna calls out Vulcan’s negative treatment of her, and Vulcan confesses he no longer yearns for Venus. The two embrace. 

While scouting Milos’ camp, Aetna is captured by soldiers. Venus makes overt her jealousy of Aetna. Aetna is tortured and tied to a stake where she is to be executed by a wheeled contraption that has spears protruding forth. However, Vulcan and Geo are able to free the enslaved prisoners and they all attack Milos’ camp. Venus uses a whip to lash at a freed Aetna, but Aetna gets the upper hand, steals her whip and attacks back. Milos is killed by a spear through the heart by one of the prisoners. Vulcan and Mars finally face off against each other, with Vulcan wielding a giant club. As he is about to slay Mars, Jupiter intervenes: he forces Mars and Venus back to Olympus to be punished while Vulcan must stay on Earth with Aetna as long as he sees fit. 

Victory over Mars and Milos’ men.

Commentary

Vulcan, Son of Jupiter is a 1962, classic Italian peplum, directed by Emimmo Salvi, who had prior written numerous sword and sandal and costume flicks, such as Goliath and the Barbarians (1959), David and Goliath (1960), The Seven Revenges (1961), and The Giant of Metropolis (1961). The movie showcases many classic sword and sandal tropes such as leaning heavily into both mythology and Antiquity (making it akin to films such as Jason and the Argonauts [1963]), featuring a Hercules-style protagonist, and having not one, but two prisoner/slave revolts sequences. What makes Vulcan, Son of Jupiter stand out in the peplum canon are its archetypal characters and how different they are portrayed, especially the two female characters of Venus and Aetna.

Vulcan, the titular hero of the film, is also the primary strongman character, acting as the movie’s Hercules/Maciste/Ursus/etc. At the beginning of the film Vulcan is shown visually muscular, but not particularly powerful. The spar he has in his forge with Mars depicts both gods on equal footing. When imprisoned, Vulcan is chained and has his arms secured to a horizontal pole. While other strongmen characters would be able to use their strength to break their bonds, Vulcan is much to weak after being easily being dispatched by Pluto to do so. It is only in the final latter half that Vulcan becomes a true strongman character by battling the cavemen with his fists, breaking the chains of Milos’ prisoners, and wielding a large club while fighting Mars.

Vulcan battles Mars with a club.

While Vulcan may be the hero, he is not particularly likable, a trait he has in common with the other deities of the film. To Geo and Aetna is is especially mean spirited. Regarding Geo, Vulcan laughs at him when he is unable to mount a horse, he carries him like a handbag, and is dismissive of his guiding abilities. To Aetna he treats her with indifference, which he is eventually called out on by Aetna whom he does not even apologize to. When Aetna is being attacked by the cavemen, it is Geo who leads the rescue attempt, not Vulcan. 

Venus gazes into a mirror and at the audience.

Vulcan, Son of Jupiter tries hard to make the goddess Venus a villain and attempts to do so by relying on film noir archetypes by portraying her as a femme fatale. Venus is a seductress of men: she wants their adoration which gives her control over them. This is the extent of her goals though, she does not display any desires beyond having a man’s undivided attention and affection. This is in stark contrast to other peplum vamp characters, such as Princess Nellifer (Joan Collins) in Land of the Pharaohs (1955) who uses her skills to seduce Pharaoh Khufu (Jack Hawkins) for the specific goal to acquire his treasure. 

Bare back “nudity” on Venus.

Viewed with progressive eyes Venus is not so villainous. She is a liberated woman and she can have sexual relations with whomever she wants for whatever reasons she wants. This attitude, of course, is in opposition of traditional expectations of women during the period, which is why her parents Jupiter and Juno seek to control her by marrying her off. This would effectively neutralize what agency Venus has. 

All the other gods in the film, save Neptune, are portrayed as immature, childish, spoiled, and petulant. Just like real mythological gods! Jupiter attempts to stay in control of everyone, but comes off as ineffectual, narcissistic, and foolish. Neptune is the only deity not portrayed in this fashion, but this is because he is by himself in his undersea world. He does come across as rather addled though. In totality, all the gods and goddesses are depicted in a not-so-serious fashion, which adds a cartoonish element to the film.

Geo scouting to Milos’ camp.

Turning to the humans of the film, Geo is the comic relief character, comparable to Telemachus (Franco Giacobini) fromHercules in the Haunted World (1961). As a little person, Geo is involved in most the of physical gags of the film. Sometimes he is the recipient, such as when Vulcan carries him like a handbag. Other times he is the instigator, such as when he spits waters in the face of Neptune after being resuscitated, and when he makes onomatopoeia noises when clubbing foes when they are down. Aside from the last few seconds of the film when he runs off after Jupiter thunders his proclamations, Geo displays quite a bit of character development, going from cowardly to not. When first introduced he is afraid and wants to be left alone instead of helping the Daughters of Neptune. He opposes being the guide for Vulcan to Milos’ camp and is forced into the role. However by the movie’s end, Geo is involved in two instances of physical combat (once against the cavemen and the other against Milos’ soldiers), and even has a heroic instance of sneaking into Milos’ prison camp disguised as a bush.

Aetna at a pond before being captured by Milos’ soldiers.

Aetna is the love interest of Vulcan, the femme fragile to Venus’ femme fatale. Compared to other women characters of sword and sandal cinema, Aetna has a surprisingly amount of agency. She may get captured twice in the film, but she rises about the typical damsel: she and the other Daughters of Neptune rescue Vulcan, they plan the escape attempt from the prison, she goes on the adventure with Vulcan and Geo, and at the end of the film, she fights Venus, lashing at her with a whip. Aetna delivers on the kitten-with-a-whip action that was only promised, but not delivered, by the poster art of The Revolt of the Slaves (1960) which depicts Rhonda Fleming brandishing a whip while destruction surrounds her.

Aetna’s belly dance sequence as Vulcan looks on.

Though Venus is the seductress in Vulcan, Son of Jupiter, the film focuses on sexualizing Aetna. Aetna delivers the prerequisite belly dance sequence and numerous times the film focuses on her buxomness (especially noticeable in both the belly dance and when she is jogging after Vulcan and Geo who are on horseback). This specific body emphasis pushes Aetna’s actress, Bella Cortez, into the realm of the maggiorata fisica, placing her in the same camp as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, and Anita Ekberg. 

Vulcan, Son of Jupiter is a fun sword and sandal film. Vulcan may not be the most effective strongman character when compared to others (Hercules et. al.), but by the film’s end the character is performing in a spectacular fashion, swinging clubs and leading revolts. It is interesting to see the gods portrayed so immature, but that adds an extra lighthearted touch to the film. It is the women characters of Venus and Aetna who are the most stand out due to their subversive and progressive portrayals. Neither character is one dimensional, they bring an extra layer of nuance to what normally would have been a run-of-the-mill peplum. 

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Essays

The Codex of Cool: Interviews with Retroists in Vilioti Vintage

What is neo-vintage?

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.

More info about Vilioti Vintage can be found at its product page at The Lady Medusa & Vilioti Press website.

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Essays

Claws From the Bulkhead Walls: Deep Space Horror in Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars

Somewhere between the solar system and Proxima b the generation ship Calypso slowly limps back to Earth after failing to colonize an extrasolar planet. Carrying what may be the last of the human race, the Calypso is besieged by mechanical problems and caught in the crossfire between two unseen galactic forces. The ship’s problems are further compounded when a handful of xenomorphic stowaways make their presence known. The only person keeping everyone’s shit together (including their own) is Jacklyn Albright, who steps up to lead the Calypso against all odds when her father, the captain, falters.

And thus the premise of The Scourge Between Stars, the debut space horror novella by Ness Brown and published by Tor’s Nightfire imprint in the spring of 2023. Borrowing the stalking xenomorph from Alien, the decaying ship from Dark Star, and the uniformed humans who occupy a variety of functions a’la Star Trek, The Scourge Between Stars feels familiar, but Brown, whose professional background is astrophysics, keeps the narrative fresh, grounded, and throws in their own unique genre vision.

There’s no FTL in The Scourge Between Stars, which adds to a sense of futility and hopelessness to the story. If the Calypso will not make it back to Earth for hundreds of years, why bother? Main protag Jacklyn keeps the fire of hope burning despite all odds, and oh boy, are the odds against her, the crew, and the ship. Jacklyn is excessively critical of herself, comparing herself negatively to her father who, despite apparently having once been a great captain and leader, has sequestered himself in his quarter, forcing his daughter and crew to face the hardships on their own. 

Yet, Jacklyn is extremely resolute, and this is demonstrated through all her relationships – be them platonic, professional, or romantic. Jacklyn puts everyone before herself, which overtime does take its toll on her. She is carrying a burden and Brown excels at depicting Jacklyn overcoming all the ordeals she is faced with by using her leadership and trusting others to do their roles. 

These are the more action-oriented elements of The Scourge Between Stars. Jacklyn and her crew are also being hunted by xenomorphs that have made themselves hidden in the ship’s supplies, only surfacing now to lay eggs and stalk the Calypso crew. They bang inside the walls, dismember alone crew members, attack from the darkness, and even have a few unexpected tricks up their sleeve. Jacklyn and her crew take a competent approach to handle the alien menace, going ship section by ship section, locking down areas and trying to contain the aliens. Try as they might, things inevitably go awry, and the book has no shortage of alien attacks.

If there is a fault with The Scourge Between Stars is that the ending does feel rushed and resolved in a too tidy of package. Aside from this, The Scourge Between Stars expertly alternates between action and horror, finely maintaining an atmosphere of hopelessness and hope. Jacklyn is an excellent character, sympathetic and admirable, a model of a person acting against all odds. As a story proper, The Scourge Between Stars leverages the tropes that make space horror a fun genre to indulge in, but there is a unique authorial stamp from Ness that distinguishes the story from other space horror texts.

For more information about Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars, check out our H. P. Lovecast Podcast interview with them:

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 25 – Ness Brown – Scourge Between Stars – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

For more information check out the following links:

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Traveling First Class: The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle Boxset

Roughly fifteen years ago Severin Films gave rejuvenated life to a handful of Black Emanuelle titles, Italian derivatives of the French Emmanuelle films. Staring Laura Gemser, the Black Emanuelle films took on a distinct identity of their own while at the same time flirting with other popular Italo-genres of the period: mondo, cannibal, women in prison, etc.

Severin only scratched the Black Emanuelle surface back in the latter august, with other DVD companies such as Blue Underground, Full Moon, Mya, and Shriek Show, published Black Emanuelle titles they had rights to. It was a scattered canon of releases with some titles and alternate versions remaining unreleased in digital format.

Fast forward to 2023 and Severin Films returns to the erotic world of Black Emanuelle with an epic fifteen disc boxset of Black Emanuelle Blu-rays and soundtracks. As in typical Severin fashion, the Black Emanuelle boxset came in a variety of bundles. This article is an unboxing of The Around the World bundle along with a comparison and remembrance of prior Black Emanuelle releases from other publishers.

Like the Severin release of All Haunts Be Ours, Black Emanuelle came in a large box, only cube-shaped instead of pizza box-shaped.

Bonus Spunky cat checking things out.

Packed with lots of popcorn, obscuring the contents within. 

First up is the Severin Airlines bag. The type face and red-orange-yellow colours evoke the 70s for sure. The sun has a bit of a broken sun vibe typically found in synthwave artwork. The bag is the perfect size to fit all the Black Emanuelle swag within.

It even has zippers of the iconic Severin Films logo.

A reproduction necklace from Black Emanuelle.

The insert shows a picture of Laura Gemser in one of her poses from the photoshoot scene in the film.

A reproduction Polaroid.

A passport that look quite convincing that had a Severin Films logo sticker and a sticker that references Violence in a Women’s Prison. 

A comparison of the Emanuelle passport to a real, present day one.

The passport reproduction gets even more detailed with identifying information.

To compliment the passport, there are three sheets of stickers that can be put inside the passport as visas.

Each sticker set is grouped by film. 

Gemser was truly a globetrotting reporter with all these sticker-visas!

The next big ticket item is the board game, Around the World with Black Emanuelle. This will be opened at a later date.

A recreation pen from the Hotel Siam in Bangkok. It looks like a white Mont Blanc.

And finally, the treasure itself, the boxset proper. The outer boxset is sturdy cardboard and has, on the side, a scroll wheel that changes the photo displayed inside Gemser’s camera when turned.

Before going further, the two original Black Emanuelle boxsets Severin published back in the 2000s need to be highlighted. These boxes were locked with velcro and when opened showed a nude Gemser. Each boxset had three films. 

Inside the Black Emanuelle boxset is a small, but thick book titled The Black Emanuelle Bible, edited by Kier-La Janisse who has done wonder work on other Severin releases.

The blu-rays and CDs are packed in a folding booklet, with inserts for each disc.

Disc one contains the Black Emanuelle and Black Emanuelle 2. Paired here is the original Severin DVD release of Black Emanuelle 2 which did not feature Gemser. 

Disc two contains Emanuelle in Bangkok and Emanuelle in America. Here the boxset is paired with the original Severin edition of Emanuelle in Bangkok and the Blue Underground version of Emanuelle in America.

Disc three contains two extremely controversial Black Emanuelle films. Firstly there is Emanuelle and the Last Cannibalspaired with the Severin Blu-ray edition and the Shriek Show DVD version.

The other half of the disc has Emanuelle Around the World. Severin originally published this in two different DVD editions: a normal edition and a European XXX edition.

Skipping to disc five there is Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade pictured with the original Severin DVD and the Full Moon Blu-ray.

The other film on disc five is Sister Emmanuelle. The original Severin edition came in a boxset that contained postcards of the films’ posters.

Disc six has the sleazy Violence in a Women’s Prison, compared to the Severin Blu-ray edition.

Disc seven demonstrates the fluid naming conventions Italian genre films adhered to. This disc contains Emanuelle Black Velvet, paired with its Full Moon edition. Severin previously published this film under the Black Emanuelle White Emmanuelle moniker (two Ms!).

Disc nine has Divine Emanuelle, this one paired with its Shriek Show counterpart Divine Emanuelle: Love Cult.

And finally, as far as release comparisons go, disc element contains Laura Gesmer’s first film appearance, Amore Libero – Free Love. The defunct boutique label Mya originally published this film on DVD under The Real Emanuelle title.

Slated to be included in this boxset was an item called “Emanuelle’s Studio Magnetic Fashion Playset.” However that item seems to be held up by the manufacturer and will ship at a later date.

All in all this is a comprehensive boxset on all things Black Emanuelle. The ephemera really contextualizes the era these movies came out in and underscores the traveling and cosmopolitanism aspect aspects of them. A glorious and glamorous boxset that solidifies the Black Emanuelle legacy.

If you enjoyed this unboxing check out these related articles. Also, I still have a soft open on the Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle CFP. If you have an essay idea, send it over! Details can be found here.

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Essays

In His Image: Supplemental Material to “Strange Realities”

In the final quarter of 2022, the edited collection The Many Lives of The Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise, was published by McFarland. Edited by Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. and Ron Riekki, the book contains nineteen essays that take a variety of academic approaches to different Twilight Zone texts. One of those essays is mine, “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown.” 

In my essay, I compare and contrast the original run of The Twilight Zone with the 1972 anthology-horror film, Encounter with the Unknown, which uses Rod Serling’s narration and Twilight Zone visual cues to, more-or-less, rip off the legendary series. While I consider the essay exhaustive and complete, I feel it could benefit from an addendum. The final section of my essay, ‘Voices and Images,’ I bring up examples of how VHS releases of Encounter of the Unknown mimic iconic visual elements of The Twilight Zone. While these descriptions are as detailed as possible, I figured readers of the essay would benefit from supplemental material that contains pictures of these VHS releases. 

  • Blu-ray that uses the Encounter with the Unknown Poster.
  • Cover of the Interglobal release of Encounter.
  • Back of the Interglobal release.
  • Front of the VCI release.
  • Back of the VCI release.

If you haven’t read my essay and are curious, (or the entire book sounds intriguing), The Many Lives of The Twilight Zone can be purchased at McFarland and Amazon.

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Essays

Invasive Species: Cryptid Horror in Robert P. Ottone’s Nocturnal Creatures

It’s the summer of ‘92 and you’re off for a long break. You and your family live in the woods outside a small, rural town. Life consists of exploring the forest by day and staying up late playing Sega Genesis by night. It is the perfect time to be a kid before Eternal September. One night you catch an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, one where they are recreating encounters with Bigfoot. The iconic ominous music and real-world reenactments give you the heebie jeebies. You go to bed, turn off the lights, and look out your window to the dark, starlit forest outside. Eyelids heavy, you almost fall asleep –crash! What was that? You peer out the window. Was that movement just at the treeline? You think back to the show earlier that night. Could it be – a Bigfoot right outside your house?

Nocturnal Creatures cover.

If the above scenario ushers in a sense of nostalgia, then Robert P. Ottone’s short novel, Nocturnal Creatures, is a perfect flashback story for you. Set during the tail end of the Gulf War in rural New York, Nocturnal Species is a cryptid story with elements of the siege genre.

The story is told through the perspective of Cassie Albero, a middle schooler whose family owns an orchard. Hard times have fallen on the Albero family as an unseasonably cold late spring/early summer threatens their apple harvest. Their problems are compounded when their home is besieged by a family of Sasquatch-like monsters, who have been driven from their home in the nearby caves and woodlands. 

Nocturnal Creatures is similar to the animals run amok narratives of the 70s: as civilization pushes into nature, nature fights back to survive. This puts Cassie and her family and the cryptids in the same moral boat as both groups are trying to survive each other, thrust into a situation that is neither’s fault. The Albero family, coming from a generation of immigrants, contrasted to the mysterious cryptids adds another level of complexity – strangers in strange lands trying to eek by in a rapidly globalizing world. Readers will certainly identify with the humans, and yet, while the cryptids are portrayed as menacing and near unstoppable, there’s a sympathy for them as well. 

Taking place in the early 90s, Nocturnal Creatures has many callbacks to the era: a ChatBoy (a stand in for the TalkBoy from Home Alone 2), discontinued soda, listening to grunge bands on cassette, the Gulf War in the background, and no internet. These sentiments cater to the Oregon Trail generation, a refreshing break from the 80s nostalgia that has been enjoying a wave of popularity for the past decade. 

The characters of Nocturnal Creatures are incredibly fleshed out with backstories, motivations, and worries. If anything, the Albero family embodies the idyllic nuclear family found in 80s and early 90s sitcoms. This is contrasted to Azura and her son, Darwin, immigrants from El Salvador, also chasing the American dream. Azura is a total James Cameron character, a cross between Sarah Connor from Terminator 2 and Vasquez from Aliens. She acts as a mentor to the Albero family, teaching them how to use firearms and survive the cryptid siege, but also as a role model to Darwin and Cassie. Everyone looks up to her. 

The stars of a Bigfoot-style story are, of course, the cryptids themselves. In terms of placement on the Sasquatch spectrum, they are a little folky like the Fouke Monster from The Legend of Boggy, but much more cunning and violent like the Sasquatch in the 2006 film Abominable. They are completely believable humanoids that are also frighteningly strong, able to tactically plan their attacks, and near invulnerable due to their super thick skin. They are also presented as a family, functioning no different than the Alberos.

This is the heart of Nocturnal Creatures: different types of families, all looking to survive and make their way in the world, wrapped up in a cryptid horror story with a dollop of early 90s nostalgia and coming of age. The formula works, no doubt to its relatable and fleshed out characters along with menacing, multifaceted monsters. 

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