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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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News

News Roundup W/E 2020-10-04

Personal / Website News

Book Citation

Emily Anctil’s essay “Not a Bedtime Story: Investigating Textual Interactions Between the Horror Genre and Children’s Picture Books” from Horror Literature From Gothic to Post-modern: Critical Essays has been referenced in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly Fall 2020 Vol 45 No 3.

McFarland Book Sale

McFarland is doing their yearly October sale for their horror books. If you use the code “HORROR” (without the quotation marks) you will receive 40% off the order from now until Friday, October 16. There are numerous horror books I am a part of that you can purchase: Horror in Space, Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern, and Uncovering Stranger Things. If you want to support my academic endeavors, purchasing copies of Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern benefits me greatly.

New Episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast

New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online. In this episode Michele and I talk about two short stories from the Swords Against Cthulhu anthology: “Modu” by Mark Sims and “The Sword of Lomar” by Jason Scott Aiken. The episode has been added to the podcast appearance index.

General Neo-Peplum News

The book, Xena: Their Courage Changed Our World was recently published by AUSXIP Publishing. The large book is a collection of essays from the Xena fandom and the impact of the show on their lives. The book can be ordered from the AUSXIP web store or Amazon in a variety of formats: e-copy, soft cover, hard cover.

Per Deadline, Netflix looks to be developing a live action Conan the Barbarian series.

Paul A J Lewis has written an article at The Film Magazine called “Loincloths, Muscles, Sorcery and the Rock of Uranus: A Journey Into the Realm of the Italian Peplum (c.1958-1965).“

Screen Rant ranks the 10 best gladiator films.

  1. Spartacus (1960)
  2. Ben-Hur (1959)
  3. Gladiator (2000)
  4. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  5. Barabbas (1961)
  6. Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
  7. Cabiria (1914)
  8. Centurion (2010)
  9. The Eagle (2011)
  10. The Arena (1974)

Article at Deutsche Welle called “What Hollywood got wrong about the gladiators of ancient Rome.”

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Peplum

Immortals Fenyx Rising: Ubisoft’s Newest Neo-Peplum Game

Immortals Fenyx Rising is the newest neo-peplum game slated to be published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Quebec. Ubisoft have long established themselves as the premier publisher of video games that embrace the different shades of the sword and sandal and historic epics genres, specifically in regard to their Prince of Persia releases and numerous Assassin’s Creed titles that sees players exploring various time periods. Assassin’s Creed fully embraced the sword and sandal genre with their release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in 2018 that had gamers playing as the misthios Kassandra (or Alexios) during the Peloponnesian War in Greece in the latter half of 400 BCE.

Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey more-or-less stuck to the non-magical variety of the sword and sandal genre, only making occasionally forays out of the historic epic subgenre when Kassandra fought legendary creatures such as a cyclops and a Medusa, or, via a simulator, traveled to Elysium. Otherwise the game kept mostly to being a stealth-action game with conspiracy theory intrigue.

Immortals Fenyx Rising looks to fully embrace the mythological aspect of the sword and sandal genre that Odyssey only flirted with, making it more akin to the legendary Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts (1963) rather than, say, Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960).

Immortals Fenyx Rising has gamers playing as Fenyx, a winged demigod who is trying to save a Grecian-Mythological world from various other gods and beasts. The gameplay looks to be an action-RPG, with comparisons to Nintendo’s sword and sorcery game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Here is a slideshow of screenshots and artwork from the Ubisoft press materials for the title’s announcement:

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Ubsisoft has also uploaded various trailers and gameplay reveals on YouTube:

Overall, this looks like an exciting game and a fun take on the sword and sandal genre. The colours are vibrant, the graphics look playful and excellent, and if the game does mimic Breath of the Wild even a little bit, then it should have some solid gameplay that can easily be expanded upon. While the neo-peplum genre continues to show declining interest on the big screens for a contemporary audience, Ubisoft is instead demonstrating how successful the subject matter can be in video game medium with not only with Immortals Fenyx Rising, but also with their upcoming Prince of Persia remaster and new Assassin’s Creed title: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-09-27

Personal/Website News

Michele and I interviewed cosplay couple Steven and Tiffany Carmel Lake on the Scholars from the Edge of Time program where we talked about the art of cosplay.

Earlier in the week I had a quick appearance on the Voice of Olympus program to talk about Antonio Margheriti’s film Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules. Both podcast appearances have been added to the podcast appearance index.

I did a write up of the neo-peplum comic Elysian Fields #0 and an interview with the comic’s creator Michael Oden.

This upcoming weekend we will be recording our newt episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast where we discuss stories form the book Swords Against Cthulhu.

Michele and I will also be appearing on the program Chatting with Sherri.

General Neo-Peplum News

Michael Oden’s neo-peplum comic, Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit, launches on Indiegogo.

Screenrant has an article up “10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of Gladiator (2000)” in honour of the film’s 20th anniversary that was celebrated earlier this year. A condensed list of the trivia:

  • General Maximus was an amalgam of many historic peoples, with Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas, and Hugh Jackman all considered for the role.
  • There was lots of re-writes and ad-libbing
  • The coliseum was 1/3 built and 2/3 CGI
  • Opening battle scene in Germania took 3 weeks to film
  • Oliver Reed died and his remaining scenes were accomplished with rewrites, body doubles, and CGI.
  • Maximus was going to fight a rhino instead of a tiger.
  • Film shot with different cameras and different frame rates.
  • The blurry sequences during a big fight scene were accidentally caused during post-production, but they went with it.
  • Joaquin Phoenix was super nervous to play his part, so to help out, Russell Crowe got him drunk.
  • Crowe got lots of injuries making the film.

The upcoming Hindi fantasy film Brahmāstra (trailer) looks to contain many India-style sword and sandal elements.

Just learned of the Byzantine Empire neo-peplum comic Theophano: A Byzantine Tale. The folks at Fanbase Press have an interview with the comic’s illustrator, Chrysa Sakel. The graphic novel is readily available on Amazon, I’ll be checking this out!

Legendary sword and sorcery film Beastmaster is getting the 4K treatment over at Vinegar Syndrome.

Comicon.com offers a sneak peak at Vampirella/Red Sonja #10.

Categories
Interview Peplum

Entering the Arena: Elysian Fields #0

Elysian Fields #0 is a neo-peplum comic, the first in a series, written by Michael Oden with artwork by Marcelo Oliveira Costa, lettering by Luke Stone, cover art by Jim O’Riley, and published via Oden’s own 9 Realms Publishing imprint.

Elysian Fields #0 poster

Taking its cues from mythological pepla, Elysian Fields follows somewhat in the footsteps of Marvel’s attempts at historic epic adaptations that appeared in the late 2000s on the short lived Marvel Illustrated imprint. These releases include comic book (and collected editions) adaptations of The Iliad (2008), The Odyssey (2009), and The Trojan War (2009). Elysian Fields is a continuation of The Iliad, albeit in a slightly unexpected fashion. The comic begins during the siege of Troy with Achilles locked in battle with King Memnon. While Achilles bests the warrior king (as per the Aethiopis), he himself is slain by an arrow shot by Paris (the prince of Troy) though his heel. From here Elysian Fields splits from the epics and follows Achilles into the afterlife where Charon (ferryman on the river Styx) takes the legendary warrior to Hades’ arena where he is to do battle with other iconic warriors of history and mythology. Elysian Fields #0 concludes on a cliffhanger with Achilles teaming up with King Theseus (founder of Athens) to battle Enkidu (bull-man from the Epic of Gilgamesh) and Gilgamesh proper (hero of ancient Sumer), setting up the events that will transpire in Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit.

The underlying premise of Elysian Fields seems to be setting up a series that will see Achilles and other heroes through the ages, from various other civilizations and time periods, duking it out in Hades’ arena. This Mortal Kombat approach to the sword and sandal genre has promise, and in fact, perhaps echoes an earlier attempt at the same concept: the collectable card game Anachronism. A short lived affair in the mid-2000s, well past the collectable card game boom of the 90s, Anachronism was The History Channel’s attempt at a CCG, which involved players pitting mythological and historical figures (such as Genghis Khan, Vlad Tepes, Achilles, Spartacus, and so on) against each other. The second issue of Elysian Fields, called The Pyramid Gambit, hints that Achilles (and others) will be in combat with figures of Egyptian antiquity.

Elysian Fields’ approach to this old school subject matter is equally old school. While the plot is a love letter to mythology, the cover and artwork looks to homage 90s comic book aesthetics and practices. There is a definite post-McFarlane/Spawn vibe in the artwork, with a color pallet and action sequences that evoke the likes of Witchblade, Blood Hunter, Gen 13, and other titles of the decade. The foil cover of issue #0 also recalls the various experimentations and gimmicks done to comics during that period. The nostalgia factor in strong in Elysian Fields #0, but it is competently executed (the foil cover is pretty slick), and if anything, underscores the efforts of the comic to take readers back into the past; not just in subject matter, but in the reading experience as well.

The Indiegogo campaign for issue #0 has long since ended and copies posted to backers during the summer. However, copies of the comic can be still procured during the current running Indiegogo campaign for The Pyramid Gambit.

Writer and creator of Elysian Fields, Michael Oden, provides some additional insight into his comic in the following interview.

Tell us something about yourself, a bit of your personal background.

Well, I have done a lot of things in my life. I served six years as an Infantryman in the Army National Guard, and I have done freelance journalism for the creative industry for years now. I have written my own industry blogs as well as have worked for sites like Moviepilot, Heroic Hollywood, and currently Up Your Geek.

I have always been a big history fan. My dad used to read me the Iliad as a bedtime story which started my love for history and mythology from an early age. This love has persisted my entire life and so getting a chance to use it in this way, to create a story like this [Elysian Fields comic] has been super surreal and cathartic in no small way.

What was the genesis of the Elysian Fields comic, how did this come about?

Honestly, it started as a game growing up. As I said, I grew up loving mythology and history, and so, big shock, I surrounded myself with friends with similar interests and it was always one of those big debates. Normal nerdy kids were arguing between Superman and Batman, Kirk or Picard, and for sure we had those discussions too, but I remember really chatting up my friends about which of our mythic heroes was better and who would win in a fight. This concept never left me and while it has continued to evolve, even as a write it now, it’s something that had always stirred in the back of my mind, knowing the potential it could have.

What is the primary goal you want to accomplish with the Elysian Fields series?

I mean the primary thing I want to accomplish is honestly to make a great book. There is also a measure of financial success I would like to have as well, anyone who dismisses the financial aspect is either lying or stupid. Doing books is expensive, it’s not just some hobby to bankroll, especially for me as a single father. However, the chief thing is of course to make a book that people really enjoy and that establishes myself, and additionally get people interested in these characters and their stories. No matter how well Elysian Fields has been received, the stories where these characters drew their routes have stood the test of time for a reason.

What would you say distinguishes Elysian Fields from other mythological comics out there?

Honestly, I would like to think the big distinguishing factor is trying to be as authentic as possible. That’s not to say that the other mythological books I have read don’t do that in their own way, but I feel like a lot of books I see in relation to mythology take inspiration from the myth, but that’s where the line stops. They want to make the characters theirs. And while I am sure that there are some that will see my versions of characters and it won’t be how they see them, my goal has been to look at the characters I choose and create as authentic a picture as I can from what I have read.

What was the biggest hurdle or challenge you faced while creating issue 0?

Oof… that’s a tough one, I don’t know if I’d be able to narrow it down to just one. Creating a book is a multi-pronged process, so I feel there is a challenge that I had that was equal with each phase. However, with the actual writing aspect of it, it was writing a script. I remember being very frustrated because all the script writing classes I found were effectively an introduction to creative writing class, and that’s not what I needed. I needed to learn about structuring and format, but instead I was being lectured about “what is a protagonist.” This was beyond frustrating. I then ended up picking up the deluxe edition of Marv Wolfman’s Man and Superman and was pleasantly surprised to find that what made it so deluxe was that the comic legend included a copy of the first draft of his script for the first issues of the book. I was ecstatic, if it works for Marv Wolfman then it has to be good. I used that script as a template for how to write my own and taught myself how to write a comic script as I was writing: teaching myself panel set up and perspective, familiarizing myself with the terminology, you name it.

Where did you draw some of your influence from, be it for this comic or other projects? Films like Gladiator, comics like 300, television like Spartacus, actual mythology, something else?

[A]ctual mythology played a massive role in how I wrote this book. However, there was a series that played an instrumental role in how I came about the overarching idea of what is now called The Abyssal Tournament of Champions. The series I am speaking of is none other than the Fate anime series, specifically Fate/Zero and Fate/ Apocrypha.

What has been the feedback so far on your comic?

Very positive. We have had constructive criticisms for sure, but the overall consensus is that our book is a book worth having and to me that means the world. However, all the criticisms we have had have played a massive role as well. No comic is perfect, no story is either. So I have used this feedback to grow the book and really make it the best it can be, and that’s what I aim to do moving forward.

What is 9 Realms Publishing and what do you hope to accomplish with this endeavor?

9 Realms Publishing is my own publishing imprint and it is continuing to grow. We have two other projects outside of Elysian Fields attached to that imprint written by myself, however, I don’t want people to think that this is a vanity project. It is an equal hope that, at some point, we are able to bring on and sign other creators and help build their IPs and promote them. It is my genuine belief that one of the greatest problems with the mainline industry is that they have cut themselves off from outside ideas. 9 Realms’ mission is to bring aspiring creators to the forefront and give them the chance to make books. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s a shot and frankly, that’s more than a lot of people get.

Can you give a preview of what folks can expect with the second Elysian Fields comic, The Pyramid Gambit?

The second comic is all about bringing Team Hades together. Honestly it’s a bumpy ride for these guys. Theseus and Herakles have been fighting in this tournament for a long time, and as an added bonus, they knew each other in life. However, enter this arrogant kid Achilles who is running his mouth off at everyone, god included. So there are growing pains for all of these characters, and you add on the stress of going against Imhotep, a champion who has never been directly beaten in the arena, there are a lot of mixed emotions we see from our champions.

Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit

What is your general thoughts or impressions on the depiction of mythology and antiquity in pop culture today? Where do you think it is headed?

The answer to that is simple: it’s headed nowhere. Sadly there hasn’t been a solid sword and sandals movie since Gladiator, and there hasn’t been a solid sword and sandals show since Spartacus, and while I love both of those projects, they are the farthest thing from portraying the period with any sort of authenticity. That’s not to say they are bad, just that Hollywood has no faith in the classical time period. I think it is a damn shame because with the success of superhero films as a genre, you’d think they’d realize “hey, why don’t we push movies that accurately depict the ORIGINAL superheroes.” Heroes of myth are the archetypes that inspired the modern superhero, they are the blueprint. But I haven’t seen Hollywood show reverence to that in a long time. Hopefully the success of things like Elysian Fields can inspire other people to bring myth to the forefront in the entertainment industry.

Addendums / Connections

2020-11-29 – Michele and I conducted an interview with Michael Oden on the Scholars from the Edge of Time podcast where we talked in detail about Elysian Fields. That episode can be streamed/downloaded here.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-09-20

Here is a news round up for weekending September 20th, 2020. On these weekly posts, I’ll list not only personal and project news, but I’ll be rounding up neo-peplum news that has occurred in an attempt to aggregate and promote the genre.

Podcast News

New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online. In this episode Michele Brittany and I discuss Gou Tanabe’s manga adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City.”:
URL: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1022692/5521708-hplcp-fragments-ep-02-gou-tanabe-s-the-nameless-city

This upcoming week I’ll be on a sword and sandal cinema segment on Hercules Invictus’ Voice of Olympus program on Tuesday the 22nd followed by Michele’s and my monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time segment Thursday the 24th. For that episode we will be interviewing cosplayers Tiffany Carmel Lake and Steven Lake. Links will be added to the podcast page when they are live.

The next episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast will be on stories from the Swords Against Cthulhu anthology.

General Neo-Peplum News

Ubisoft, publishers of the historic epic/neo-peplum video game series, Assassin’s Creed, announced two titles later this year that are in the sword and sandal genre: Immortals Fenyx Rising (trailer) and a remastered version of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (trailer). This is in addition to the prior announced next entry in the Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (trailer). I’m saddened that Kassandra’s storyline from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is officially at an end, but happy to see Ubisoft continuing to pump out neo-peplum video games. I look forward to writing about these titles after they are released.

Late last week I received my copy of issue 0 of Elysian Fields by Michael Oden and published by 9 Realms Publishing. I’ll be interviewing Oden and doing a write up about this comic in the very near future. More info about the comic can be found at the 9 Realms Publishing Facebook page or at the Indiegogo campaign page for the comic.

Issue one of the neo-peplum/Lovecraft comic Isidora and the Immortal Chains by G. A. Lungaro just concluded their Kickstarter campaign.

I’ve also backed a neo-peplum comic on Kickstarter that takes place in the Mesoamerican period that is called Aztlan. I’m always excited for sword and sandal that is outside traditional antiquity.

Categories
Cocktails

Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed

Photo by Michele Brittany

In 2020, boutique publisher Apollo Publishers released the small-sized hardback How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats. Within its pages is a chronological listing of famous writers, (such as Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, Maya Angelou, and others) coupled with a cocktail recipe and a paragraph or two that contextualizes the drink to that particular author.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, father of the sword and planet genre and creator of the transmedia icon Tarzan, is counted as one of the many luminaries represented in the tiny tome. Burroughs’ entry is for a cocktail appropriately named the Tarzan Cocktail. The recipe for this libation from How to Drink Like a Writer is as follows:

1 oz rum
1 tsp Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup

The directions are to shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled coup glass and garnish with a lime wheel.1

Unlike other entries in the book, the contextualizing paragraphs for Burroughs’ cocktail are scant: it simply reads that Burroughs “designed this cocktail with the tropics in mind.”2 There is a foot note that indicates that the Tarzan Cocktail was lifted from an earlier publication, the long out of print 1935 book So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon, which is similar to How to Drink like a Writer in that it also pairs cocktails with famous writers. The incarnation of the Tarzan Cocktail in this older book is slightly different:

1 oz Bacardi
1 tsp Cointreau
Juice of a half of a lime
1/3 tsp of Sugar

As with How to Drink Like a Writer, there are a few flavor text paragraphs for the cocktail, mostly focusing on anecdotes from Johnny Weismuller who portrayed Tarzan in around a dozen films and not much detail about the genesis of the drink proper from Burroughs.3

The question becomes, was this a cocktail that Burroughs created? Scott Tracy Griffin, a Burroughs expert and author of Tarzan on Film (2016) deduces that the legendary writer probably did: “As far as anyone knows, ERB created the cocktail. It’s possible someone else did it under his name (fully approved), but he loved his libations, so I would imagine that he did provide it.”4

Authorship of the Tarzan Cocktail established, the next question would be, in the same vein as to folks attempting to re-create James Bond’s iconic Vesper Martini, can one re-create the Tarzan Cocktail as Burroughs would have enjoyed it? The answer, sadly, is no. However, one can come fairly close.

Conceptually, the Tarzan Cocktail itself looks to be a mix of a traditional daiquiri (rum/lime/sugar) and the Cuban Sidecar (rum/lime/Cointreau). Comparing and contrasting the 1935 and the 2020 versions of the cocktail, the drink can be deconstructed and then reconstructed into a modern drink that would be in the same ballpark as Burroughs’ original, maybe even perhaps improved upon.

Lime: The alteration of using the juice of a half of a lime to half of an ounce of lime is a suitable change. A normal, whole lime can hold anywhere from .75 oz to over an ounce of a lime. The newer version standardizes the quantity and makes for a consistent beverage.

Simple Syrup: As with the lime, the updating of adding sugar directly to using simple syrup is an appropriate change. The practice of adding sugars to a drink has long been superseded by using simple syrups which is a mixture of sugar dissolved in water. Different ratios of water to sugar control how sweet the simply syrup is. The modern version calls for 1 part sugar dissolved in 1 part water which is standard. Different sugars can also be used in simple syrups, such as Demerara sugar. However, as will be shown below, since the end result of this cocktail is going to be on a clear side, one will want to use a white granulated sugar to create a colorless simple syrup to use.

Cointreau: No change here for this orange liqueur.

Rum: This is where the recipe hits a stumbling block: what rum to use? The modern version of the recipe simply calls for “rum” which of course can mean any rum. In the world of rums, this is a huge net to cast as rums differ from the country they are produced in (Jamaican compared to a Puerto Rican), if they are aged or not, what they are aged in, any spices added, and so on and so forth.

The original 1935 version from So Red the Nose narrows the rum selection down considerably to simply “Bacardi.” However, during the 1920s/1930s there were actually a plethora of different Bacardi rums in production:

Bacardi Carta Blanca
Bacardi Carta de Oro
Bacardi Añejo
Bacardi Elixir
Bacardi Anis5

Of these five rums which one was Burroughs most likely to use? A reasonable, educated guess can be surmised by looking at another cocktail book of the era, The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930. This foundational cocktail book lists two recipes that overtly call for “Bacardi”: the Bacardi Cocktail (Bacardi rum/grenadine/lime) and the Bacardi Special Cocktail (Bacardi rum/gin/grenadine/lime).6 In an article for the Wall Street Journal called “Grenadine, True and False” Eric Felten writes about both the Bacardi Cocktail and the Bacardi Special Cocktail. He describes the Bacardi Cocktail as such: “In the years just after Prohibition, the Bacardi Cocktail — white rum, fresh lime juice and grenadine — threatened to unseat the king of cocktails.”7 This additional description clarifies (literally and figuratively) that the Bacardi rum used in these cocktails was white (clear), and therefore it rules out the Bacardi Carta de Oro and Bacardi Añejo which were gold, darker rums. The Bacardi Elixir was a plum-based spirit while the Bacardi Anis was licorice-flavored rum,8 so those can be ruled out as those flavors would not compliment these drinks. That leaves the Bacardi Carta Blanca being the Bacardi rum used in these drinks, and thus it can be reasonably deduced from The Savoy Cocktail Book that if a drink called for Bacardi, it was calling for Bacardi Carta Blanca. Thus, the Tarzan Cocktail would have called for the Bacardi Carta Blanca as well.

A clarified version of the Tarzan cocktail would read as follows:

1 oz Bacardi Carta Blanca
1 tsp Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup

This is where a second and more critical snag is encountered: Bacardi Carta Blanca does not exist anymore as it was superseded by the Bacardi Superior. The original proof of Bacardi Carta Blanca was 89 proof while the modern day Bacardi Superior is 80 proof and thus a lower alcohol by volume. This problem is also further compounded by the fact that the original Bacardi rums were made in Cuba, but because of the Cuba Embargo, they are now produced in Puerto Rico. This means that the Bacardi Superior of today not only has less alcohol than the original, but it has a slightly different flavor profile due to the shift in country of production.

There’s a few options to go from here.

The first is to use a Cuban-style rum. For non-Americans this should be easy by simply procuring a bottle of Havana Club 3 years. This is probably the best solution as it will provide the closest taste to Burroughs’ original cocktail, though at 80 proof, it will have a lower alcohol content.

In the late 2000s, Bacardi released their Bacardi Heritage rum as a throwback to their original Bacardi Carta Blanc. Produced at 89 proof, the Bacardi Heritage has both the branding and the alcohol content of Burroughs’ original, though not quite the same flavor. However, the Bacardi Heritage has been out of production for a few years now and much more difficult to procure.

The third alternative is to use Bacardi Superior. This rum is readily available and contains the same branding as Burroughs’ original cocktail, though the taste and the alcohol content will be off. However, this is as close to being in the same ballpark as possible. Using Bacardi Superior makes an excellent drink however, though a little on the sharp side.

The final alternative, especially for Americans, is to suss out a non-Bacardi, non-Cuban rum that would work well as a successor, and perhaps even elevate the cocktail from its original incarnation. A rum that fits this bill perfectly is the Hamilton 87 White ‘Stache. A clear rum with an 87 proof, this rum ups the alcohol content to the level Burroughs preferred while offering a smoother, richer taste as compared to the Bacardi Superior.

Photo by Michele Brittany

If one wanted to be bold and go past the 89 proof, other quality white rums that could be used would be the Diplomatico Planas and Probitas both at 94 proof.9 Burroughs would be quite impressed with the Hamilton.

Photo by Michele Brittany

Revised Tarzan Cocktail

1 oz Hamilton 87 White ‘Stache
1 tsp Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz simple syrup

End Notes

1. Margaret Kaplan, How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats (New York City, NY: Apollo Publishers, 2020), 64-65.

2. Ibid., 64.

3. Sterling North and Carl Kroch, So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon (New York City, NY: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1935), 27. https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1935-So-Red-the-Nose-or-Breath-in-the-Afternoon/VI/.

4. Scott Tracy Griffin, email message to author, September 7, 2020.

5. Michelle Sugrue (Bacardi help desk), email message to author, September 9, 2020.

6. Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book (Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2015), 25.

7. Eric Felton, “Grenadine, True and False,” The Wall Street Journal, last modified June 10, 2006, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114988345577576379.

8. Sugrue.

9. Thanks to Marie King from The Tonga Hut and Cory Schoolland for their rum suggestions.

Bibliography

Craddock, Harry. The Savoy Cocktail Book. Mansfield Centre, CT. Martino Publishing, 2015.

Felton, Eric. “Grenadine, True and False.” The Wall Street Journal. Last modified June 10, 2006. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114988345577576379.

Kaplan, Margaret. How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats. New York City, NY. Apollo Publishers, 2020.

North, Sterling and Carl Kroch. So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon. New York City, NY. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1935. https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1935-So-Red-the-Nose-or-Breath-in-the-Afternoon/VI/.