It’s been almost 2.5 years since my last “Peplum Ponderings” (which was on Messalina [1960]), so hoping 2024 is a good year to bring that series back.
Starting off with a “Peplum Ponderings” of the 2011 Uwe Boll film, In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds. Check it out here!
The next few “Peplum Ponderings” will probably be on the pepla of actress Bella Cortez.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
And, coinciding with the above article, Michele and I talked about Two Worlds on the January episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time, which can be watched on YouTube.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Marx Warriors of the World
In early February Michele and I attended the AZToyCon over at the Mesa Convention center. The con was 90% Funkos, but there was some neat stuff here and there.
One of the things I spotted was a vendor with a Tupperware full of CIB of these late 50s/early 60s plastic figures form a company called Marx. The line was “Warriors of the World.” I had never seen or heard of these before, but I loved, loved the vintage box art on them. There was a handful of Viking ones, but quite a few Roman solider ones, so I plucked up three of them.
Look at those boxes!! Are they not awesome? I wanted to open all three, but I didn’t want to risk accidentally tearing a box, they have older style flaps inside. I did manage to open Tiberius:
There’s the box, a little card with a bio, and the figurine proper, all handprinted. It’s about the size of a classic green plastic army man. But I really dig it! Once I get a proper curio cabinet in my office, I’ll open all three boxes and put these bad boys on display.
Autographed Stuff
Ship of Dreams
In early January iconic horror writer Brian Lumley passed away. He and Gary Myers are probably the two most important authors at shaping Lovecraft’s Dreamlands after Lovecraft has passed away. We have not had a chance to discuss Lumley’s work on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast, but we hope to in the near future.
One of Lumley’s Dreamlands entries is the book Ship of Dreams, which I have this awesome, limited edition, autographed copy.
The cover art by Allen Koszowski is spectacular. Here is the back cover:
Friends’ Stuff News
Neverending Streamer Substack
My friend Travis has a new article at his Neverending Streamer Substack. It’s about episode 4 of the Marvel streaming series Echo. Subscribe and check it out here.
Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has a new article at his Bible Films Blog called “Which Bible Films Celebrate a Significant Anniversary in 2024?”. There’s a lot of films on the list with movie birthdays so check it out here.
Angela Sylvaine Short Story Collection
Angela Sylvaine will be having her first short story collection published this spring by Dark Matter Ink. It is called The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls and is already available for pre-order at the Dark Matter Ink Store.
Of course, Angela has been on our HP Lovecast Podcast twice: talking about her novella Chopping Spree and talking about her debut novel Frost Bite. Click the links to have a listen and then consider supporting her work!
Check out my book review of Vilioti Vintage by Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa, which can be read here. he book contains an interview with Ken Holewczynski, the dude behind Exotica Moderne, a magazine I’ve contributed to many times. So, definitely check out the review and the book proper.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
My first podcast guest appearance for 2024 is over at the Fan2Fan Podcast!
In this episode we talk about the classic Italian gothic horror film, Castle of Blood. This was a lot of fun to revisit as it has been years – I dived deep into this movie over a decade ago when writing my thesis and since then I’ve grown to appreciate it more.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website, via the embedded player below, or through your favorite podcast app.
And, of course, I’d be remiss without showing our copy of Castle of Blood, autographed to Michele and I from both Barbara Steele and Edoardo Margheriti, son of director Antonio Margheriti:
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Issues 3 & 4
At the tail end of 2023 issues 1 and 2 of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which has been previously Kickstarted, was unleashed upon the world. I received my copies:
The Fall 2023 issue has an advert for H. P. Lovecast, how cool is that! Also, a reminder, I did a write up about issue 0, which can be read here.
On February 15th there will be a new crowdfunding campaign to publish issues 3 and 4. You can sign up for when the campaign goes live at this link. There’s details there of what to expect from the new two issues. Check it out!
Recent Pepla Acquisitions
Recently plucked up copies of Gold for the Caesars and The Tartars, both from Warner’s Archive Collection. If it’s a peplum film Warner had a hand in back in the day, they kept decent prints of them over the years and give them decent releases:
The Tartars star pepla starlet Bella Cortez. Michele and I are probably going to do a retrospective of her pepla appearances, talking about different movies of the next few episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. I’ll be turning those discussions into articles for my Peplum Ponderings series which has been severely neglected.
Rest in Peplum Jesse Jane
This past week erotic actress Jesse Jane passed away. Jane appeared in many adult movies, including two pirate porno pepla: Pirates 1 and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge. Had the honor, way back in the late aughts, to meet not only Jesse Jane, but co-stars Stoya and Riley Steele at a meet and greet: won a raffle and received copies of both of the Pirates films in which the actresses autographed. Here is a mini-slideshow (NSFW images):
I have a polaroid somewhere as well documenting the meet and greet, soon as I find it I’ll add that to the gallery.
Autographed Stuff
Here is a summary of some of the autographed stuff from my library over the past two weeks on social media.
Robot Jox
Actor Gary Graham passed away on the 22nd. He didn’t star in anything I’d consider peplum, but he starred in lots of sci-fi movies and shows. Michele and I met him at a Hollywood Collectors show way back in the day. I had him sign my copy of Robot Jox:
As you can see, I’ve had quite a few people autograph Robot Jox over the years: Graham, director Stuart Gordon (RIP), producer Charles Band, and writer Joe Haldeman. It’s a fun mecha film. We see lots of mechs in anime and video games, but live action, not so much (but the ones we get, like Pacific Rim, turn out to be cult hits later on).
The Plain Janes
Here are copies of The Plain Janes and Janes in Love signed by author extraordinaire Cecil Castellucci.
And:
When we lived in Orange we would see Castellucci at many of the local cons and she was always awesome to say hi to. Michele moderated a panel on Star Wars at a Long Beach Comic Con that Castellucci was a panelist on.
Michele and I recapped a majority of our accomplishments and projects on the last episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast, however I’d like to do a personal breakdown here.
Publication Accomplishments
Honoured to appear in five physical publications this year:
Links to all podcast appearances can be found on the Podcast Index page. Sincere thanks to Bernie Gonzalez, Peter Charbonneau, Hercules Invictus, and Sherri Nunn for having me be a part of their programs.
Conference Accomplishments
Michele and I attended CoKoCon 2023 and ere on two panels. It was also our first time ever vending at a con. Thank you to Hal and Dee Astell for having us.
2024 Looking Forward
I am hoping that 2024 will be as successful as 2023 was. This year will see a decade of me writing (since the publication of my first essay in James Bond in Popular Culture).
On the podcast front, Michele and I already have the first half of 2024 planned for H. P. Lovecast. We’ve also already recorded a few episodes with the folks at Fan2Fan Podcast, so expect those episodes to drop throughout 2024.
My essay on peplum cats, currently titled “Hic Sunt Leones: Peplum Strongmen and the Nemean Lion Legacy” was accepted last year by editor Simon Bacon for his collection, Cats: A Companion. The manuscript was sent to the publisher in early December, so hopefully this book winds up being published later this year! Nice to have a publication already on the docket.
I still have a pile of reviews I want to get done that have been piling up. I also have a list of essay ideas I have approval on, I just need to write and get out the door. It’s been a while since I’ve submitted to Exotica Moderne, so hopefully I can get an essay or two to them this year.
The main project for 2024, however, is the Emmanuelle Legacy book. On my timeline I have submit a manuscript to the publisher in October, which will be here before I know it. I have an intro and an essay to write, along with editing other folks’ essays. I’m super excited to try and realize this project, so it’s going to be nose to the grindstone for this one.
Thank you to all the folks who support me and my endeavors. You are sincerely appreciated!
Horror Literature.. Review
The collection, Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, that Michele and I edited has just gotten a new review from the Journal of Ecohumanism, and it is a very positive one!
The review (along with the rest of the journal) can be read in its entirety here.
New Episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast
New episode to kick off 2024! We kick off the new year interviewing Pat Shand about his three issue comic book miniseries I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter.
The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout site, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 28 – Pat Shand and I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter –
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
H. P. Lovecast on BlueSky
H. P. Lovecast is now on Blue Sky. If you’re using that social media please consider giving us a follow there! The username is: @hplovecast.bsky.social .
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
The Neverending Streamer Substack
My friend, Travis Lakata, has started a Substack called The Neverending Streamer. Give him support and subscribe – check it out here: https://travislakata.substack.com.
Rest in Peplum Jennell Jaquays
Fantasy artist Jennell Jaquays passed away last week. She did lots of fantastic work. Her covert art for the Dragon Mountain boxset is probably one of the most iconic pieces of 90s 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
My copy of the box proper hasn’t survived the 30+ years, but the contents have! Here is book 1 of the module which sports the legendary red dragon.
Legends of the Lance Newsletter
While digging through my old Second Edition stuff I happened upon these five issues of the Legends of the Lance Dragonlance newsletter. Apparently these are extremely rare! I love how they look though and the art on them is aces.
Endless Armies Jeff Grubb Autograph
For this roundup of autographs, since I was going through my D&D stuff, figured I would show of my copy of Endless Enemies autographed by Jeff Grubb.
Way back in the 2000s my comic book store was Spy Comics in Federal Way. Apparently that was also Jeff Grubb’s comic book store to go to as well. The owner, Richard, arranged an in store event with Jeff Grubb who was on hand to autograph stuff he wrote. I got a few things signed by him, Endless Armies being one of them. Somewhere there is a photo of the event, I hope I can find it!
A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast, and the last one for 2023, is now online.
This is a recap episode where Michele and I talk about what we accomplished with personal projects and podcast stuff for 2023 and what to expect for 2024. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference
Lots of citation news for The New Peplum. Two books have recently been published that cite essays in The New Peplum.
First is “The Performance of Plasticity: Method Acting, Prosthetics, and the Virtuosity of Embodied Transformation” by David LaRocca, published in Plastics, Environment, Culture, and the Politics of Waste by Edinburgh University Press. The editor of this tome is Tatiana Konrad, who wrote the essay “Laughing at the Body: The Imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody Films” that appears in The New Peplum.
Next up is Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Warfare on Film edited by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos and published by Brill. This collection contains five essays that cite contents from The New Peplum:
“Brad’s Biceps and Dwayne’s Delts: Stardom as Physicality and Digital Spectacle in Troy (2004) and Hercules (2014)” by Djoymi Baker (who also wrote the Hercules essay in The New Peplum)
Swords Made of Rubber: Cinematic Antiquity through the Lens of War” by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos
“Romans and Zealots in the Global War on Terror: Asymmetric Warfare and Counterinsurgency in Risen (2016) and Ben-Hur (2016)” by Oskar Aguado-Cantabrana
“Atalanta as Celluloid Warrior in Jason and the Argonauts (2000) and Hercules (2014)” by Patricia Salzman-Mitchell
“Rockules’ Revenge: The Portrayal of the Veteran Warrior in Brett Ratner’s Hercules” by Owen Reese
Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of the above books so I can’t say what specifically is mentioned. Once I suss that out I’ll add the information to the page for The New Peplum. As always, even years later, I am super happy and flattered to see scholars still citing the essays in The New Peplum.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors for the year of 2023. Next week this section goes blank, so wish me luck as I crank out a new batch of essays to be published in 2024. Thank you to everyone who took an interest in my publications for last year. You not only supported me, but you supported the different publishers and editors who gave me venues.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.
New Publication: The Journal of Stoogeological Studies Vol 1
The debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies is out now!
I received a draft PDF of the first issue and its 88 pages of essays, reviews, and other musings all about the Three Stooges (and, as of 12/27, there’s supposed to be a bit more content added this week, so it’s getting even bigger!). I’m honored to have a short piece in this journal called “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy.” I am no expert on The Three Stooges or a super fan or anything, but I love writing about sword n’ sandal stuff so this was a unique venue to talk about the genre in an eccentric way.
For information on procuring a copy of the zine contact editor Will Sloan (website is https://www.willsloan.ca).
New review up at my website! I take a gander at the first issue of the sex-comedy comic book Becca Boo the Bimbo Ghost.
The review can be read here. I enjoyed the comic and chipped in the for Kickstarter for issue 2, so expect a review of that when it is published. The issue 2 Kickstarter can be found here.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Brand new episode of H.P. Lovecast Podcast is now online!
Episode 59 Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.
Michele and I finally conclude our annual Mimic series discussion by talking about Mimic 3: Sentinel. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
My publisher, McFarland, is doing a holiday sale on ALL their titles. Use code “HOLIDAY23” at checkout to receive 25% off your order. The sale appears to go on for the entire month of December, but McFarland suggests placing orders before the 16th in order to receive them in time for Yuletide.
This is a perfect opportunity to scoop up books I’ve participated in. For editing:
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.
John 3:16, the composer of the HP Lovecast podcast theme song, “Azathoth,” has released the track on Bandcamp!
Here is the link to check it out, stream it, or purchase it via name your own price. Sincere thank you to John 3:16 for being a super supporter of our podcast, sharing our content, and of course, creating this awesome tune.
CFP: The Mummy Edited Collection
Michele is teaming up with Sean Woodard to do an edited collection on The Mummy series. They have a CFP listed at UPENN, but I am also sharing a copy below.
Essays sought for an edited collection focused on Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise.
The 1999 Universal reboot of The Mummy, starring the indelible duo of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, remains a tentpole of ’90s popular culture and cinema. Not only did The Mummy launch two sequels, a spin-off series, and a reboot, but it has lived on as a cult film, loved by fans for its mixture of horror, action/adventure, and humor. The film has also developed a strong meme culture on social media — one of the most viral examples contains a photo of a car bumper sticker proclaiming: “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.”
While academic research has been focused on various releases of The Mummy (1932, 1959, 1999, and 2017), there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film franchise. The recent “Brenaissance” in Fraser’s film career and the film’s anticipated 25th anniversary in 2024 make it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.
The purpose of this edited collection is to place The Mummy into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the franchise, its connections to other genre films, and its continued influence.
We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Resurgent interest in Brendan Fraser/“Brenaissance”
Stephen Sommers as an auteur
Representation of Egypt in popular culture and early filmic representation
Eastern mythology/culture/religion
Exoticism of non-western cultures
Post/De-colonialism
Heroic representation
Body horror
Eco-horror/Ecocriticism
Gender representation
Toxic depictions in film
Queer/LGBTQ+ representation
Meme/GIF culture
Psychoanalysis
Generational nostalgia
Element of music/film scoring
Genre hybridity
Film cycles/reboots/retcons (such as The Scorpion King, The Mummy animated series, Universal Classic Monsters, Hammer Studios, Dark Universe, etc.) and related adventure/archaeological-driven films (such as Ark of the Sun God, The Sphinx, The Librarian franchise, etc.)
Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to mummybookproject@gmail.com as a Word document. Final essays should be 6,000 – 8,000 words in length, including endnotes and bibliography, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The collection is being considered by a leading academic press.
Proposed Timeline
October 1, 2023 thru December 15, 2023 — Call for Papers
January 15, 2024 — Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors
January 15, 2024 thru June 15, 2024 — Book chapters drafting period
June 15, 2024 thru July 15, 2024 — Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts
August 1, 2024 thru October 1, 2024 — Double-blind Peer Review Period
October 1, 2024 thru November 15, 2024 — Contributor revision period
December 1, 2024 — Final editorial acceptance decisions
December 1, 2024 thru January 15, 2025 — Layout design, indexing, and proofing stage
January 15, 2025 thru February 15, 2025 — Copies of chapter proofs sent to contributors for copyediting review
March 1, 2025 — Final manuscript submitted in hard copy and digital formats to publisher
I had the honor to interview Ian Ross from Flesh Field about their newest album, Voice of the Echo Chamber, their first album in album two decades! Back in the aughts I listened to Flesh Field all the time and even caught them live in Seattle in 2005. I’m so happy to see the project resurrected. So, check out the interview and check out the new album!
The New Peplum Citation
Dr. Connie Skibinski’s essay “Crazy Man-Killing Monsters: The Inimical Portrayal of the Amazons in Supernatural‘s ‘Slice Girls'” cites Valerie Estelle Frankel’s essay “Hercules, Xena and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup” from The New Peplum.
Dr. Skibinski’s essay has been published in the open access journal Thersites and can be read here.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Will Penny (Tiki Surf Witches Want Blood) has a new Kickstarter going on for the next project via his Sex and Monsters endeavor: Skinny Dipper.
From the Press Release:
Chillwave pioneer Nite Jewel is making her comics debut alongside a variety of talented writers and artists in Skinny Dipper. This 32-page comic zine launches October 31, 2023 from Sex and Monsters and is accompanied by an original soundtrack single from the internationally lauded singer/songwriter.
Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, R.H. Barlow, and H.P. Lovecraft, Skinny Dipper is a meditation on love, death, and the mysterious lure of the ocean. The zine features the talents of Emily Roberts, April Snellings, Jelena Đorđević, and more – and is perfectly complimented by Nite Jewel’s hypnogogic siren song, which serves as a haunting electro-pop soundtrack for
the story.
Both the Skinny Dipper zine and soundtrack single will be available from Sex and Monsters on Kickstarter starting October 31, 2023 (www.sexandmonsters.com/skinnydipper). The zine features 32-pages of art printed on silk matte stock with spot UV coating. The single will be available on 7” vinyl in a deluxe gatefold cover featuring artwork by Emily Roberts. The music will also be available to stream online and can be purchased digitally from Gloriette Records (https://nitejewel.bandcamp.com/music).
For the month of October we have the honor to interview filmmaker Jesse Terrell about his Lovecraftian short film, Sights Unseen. The episode can be streamed via the embedded player below, at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, or through your podcast app of preference.
In October Michele and I appeared on two episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time.
First, for our typical 4th Thursday of the Month, we talked about the classic Mario Bava sword and sandal film Hercules in the Haunted World (1961), perfect for the Halloween season. That episode can be found on YouTube.
Next, on the 5th Tuesday, Michele talked about the neo-peplum film Centurion (2010) and I talked about Mondo Balordo (1962).
And finally, I made a good and forgot to share September’s Scholars from the Edge of Time episode. I flew solo on this one and talked about Ironmaster (19830. Here is its YouTube link.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Thomas Simmons’ titanic graphic novel, I Am a Barbarian is on Sale for $49.95 through the month of November.
I had the honor to interview Simmons and artist Mike Dubisch about their graphic novel which can be read here. Check out the interview if you want to know more about the comic and if you are interested in purchasing, contact Simmons at cedar.run.publications@gmail.com.
Samson at Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has a new article on a Biblical peplum film at his Bible Films Blog!
The first issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies: An Unauthorized Three Stooges Fanzine is slated to be published in mid-November. I have an essay in this debut zine on the Three Stooges short, Matri-Phony (1942). For more information contact Will Sloan (website) or keep an eye out on his social media.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
The cool kids at Fan2Fan Podcast have published an episode on the 1985 Lovecraftian cult, splatstick classic, Re-Animator. I am honored they have asked me to be a guest on this episode!
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
For fun, here is my Re-Animator DVD (the old school version from Elite Entertainment) autographed by Charles Band (who owned Empire who produced the film).
Band autographed this at his Full Moon Roadshow he did in Seattle in the late 2000s. I am not sure why I don’t have Stuart Gordon’s signature on this, I met him at a Monsterpalooza in Burbank and he signed my other movies. I can only think that I couldn’t locate this DVD in time or it was packed away.
And finally, here is my copy of Bride of Re-Animator, also signed by Band.
Alas, I do not own a copy of Beyond Re-animator.
McFarland Horror Sale
My publisher, McFarland, is having a sale this month on their horror titles. If you use code HALLOWEEN2023 during check out you’ll get a 25% discount on the horror tiles. An entire list of eligible titles can be found here
Numerous books I’ve been a part of are included in this sale. If you want to pluck something up I’ve either co-edited or contributed an essay to, now is a good time!
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
A new episode of our monthly HP Lovecast Podcast is online!
Angela Sylvaine returned to the podcast to talk about her debut novel, Frost Bite. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
Later this month we will be discussing Mimic 3 on the podcast, concluding our year tradition of diving into the Mimic franchise (Listen to Mimic and Mimic 2).
McFarland Horror Sale
My publisher, McFarland, is having a sale this month on their horror titles. If you use code HALLOWEEN2023 during check out you’ll get a 25% discount on the horror tiles. An entire list of eligible titles can be found here.
Numerous books I’ve been a part of are included in this sale. If you want to pluck something up I’ve either co-edited or contributed an essay to, now is a good time!
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Michele is teaming up with Sean Woodard to do an edited collection on The Mummy series. They have a CFP listed at UPENN, but I am also sharing a copy below.
Essays sought for an edited collection focused on Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise.
The 1999 Universal reboot of The Mummy, starring the indelible duo of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, remains a tentpole of ’90s popular culture and cinema. Not only did The Mummy launch two sequels, a spin-off series, and a reboot, but it has lived on as a cult film, loved by fans for its mixture of horror, action/adventure, and humor. The film has also developed a strong meme culture on social media — one of the most viral examples contains a photo of a car bumper sticker proclaiming: “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.”
While academic research has been focused on various releases of The Mummy (1932, 1959, 1999, and 2017), there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film franchise. The recent “Brenaissance” in Fraser’s film career and the film’s anticipated 25th anniversary in 2024 make it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.
The purpose of this edited collection is to place The Mummy into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the franchise, its connections to other genre films, and its continued influence.
We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Resurgent interest in Brendan Fraser/“Brenaissance”
Stephen Sommers as an auteur
Representation of Egypt in popular culture and early filmic representation
Eastern mythology/culture/religion
Exoticism of non-western cultures
Post/De-colonialism
Heroic representation
Body horror
Eco-horror/Ecocriticism
Gender representation
Toxic depictions in film
Queer/LGBTQ+ representation
Meme/GIF culture
Psychoanalysis
Generational nostalgia
Element of music/film scoring
Genre hybridity
Film cycles/reboots/retcons (such as The Scorpion King, The Mummy animated series, Universal Classic Monsters, Hammer Studios, Dark Universe, etc.) and related adventure/archaeological-driven films (such as Ark of the Sun God, The Sphinx, The Librarian franchise, etc.)
Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to mummybookproject@gmail.com as a Word document. Final essays should be 6,000 – 8,000 words in length, including endnotes and bibliography, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The collection is being considered by a leading academic press.
Proposed Timeline
October 1, 2023 thru December 15, 2023 — Call for Papers
January 15, 2024 — Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors
January 15, 2024 thru June 15, 2024 — Book chapters drafting period
June 15, 2024 thru July 15, 2024 — Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts
August 1, 2024 thru October 1, 2024 — Double-blind Peer Review Period
October 1, 2024 thru November 15, 2024 — Contributor revision period
December 1, 2024 — Final editorial acceptance decisions
December 1, 2024 thru January 15, 2025 — Layout design, indexing, and proofing stage
January 15, 2025 thru February 15, 2025 — Copies of chapter proofs sent to contributors for copyediting review
March 1, 2025 — Final manuscript submitted in hard copy and digital formats to publisher
Here are some of the autographed treasures I shared on social media these past two weeks.
First up is my copy of Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. signed by longtime Wood collaborator, Conrad Brooks.
In the latter 2000s I contacted Brooks via his website and he reached out to me via phone. He actually thought I was a lady, probably because of my less-than-masculine voice. He let me send him all my Ed wood stuff for him to autograph (this book included) and he also sent me back some of his movies he directed himself and released via Alpha Video. He was a charming dude and we talked on the phone a few times, but I lost contact with him after we moved to California. I was sad to find out he died, one of the last vanguards of singular era of exploitation films.
Next, following along with classic exploitation, is The Complete Night of the Living Dead Film book, signed by John Russo.
Back in the latter 2000s Michele and I lived in Federal Way and our comic book shop was Spy Comics owned by Richard Spychalski. Richard was the man and we go to his shop every week to pick up our orders we made from Previews and stay well after the shop closed, talking with him and petting his dog Ollie. The bulk of my comic book collection was bought from Richard during this time.
This book popped up as something to order through Previews. The book is actually from 1985. I suspect Avatar Press, which was publishing some NOTLD comics, probably got a box of these books from Russo who has them sitting in his garage and asked for the publisher to sell them. Slap an autograph on them and a certificate of authenticity and voila! Anywho, I liked NOTLD well enough so I ordered this book with one of my previews orders and Richard was able to get it in for me.
I really, really miss having a local comic book store.
To go with my Mike Nelson autographed copy of Plan 9 From Outer SpaceI shared on 8/27, here’s my copy of Carnival of Souls signed by the MST3K alumni.
I bought this way back in early 20004 while living in University Place. This was an era I was hungry for more MST3K stuff, and at the time only Mike Nelson was doing anything like it. This version of Carnival of Souls was the first time I ever seen the cult film. It’s a great one – a very slow burn one.
#HorrorGameOctober
For #HorrorGameOctober I’ll be (well, am currently) playing two games: The Evil Within and The House of the Dead Remake.
There’s a theme to these two games: they both have lenticular covers!
Michele bought me The Evil Within as a yuletide gift way back in 2015. I played it for a bit, but something stopped me from getting too far in it. Something wasn’t jiving? I got distracted by another game? I’m not sure, but here I am 8 years later giving it a legit go.
The House of the Dead I used to play when I was a teen in the arcade at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso. I never got far. The game was for sale dirt cheap on Amazon this summer so I plucked it up. I was able to beat it a few times, something I would never think I would do! The game made me feel very nostalgic. I’m going to give it a few more play throughs this month and score a few more Xbox achievements.
I am going to try and fit in a proper write up about these two horror games before the month ends.
As usual, lots of stuff going on behind the scenes. A small recap of things I am juggling:
Book reviews galore. I overcommitted myself to reviews I need to dig myself out of.
Michele and I are judges for an upcoming film festival, so we’ve been watching lots of short films for it.
Submitting the Emmanuelle proposal to publishers.
Next HP Lovecast Podcast episode will be an interview with Angela Sylvaine about her debut novel Frost Bite.
Will be a guest on a few upcoming Fan2Fan podcast episodes.
Next Scholars from the Edge of Time episode will be on Ironmaster.
Work has gotten hectic with project management work and implementations.
Other essay projects on the to do list I keep deprioritizing to get above items done.
Ooof. I’ll get my desk cleared off. Someday. I hope. It’s nice to get things done, but I need to manage better and learn to say no.
Book Review: The Scourge Between Stars
It’s been a bit since I published something here at my website. To break the spell I’ve done a book review on Ness Brown’s space horror novella, The Scourge Between Stars.
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
I did it. After watching G2: Mortal Conquest and doing a Scholars at the Edge of Time vidcast about it, I went out and bought a copy of The Swordsman 2: Gladiator Cop off eBay.
Oh yes, expect a podcast or an essay or a review – a something! – about this magnificent bastard of a film.
Autograph Stuff
Here are some of the autographed treasures I shared on social media these past two weeks.
First is the xbox game Darks of Days.
Michele and I saw this game demoed at PAX 2009? Around there. We have a shirt in a box somewhere. It’s an underrated time travel FPS game. It mostly takes place during the Civil War, but also WW1 and WW2, with a concentration camp scene being especially harrowing. The ending of the game is totally neo-peplum and totally epic: you’re back in Pompeii as Mt. Vesuvius is erupting. You got future armor and gun and you can just mow down Roman soldiers as folks run about. It is hectic and chaotic. Calls for an essay someday that’s for sure.
Way back then I contacted the developers, 8Monkey Labs, if they would autograph my copy. They said sure, I snail mailed it to them, and voila, here it is.
Next up is one of my most prized possessions, an Arkham House publication, Nameless Places, signed by author Gary Myers, Ramsey Campbell, and over artist Tim Kirk.
Gary is an old friend who has been a big inspiration to me for writing and getting into Lovecraft, especially the Dreamlands. I will never not plug his work when I can (check out his collection Country of the Worm!!!). Campbell I met at StokerCon 2018. Kirk I met at a Vintage Paperback Show in Glendale. He did a doodle in my book and its adorbs.
