Categories
Cocktails

Museum Quality Cocktails: Jennifer Croll’s Art Boozel

In the decades since the dark ages of the 70s and 80s, cocktail culture has made giant strides into the greater pop culture arena. Nowhere is this more evident than the proliferation of themed cocktail books. Popular television shows and movies, such as Game of Thrones (Game of Thrones Cocktail Recipes by Dan Babel), Downton Abby (The Official Downton Abby Cocktail Book published by Weldon Owen), and Star Wars (The Unofficial Star Wars-Inspired Book of Cocktails by Rhiannon Lee) capitalize on both fan and cocktail enthusiast interest. Cocktail books that homage the literary world, such as Tim Federle’s Tequila Mockingbird and Mike Slater’s Lovecraft Cocktails, are also readily available.

Personal copy of Art Boozel

Jennifer Croll’s Art Boozel is a themed cocktail book, but it differentiates itself from the crowd by focusing not on artistic end products, but on the creators of art: painters, photographers, film directors, and so on. The recipes in Art Boozel are not of cocktails favoured/created by artists, but instead are brand new, unique creations that pay homage to their personalities, crafts, and legacies. 

What Art Boozel accomplishes can be best exemplified by its entry on Banksy. The base cocktail recipe is fairly simple: Campari, lemon juice, Cherry Heering, and egg white. How it honours Banksy is that after the drink is poured/strained and has developed a nice egg foam on top, the next step is to place a stencil over the cocktail and mist bitters through it, mimicking Banksy’s distinctive street art style. Paired with this interactive libation is a rendition of Banksy, hooded and completely silhouetted in black. This isn’t just a cocktail, it is an experience, an act of creating and consuming art. 

There are fifty-eight other cocktail recipes in Art Boozel, all celebrating different visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers from the past century. Some choice recipes include the Gerhard Richter, a drink that balances a few unusual pairings – blue curacao, apple brandy, gin and green chartreuse – into a rather smooth, robust libation that conceals a maraschino cherry.

Gerhard Richter

The Jeff Wall goes all in on orange with mandarin juice (and garnish), orange blossom water with gin and honey. The end result is a Tom Collins variant that is tangy and refreshing.

Jeff Wall

The Miranda July follows a similar path with gin, orange juice, orange Fanta soda, and Campari. The bitterness of the Campari is tempered down from the sweetness of the one-two orange combo.

Miranda July

A final example, the Roy Lichtenstein, challenges conventions with its vodka-margarita riff: vodka, simple syrup, Cointreau, lime and lemon juices. The formula works, the vodka allows the Cointreau to be the star of this show, and it is a must see.

Roy Lichtenstein

Each recipe is accompanied by a portrait created by Kelly Shami whose style is perfect at representing each artist in a fun, unique way. Every portrait also contains a rendition of the cocktail, which is extremely helpful and a huge step above cocktail books that lack photos to help guide folks along.

The majority of cocktails in Art Boozel are not aimed at beginners, as some have fairly esoteric or unusual ingredients. This is by design as Art Boozel aims to experiment and advance mixology while at the same time appreciating and honouring a variety of influential artists – some household names, others underground. With this in mind, Art Boozel is a stand out tome in a sea of themed cocktail books, inviting readers to check out interesting artists via inventive cocktails. 


If you’re interested in checking out Art Boozel, the book can be found for purchase in the below links:

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-07-24

Personal / Website News

CoKoCon 2022 Panel Appearances

Michele and I will make an appearance at CoKoCon 2022 over Labour Day weekend.

CoKoCon is a local (Phoenix) sci-fi/fantasy fan con. More info on the con can be found at CoKoCon website, along with ticket and guest news.

Michele and I will be appearing on three panels over the course of the con. The schedule is below, but I also have the information on my Conference Appearances page:

Horror & Sci-Fi from Pre-Code Films
Saturday, Sept. 3rd
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Fiesta Ballroom 2

Your Mom is Lovecraftian: Why Cosmic Horror is So Hard to Get Right
Sunday, Sept.4th
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Coronado room

Swords, Sandals, Sorcery, and Other Planets
Monday, Sept. 5th
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Fiesta Ballroom 1

Scholars from the Edge of Time

Michele and I will be appearing on our month Scholars from the Edge of Time show later this week. We will be talking about the 1996 film Dragon Heart. Keep an eye out for link to stream.

General Neo-Peplum News

Wind Rose Review

Hal C. F. Astell has a new review of a neo-peplum release.

This is on Warfront by the Italian power/folk/Viking metal band Wind Rose. The review can be read at Apocalypse Later.

Recent Acquisitions

Arrived last week was my pre-order of the Kino Blu-ray Maria Montez & Jon Hall Collection.

Personal Copy.

This collection contains a toga and sandal film, Sudan, and a tiki film, White Savage (also known as South of Tahiti). Excited to check out all three, hopefully even do a write up on them here at my website. DVD Beaver did a review with screen caps at everything, so check that out.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-07-17

Personal / Website News

Ben-Hur Boxset

Brand new article here at my website!

Folks seem to like unboxing articles, so I did one for the 50th anniversary Blu-ray boxset for Ben-Hur. Check it out!

McFarland Pop Culture Book Sale

Michele’s and my publisher, McFarland, is having a sale on their pop culture line of books. If you use the code “POPCULT22” during check out, you’ll get 25% off pop culture titles. The promotion ends July 31st.

The New Peplum

A few books I am in/edited are pare of this sale. Here are the direct product page links:

CoKoCon 2022 Panel Appearances

Michele and I will make an appearance at CoKoCon 2022 this labour day weekend!

CoKoCon is a local (Phoenix) sci-fi/fantasy fan con. Michele and I will be appearing on a few panels. More info to come, but for now, check out the CoKoCon website for ticket information and guest news.

General Neo-Peplum News

Viking Article at Inverse

Neat article about Viking women at Inverse called “A Maiden King? Dust and Bones Mat Reveal the True Power of Viking Women” by Sarah Sloat.

Categories
Peplum

Victory Lap: Unpacking the Ben-Hur Fiftieth Anniversary Boxset

As covered previously, the aughts were a decadent decade for physical movie releases and re-releases, where titanic boxsets of film ephemera reigned supreme. 

In 2009 the Biblical peplum film Ben-Hur turned fifty years old. Such an occasional merited a boxset re-release of the film, even though it had just been re-released as a four disc collector’s edition four years prior, and as a deluxe edition in 2002. In 2011 the fiftieth anniversary edition was finally realized on Blu-ray with standard and boxset editions, which saw unprecedented restorations to the film’s quality. 

Compared to the 2002 deluxe edition of Ben-Hur, which included lobby cards, a film frame, photographs, and a poster, the 2011 boxset edition seems rather chaste. The boxset proper is rather large, promising lots of cinematic paraphernalia inside.

I have # 21,171!

The boxset has an outer cardboard sleeve that has a sticker denoting what number the edition is out of 125,000 units.

The sleeve slides off easily, revealing the boxset underneath. Super sturdy back cardboard with an embossed Ben-Hur bookended by two olympians. 

Lifting the boxset lit, the first item encountered is a commemorative hardback book, with a cover depicting the famous chariot race.

The inside of the book contains a plethora of behind the scenes photos (including wardrobe stills), photos from the film proper, sketches, and reproduced news clippings and adverts.

Under the book the large digipack edition of the Blu-ray sits atop a felt-lined tray. Unlike the Troy boxset which used all of its real estate, the Ben-Hur box has a third dead air inside, much like a Doritos bag filled with snackmosphere. Perhaps a missed opportunity to add more swag to the boxset, but on the hand, prior releases contained their own exclusive swag, so what does one put into this boxset to make it unique? There’s definitely a less-is-more route with this edition, focusing mostly on the Blu-ray’s contents and the restored edition of Ben-Hur over collectables. 

The Blu-ray digipack unfolds to three plastic trays/pages, with three Blu-rays proper: one for part one of the film, one for part two, and the special features on the third disc. 

Under the digipack the final item of the boxset can be found: an on-set journal of Charlton Heston.

First day of filming. So far, so good!

The cover is adorned with the same Olympian as the box. The contents mimic a daily schedule, with entries at certain times of the day. Typewriter text captures Heston’s musings on each day. On some of the pages, photos and ticket stubs have been tapped inside, mimicking a scrapbook.

Overall, living up to being an epic film, the 50th anniversary boxset of Ben-Hur omits the small items and instead aims big: big box, two books, and three Blu-rays, which of course, are loaded with commentaries, special features, trailers, and documentaries. Definitely a nice presentation while also encapsulating an era of lavish home video releases 


If you enjoyed this unboxing article, check out these other ones:

And also these DVD/Blu-ray write ups:

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-07-10

Personal / Website News

Holy smokes, this was a prolific and active week!

I Am a Barbarian Writer and Illustrator Interview

I had the honor to interview Tom Simmons and Mike Dubisch, the creative team behind the comic book adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel I Am a Barbarian.

Personal copy.

The interview can be read here.

New Episode of HP Lovecast

New episode of HP Lovecast is online!

Ep 52 – Even in the Grave: Trevor Firetog and Steven Van Patten H. P. Lovecast Podcast

This is the first episode of our themed month on the anthology, Even in the Grave. In this episode we take a look at “What’s Your Secret?” by Trevor Firetog and “Blind Spot” by Steven Van Patten. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player above, or at your podcast app of preference.

For our transmissions episode this month we will be interviewing editor Carol Gyzander, and contributors Firetog and Van Patten. Stay tuned!

Short Film: Dinosaur Joke

I made a short film and put it on YouTube!

I bought a box of Trix cereal this past week, and on the back, to promote the new Jurassic Park film, there were cutout dinosaurs and pop up trees, inviting you to make a movie with the back of the box. I don’t know how many kids actually do these things, but I decided I would! So, give it a watch, and maybe a like or a comment. It was silly, but a fun thing to do.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

The folks at Fan2Fan had me back on their podcast for two (2!!) new episodes that dropped this past week!

The first episode is about sword and sorcery cartoons of the 80s, which can be heard at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page (or via your podcast app of preference).

A chance to show off my autographed animation cell of Teegra from Fire and Ice!

The second episode is an entry in their series where they ask folks about their dream Saturday morning cartoon lineup. You can hear mine here.

Here’s four of my dream line up! Gotta listen in to hear the rest.

Sincere thank you to Pete and Bernie for having me on their show. It has been a wonderful experience and I always appreciate their support.

CoKoCon 2022 Panel Appearances

Michele and I will make an appearance at CoKoCon 2022 this labour day weekend!

CoKoCon is a local (Phoenix) sci-fi/fantasy fan con. Michele and I will be appearing on a few panels. More info to come, but for now, check out the CoKoCon website for ticket information and guest news.

General Neo-Peplum News

Blog Entries at DMR Books

Here a listing of genre relevant blog articles at DMR Books this past week:

Red Sonja Blu-ray/4K

Red Sonja is getting a nice, steenbok, Blu-ray/4K release! Article at Collider.

Categories
Interview Peplum

We Are Barbarians: Interview with Mike Dubisch and Tom Simmons on I Am a Barbarian

I Am a Barbarian™ is a sword and sandal novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs that was published posthumously in 1967. Due to its historic antiquity subject matter, the novel is an outlier when compared to Burroughs’ speculative fiction bibliography of Tarzan®, Barsoom® (John Carter of Mars), and Pellucidar® novels for which he is most famous. In the 2010s, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. began posting a webcomic adaptation of I Am a Barbarian at their website, written by Tom Simmons with art by Mike Dubisch and lettering by L. Jamal Walton. In early summer of 2022, the entirety of I Am a Barbarian was published in an ornate, hardback collection. Simmons and Dubisch have graciously allowed an interview about the I Am a Barbarian project.

How do you get into Edgar Rice Burroughs? Do you have a particular fondness for I Am a Barbarian?

Mike Dubisch: I loved Tarzan and John Carter of Mars as a kid, and of course his works were a favorite subject among the classic fantasy illustrators who shaped me. Anything about hidden fantastic worlds and strange adventures fascinated me. While I knew and loved the original cover painting, I’m not sure I ever read I Am a Barbarian before the project.

Personal copy of I Am a Barbarian with slip case.

What were some of those illustrators that shaped you?

MD: Oh, it’s the usual pantheon: Frank Frazetta, Richard Corben, Hal Foster, Michael Whelan, Burne Hogarth, Wally Wood, Alex Nino, Nestor Redondo, John Buscema, in terms of artists who worked on ERB or ERB-like products. Otherwise, fairy tale and book illustrators like Arthur Rackham, H. J. Ford, Edmund Dulac, and the Brothers Hildebrandt. Pulp illustrators like Hans Bok and Virgil Finlay. I love studying the wood engravings of Doré illustrations, and the engravings of Albrecht Durer. Other comic book artists, particularly Europeans like Moebius, Jordi Bernet, Jose Ortiz, Tanino Liberator, as well as Charles Burns, Robert Crumb, Dave Stevens, Jack Kirby, Bernie Wrightson, and Basil Woolverton. 

What was the genesis of the original I Am a Barbarian webcomic?

Tom Simmons: I wrote an email to Jim Sullos, President of ERB, Inc., in 2012 offering to write a gratis screenplay (I’m a self-taught screenwriter); the script I wanted to adapt was the original Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. Jim replied that the character was “taken” by a licensing agreement at the time, but he must have been impressed by my offer to do work for free because when the online strips launched in 2013-14 he suggested I toss my proverbial writing quill into the ring and put together a collaborative team to do one of them; he even provided the name of an artist who had contacted him about getting involved with the online strips project. I Am a Barbarian is actually the third online strip with which I’ve been involved, and still am in the case of one of the three: The Outlaw of Torn. I chose Barbarian because it was available to adapt as a strip; I thought it would be a challenge to adapt (it was), and I’ve always had an interest in ancient history (I have a Bachelor’s degree as well as Master’s work in history). 

How was the creative team formed?

TS: Regarding how our creative team was formed, the artist I originally worked with on The Monster Men™ strip (which was among the first ERB, Inc. placed online in 2014) referred me to letterist/graphic designer/artist Jamal Walton of Durham, NC (full name: Larry Jamal Walton but he goes by “L. Jamal” or simply “Jamal”). As it transpired, Jamal has been involved in all three of the ERB, Inc. strips I’ve adapted, and was also the letterist for my 2015 e-book Crispus Caesar, which, indeed, is yet another “Swords and Sandals” story, adapted by me from my 2010 screenplay of the same name. My collaboration with Mike Dubisch came about when Mike contacted another ERB online strip artist and asked how he could become involved with the online strips; that artist referred Mike to me and the rest, as the cliche goes, is history. 

MD: After a period of trying to focus only on my own work in the comic industry, I decided it was time to seek out professional commissions again to advance my career. ERB was one of the markets I approached right away and fortunately Tom was manning the lines of communication and snatched me right up for his project. I knew instantly that I Am a Barbarian was the right fit because it would be a comic with the word “barbarian” in the title!

What were some of the challenges encountered when adapting the original novel into a webcomic format?

TS: The writing challenge for any adaptation to strip format (or any other, for that matter) is about scale/scope: we didn’t want the strip to continue indefinitely, set an end goal of roughly 225-245 weekly episodes (about five years of the strip being presented online), and worked toward that end. The second phase of the project after the online adaptation was complete was always to produce a printed graphic novel encompassing the entire online strip, and we achieved that goal. Apart from considerations of scale/scope, I did a thorough re-examination of Caligula, aided by a recent biography by Anthony Barrett. While there is little doubt Caligula was very likely a mentally unbalanced individual prone to cruelty and outright bloodthirstiness, the sources ERB used (historians Suetonius and Dio) also had a vested interest in painting an “over the top” picture of the assassinated ruler; I’d compare their accounts (and neither was an actual eyewitness to events) to Shakespeare’s lambasting of the Yorkists. Lastly, for me Barbarian is a love story wrapped around a tragedy; to dwell on Caligula’s misdeeds would not only have been a gratuitous waste of time but it would have obscured Brit and Attica’s character arcs. That said, I still included plenty of outrageous and bloodthirsty Caligulan behavior!

MD: For me the adaptation is from Tom’s script into the art for the strip, and so the re-imagining the scene from the book as comic pages has already been established when I start in. My biggest challenge is remembering to refer back to my historical architectural and costume references.

What would you say you each brought that is distinctively “you” to the comic?

TS: Mike and I formed a natural collaborative team, in my opinion. I did most of the historical research and (of course) writing the actual adaptation, but largely relied on Mike to place his own unique artistic stamping on the panels themselves. I know Mike will be speaking to his many projects currently underway, but for me he stepped up and out of his mostly Lovecraftian/horror mold to draw the history-based I Am a Barbarian, although those influences can be seen in many panels, in particular the scenes involving dungeons, prophecies and strange people. 

Mike Dubisch. Photo courtesy of Dubisch.

MD: I have a bad habit of only looking at reference when I don’t know how to draw something, and I know how to draw just about everything, and if I don’t, well then I usually know how to draw something after referencing it only once or twice. So, what you see with my work is devised almost entirely from my imagination, and that is why everything I do has a distinct style. Additionally, I tend to use a lot of black on the pages, using bold core shadows on figures and props, creating a feeling of dynamic lighting and adding volume, and bringing weight to the page.

Setting aside (since it is not a John Carter or Tarzan story), what do you feel is unique about I Am a Barbarianwhen compared to Burroughs’ other work?

TS: As far as I’m aware, Barbarian is the only ERB story in which the female protagonist dies. Overall, it’s a “darker” story than most of ERB’s work, and is likely a reflection of the dark period the writer was experiencing in his own life when he wrote the story in the spring/summer of 1941: his second marriage was on the rocks, he was drinking too much, and he was in and out of the hospital with health issues that year. 

MD: For me it’s the danger and trauma of Brit’s life; he loses everything and lives under the threat of torture and death his whole life. This seems a far cry from ERB’s superhuman heroes who rule their secret worlds.

TS: Good observation about Brit’s travails, Mike. If you want to test (and grow) your protagonist’s character arc, toss said protagonist under as many proverbial buses as possible.

Signed bookplate. I’m lucky number 7!

I Am a Barbarian has just been released in a luxurious, oversized, hardback edition in a slipcase. This is a stark contrast to how comics are normally collected in a trade paperback release. What were the reasons for going the “Roman Decadent” route for the comic?

TS: I wanted the IAAB graphic novel to be an instantly recognizable, collectible classic and used this approach when we designed and produced the book over a 10-month period starting in June, 2021. For me, we achieved that goal. It’s a “pandemic book,” however, and as such it ended up costing considerably more to produce. I had no choice but to increase the price commensurately, and it turns out we’re working with little or no margin. As often is the case with these projects, IAAB is a true labor of love, not money. 

ERB stories have seen many comic adaptations across many decades by a plethora of publishers: Marvel, Dynamite, Gold Key, American Mythology, and so on. Is there any particular run of a Burroughs comic that you hold in high regard?

TS: I’m so old school re: comics I’m probably not relevant; the first actual comic books I read (other than the newspaper version) were Classics Illustrated. That said, for me old school illustrators and writers like Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Russ Manning were always my favorites. 

MD: I recall OBSESSING on a big treasury edition sized Tarzan comic adaptation that I read to shreds as a kid – I no longer have it and can’t identify what edition it was. I do love Joe Kubert’s work on the character. I never really read the John Carter comics, but I love what I’ve seen in issues drawn by Gil Kane. I haven’t kept up with anything modern – I’ve enjoyed seeing Joseph Michael Linsners Dejah Thoris® cover art.

TS: If we’re talking about Dejah Thoris, for me Jay Anacleto and Michael C. Hayes are tops.

Deja Thoris by Jay Anacleto. Image provided by Simmons.
Deja Thoris by Michael C. Hayes. Image provided by Simmons.

I Am a Barbarian can be considered a sword and sandal story. Is this a genre you have appreciation for? If so, any particular texts over the years that have left an impression on you?

TS: The film Gladiator is a recent standout for me. I also very much liked Spartacus and Ben-Hur.

MD: Oh man, Old Testament Biblical epics were one of my favorite things to watch as a kid, and Biblical comic adaptations were always a favorite as well. I loved Conan and Kull too, especially the comic books, but also the Robert E. Howard stories. While I was drawing I Am a Barbarian I streamed the Spartacus TV series, which was also very entertaining.

TS: Also, thinking of further S&S influences for me, I loved Colleen McCullough’s First Man in Rome series of novels as well as the 2005 Rome TV series. 

Tom Simmons. Photo courtesy of Simmons.

What projects do you have on the horizon that you’d like to share?

TS: I’m continuing doing the online strip adaptation of ERB’s other historical novel, The Outlaw of Torn. I’m currently working with Benito Gallego, who does the art, colors and letters for the strip. The plan is to do a printed version of this story as well when it’s completed in 2024. The book will form a “companion volume” to the printed I Am a Barbarian graphic novel, and I envision a matte red board slipcase with silver foil lettering for the book which will have two parts, one containing the art of Jake Bilbao and the other that of Benito Gallego. I also have ongoing screenplay projects; this summer I’ll finally complete the pilot for an 8-part miniseries entitled The Nessus Shirt, a WWII story told from the German point of view through the eyes of an ordinary soldier who becomes involved in the pre-Valkyrie plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 

MD: My primary focus has been Forbidden Futures Magazine and the Forbidden Futures Book Club, where I am the illustrator of an entire line of books and magazines working with premiere science fiction and horror writers, that goes out as a quarterly package to our subscribers through Oddness Books.

We are currently printing Forbidden Futures issue #10 which is a double issue with new fiction by David Gerrold, creator of both Star Trek’s Tribbles, and the Sleestacks from the Land of the Lost TV series. The issue also presents the first fully illustrated publication of Philip K. Dick’s “Tony and The Beetles,” a new sci-fi comic story I wrote and illustrated, and contributions from John Shirley and Cody Goodfellow. Forbidden Futures will be reissuing several of my out-of-print comics and graphic novels, including my Cthulhu Mythos SF graphic novel Weirdling, body horror underground comix Mystery Meat, and a collection of short graphic stories “The Wet Nurse and Other Tales of Conception and Re-Birth.” We have been publishing illustrated novels and novellas under the “Forbidden Futures Presents” banner, and I have my own illustrated prose projects planned for that line, including a soon to be announced SF novella. Finally, we are also debuting a bi-yearly chapbook “In Human Skin: The Mike Dubisch Journal of Illustrated Verse,” which pairs my series of surreal drawings on black paper with my own written verse.

Additionally, I continue to contribute to Diabolik Books Adventures of Professor Dario Bava comics, with the epic graphic novel tribute to Italian horror films and mod culture, “Murder Vibes from the Monster Dimension” still available and the new “Orgy Of The Blood Freaks” out now with new issues on the way.


Sincere thanks to Simmons and Dubisch for this interview. Their release of I Am a Barbarian can be found in two editions – with and without a signed bookplate – at Cedar Run Publications. Consider checking it out!

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-07-03

Personal / Website News

New episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Our monthly end of the month Transmissions episode is now online!

Thumbnail made by Michele Brittany

This is a middle grade/young adult focused episode. We interview Lora Senf about her debut, The Clackity, and Robert P. Ottone about The Triangle, the first book in his The Rise Trilogy.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 13 – Lora Senf and Robert P. Ottone H. P. Lovecast Podcast

The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout page, the embedded player above, or via your podcast app of preference.

CoKoCon 2022 Appearance

CoKoCon is a Phoenix speculative fiction conference that is being held over Labour Day weekend.

Michele and I will be in attendance as panelists. Programming is still being solidified, but keep an eye out at the CoKoCon website or Twitter as news comes in.

The New Peplum Citation

The New Peplum appears in the bibliography of the edited collection La Strada: The Cinema and Cinematographers of Italy, edited by Alexander A. Sinitsyn.

I’m not sure which specific essay(s) in the collection cites The New Peplum, or what specifically from The New Peplum has been cited, but you can see the bibliographic entry in the uploaded paper “Antiquity in the Cinema of Italy in the 1910s – 1930s” by Alexandra Solovyeva, which happens to include the bib for the entire book.

Very cool. I’m always humbled and honored to see other academics referencing The New Peplum.

Exotica Moderne Book Review

Turned in a book review to be published in an upcoming issue of Exotica Moderne (hopefully the next one!). In the meantime, check out the publisher, House of Tabu, who has various mugs, pins, and the latest issue, #15 with the Shag cover, still for sale.

General Neo-Peplum News

Blog Entries at DMR Books

Here a listing of genre relevant blog articles at DMR Books this past week, both are author interviews:

Recent Acquisitions

My autographed copy of Matt Page‘s 100 Bible Films has arrived from across the sea!

Personal copy now in the peplum library.

Copies can be procured from Bloomsbury or via Amazon. Also, be sure to check out my interview with Page.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-06-26

Personal / Website News

Scholars From the Edge of Time

Brand new episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time on Hercules Invictus’ Mount Olympus programming is now online.

Personal Copy.

In this episode Michele and I talk about the 80s sword and sorcery film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, which was legit good! The episode can be streamed at BlogTalkRadio.

Next month we will be talking about DragonHeart (1996).

New H.P. Lovecast This Thursday

Our monthly Transmissions program will be published this upcoming Thursday, June 30th. We will be interviewing Lora Senf and Robert Ottone.

General Neo-Peplum News

“Temm the Riven” by Brian Matthews

Dark fiction writer Brian W. Matthews, author of The Conveyance (read my review over at Goodreads), Forever Man (which just got a re-release earlier this month) and its sequels Revelation and Dark Rescue, takes a plunge into the sword and sorcery genre with a new short story titled “Temm the Riven.” The story will be published in an upcoming issue of the recently revived Weird Tales magazine.

Amplifying Antiquity with Heavy Metal Music

Dr. Jeremy Swiss was recently interviewed Brandeis University in their BrandeisNow online news. The interview is called, “Amplifying Antiquity with Heavy Metal Music” and can be read here.

DMR Blog Entries

DMR Books is a publisher of sword and sorcery, pulp, and horror books that are in an old school pulp vein. In addition to their publishing endeavors they maintain a very active blog of contributors doing essays, interviews, and reviews. This past week saw:

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-06-19

Personal / Website News

Happy Birthday to Me / General Updates

Today (June 20th) is my birthday. Happy birthday to me. I turn 40.

This past week was a roller coaster of things happening. Some good. Most not so good. I didn’t have anything released last week (podcast, essay, etc.), so I’ll use this opportunity to paint a picture of things I am working on, and maybe see my 40th solar year be super successful.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Michele and I pretty much have the rest of the summer plotted out for the podcast. June’s Transmissions episode has the interviews already recorded, and they are with Robert Ottone and Lora Senf. We simply need to record our script, edit, and upload. That episode will drop on the final day of June as normally scheduled.

Edit: The Lora Senf/Robert Ottone Transmissions episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout page.

We are working on July’s programming as well. Much like August of 2021 when we devoted a month to the King in Yellow with a specific focus on the anthology Under Twin Suns, we will be spending July devoted to the anthology Even in the Grave. The ball is already rolling to coordinate interviews.

Edit: Our analysis of Even in the Grave can be streamed here while our interviews with contributors of the anthology can be read here.

For August we are looking at releases from Weird House Press.

Edit: Our analysis of Something in the Water (published by Weird House) can be streamed here and our interview with Douglas Wynne is here.

Everything with the podcast is going along pretty well and we hope to stay ahead of the game with our programming.

Scholars From the Edge of Time

This upcoming Thursday Michele and I will do our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time program. We will be discussing the 1982 Albert Pyun film, The Sword and the Sorcerer (which ruled).

Other Podcast News

I recorded an episode with Fan2Fan about Saturday morning cartoons. I expect that episode to be published in the near future. It has been fantastic appearing on their shows.

I am slated to be invited back on Scaredy Cats to talk about The Final Girls. That’s all TBD for now, but excited to be back on that show.

Emmanuelle CFP

I still plan on putting an official CFP for the Emmanuelle and Black Emmanuelle films out later this year on places like UPenn. To be honest, the only thing holding me back is all my source material (films, books, etc.) are in a box in storage since we moved and I have not gotten around to locating it yet. Once I get my paws on my stuff and I can craft a real CFP, it’ll go up. I’ll still have an unofficial call open for folks interested to email me, but for now, instead of broadcasting the unofficial CFP every week, I’ll do it every month until a proper go live.

Vikings Sampling Essay

My current big writing project is taking my presentation from the MAPACA conference last year, “Victory Or Valhalla: Violence via Vikings Sampling in Acylum’s Kampf Dem Verderb,” and turning it into a journal article proper. The work is basically done, it just needs to be edited and spruced up to make it publishable quality.

Exotica Moderne

Working on a book review for the next issue of Exotica Moderne. Review is due at the end of June.

Other Publications

I have composed essays slated to appear in a Westward book, a Gladiator book, and a Twilight Zone book. It’s been quiet on all three fronts. As soon as I hear any news on the production of any of these books, I’ll let y’all know here.

Edit: The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone was published in October. It can be bought at McFarland.

I Am a Barbarian Interview

I’m currently doing an email interview with Tom Simmons and Mike Dubish about their recently published graphic novel of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story, I Am a Barbarian. Expect this to go online at my website in July.

Edit: This article went live 2022-07-06. It can be read here.

CoKoCon 2022

Michele and I are in exchanges with the folks at CoKoCo to possibly appear on some panels at CoKoCon during Labour Day weekend this year. Cross fingers!

Summary

In summary, I have A LOT going on – I just didn’t have anything come out last week. There’s other projects on my to-do list, such as book reviews I’ve wanted to write and some peplum ponderings. I also just started a new job mid-April, which has been awesome, but there’s simply quite a bit to juggle going on right now. I appreciate folks who have been supportive of my (and Michele’s!) endeavors. You all rock.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-06-12

Personal / Website News

New Episode of H.P. Lovecast Podcast

Brand new episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online!

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany

Last month we had a Twitter poll on what film we should watch and discuss for this month, Cthulhu Mansion or Feed the Light, and Cthulhu Mansion won. So, we subjugated ourselves to it.

Ep 51 – Juan Piquer Simón's Cthulhu Mansion H. P. Lovecast Podcast

The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout site, via the embedded podcast link above, or via your podcast application of preference.

For our Transmissions episode that drops the last day of June, we will be interviewing Lora Senf and Robert Ottone. Stay tuned for that episode.

General Neo-Peplum News

Kino Release of Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World

Kino has been on a roll lately with their classic sword and sandal releases. Recently they put out Son of Samson. They have Sudan coming out in a Maria Montez and Jon Hall collection, and now they’ve announced a release of Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World.

Amazon does not have an order page up yet, but there is a product page for the Blu-ray at the Kino website.

Though not peplum, but of interest to me in my Emmanuelle studies, Kino also announced a release of the Sylvia Kristel film Mata Hari.

That film’s product page can be found here. You better believe I’ll be ordering both!

100 Bible Films Released

Last month, Matt Page’s 100 Bible Films was released by BFI last month.

The book can be ordered at Amazon and Bloomsbury. Be sure to check out my interview with Page.