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News Roundup W/E 2021-06-13

Personal / Website News

Interview with Sidereal Fortress

New interview at my website! I’ve interviewed so many comic book creators as of late, time to hop over to another medium for a bit. I had the honor to interview the dungeon synth outfit Sidereal Fortress about their neo-peplum album, Circus Maximus. Check it out here.

ICYMI H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode

ICYMI, a new episode of the HP Lovecast Podcast dropped last weekend. In this episode Michele and I talked about the comic book series Vinegar Teeth from Dark Horse Comics. Vinegar Teeth is more-or-less “The Colour out of Space” made into a buddy cop story. The episode is uploaded to our Buzzsprout website and also available on all major podcast applications.

Also, don’t forget to check out my essay on Vinegar Teeth called “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth.”

The next episode of H. P. Lovecast will be a fragments episode on Caltiki: The Immortal Monster and will drop on my birthday, June 20th.

HWA Academics Board Updates

I’ve updated the HWA Academics Board with some new CFPs. These include:

  • AnnRadCon alumni Dr. Naomi Simone Borwein’s CFP on Global Aboriginal Horror
  • Horror Homeroom looking for abstracts for a special issue on Slasher Films
  • Howard David Ingham looking for presenters for online conference for Rural Gothic
  • Call for abstracts for the The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film
  • Hellbore has a call for a special issue on Summonings
  • The Horror and Monstrosity Studies is seeking proposals for books, collections, and monographs.

CFP for Classical Association Conference 2022

The Classical Association has a CFP out for the 2022 conference in Swansea. More info can be found at their website.

General Neo-Peplum News

Divination Hollow Essay

Great article at Divination Hollow titled “From Hades to The Song of Achilles: Greek Mythology Still Slaps” on the relevance and importance of Greek mythology today, on books to TV shows to fandom.

Interview with Tabernacle

Dr. Jeremy Swift has interviewed UAE heavy/power metal band Tabernacle at his Heavy Metal Classicist website.

Dr. Swist Interview Part 2

Part two of Dr. Swist being on the Against the Lore Podcast is live and can be found here. Part one can be found here.

Isidora #2 Kickstarter Live

G. A Lungaro‘s crowdfunding campaign for issue 2 of his Lovecraft/neo-peplum comic Isidora is now live and can be viewed on Kickstarter.

There is a stretch goal at $3,500 contributors will receive this gorgeous pinup.

Folks, I NEEED this pinup, it’s amazing! So check out the campaign and consider contributing. A reminder: I had the honor to interview G. A Lungaro about Isidora #1, so check that out too.

Rest in Peplum

Ned Beatty passed away on June 13th at the age of 83. His contribution to the peplum genre was portraying Diomed in The Last Days of Pompeii TV miniseries in 1984.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-06-06

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast went online this past week. The first is the Transmissions episode where we interview Amy Grech and Cathy McCarthy. The second is our flagship program in which we discuss the comic book series Vinegar Teeth.

The Podcast Index page has been updated with most of the episodes and their dates running to the end of August. If you take a peek, you’ll see some of the programming in store.

HWA Academics Board

I’ve updated the HWA Academics Board with lots of new CFPs.

Upcoming Projects

I don’t often share too much of upcoming projects since sometimes they can fail to materialize. But, I’d like give a run down of what I am working on, so yall can see what is on my plate:

  • Review of the video game The Touryst for Exotica Moderne (completed, turned in, will be in the next issue) Completed/Published Early 2021-08.
  • Conducting an interview with Miss Corsair Debonair for a future issue of Exotica Moderne (just started) Completed 2021-09-26 and sent in (just waiting on pinup pics)
  • Article on Caltiki: The Immortal Monster for Exotica Moderne (have not started yet, will prioritize the pinup interview first)
  • Review of the book Scared Sacred (been working on this off and on for a year, I need to get this done and out the door someday, it’s an albatross)
  • Conducting an interview with the dungeon synth project Sidereal Fortress (completed, will go online later this week) Completed/Published 2021-06-18
  • Various reviews of John Carter comic books (have not yet started)
  • Review of the book Mists and Megaliths by Catherine McCarthy
    Completed/published 2021-09-07
  • Review of the book To Boldly Go: Marketing the Myth of Star Trek (to be worked on after the Scared Sacred book)
  • My monograph on Lovecraft and Rene Girard (long term project, need to resume)
  • Article on Nisi Shawl and the Jungle Bird cocktail from her short story (rough draft done)
    Completed/Published 2021-08-17
  • Review of Dark Moon Book’s Han Song primer (have not started)
  • Review of the video game Story of a Gladiator (idea board project, may not materialize)

Let’s see how many of these I can realize as I keep spreading myself thin on personal projects. Maybe making some of this overt will help drive me further to realize these projects.

General Neo-Peplum News

Dr. Swist on Against the Lore

Dr. Jeremy Swist makes an appearance on the Against the Lore podcast to discuss ancient history in metal music.

Best Gladiator Films

Screen Rant has a top 10 list of the best gladiator films, though I challenge the “gladiator-ness” of some of these films. The opening sentence it makes it sound like the article means general sword and sandal films. Regardless, to save you a click, here is the list:

  1. Spartacus (1960)
  2. Ben-Hur (1959)
  3. Gladiator (2000)
  4. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  5. Barabbas (1961)
  6. Demetrius And The Gladiators (1954)
  7. Cabiria (1914)
  8. Centurion (2010)
  9. The Eagle (2011)
  10. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
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News Roundup W/E 2021-05-30

Personal / Website News

Scholars from the Edge of Time Podcast

Michele and I recently interview Amanda Desiree on the Scholars from the Edge of Time show about her debut novel Smithy. The episode can be downloaded/streamed at Blog Talk Radio.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Slight Delays

We sorta underestimated how much AnnRadCon and StokerCon was going to throw our writing and recording schedule awry, but it did. So for May, we didn’t get a chance to do our episode on Caltiki. Instead, we are going to move that discussion to June along with our discussion on the comic book series Vinegar Teeth. However, we did complete the interviews for our newest episode of Transmissions, one with Amy Grech and the other with Catherine McCarthy. That episode will go live on Monday (check the podcast appearances page).

Mark My Words Physical Edition

The physical edition of Mark My Words is out on POD at Amazon.

StokerCon and Cocktails

I totally forgot to mention this before StokerCon, but I was invited to be part of a StokerCon-Cocktail-Video thing where I talk about my cocktail of preference for StokerCon and what I’m doing. Gaby Triana edited the end product and it contains videos from herself, Sara Tantlinger, Cina Pelayo, and yours truly. The video can be found on her Witch Haunt YouTube page (and was available during the StokerCon Hopin as well!).

Sara Tantlinger took a textual route and hosted the recipes we talked about at her Delicious Horror subsection of her website. Check it all out!

General Neo-Peplum News

Working Classicists Seeking Contributors

Working Classicists is a new endeavor and a knowledge hub, seeking contributors to write about Classical Studies across all mediums, with an emphasis on the working class in the classics. Their Twitter account is @WorkClassicists and their website is https://www.workingclassicists.com.

Rest in Peplum

Joe Lara, known for playing two incarnations of Tarzan, died in a tragic plane crash over the weekend. His contribution to the peplum genre was an appearance in an episode “The Cavern” in the Ralf Möller Conan the Adventurer television series in 1997.

Gavin MacLeod, famous for playing Captain Stubing in The Love Boat, passed away at the age of 90. He starred in The Sword of Ali Baba (1965).

Invincible Red Sonja #1 Preview

Comicon.com has a preview of Invincible Red Sonja #1.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-05-23

Personal / Website News

StokerCon and HP Lovecast

This past weekend was StokerCon and Michele and I were super busy co-chair the AnnRadCon panels, doing Q/A, watching presentations, and so on. I believe some of the content will be available after the con, so stay tuned either here as I learn more, or follow the various StokerCon/HWA websites/social medias.

However, we were so busy we didn’t get a chance to finish up the newest episode of HP Lovecast, which will drop next weekend.

Mark My Words

Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko Smith are publishing a new how-to book called Mark My Words: Read the Submission Guidelines and Other Self-editing Tips. The chapbook was part of one of Murray’s workshops at StokerCon, but is getting a release via Yuriko Publishing. Both Michele and I were asked to contribute advice to the book. I’ve added this book to the bibliography, but once it officially becomes available for purchase I’ll add in store links as well.

General Neo-Peplum News

Messalina Blu-ray Release

Boutique blu-ray publisher Twilight Time has just release a version of Messalina. DVD Beaver has the details along with screen caps.

300 Part 3

IndieWire has an article about Zack Snyder’s unmade part three to 300 that was going to focus on Alexander the Great.

Isidora #2 to Launch

Part 2 of the neo-peplum/Lovecraft comic Isidora by G. A.Lungaro is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign in June. A sign up page to be notified when the campaign goes live can be found here.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-05-16

Personal / Website News

StokerCon 2021

StokerCon will start later this week. Along with Michele, I’ll be co-charing the AnnRadCon academic conference, giving a presentation on the film Encounter with the Unknown, and being a panelist on a panel called “Horror Pods and Vlogs Go Viral: The Pandemic and Beyond.” All of this will be able to be accessed ad hoc during the StokerCon event. More info can be found at the StokerCon 2021 website.

HWA Academic Board Updates

I’ve added some new CFPs to the HWA Academic board. They include CFP for the Aeternum Gothic Journal, a German language CFP for the worlds of Lovecraft, Undead Superheroes, and Cine-Excess.

General Neo-Peplum News

Call for Abstracts – Ancient World, Modern Music

Dr. Swist has an open CFP called “Ancient World, Modern Music” for the Classical Association of the Middle West & South conference in March 23-26 2022 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:

We are seeking abstracts for a panel on the reception of antiquity in modern music. 15-minute papers on the topic may discuss any genre of modern & popular music, including folk & country, rock & metal, hip-hop & pop, and theater & soundtracks, and may focus on lyrics, album artwork, music videos, live performances, or the music itself. We are particularly interested in questions of how musicians integrate ancient culture, myth, and art into modern medium, and how they read antiquity in response to the personal, the aesthetic, and the political.

Send 300-word abstracts & questions to Jeremy Swist (jeremyswist@brandeis.edu) by 10 July 2021. Potential panelists must commit to present in person if accepted.

Classical Imagery in the Album Artwork of White Supremacist Metal Bands

In more Dr. Swist news, a lecture he did earlier this year has been turned into an article at Pharos. The article is called “Classical Imagery in the Album Artwork of White Supremacist Metal Bands” and can be read at the Pharos website.

Eaters of the Dead Book

Dr. Kevin Wetmore has a new book coming out from Reaction Books this September called Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters.

The book focuses on cannibal monsters, but makes mention of mythological entities such as Thyestes, Pelops, Dionysus, and so on. It can be preordered at Reaktion Books and Amazon.

A Knight’s Tale turns Twenty

Variety has a retrospective up on Heath Ledger’s film, A Knight’s Tale, which just turned 20.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-05-09

Personal / Website News

Podcast News – H. P. Lovecast

New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! We are doing tiki month for the month of May. For our primary episode we did a deep dive on the short story “Blood of the Kapu Tiki” by Eric C. Higgs. The episode is on Buzzsprout and all major podcast platforms.

StokerCon Panel on Podcasting

StokerCon is about two weeks away! Michele and my main priority will, of course, be the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, however we’ve both been invited to be on a panel about podcasts! We don’t have a date/time yet (or many it will be an on demand panel?), but here are the details:

Horror Pods and Vlogs Go Viral: The Pandemic and Beyond

Moderator: Lee Murray
Panelists:
Behind the Keyboard: R.F. Blackstone
Galactic Terrors: James Chambers and Carol Gyzander
H. P. Lovecast Podcast: Nicholas Diak and Michele Brittany
HWA Skeleton Hour: Kathryn E. McGee

If you’re interested in attending StokerCon (online this year!) and to see all the great programming, and to check out the AnnRadCon or the panel I am on, more info on how to register can be found at the StokerCon2021 website.

McFarland Sci-fi Book Sale

McFarland is currently doing a sale on their books classified as sci-fi. Up until May 17th, if you use the code SFF25 during check out, you’ll get a 25% discount. Included in this sale is Kevin Wetmore’s Stranger Things book and Michele’s Horror in Space book, both contain essays I’ve penned.

“Cullzathro Fhtagn!” Paper Published

My paper, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” has been published at Academia.edu’s experimental Academia Letters publishing endeavor. I’ll eventually turn my adventure of publishing this essay via Academia Letters into write up as the whole process definitely needs more illumination. However, it’s nice to have a new publication out in the world. Let’s just see how successful it becomes.

General Neo-Peplum News

Rest in Peplum

Actress Tawny Kitaen passed away at the age of 59. She played Deianeira in many episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-05-02

Personal / Website News

Podcast News – H. P. Lovecast

Michele and I launched a new program under the H. P. Lovecast banner called H. P. Lovecast Presents: Transmissions. Transmissions is made up of small, 15-20 minute interviews with other authors (or content creators), more-or-less being asked the same six questions. The idea is to have a non-obstructive platform for folks to promote their newest releases. The format is flexible enough to accommodate not only books, but novellas, short stories, collections, and other texts. The idea being that a handful of the 15-20 minute episodes, combined with a one minute reading, are merged together for a longer episode.

Our first episode has interviews with Howard David Ingham and Candace Robinson. The episode can be streamed at Buzzsprout or your podcast platform of preference.

Transmissions is set to air on the final day of each month. If this is a program you’d like to be featured on, feel free to email us at hplovecast@gmail.com and we evaluate.

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference

If you’ve noticed that lately I have not posted much new content here (such as interviews, essays, etc.) it because for the past month I’ve been neck deep in preparing for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, which is part of StokerCon in the latter half of May. In addition to getting my presentation in a row, it’s also being coordinating with the StokerCon chairs, working with the other presenters, lots of emails, and so on. Thankfully, the end is in sight for all the prep work for AnnRadCon (though there is still lots to do for StokerCon proper). So come June you’ll start to see an uptick in new content from your’s truly when StokerCon/AnnRadCon is over.

However, hope to see folks attend StokerCon and also AnnRadCon and support horror academic! The convention is May 20-23rd, and here is the link to register or get more info.

General Neo-Peplum News

The Forgotten City

Modern Storyteller is releasing a neo-peplum game across all major platforms called The Forgotten City.

From the publisher’s website:

The Forgotten City is a mature narrative-driven game, and a re-imagining of the critically acclaimed mod that won a national Writers’ Guild award and racked up over 3 million downloads.

Trapped in a secret underground city during the Roman Empire, twenty-three lost souls cling to life. In this precarious utopia, if one person breaks the mysterious Golden Rule, everyone dies.

As a time-traveller drawn two thousand years into the past, you’ll relive their final moments in an endless loop, exploring and interrogating, and changing the course of the day with each secret you uncover. Only by cleverly exploiting the time loop and making difficult moral choices can you hope to solve this epic mystery.

Here, your decisions matter. The fate of the city is in your hands.

– Modern Storyteller Website

More info can be found at Forgottencitygame.com and the game is already available for preorder.

Rest in Peplum

Olympia Dukakis passed away at the age of 89. She starred in the TV series of Joan of Arc (1999).

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News Roundup W/E 2021-04-25

Personal / Website News

Podcast News – H. P. Lovecast

Brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Presents: Fragments is online. In this episode Michele and I talk about the film The Vast of Night. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.

We’ve also finished conducting interviews for our first episode of H. P. Lovecast: Transmissions. This week, Michele will be editing the episode and publishing it the final day of April. Guests on the debut are Candace Robinson and Howard David Ingham.

Podcast News – Scaredy Cats

Recently I was a guest on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. That episode has been published and it can be listened to at Buzzsprout or any other podcast platform.

Podcast News – Scholars from the Edge of Time

New episode of The Scholar from the Edge of Time is online at BlogTalkRadio. In this episode I discuss the video game Story of a Gladiator. Stay tuned as I do a write up on this neo-peplum game for my website here.

This upcoming Tuesday I’ll also be making another appearance on the Voice of Olympus program.

General Neo-Peplum News

Thor: Love and Thunder

Gladiator star Russell Crowe has revealed he will be playing Zeus in the upcoming Thor film.

Rest in Peplum

Felix Silla passed away at the age of 84. He was in numerous sci-fi and fantasy products (such as playing an Ewok in Return of the Jedi) but for the sword and sorcery genre, he was a voice actor in Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings film.

Polish actress Wiesława Mazurkiewicz passed away at the age of of 95. She was in a Polish peplum film called Pharaoh (1966).

Rest in Peplum To Physical Media?

Animation historian Jerry Beck has posited that Warner Brothers is transitioning away from physical media and devoting more to streaming content and HBO Max. Come 2022, it sounds like Warner will shutter their physical line of DVDs and Blu-Rays being produced (but they could possibly be outsourced to another company). Regardless, there’s a few peplum films under the Warner Achives Banner at risk. Fans may want to consider plucking them up. Some titles include Hercules, Samson And Ulysses, The Colossus of Rhodes, and The Slave.

Hercules and the Captive Women

Hercules and the Captive Women recently got a nice re-release on Blu-Ray. Previously only available as a DVD in the long out of print Hercules Collection published by Retro-Media years ago, the new Film Detective release has many bells and whistles, including the MST3K version of the film. Specs can be found at DVDBeaver.

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News Roundup W/E 2021-04-11

Personal / Website News

Podcast News

H. P. Lovecast celebrated its one year (resurrection) anniversary! A year ago last April the world was knee deep in an apocalyptic pandemic (which we are still in). With so much uncertainty out there, Michele and I decided to bring back the dormant podcast. Since then, we’ve consistanluy published new episodes, expanded the scope of the podcast, brought attention to new writers, and hopefully given a little hope out there. In this month’s episode, we recap the last year, talk about goals for the upcoming year, while also taking a deep dive into William Meikle’s “Dagon Rising.” The podcast can be streamed on Buzzsprout or on your app of preference.

The episode of Scaredy Cats that I am a guest on has been delayed in being published. Unfortunately I don’t have an ETA yet.

S.P.Q.R. Comic

Did an interview with Riley Hamilton about his comic, S.P.Q.R. It can be read here.

General Neo-Peplum News

CFP for Ancient World Academia

The Society of Classical Studies has a CFP out for their Annual Meeting for Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World. It can be found here.

Rest in Peplum

English actor Paul Ritter passed away at the age of 54. He was Galba in The Eagle (2011).

Italian make up artist Giannetto De Rossi passed away. He worked on a variety of filone films, and his peplum work includes:

  • Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999)
  • Conan the Destroyer (1984)
  • DragonHeart (1996)
  • Kull the Conqueror (1997)
  • The Last Legion (2007)
  • Pompei (2007)
  • Sword of Xanten (2004)
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News Roundup W/E 2021-04-04

Personal / Website News

Podcast News

This past Thursday, Jessica Scott and myself were guests on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. The episode will go online on Thursday the 8th across all major podcast platforms (I recommend their Buzzsprout page).

Michele and I appeared on the Voice of Olympus program on Tuesday to talk EC Comics. Michele covered War Against Crime while I talked about Valor.

Due to timing, billing cycles, and so on, the newest episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast will go online on April 5th.

Horror CFPs

I run the horror academics board for the Horror Writers Association. I try to add new CFPs for papers, presentations, and keep tabs on publishers who accept academic and non-fiction submission. When I update it, go forward, I’ll mention the updates here as well in order to help proliferate the CFPs. The board can be found here and can be viewed by anyone.

General Neo-Peplum News

Das Neue Evangelium

The Bible Films Blog has a write up of Das Neue Evangelium (The New Gospel, 2020), which contains shot-for-shot remakes of Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).

John Carter Video Game

Sword and planet hero John Carter is getting a video game treatment called John Carter: Warlord of Mars. A website has been setup about the game as it develops at http://jcwom.com.

Elysian Fields: “The Pyramid Gambit”

The newest issue of the Elysian Fields comic series, “The Pyramid Gambit,” has started shipping. I’ve received my copy:

Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit: Loot from the Indiegogo campaign

A call back: I interviewed Michael Oden about Elysian Fields #0 on my website. It can be read here.

Isidora issue #2 News

G. A. Lungaro has completed the script for Isidora #2. The new issue will have four different covers (Jay Espin, Vic King, Mark McKenna, and a mystery person). Issue 2 will also be crowdfunded via Indiegogo this time instead of Kickstarter and is expected to go live May/June. Other related news is that issue #1 is going to be re-lettered and there appears to be a special edition that will contain issues 1 and 2.

Another call back, I interviewed Lungaro very recently about Isidora #1.

Teaching With Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Dr. Deb Trusty will be giving a talk titled “Playing in the Past: Reflections from a Classicist on Playing, Streaming, and Teaching with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” via Zoom on April 7th, 2021 at 7:00 pm PST. Registration is here.