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News

News Roundup W/E 2020-11-29

Personal / Website News

Apologies, I missed putting out a news roundup for 11/22, so this post will cover both weeks.

Podcast News

Michele and I interviewed Michael Oden (creator of the Elysian Fields comic) on the Scholars from the Edge of Time segment of the Voice of Olympus show. Episode has been added to the podcast index and can also be streamed here.

For H. P. Lovecast Podcast, the upcoming schedule is going to look like this:

  • 2020-12-06 – Wonder and Glory Forever
  • 2020-12-20 – Interview with Nick Mamatas (already recorded)
  • 2021-01-03 – Eight Cylinders
  • 2021-01-17 – Interview with Jason Parent

Call for Papers

The Call for Abstracts for my collection of essays on neo-medievalism is live. The CFP can be found here.

General Neo-Peplum News

Rest in Peplum

David Prowse, better reknown as the actor who portrayed Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, passed away at the age of 85. His contributions to the sword and sandal genre include:

  • Dr. Who “The Time Monster” (1972). He was a minotaur
  • Up Pompeii (as an muscular extra)
  • Jabberwocky (1977, Terry Gilliam)

Daria Nicolodi passed away at the age of 70. She was known for her many contributions to Italian cinema in the 70s and 80s and her collaborations with Dario Argento. She appeared in Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989, Enzo G. Castellari)

Miscellanea

The folks at Comicon have quite a few articles that have gone up in the past two weeks:

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News

News Roundup W/E 2020-11-15

Personal / Website News

Stranger Things Citation

My essay, “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” from Uncovering Stranger Things was cited (opens up!) in the article “GTA Vice City Created a New Wave of ’80s Nostalgia: How a video game kickstarted reverence for a decade — even for those who never lived through it” over at Super Jump.

The New Peplum Citations

The New Peplum has been cited in two essays in a new anthology published by Brill, The Modern Hercules: Images of the Hero from the Nineteenth to the Early Twenty-First Century, edited by Alastair J.L. Blanshard and Emma Stafford:

The Modern Hercules

The two essays are:

“Hercules’ Self-fashioning on Screen: Millennial Concerns and Political Dimensions” by Jean Alvares and Patricia Salzman-Mitchell

“Warriors, Murderers, Savages: Violence in Steve Moore’s Hercules: The Thracian Wars” by Katherine Lu Hsu

Unfortunately I don’t know which essays within The New Peplum these two essays cite, but as soon as I find out I’ll update the citation page accordingly.

Podcast News

New episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast Fragments is live. This is the episode we interview Robert P. Ottone. Check it out on Buzzsprout or your podcast app of preference.

Call for Papers

The Call for Presentations for Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is live. The CFP can be read at the StokerCon 2021 website.

The Call for Abstracts for my collection of essays on neo-medievalism is live. The CFP can be found here.

General Neo-Peplum News

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

The newest neo-peplum title in Ubisoft’s long running Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, was released this past Tuesday. Lots of news to round up.

Lakeshore records released the soundtrack via Bandcamp.

YouTube cocktail channel How2Drink has created a libation for AC:V called The Horn of Eivorr.

Blood of Zeus

Articles at Screenrant: “Blood of Zeus: 10 References to Classic Peplum Flicks You Probably Missed” and “Blood of Zeus: 5 Authentic References to Greek Mythology, 5 Things That Are Totally Made Up.”

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News

News Roundup W/E 2020-11-08

Personal / Website News

Podcast News

Recorded our interview with Robert P. Ottone over the weekend for H. P. Lovecast Fragements. Episode is now in post-product and will be uploaded on the 15th.

Call for Papers

The Call for Presentations for Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is live. The CFP can be read at the StokerCon 2021 website.

The Call for Abstracts for my collection of essays on neo-medievalism is live. The CFP can be found here.

General Neo-Peplum News

Sword and Sandal Media Releases

Kino will be releasing a blu-ray of Ulysses (1954, Mario Camerini) on November 17. DVD Beaver has the details on the specs, supplements, and screen captures.

Ubisoft will be releasing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla on November the 10th across all major platforms. More details can be found at the publisher’s product page.

Peplum Photography

Photographer Ana Martinez has a beautiful photo set called “Olympus” at their website. Thanks to Dannie DeLisle for the heads up!

The photo set reminds me of the “Celestial Goddesses” post over at Lingerie Addict. Check that one out too for a melding of peplum and lingerie.

Rest in Peplum

Scottish actor John Fraser passed away on November 7th. He was in El Cid (1961, Anthony Mann) and the sorta sword and sandal (I’ll allow it for its historic epic sequences) Loves of Three Queens aka The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships (1954, Marc Allégret and Edgar G. Ulmer)

Neo-Peplum Television

Over at Inverse there is an interview with Blood of Zeus creators Vlas and Charley Parlapanides.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-11-01

Personal / Website News

Podcast Appearances

Michele and I appeared on the Chatting with Sherri program and the episode went live this past Thursday.

Earlier today we recorded the newest episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. In this episode we discuss Kij Johnson’s The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. Both podcasts have been added to the podcast index.

Our upcoming podcast schedule looks like this:

  • 11/25 – HP Lovecast Fragments: Interview with Robert Ottone
  • 11/26 – Scholars from the Edge of Time appearance
  • 12/06 – HP Lovecast: Stories from Wonder and Glory Forever, edited by Nick Mamatas
  • 12/20 – HP Lovecast Fragments: Interview with Nick Mamatas
  • 12/24 – Scholars from the Edge of Time appearance

Call for Proposals

The Call for Presentations for Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is live. The CFP can be read at the StokerCon 2021 website.

The Call for Abstracts for my collection of essays on neo-medievalism is live. The CFP can be found here.

ICYMI

In case you missed them, here is a wrap up of my essays published at my website since going live:

General Neo-Peplum News

Netflix is looking to develop an Assassin’s Creed series. Hopefully they will bring in Kassandra?

Both Looper and The Cinemaholic have write ups on the Blood of Zeus animated series on Netflix.

While IGN reviews season one of Netflix’s Barbarians.

Rest in Peplum

Legendary actor Sir Sean Connery, iconic for bringing pop culture phenomena James Bond to life, passed away earlier this week at the age of 90. Aside from his portraying Bond, Connery starred in numerous peplum films and TV programs:

  • An Age of Kings (1960)
  • Adventure Story (1961)
  • Zardoz (1974, John Boorman, counting film as sword and planet genre)
  • Robin and Marian (1976, Richard Lester)
  • Time Bandits (1981, Terry Gilliam)
  • Sword of the Valiant (1984, Stephen Weeks)
  • The Name of the Rose (1986, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
  • Highlander (1986, Russell Mulcahy)
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991, Kevin Reynolds)
  • First Knight (1995, Jerry Zucker)
  • Dragon Heart (1996, Rob Cohen)
Categories
Essays News

Call for Abstracts: Essays for Neo-medievalism Media in the New Millennium

2021-03-06 – Update

The call for papers officially closed last week. In the week since I’ve given careful consideration to shutter this project. I have informed all folks who submitted abstracts as such.

Introduction

The critical and commercial success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy ushered in a new era of fantasy-medieval and historic-medieval texts in the new Millennium. These neo-medieval texts were not restricted to the big screen, but in true transmedia fashion, exploded on the small screen, in video games, comics, and a variety of other medias as the genre became popular and hence, lucrative. Nearly twenty years later, depictions of the medieval period, be it authentic or moored in fantasy, remain a dominate component in the greater pop culture, with shows like Game of Thrones, video games like Skyrim, many fantasy-medieval books, young adult comics, and the like.

With neo-medieval texts enjoying heightened popularity, it invites an academic gaze to unearth their importance. What is it about these texts that makes them fascinating, especially considering that they are rooted in the distant past as compared to the new Millennium we are living in? What are the different approaches we can take to make sense of these films, shows, books, etc. which in turn can be used to understand not just our present world, but the future we are going into?

This anthology is looking for shorter-form essays (2.5k – 4k words in length) that aim to explore fantasy-medieval and historic medieval films, television shows, comics, video games, literature, and other works made after the year 2000 that add and expand the genre’s canon. The result would an anthology of 22-28 essays that touch upon a variety of texts with a plethora of academic lenses and approaches, grouped together to support a series of wider topics under the neo-medievalism banner.

Potential Essay Topics

The following is a list of possible (but not comprehensive) topics that contributors could submit on:

  • Auteur theory on filmmakers and their medieval films/TV shows (e.g. Neil Marshall, Guy Ritchie, Uwe Boll, etc.)
  • Adaptations of the Matter of Britain
  • Adaptations/portrayal of historic figures (Robert the Bruce, Robin Hood, Marco Polo, etc.)
  • Adaptations of fairy tales, stories, and myths
  • Adaptations of video games (In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale [2007] (and its sequels), Warcraft [2016])
  • Blending medieval with other genres, such as horror (The Head Hunter [2018]) or sci-fi (Transformers: The Last Knight [2017])
  • Close readings of specific texts
  • Colonialism
  • Covid-19 and plague texts (A Plague Tale: Innocence [2019 video game], The Last Witch Hunter [2015], Black Death [2010])
  • Currency/economics in medieval video games (Skyrim, The Witcher, Final Fantasy) compared to current economic anxieties
  • Fan and fandom studies
  • Gender studies
  • History of the portrayal of medieval times from the past to the present
  • Intersectionality
  • Intertextual analysis
  • Medieval monsters as metaphors
  • Monomyth/heroes journey
  • Non-occidental medieval films:
    • Indian neo-peplum films: Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), and Veeram (2016 film)
    • Late-era Mesoamerica films: Apocalypto (2006)
    • Russian medieval films: Furious (2017)
    • Chinese historic epics: Hero (2002), Genghis Khan (2018), House of Flying Daggers (2004)
    • Adaptations of One Thousand and One Nights
  • Portrayals of religions and nationalities (Vikings, Saxons, etc.)
  • Portrayals of bodies (such body builders and muscular heroes)
  • Race portrayals (example: white characters in Eastern settings such as The Great Wall [2016])
  • Semiotic analysis
  • Surveillance/panopticon in scrying magic: Lord of the Rings films
  • Temporal texts (time traveling): medieval in modern times or modern times in medieval
  • Torture porn genre in movies with medieval torture scenes: Red Riding Hood (2011)
  • Vernacular film theory
  • And others

List of Media Texts

Below is a list of media titles (from films, TV, comics, games, etc.) that could potentially fit into the neo-medieval formula. This list is by no means complete, but it is presented to give title examples that fit within this genre and to inspire creative ideas on topics to write about. The below list contains titles that are historic-medieval, fantasy-medieval, and medieval combined with other genres.

Films

  • Black Death (2010)
  • Dragonheart: A New Beginning (2000)
  • Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse (2015)
  • Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire (2017)
  • Dragonheart: Vengeance (2020)
  • The Head Hunter (2018)
  • The Hobbit trilogy (2012-214)
  • The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)
  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
  • Last Knights (2015)
  • The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
  • Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)
  • Maleficent (2014)
  • Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
  • Robin Hood (2010)
  • Robin Hood (2018)
  • Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Television

  • Britannia (2018-present)
  • Cursed (2020)
  • Deus Salve o Rei (2018)
  • Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
  • The Hollow Crown (2012, 2016)
  • Knightfall (2017-2019)
  • The Last Kingdom (2015-present)
  • The Letter for the King (2020)
  • Marco Polo (2014)
  • Miracle Workers (season 2)
  • The Name of the Rose (2019)
  • Robin Hood (BBC) (2006-2009)
  • The Witcher (2019-present)

Literature

  • Ascendance Series (Nielsen)
  • Codex Alera (Butcher)
  • The Kingkiller Chronicle (Rothfuss)
  • Ranger’s Apprentice (Flanagan)
  • Sabbath (Mamatas)
  • Sands of Arawiya series (Faizal)
  • A Song of Fire and Ice series (Martin)
  • Throne of Glass series (Maas)
  • The Witcher series (Sapkowski)
  • The Wrath & the Dawn (Ahdieh)

Comics

  • Berserker Unbound (Dark Horse)
  • Birthright (Image)
  • Cursed (Simon & Schuster)
  • A Game of Thrones (Dynamite)
  • Lady Castle (Boom!)
  • Nimona (web comic)
  • Northlanders (Vertigo)
  • The Witcher (Dark Horse comics)

Video games

  • Assassin’s Creed series
  • Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (2012)
  • Crusader Kings series
  • The Cursed Crusade (2011)
  • Fable series
  • The First Templar (2011)
  • Game of Thrones (2012)
  • Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series (2014-2015)
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)
  • A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)
  • Stronghold series
  • The Witcher series from CD Projekt Red

Music

  • Dungeon synth music
  • Adventure/power metal bands like Blind Guardian and Keep of Kalessin

Again, the above list is not comprehensive, but to illustrate a general idea of titles from different media that could fit into this essay collection.

Project Timetable

This anthology has not yet procured a contract, but will be submitted for consideration to Peter Lang Publishing to be part of the Genre Fiction and Film Companions series. The following a proposed timetable to realize this project:

  • February 28, 2021 – Deadline for abstract submissions
  • March 7, 2021 – Notification of acceptance
  • March 14, 2021 – Submission of preliminary table of contents to Peter Lang Publishing for consideration for their Genre Fiction and Film Companions series
    • If rejected, submit to alternative publisher, repeat process
    • If accepted, distribute style guide to authors
  • + Five months after publisher acceptance – Chapter drafts are due
  • + Four months – Chapter revisions are due
  • + One month – Submission of manuscript to publisher

Drafts and revisions are strongly encouraged to be submitted before the deadlines.

Abstract Submission Information

Please submit your abstract(s) of roughly 500 words along with your academic CV/resume and preliminary bibliography to the email address below before February 28, 2021. Please use an appropriate subject line when submitting – have it contain the phrase “medieval submission.” I will confirm each submission via email within 72 hours. I will also accept multiple abstract submissions.

This CFP is open to all academics and scholars. Underrepresented scholars researching this genre are greatly encouraged to submit.

Nicholas Diak, editor

Email: vnvdiak@gmail.com
Website: http://www.nickdiak.com

Nicholas Diak is a pop culture scholar of neo-peplum and sword and sandal films, industrial music, synthwave, exploitation films Italian genre cinema, and H. P. Lovecraft studies. He is the editor of
The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s (McFarland, 2018) and the co-editor of Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2020). Along with Michele Brittany, he co-created and co-chairs the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and co-hosts the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. He has contributed articles, essays, and reviews to numerous journals, academic anthologies, magazines, and websites.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-10-25

Personal / Website News

The New Peplum Citation

Dr. Claire Elizabeth Greenhalgh sites myself, Hannah Mueller, and Jerry Pierce from The New Peplum in their PhD thesis, “The Depiction of Slavery in Ancient World Television Drama: Politics, Culture and Society.” The thesis can be read here and the citation has been added to The New Peplum page.

Podcast Appearances

Michele and I interview author Janet Joyce Holden on the Scholars from the Edge of Time show.

Michele and I were interviewed on the Chatting with Sherri show. The episode will be published on 2020-10-29 at Blog Talk Radio.

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference

The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic conference is still open until the end of November. It can be viewed at the StokerCon 2021 website.

General Neo-Peplum News

New Netflix Show

Netflix premiered a new neo-peplum miniseries on Friday called Barbarians. The brief description reads: “Torn between the mighty empire that raised him and his own tribal people, a Roman officer’s conflicted allegiances lead to an epic historical clash.”

Literature

The folks at Lousy Book Covers feature a Biblical peplum book with a, well, lousy book cover: Unworthy: A Soldier. A Servant. A Savior by T. M. Hedlund.

Amy Wolf recently published The Further Labors of Nick, book 2 of their Mythos trilogy.

Immortals Fenyx Rising

A demo for Immortals Fenyx Rising is available to play online via the Stadia service. Access to the demo ends on 10/29.

Rest in Peplum

Marge Champion (better known as a model at Disney on many of their animated features) passed away at 101. She was in Jupiter’s Darling (1955, George Sidney).

Categories
Peplum

Between the Seasons: Disney’s Silly Symphony “The Goddess of Spring” and Depictions of Greek Mythology

From the various television and filmic depictions of Hercules to movie adaptations of the Percy Jackson young adult novels, representations of Greek deities and mythology have been an important staple of pop culture. Sometimes this is in the form direct adaptation, other times it is homage or reinterpreting characters or other elements of the lore. Regardless, the inspiration from these myths and deities is ever present and analysis and study of such usage in different media is quite manifest.

Persephone

There is one line of media though that has not quite had such a reconsideration in regards to its incorporation of Greek mythology, and that is the Silly Symphonies series of cartoons from the early years of Disney. The Silly Symphonies were a line of seventy-five cartoons that were produced from 1929 to 1939 and made outside of Disney’s Mickey Mouse canon. The cartoons provided an avenue for Disney artists and writers to experiment with images and music and to try new animation techniques. Early entries in the Silly Symphonies line were mostly narrative free, with an emphasis on atmosphere and music with singing and dancing animals or anthropomorphic objects. As time went on, the Symphonies got more complex, adding narratives culled from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, story books, and Greek mythology.

There are five entries in the Silly Symphonies run that either retell or incorporate elements of Greek mythological antiquity: “Hells Bells” (1929), “Playful Pan” (1930), “King Neptune” (1932), “The Goddess of Spring” (1934), and “The Golden Touch” (1935). The first, “Hells Bells,” takes place in a Christian-centic version of the Underworld, in which the three-headed dog Cerberus makes an appearance. The villain of this short is a variation of a devil character who revels in feeding his imps to Cerberus. His downfall comes at the short’s end: while in pursuit of one of his imps, he is tricked into falling off a cliff and into a ravine of flames. The second, “Playful Pan,” begins with the nature god Pan manifesting in a forest, playing his pipe to the area’s flora and fauna. Two dancing clouds accidentally discharge a bolt of lightning, which starts a forest fire. Pan uses his pipe playing to coerce the dancing flames into a forest pond, though much of the forest has been destroyed. “King Neptune” centers on pirates who spy mermaids playing on rock outcroppings. In their lust, they kidnap one of the mermaids, which causes retaliation from all sorts of aquatic life. King Neptune, who spends the bulk of the short incapacitated by being tied up by the pirate ship’s anchor and chain, breaks free and commands the sea to batter the ship. He gleefully jumps on the ship, sinking it. The mermaids proceed to adorn themselves with the pirates’ loot. “The Golden Touch” is a retelling of the Greek myth of King Midas, with an altered setting of the Middle Ages, though Midas anachronistically consumes a hamburger at the cartoon’s conclusion. Midas is gifted with the golden touch by a gnome named Goldie, but soon discovers he cannot eat or drink because of this ability. He offers up everything he owns to be rid of the Golden Touch.

King Midas in “The Golden Touch”

In addition, there are also four Silly Symphonies that retell a few of Aesop’s fables: “Grasshopper and the Ants” (1934), “The Tortoise and the Hare” (1934), “Three Little Wolves” (1936), which contains elements of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and “The Country Cousin” (1936) which is adapted from “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.” However, these Silly Symphonies fall outside the scope of this essay.

Of greatest concern, in regard to its depiction of Greek mythology, is the Silly Symphony “The Goddess of Spring.” This short is an extremely condensed version of the myth of Hades (referred to as Pluto in the various paratexts for this cartoon and thus go forward in this essay) and Persephone. It begins with Persephone sitting on her cornucopia throne as various forest creatures, flowers, and elves dance about her. Soon the sky darkens and a small hill erupts into a pillar of fire as Pluto and his entourage of imps burst up through the ground and absconds with Persephone back to Hades. Pluto places Persephone onto a throne and crowns her his Queen as the populace of Hades sing and dance. Above ground, the world of eternal spring has now given way to winter, with the forest animals huddling for warmth and the elves longing for Persephone to return. Back in Hades, Pluto attempts to make the sullen Persephone happy by offering her riches. When this does not work, he asks her what it would take to make her happy. She replies that her desire is to return back to the upper world. He agrees, on the condition that she must spend half of the year in Hades and the remainder of the year in the upper world. Persephone is over joyed at the compromise and returns to the upper world, which blooms back into spring. The outro song elaborates how the nature of spring and winter came to be.

When it comes to Silly Symphonies, “The Goddess of Spring” is not as regarded, revered or analyzed as other entries in the series, especially when compared to “The Skeleton Dance” (1929), “Three Little Pigs” (1933), and “The Old Mill” (1937). What interest is expressed about “The Goddess of Spring” is usually confined to it being a proving ground to capture realism and to create believable animated characters in anticipation for Disney’s first feature length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, David Hand).1 During this time, in order to improve on their cartoons, artists at Disney had taken to studying models2 along with lessons in anatomy.3 In “The Goddess of Spring,” animator Les Clark’s sister Marceil acted as the model for Persephone.4 The end result of “The Goddess of Spring” was perceived as a failure,5 with Persephone being deemed as “too rubbery to be realistic,”6 but the experience still imparting invaluable knowledge to studio hands in trying create realistic cartoons.

“Rubber arms” on Persephone

If only taken from a technical standpoint, then “The Goddess of Spring” may be perceived as a failure. However, taken as a faithful and humble adaptation of Greek mythology, then the cartoon surpasses expectations. Of all the Silly Symphonies, and even in regard to other mainstream forays into animating Greek mythology, “The Goddess of Spring” stands out as one of the few instances of such an earnest and sincere adaptation.

Part of this success can be attributed to the Symphony being a condensed version of the Persephone and Pluto myth rather than plucking core elements and characters and placing them within other narratives (as was done with “King Neptune,” “Hells Bells,” and “Playful Pan”) or attempting to instill outside messages or subversion. John Grant decrees that both Persephone and Pluto in the cartoon are rather “cypherish”,7 but the opposite is true. The animated short is overtly attempting to be a retelling of the Greek myth and nothing more. This is in stark contrast to the majority of other Silly Symphonies of the era, which coincided with The Great Depression. The Silly Symphonies were populist fare,8 with Disney and his company’s “social and ideological values” pervading the “structure, characters, and narratives of these films.”9 Nowhere is this more obvious than with “The Golden Touch.” While the gist of the story captures the core elements of the Greek myth, (anything the king touches turns to gold), it is first and foremost “aimed at a Depression audience,”10 given social significance by Walt Disney to show the “evil[s] of mere moneymaking, the danger of an individual’s overreaching his moral grasp, the false happiness accruing to mere wealth.”11 This is not to say that the end product is not without value or without imparting wisdom from the myth, but it does show that the purpose of “The Golden Touch” was primarily to advance Disney’s populist ideas rather than to have the myth stand on its own. On the other hand, “The Goddess of Spring” is pure storytelling, and while there are many variations of the myth documented and recounted, this Silly Symphony definitely captures the real heart of the story and conveys it to an audience in a palpable format of rich Technicolor and RCA sound.

The other reason for this cartoon’s success is due to the depiction of its setting and the characters. The realism that Disney was striving for caused “The Goddess of Spring” to be tempered in regard to how cartoonish or exaggerated it was. Instead of being over the top, this short is greatly subdued, with the characters and environment being depicted in a more serious fashion. Merritt and Kaufman argue that “The Old Mill” was the first Silly Symphony meant to be taken seriously12 but it could be argued that since “The Goddess of Spring” was striving for an earnest retelling of the Greek myth, complete with realistic depictions, that it should be regarded serious as well. Comparing and contrasting “The Goddess of Spring” with its other Greek mythological inspired Silly Symphonies counterparts yields astounding results.

Persephone and Pluto

For example, the depiction of Hades between “The Goddess of Spring” to that in “Hells Bells” is staggering. While both are portrayed as cavernous, full of lakes of fire and denizens who sing and dance, the realm in “Hells Bells” is much more malevolent. In “Hells Bells” there’s actual violent activity as spiders are immolated, snakes feast on bats, imps are fed to Cerebus and the devil character perishes into a lake of fire. Conversely, in “The Goddess of Spring,” there is actually no violent activity. The imps keep Persephone’s elves at bay, but do not attack them. In this version of Hades, no one perishes and no one is tortured. What can be surmised from this observation is that the underworld as pictured in “Hells Bells” is purely for punishment, as per a more Christian perspective, (in alignment with the expected audience), while the underworld in “The Goddess of Spring” leans more toward a realm as the place where souls go to die, distancing itself from Christian hegemony. While places like Elysium and the Asphodel Meadows are certainly not depicted, it would not be farfetched to surmise that they could exist in this incarnation of Hades in “The Goddess of Spring.”

The devil in “Hells Bells” and Pluto in “The Goddess of Spring” are also quite different. In “Hells Bells,” the devil is rendered entirely in black and nearly featureless save for a menacing, drooling maw eager to drink molten milk. He delights in feeding his imps to Cerebus and gives chase to one that wants to avoid this fate. On the other hand, Pluto in “The Goddess of Spring” shows elements of being a sympathetic character. While his actions of kidnapping Persephone can be analyzed in a myriad of lenses and thus falls outside the scope of this essay, he is none-the-less being shown at the cartoon’s conclusion of having traits of empathy and caring. He genuinely wants Persephone to be happy, and his actions are far more multifaceted, more “real” than his one-dimensional counterpart in “Hells Bells.”

In regard to Persephone, comparing her depiction to the mermaids of “King Neptune” also illustrate a major difference. The mermaids are naked without being naked, meaning their upper torsos are sometimes rendered with breasts and sometimes without. Their faces are blank slates and they look almost indistinguishable from each other. Persephone, on the other hand, is meticulously detailed, from her hair to her eyes. Never before has a mythological figure been represented in such a detailed fashion, which is especially impressive due to the technological limitations of animation during the era. Outside of paintings and other representations that have survived antiquity, here is an image of a bonafide goddess, being shown to an audience in a vernacular they can understand and appreciate. Comparing both Pluto and Persephone to other Silly Symphony characters of antiquity, such as King Midas and King Neptune, with their outlandishly large potbellies and exaggerated cheekbones, only fortifies the notion that Persephone in “The Goddess of Spring” is as real as it gets.

For the industrial minds at Disney, “The Goddess of Spring” was perceived as a failure and the cartoon is typically relegated to a footnote in the journey to realize Snow White. However, as illustrated above, when altering the criteria of success from a technical standpoint to a storytelling and adaptation standpoint, “The Goddess of Spring” is quite successful, especially in regards to its depiction of mythological characters and its ability to convey stories of antiquity in an earnest and realist fashion. Eschewing the aesthetics of typical cartoon escapism, “The Goddess of Spring” was the first retelling of Persephone and Pluto’s story in a filmic format. In subsequent years, Persephone would be appropriated to sci-fi fare, such as being used in The Matrix films, Firefly and the Percy Jackson films and books. While it is amazing to see homage to the myth still circulating and inspiring folks, it is comforting to know that her and Pluto’s representation and myth remains preserved in “The Goddess of Spring.”

End Notes

1. Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2016), 153.

2. Ibid., 40.

3. “The Goddess of Spring,” Filmic Light: Snow White Archive, last modified March 20, 2010, http://filmic-light.blogspot.com/2010/03/goddess-of-spring.html.

4. Merritt and Kaufman, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies, 153.

5. Ibid., 44.

6. Alyssa Carnahan, “Artifactual: The Goddess of Spring Character Model Sheet,” The Walt Disney Family Museum, last modified May 29, 2013, http://www.waltdisney.com/blog/artifactual-goddess-spring-character-model-sheet.

7. John Grant, Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters (New York, NY: Hyperion, 1998), 73.

8. Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 77.

9. Ibid., 91.

10. Ibid., 76.

11. Ibid.

12. Merritt and Kaufman, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies, 28.

Bibliography

Carnahan, Alyssa. “Artifactual: The Goddess of Spring Character Model Sheet.” The Walt Disney Family Museum. Last modified May 29, 2013. http://www.waltdisney.com/blog/artifactual-goddess-spring-character-model-sheet.

Grant, John. Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters. New York, NY: Hyperion, 1998.

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

“Hell’s Bells.” YouTube video, 5:49. Posted by “Pat Hawkins,” October 26, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow-qilruZCE.

“King Neptune.” YouTube video, 7:13. Posted by “Pat Hawkins,” October 28, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_yemrlunU0.

Merritt, Russell, and J.B. Kaufman. Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series. Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2016.

“Playful Pan.” YouTube video, 6:53. Posted by “Pat Hawkins,” October 27, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzM7OIOKEik.

Watts, Steven. The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1997.

“The Country Cousin.” YouTube video, 9:17. Posted by “WaltDisneyKanal,” March 3, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y7-fgr_Rk.

“The Goddess of Spring.” Directed by Wilfred Jackson. 1934. On Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Entertainment, DVD. 2001.

“The Goddess of Spring.” Filmic Light: Snow White Archive. Last modified March 20, 2010. http://filmic-light.blogspot.com/2010/03/goddess-of-spring.html.

“The Golden Touch.” YouTube video, 9:38. Posted by “Pat Hawkins,” October 29, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFogv079RPU.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-10-18

Personal / Website News

The Call for Papers for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference at StokerCon 2021 is still open until the end of November. Details can be found at the StokerCon 2021 website.

The Podcast Appearances has been updated:

General Neo-peplum News

Rest in Peplum / #RestInPeplum to Rhonda Fleming who passed away at the age of 97. The classic artist started in rather big time historic epics:

  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949, Tay Garnett)
  • Serpent of the Nile (1953, William Castle)
  • The Queen of Babylon (1954, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia)
  • The Revolt of the Slaves (1960, Nunzio Malasomma)

Polish actor Ryszard Ronczewski also passed away at the age of 90. He was in the historic epic An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was a God (2003, Jerzy Hoffman)

Spanish actress Marisa de Leza passed away at 87. She was in Alexander the Great (1956, Robert Rossen)

Dynamite Entertainment is launching DIEnamite – a big cross over comic series with lots of IPs they have the licenses of. This include John Carter and Red Sonja.

Categories
Interview

“Lion” A New Wizard of Oz Story From Candace Robinson and Amber R. Duell

“Lion” is prequel short story to Candace Robinson (Lyrics & Curses) and Amber R. Duell’s (Forgotten Gods series) Faeries of Oz series, their own successor take on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The first novel in the series, Tin, is slated to be released on December 9, 2020, with book 2, Crow, and book 3, Ozma, scheduled for 2021. “Lion” acts as an entry point to Robinson and Duell’s Faeries of Oz series, with the short story’s blurb stating:

Langwidere has an obsessive habit—collecting heads. She wears a new one each day, changing them out like she does her ivory dresses. But Landwidere doesn’t have the one thing she truly wants: complete power over the territories in Oz. When Lion—the once cowardly fae—shows up at her doorstep, he offers her an opportunity to achieve her desires. Will he use the courage the Wizard gave him to help her succeed, or will he betray her in the process?

Both Robinson and Duell have been gracious to commit to a few questions about working together and creating their Oz series.

What was the catalyst of this prequel story?

Duell: Lion was given his courage a decade ago but never had a purpose for it. When someone finally puts their faith in him, it twists that courage into something wicked and kicks off the events that happen in Tin.

What got y’all into writing your own successor stories in the Oz universe?

Robinson: For one, we love the uniqueness of the Oz world in general and we wanted to play off of that but make it darker and romantic! Oh, and we love fae!

How did y’all get to collaborating with each other?

Duell: We connected due to our other books and became friends. One day, I mentioned wanting to write a Wizard of Oz retelling and she brought up fae and an idea was born. It took a little convincing on Candace’s part because I’d never co-written before but I’m so glad we did it!

What process or methods do you have in place when jointly writing a book together? Advice for other authors looking to do co-writings?

Robinson: Basically, we do a super brief outline. About a line per chapter, but that usually gets shuffled around the farther we get. So, if I write a chapter first, I wait for Amber to edit it, then pass it back to me. While I’m doing her changes, she starts the next chapter. And that process repeats! If you’re going to co-write with someone, just make sure they have similar writing styles and vision!

Any challenges you faced while trying to write a prequel story?

Duell: Not challenges, really. We did have to fill in a couple plot holes we weren’t aware of.

What aspect are you most proud of in this story? And in your Faeries of Oz series?

Robinson: The characters we created! I think because I’m a very character driven person in general so I’m a big fan of their personalities. Next would be the dark aspects in each book. If only I could get Guillermo del Toro to direct these movies and bring these creatures to life!

What is the major thing you want to accomplish with this story?

Duell: We hope that “Lion” draws readers into our dark version of Oz. It sets up the villain for the first novel, Tin, while giving a hint of the cruelty and romance they can expect from the trilogy.

“Lion” was digitally released on Amazon on October 13th.

See below for biographical and social media details on how to stay informed on Robinson and Duell’s writing projects and when Tin, Crow, and Ozma will be published.

Candace Robinson

Candace Robinson spends her days consumed by words and hoping to one day find her own DeLorean time machine. Her life consists of avoiding migraines, admiring Bonsai trees, watching classic movies, and living with her husband and daughter in Texas where it can be forty degrees one day and eighty the next.

Website
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
Goodreads
Pinerest

Amber R. Duell

Amber R. Duell was born and raised in a small town in Central New York. While it will always be home, she’s constantly moving with her husband and two sons as a military wife. When not reading or writing, she enjoys snowboarding, embroidering, and snuggling with her cats.

Website
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-10-11

Personal / Website News

Sara Tantlinger Blog Appearance

For the month of October, horror author and poet Sara Tantlinger is doing a series at her website called Delicious Horror. I had the honour to make an appearance on her 10/07 entry, talking about my love for Mikel Koven’s book La Dolce Morte and giving a cocktail recipe for the Buona Vita.

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conf 2021

The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference (year 4!) for the 2021 StokerCon is live at the StokerCon website. Please consider submitting!

HP Lovecast Fragments

The next episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast will be a fragments episode. We will be interviewing author Kathleen Kaufman, whom we had the honour to interview last year on the Scholars from the Edge of Time show.

Exotica Moderne

Issue 9 of Exotica Moderne will be published next month. This issue will have my write up of the Severin Films release of Horrors of Spider Island. The cover art of the new issue looks like this:

General Neo-Peplum News

Netflix is releasing an anime-styled animated series called Blood of Zeus. Release date is October 27. The trailer is on YouTube, or you can see it embedded here:

Blood of Zeus trailer

Comicon.com has a review up for Knights vs. Pirates: “A Great Sword, Sorcery And Swashbuckling Adventure From Start To Finish.”

Comicon.com also has a back and forth on the comic Kill the Minotaur.

From Dread Central: Hex Studios announces sword and sorcery epic Dragon Knight

From CBR: “10 TV Shows That Feel Like Old-School Dungeons & Dragons Campaigns.” Lots of neo-peplum fare on this list.

Fanbase Press has a review of the comic book Norse Mythology #1.

At CinemaBlend: “What The Witcher’s New Season 2 Images Tell Us About Henry Cavill’s Geralt And More.”