Two years ago Michele and I resurrected the H.P. Lovecast Podcast!
Logo by Philip Yount
To celebrate, we got a new logo/thumbnail! Check out this badass piece done by Philip Yount. We love it!
We have a new episode up as well: we recap our last year of podcasting, accomplishments, and talk about goals and upcoming projects. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Elysian Fields Remaster Indiegogo
Michael Oden has an Indiegogo campaign going for a remastered version of his Elysian Fields comic book.
Also part of this campaign is SPQR’s Bizarre Adventures: Rubicon Invaders. The campaign can be viewed here.
The second part of my interview with the Fan2Fab Podcast called “Sword, Sandals, and Sorcery Part 2” has been published.
Banner made by the F2n2Fan Podcast.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference. There is also a video version on YouTube (complete with 100x more arm flailing). Sincere appreciation to hosts Pete and Bernie for having me as a guest!
Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern Citation
Dr. Hurley cites his own essay, “Richard Laymon’s Rhetorical Style: Minimalism, Suspense, and Negative Space,” which was published in Horror Literature From Gothic to Post-Modern.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
The Kings of Strength
Not really sword and sandal, but definitely adjacent, my publisher, McFarland, just released a book called The Kings of Strength: A History of All Strong Men from Ancient Times to Our Own.
The book looks to focally mostly on early 1900s strongmen, however it does contain a small section called “Physical Strength in Antiquity” which may provide some historic contextualizing to use while watching pepla. The book can be ordered at McFarland.
“Enjoy My Flames”
Dr. Jeremy Swist has a new essay published titled “Enjoy My Flames: On heavy metal’s fascination with Roman emperors”. It can be read at Lapham’s Quarterly.
Kagen the Damned
In sword and sorcery news, Jonathan Maberry has a new epic fantasy novel coming out titled Kagen the Damned.
I had the honour to be invited onto the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about the peplum and sword and sorcery genres. I recorded a few episodes with hosts Bernie Gonzalez and Pete Carbonneau who are terrific hosts and made the interviews seamless and fun.
The first episode is now online on the Fan2Fan Podcast Lybsin page. It can either be streamed there or via your podcast app of preference. They have also been posting snippets, excepts, and mini-videos on the Fan2Fan Twitter account, so be sure to give that a follow.
Sincere gratitude to Gonzalez and Carbonneau for giving me an opportunity and a venue. Stay tuned for subsequent appearances from yours truly!
A Vindication of Monsters
Michele will have a new essay published in an upcoming non-fiction anthology!
The collection is called A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Michele’s essay is titled “Beauty in the Grotesque: Bernie Wrightson’s Lifelong Obsession with Frankenstein’s Monster.” More information on the other contributors can be found at editor Claire Fitzpatrick’s website.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Scholars from the Edge of Time
This past week Michele and I had our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time appearance on Hercules Invictus’ program.
Version of The Lion of Thebes in my personal collection.
This month we talked about the Mark Forest toga and sandal film, The Lion of Thebes. A movie that has a lot of potential but was squandered with bad directing and cinematography. There is not much online about this film, with the most detailed plot synopsis being in Barry Atkinson’s Heroes Never Die, and next to nothing on analysis. I think I’ll have to get my thoughts down on a Peplum Ponderings article ASAP. In the meantime, you can hear my and Michele’s thoughts on BlogTalkRadio.
Recent Acquisitions
Another crowdfunded neo-peplum comic arrived in my paws. This one is the first issue of Gilgamesh Eternal.
Autographed issue #1 I received
The comic is written by Cam Kerkau and is new take on the Epic of Gilgamesh. This isn’t covered a topic depicted often in the sword and sandal genre, which makes this title a bit more standout. Also standout is the artwork of Kostas Pantoulas. Definitely excited to give this a read soon. If you’re interested, the comic can be purchased at Kerkau’s Gumroad Website.
Valerie Estelle Frankel’s essay from The New Peplum, “Hercules, Xena and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup,” has been cited in Jonathan L. Friedmann’s book, Goliath as Gentle Giant: Sympathetic Portrayals in Popular Culture.
Ed Glaser has a new book titled How the World Remade Hollywood: Global Interpretations of 65 Iconic Films.
I’m honored to be mentioned in the acknowledgements!
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Recent Acquisitions
My pre-order of The Sword and the Sorcerer arrived!
I have not seen this sword and sorcery film before. I’m an Albert Pyun fan, so I got good feelings about this one.
In late February I was invited on to the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about peplum and 80s’ sword and sorcery films. This weekend I was invited back on to continue the dialogue, focusing on specific films. These episodes will be published later on, but in the meantime check out the Fan2Fan Podcast library for some excellent episodes (or better yet, subscribe via your podcast app of preference).
AnnRadCon 2022 In Person Programming
The StokerCon 2022 website has been updating with the conference’s in-person programming, which includes the in-person portion of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Programming can be viewed here. Of, if curious about AnnRadCon programming only to save you a click:
Thursday, May 12th
Track 1 – Film an Television – 9:00 am
Karley Pardue: “Bathing Bad: Feminine Vengeance and Masculine Vulnerability in the Showers of HorrorSmith”
Jonathan Brooks Sanford: “Between the Known and the Unknown: Stranger Things, the Signifying Body, and the Permeable Border Between the Symbolic and the Real”
Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr: “Killing It on the Field: Athletics and Sport in Horror Cinema”
Sean Woodard: “Narcissistic Love and Object A: Obsession and Desire in Fade to Black“
Track 2 – Vampires – 10:45 am
Rocky Colavito: “Kolchak at Fifty: The Night Stalker Redux, “It’s hard to believe; isn’t it?””
Margaret Yankovich: ““It’s Like I Can Feel God Move Inside Me”: The Religious Ecstasy of Sensual Vampirism in Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass“
Cassandra Yatron: “Rats and the Queer Vampire: Dracula as a Commensal Creature”
Track 3 – Literature and Nature – 12:15 pm
Gavin Hurley: “The Diabolical Dialectics of Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game“
Brenda Tolian: “Gaia Screaming”
Talmage Joseph Wise: “Anatomical Theatre: Freak Show Horrors in Jekyll and Hyde“
Charles Yost: “Crazy Cat Women: The Contemporary Rebrand of Literary Witchcraft”
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Recent Acquisitions
My Severin order for their Caligula boxset arrived.
This boxset contains two films: Caligula the Untold Story and Caligula and Messalina. I’ve seen my share of Joe D’Amato and Bruno Mattei films, but not these prono-pepla.
The original Italian cycle had long since been dead since the mid-60s. With Tinto Brass doing Caligula in the 70s, the door creaked open for imitators, which resulted in these films. Was these 80s peplum films, with wanton depravity and sexploitation that was only hinted at in the original 60s cycle be enough to resurrect the genre? No, of course not. It would have to wait almost two more decades when Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was released.
John Carter Video Game Q/A Sessions
The folks developing the John Carter video game have appeared in a few Q/As to help promote the game and answer fan questions. Episode one can be viewed here and episode two here. The Kickstarter can be found here, so consider chipping in a few dollars.
I plucked up the Troy Director’s Boxset from Zia’s Records in December and was nostalgic back to the 2000s when I was hardcore collecting DVDs and special editions. Since folks seem to like unboxing articles and seeing contents inside of stuff, I did one for the Troy boxset. Check it out here.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Emmanuelle 2
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
Upcoming Website Articles
Believe it or not, I have two interviews I’ve conducted that I’ll be publishing at my website over the next two weeks. That makes three weeks in a row of non-weekly news roundups for this website! Prepare to mark your calendars.
Matthew Page
D. J. Kirkbride
On Wednesday March 9th my interview with Matthew Page about his upcoming book, 100 Bible Films, will be published here. The following week my interview with D. J. Kirkbride on the trade paperback release of his comic series, Errand Boys, will go online. I also have some other mini-essays/interviews in the works, so stay tuned!
General Neo-Peplum News
Supporting Isidora #3
G.A. Lungaro, author of the Lovecraft/neo-peplum comic series Isidora (see my interview with Lungaro on issue 1, or check out my unboxing of issue 2) is selling new merch at his web store to help fund the production of Isidora #3.
Items include the Cute Cthulhu Collection – stickers of Lovecraftian monsters cute-ified. He will also be exploring NFTs later on. For now, check out the website at darthdaddylunga.com.
John Carter Video Game Kickstarter
In big sword and planet news, a Kickstarter to create a John Carter FPS video game has been launched by Sci-Fi-London.
Promotional image provided courtesy of Louis Savy from Sci-Fi-London.
The game is in development right now and has some promising aspects, a big one being relocating John Carter to a WW2 setting and having him a spy in the employ of Ian Fleming! Aside from the Kickstarter proper, news for the game can be found on the official game social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube. Right now it’s only for PC release, but cross fingers for a console version.
Adrastea Kickstarter
Another Kickstarter to take a look at is for the graphic novel Adrastea.
Image from the Kickstarter. Looks like a kick-ass Cyclops to me.
The campaign’s flavor text describes it as such:
Blessed or cursed with Immortality, the ageless king of Hyperborea wakes up from a millennium of self-imposed oblivion, having watched his kingdom crumble to time, along with all those he has ever loved. He decides to travel to Mount Olympus where he will confront the gods to ask why he was burdened with such an affliction and how he can end it. The journey will be long and treacherous and filled with unimaginable men and beasts of lore, but he has no fear of harm and all the time in the world…
The graphic novel is by Mathieu Bablet and published by Magnetic.
Gladiatrix Comic
Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, the masterminds behind the neo-peplum film Immortals and animated series Blood of Zeus are coming out with a new graphic novel called Gladiatrix. Screen Rant has some preview pages of the comic.
Ultimate List of Greek Mythology Films
Over at Bored Panda, writers Miglė Ivanauskaitė and Melanie Gervasoni list out the best Greek mythology pepla and neo-pepla. Not all these films are Greek Myth in origin, but regardless, their list (45 titles!) and order is as follows:
The Odyssey (1997)
Troy (2004) (note: see above or here for my unboxing!)
Jason And The Argonauts (1962)
300 (2006)
The 300 Spartans (1962)
Immortals (2011)
Hercules (1997)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
Spartacus (1960)
Hercules (2014)
Agora (2009)
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
It’s the end of the month, we’ve got not one – but two! – new episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast online.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
First, on H. P. Lovecast Present: Fragments, we have a longer form interview with author/editor/podcast Eric Raglin. We discuss his podcast, Cursed Morsels, and his recently released anthology, Antifa Splatterpunk. The episode can be streamed at this listing at our Buzzsprout website.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
Next, we have our monthly Transmissions episode. In this episode, as part of our support for Bram Stoker preliminary ballot/final ballot folks, we interview Mathias Clasen, Angela Yuriko Smith, Aric Cushing and Logan Thomas. This episode can be streamed at this listing at our Buzzsprout website. Of course, both episodes can be listened to via your podcast app of preference.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
Michele and I had our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time appearance on Hercules Invictus’ program. In this episode we talk about Barbarella! Check it out on BlogTalkRadio.
There’s No Such Thing as Vampires Release
Aric Cushing and Logan Thomas (see podcast above) are the creative team behind the retrowave 80s inspired film, There’s No Such Thing as Vampires.
Poster courtesy of Logan Thomas
While Cushing and Thomas appeared on our podcast, years ago we appeared in their film! Michele and I had the opportunity to play dead bodies in There’s No Such Thing as Vampires, and what an awesome experience it was.
Let the bodies hit the floor.
The movie has now been officially released to the home watching markets: it can be rented on Amazon Prime or bought on Blu-Ray (which is full of lots of features, including a “making of” documentary). Thomas’ synthwave soundtrack can even be bought from Amazon Music. Check it all out!
Things in the Well Closing Shop
Small press publisher Things in the Well is in the process of shuttering its operations. This means two anthologies they’ve published that I have stories in will be out of print.
Trickster’s Treats #3: The Seven Deadly Sins, which contains my story “Journey to Agharti,” already has the Kindle version delisted from Amazon. There are only two physical copies left.
Guilty Pleasures and Other Dark Delights, which contains my story “Seamed Stocking Summoning Circle,” still has Kindle and physical copies for sale.
Act fast on these books! I don’t have any upcoming venues to have the story/drabble republished, so it will be a while before they see print again. Editors interested in republishing these pieces in other anthologies, feel free to contact me.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Matt Page Podcast Appearance
Matt Page, author of the upcoming 100 Bible Films, had an appearance on The Online Movie Show with Phil Hall podcast, where, of course, Biblical pepla was brought up.
One Will Fall Online Comic
Bernie Gonzalez, one of the co-hosts of the Fan2Fan Podcast, has an online Viking/barbarian/neo-peplum comic hosted at Instagram called One Will Fall.
Small press publisher Things in the Well has started the process of shuttering its operations and that means two anthologies they’ve published that I have stories in will soon be out of print.
Trickster’s Treats #3: The Seven Deadly Sins, which contains my story “Journey to Agharti,” already has the Kindle version delisted from Amazon. There are only two physical copies left.
Guilty Pleasures and Other Dark Delights, which contains my story “Seamed Stocking Summoning Circle,” still has Kindle and physical copies for sale.
Act fast on these books! I don’t have any venues right now to have the story/drabble republished, so it will be quite a while before they see print again. Editors and publishers interested in republishing these pieces in other anthologies, feel free to contact me!
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Recent acquisitions, courtesy of the Full Moon Valentines sale.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Thermae Romae Novae Trailer
On March 28 Netflix will begin streaming the neo-peplum anime Thermal Romae Novae, which is about a Roman bath designer who accidentally time travels to modern day Japan.
A trailer has been released! Not many animes or mangas dealing with antiquity, so this is quite cool.
A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
In this episode we discuss the space horror comic series Caliban, written by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher) and art by Facundo Percio. This episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Tiki Melange Article
It has been a while, but I have a new article at my website – a cocktail article!
It’s about the Tiki Melange cocktail that can be found in the comic book Jasper’s Starlight Tavern. It’s not a good comic or drink but I had fun writing about it. The article can be read here.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Tarzan and the Lion of Judah
Tarzan is not a peplum property, but he is a strong man that shares imagery with a majority of sword and sandal protagonists, and he was also in the peplum novel, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, so I am counting this news as peplum-adjacent.
Cover art provided by Gary A. Buckingham
Gary A. Buckingham (Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers) is publishing a new Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. authorized book titled Tarzan and the Lion of Judah. The book contains eight stories and is available in a variety of editions: an autographed sketch letter edition with a Dan Parson Remarque for $175, an autographed limited numbered edition for $118, and a trade edition with a signed bookplate for $56. Tarzan and the Lion of Judah is slated to be released this June. For more information or ordering details, contact Buckingham at gbucking2@yahoo.com.
Recent Acquisitions
Scholar Rocky Colavito brought to my attention a magazine called The Lost Films Fanzine. The zine is focused not strictly on lost films, but films that were supposed to get made, but for a variety of reasons, did not.
Issue eight of the zine prominently features on the cover a movie called Hercules Against the Gods, with Hercules fighting a giant dragon-dinosaur-looking monster. So, of course, I had to order this.
The article, citing Peplum TV, suspects that the unmade Hercules Against the Gods film was actually, more or less, filmed, but it became The Vengeance of Hercules. It’s a fun read that gives a glimpse into the American process of importing and rejiggering Italian films for state-side audiences.
During the week Michele and I took a trip to Zia’s since she was procuring some Highlander releases. I plucked up a used copy of the Dragonheart collection. I had seen the first movie long, long ago but never any of the sequels. I’ve heard of them, and also heard that their quality is extremely lacking. But, I have a soft spot for franchise continuations (I stand by the Scanner Cop movies are legit awesome) so I decided to buy this set. It’s sword and sorcery, with the first movie having shades of Arthurian-peplum, so I’m interested.
Powerslave: Exhumed was just released digitally last week and I bought it off the Xbox marketplace and have been playing it off an on. I was a huge PC gamer in the 90s, and I still love classic DOS style FPS like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. Powerslave looks to have been released at the height of Doom clones, but I had never heard of it before (I may have seen it in a PC Gamer mag?). Regardless, it’s old school and its Egyptian antiquity (thus: neo-peplum!). I am a bit into the game and its…… I dunno. I really want to like it, but it has some questionable mechanics (no reticle, so it’s hard to hit airborne enemies), way too much platforming for a faux 3D FPS, and it is extremely, extremely cryptic at what you need to do to progress. Aside from that, I like the 90s charm and the soundtrack is banging.
My essay, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth,” has made the preliminary Bram Stoker Award ballot in the short non-fiction category. Note: this does not denote I am nominated or a finalist. It simply means I am on the preliminary ballot and have a 50% chance to advance to the final ballot.
Active and Lifetime members of the Horror Writers Association who would like to read my essay for final ballot consideration (which closes February 15th) you can find it online at Academia.edu. Note: if there is a big ad in the way taking up the screen, just hit the X at the top right. Academia.edu is silly that way.
New Issue of Exotica Moderne
Issue fourteen of Exotica Moderne is now out!
Celebrating my newest publication with a Death & Co. inspired Mai Tai
This issue contains my interview with New Zealand stockings/pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair and it can be purchased at the House of Tabu website.
Things in the Well Closing Shop
Small press publisher Things in the Well looks to be closing shop in a few weeks. This means two of their anthologies that I have short stories published in will be going OOP:
Amazon links to buy both books are in the links above. Thank you all who have been curious about my fiction work and who have bought these books. I’ll find a home for these short stories in the future.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Rest in Peplum
Monica Vitti, who stared in many, many Italian auteur films, passed away at the age of 90 (article at CNN.com).
She starred in the Medieval peplum/comedy film On My Way to the Crusades,I Met a Girl Who… which is also known as The Chastity Belt.
The Sword and the Sorcerer Release
Shout Factory announced they are doing a 4K/Blu-ray release of the Albert Pyun sword and sorcery film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, which is slated for a March 15th release.
***OFFICIAL EXTRAS ANNOUNCEMENT***
THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER UHD, coming March 15th, has extras worthy of a princess. (🧵)
I actually have not seen this film since most older releases are way OOP so you better believe I pre-ordered this. Side note: I dig Albert Pyun films, with Cyborg and Nemesis being my favorites.
Zeus Super Bowl Commerical
I’m always down for some neo-peplum commercials (anyone remember the Gladiator/Jif one from last year?)
Per Cinema Blend, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek will star as Zeus and Hera respectively in a series of Super Bowl ads for BMW.
Recent Acquisitions
I love buying art prints and getting commissions done when at comic books cons. I’ve made lots of friends over the years going to cons and I’ve accumulated quite a bit of art!
I was only passingly familiar with Les Edwards, due to him doing the cover art of Hero Quest, but I am certain I’ve seen his sword and sorcery artwork in other places. Recently, I am not sure where, but I saw his art piece, TheInvocation, and I was just mesmerized by it. Simply a beautiful piece. Yes, there is a naked lady featured prominently, but the sky in the background – I am always in awe in powerful skies. When I see a cloud filled sky, be it ominous with storm clouds or full of huge, puffy white ones, I get that feeling of “something big is coming.” TheInvocation does that.
Anywho, turns out Edwards has a website and sells prints of his work. So, I ordered a print of TheInvocation.
Even autographed to me. I love it.
On Sunday Michele and I went to Half Price Books (we had not been in a while) to scour material for some of our respective projects.
I may double dipped on that Historic Epics boxset, but if I did, it’s in an inaccessible box. For sure though I didn’t have that Hail, Caesar! soundtrack. Coen Brothers films usually have fantastic soundtracks, and since Hail, Caesar! is a fantastic neo-peplum and one of the source films that launched The New Peplum, I had to pluck it up.
