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News Roundup W/E 2022-05-22

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Episode 50

A new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! This is the 50th episode of our flagship program (though we have more if one includes our Transmissions and Fragments programs).

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.

For this episode we take a dive into James Wade’s short story “The Silence of Erika Zann” from the 1970s anthology The Disciples of Cthulhu. The episode can be streamed at Buzzsprout or via your podcast app of preference.

H. P. Lovecast Film Poll for June Episode

For our June episode of our H. P. Lovecast Podcast we are going to dive into a Lovecraftian movie (sorta like what we did previously with Underwater and The Void).

Blu-rays of Feed the Light and Cthulhu Mansion from my personal collection.

We’ve narrowed what movie to cover down to two possibilities: Feed the Light released by Severin Films or Cthulhu Mansion released by Vinegar Syndrome. But, we don’t know which to pick!

To remedy this, we put the fate of what movie we will be watching and doing a podcast on in your hands! We’ve created a poll on the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Twitter account. Head on over there (or use the embedded tweet above) and cast your vote no later than May 24th.

McFarland Medieval Sale / The New Peplum

My publisher, McFarland Books, is having a sale on Medieval-centric books. This includes my book, The New Peplum.

The New Peplum
Cover art for The New Peplum

Between now through May 31, use coupon code MEDIEVAL25 to receive 25% off all medieval studies books on the McFarland website.

Michele Appears on Fan2Fan Podcast

Michele makes her first appearance on the Fan2Fan Podcast!

Promoting her CFP (see below), she talks all things about the first Highlander film. Have a listen at the Fan2Fan Podcast Page.

AnnRadCon Mk 1 2017-2022

Michele and I have voluntarily stepped down from chairing the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. For more information on future endeavors from the Horror Writers Association, please visit Horror.org.

Highlander Call for Papers

Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.

If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of. 

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.

Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.

General Neo-Peplum News

Son of Samson Review at DVD Beaver

Essential Blu-ray/DVD compare and review site, DVD Beaver, has a write up about the newly released Son of Samson Blu-ray from Kino.

Son of Samson Blu-ray from my personal collection.

The write up at can be found here.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2022-05-01

Personal / Website News

Interview with V. Castro

Last week was LV-426, aka Aliens Day! I love to celebrate Aliens Day by writing articles that help spotlight the Aliens mythology in different and interesting fashions.

Later this year a new novel, Aliens: Vasquez will be published. I had the honour to interview author V. Castro about her book. It can be read here.

New Episode of HP Lovecast

Michele and I have a brand new episode of our Transmissions programming on HP Lovecast Podcast.

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany

In this episode we interview David Rose about his novella, Lovecraft’s Iraq, and Jonathan Maberry about his upcoming Dark Fantasy book, Kagen. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

This Is Horror 2021 Nominations Open

The publication nominations for works for consideration for the 2021 This Is Horror awards are open.

HP Lovecast Podcast qualifies for the non-fiction award category. If you feel our podcast is meritable, consider nominating it. The rules and nomination process can be found at this post at the This is Horror website. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

StokerCon 2022 Souvenir Cover Reveal

The cover art for the souvenir book for StokerCon 2022 has been revealed!

The book is edited by Cynthia Pelayo and the cover art done by Kealan Patrick Burke. Michele and I have two articles in this book: one is a quick essay about the five year anniversary of AnnRadCon and the other is an interview with one of the guests of honour, john Lawson.

Writing in the Dark Spring 2022 Appearance

Michele and I appeared as guests at the All Access Con’s Writing in the Dark Spring 2022 event. For an hour starting 2:00 pm PST on Saturday the 30th we talked about AnnRadCon and being academic writers.

The conference can be found here. If you register for All Access Con you’ll get access to archival presentations. Check it out!

Highlander Call for Papers

Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.

If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of. 

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.

Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.

General Neo-Peplum News

100 Bible Films vs. The New Peplum

Matt Page’s (interviewed by me here) 100 Bible Films and my The New Peplum are neck and neck on one of Amazon’s sales ranking book categories:

Help Matt not only blow past my book, but to have a super successful debut book launch by pre-ordering his book! You can order at copy at Amazon and Bloomsbury.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2022-03-13

Personal / Website News

Matthew Page Interview

I did an interview with Matthew Page of Bible Films Blog about his upcoming book, 100 Bible Films from BFI.

The interview can be read here.

D. J. Kirkbride Interview

I conducted an interview with comic book writer D. J. Kirkbridge about the upcoming trade paperback release of Errand Boys.

The interview is scheduled to be published Wednesday the 16th. It will be able to be read here.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

In late February I was invited on to the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about peplum and 80s’ sword and sorcery films. This weekend I was invited back on to continue the dialogue, focusing on specific films. These episodes will be published later on, but in the meantime check out the Fan2Fan Podcast library for some excellent episodes (or better yet, subscribe via your podcast app of preference).

AnnRadCon 2022 In Person Programming

The StokerCon 2022 website has been updating with the conference’s in-person programming, which includes the in-person portion of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Programming can be viewed here. Of, if curious about AnnRadCon programming only to save you a click:

Thursday, May 12th

Track 1 – Film an Television – 9:00 am

  • Karley Pardue: “Bathing Bad: Feminine Vengeance and Masculine Vulnerability in the Showers of HorrorSmith”
  • Jonathan Brooks Sanford: “Between the Known and the Unknown: Stranger Things, the Signifying Body, and the Permeable Border Between the Symbolic and the Real”
  • Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr: “Killing It on the Field: Athletics and Sport in Horror Cinema”
  • Sean Woodard: “Narcissistic Love and Object A: Obsession and Desire in Fade to Black

Track 2 – Vampires – 10:45 am

  • Rocky Colavito: “Kolchak at Fifty: The Night Stalker Redux, “It’s hard to believe; isn’t it?””
  • Margaret Yankovich: ““It’s Like I Can Feel God Move Inside Me”: The Religious Ecstasy of Sensual Vampirism in Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass
  • Cassandra Yatron: “Rats and the Queer Vampire: Dracula as a Commensal Creature”

Track 3 – Literature and Nature – 12:15 pm

  • Gavin Hurley: “The Diabolical Dialectics of Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game
  • Brenda Tolian: “Gaia Screaming”
  • Talmage Joseph Wise: “Anatomical Theatre: Freak Show Horrors in Jekyll and Hyde
  • Charles Yost: “Crazy Cat Women: The Contemporary Rebrand of Literary Witchcraft”

Highlander Call for Papers

Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.

If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of. 

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.

Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.

General Neo-Peplum News

Recent Acquisitions

My Severin order for their Caligula boxset arrived.

This boxset contains two films: Caligula the Untold Story and Caligula and Messalina. I’ve seen my share of Joe D’Amato and Bruno Mattei films, but not these prono-pepla.

The original Italian cycle had long since been dead since the mid-60s. With Tinto Brass doing Caligula in the 70s, the door creaked open for imitators, which resulted in these films. Was these 80s peplum films, with wanton depravity and sexploitation that was only hinted at in the original 60s cycle be enough to resurrect the genre? No, of course not. It would have to wait almost two more decades when Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was released.

John Carter Video Game Q/A Sessions

The folks developing the John Carter video game have appeared in a few Q/As to help promote the game and answer fan questions. Episode one can be viewed here and episode two here. The Kickstarter can be found here, so consider chipping in a few dollars.

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News

2021 Accomplishments

2021 was definitely a crazy and hectic year. The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world with multiple variants. Michele and I continue to play it safe: we mask up, limit us going out, and received our vaccines, though we need boosters soon. The move from Orange to Phoenix also required some normalization. There was also personal ailments, family issues, work woes, and lots of anxieties. 

Despite all this, 2021 was a successful year on many fronts. I didn’t have any books published and outside my regular contributions to Exotica Moderne, nothing else saw physical print. However, Michele and I really ramped up the focus on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast. We launched an additional show and tweaked the format a little bit and the results so far have been quite positive. In 2022 we are going to concentrate on growing our audience, which right now as a cult following. But with 30 episodes published this year plus other podcast appearances, we were both successful on this front, and we hope the books and authors we featured also received a spike in promotion.

Vanity shelf at the end of 2021

What follows is a break down of all major 2021 accomplishments. 

2021 Accomplishments

Podcast Accomplishments

  • 50 podcast appearances

Publication Accomplishments

  • 6 physical/print publications
    • 4 articles for Exotica Moderne
    • 2 book contributions
      • Mark My Words
      • StokerCon 2021 Souvenir Book (co-written with Michele)
  • 16 articles at my website
    • 7 interviews
    • 3 book reviews
    • 6 articles/essays
  • Essay published at Academia Letters

Conference Accomplishments

  • Co-chaired with Michele the 4th year of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
  • 2 Conference Presentations
    • AnnRadCon
    • Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association

For some of the above accomplishments I’d like to give a shout out to: Brenda S. Tolian and Joy Yehle (Burial Plot Podcast), Sherri (Scaredy Cats Podcast), Hercules Invictus (Voice of Olympus Network), Ken Holewczynski (Exotica Moderne), Josh Viola (Hex Publishers), and Lee Murray (Mark My Words) who all gave me platforms and opportunities. I sincerely appreciate you all. Of course I have to think Michele for being my biggest supporter and partner in crime in these endeavors.

2022 Projections

Only a few days into the new year and 2022 is already filling up with new projects, opportunities, and publications!

Things to look forward to in 2022

  • Publication of Kevin Wetmore’s The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise which contains my essay “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown
  • Publication of Rachel Corazo’s untitled Gladiator book which contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling”
  • Issue of Exotica Moderne that contains my interview with New Zealand Pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair
    • Other Exotica Moderne appearances will happen
  • Essays and interviews co-written with Michele for the 2022 StokerCon souvenir book
  • Co-chairing and presenting at the Fifth Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
  • Secret magazine article (due at the end of January)
  • More episodes of H. P. Lovecast
  • More articles and interviews at my website

Projects I’ll be starting in 2022

Projects I anticipate to be starting on or working on in the next year:

  • Composing a Highlander essay for Michele’s Highlander Book (see CFP here)
  • My first monograph (which will be on Lovecraft and Rene Girard)
  • Publishing a CFP for the Emmanuelle and Black Emanuelle films
  • Editing my Acylum presentation into a journal article proper
  • And others tbd! 

Thank you everyone who has been along with me on my academic journey. 

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-11-07

Personal / Website News

The Best Horror of the Year Volume 13

Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, the academic anthology that Michele and I edited that is based on presentations from the first two years of our Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, is listed in the non-fiction section of Ellen Datlow’s book, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 13.

The book can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association Conference

I’ll be presenting a paper called “Victory Or Valhalla: Violence via Vikings Sampling in Acylum’s Kampf Dem Verderb” at this year’s MAPACA conference.

I am scheduled to present Thursday the 11th at 3:15 pm. I am not sure if the Zoom link to it is public or not, but here it is: https://zoom.us/j/94879057020?pwd=MzRjWEZwVDB2UnZ1Q2JqZ0pIU2F1QT09. More information about the conference can be found at the MAPACA website.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast in November

For November we will be doing an 80s-themed month for the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. We will be watching the film, The Void, and then looking at the Raw Dog Screaming Press anthology, Attack from the 80s. Keep an eye out for these episodes at our Buzzsprout website or on your podcast app of preference.

NanoWriMo

Michele is doing NanoWriMo! She’s working on a novel called Land of the Riverbank.

If you want to support her or follow her progress, her username is Mbrittany at the NanoWriMo website.

General Neo-Peplum News

Band of Warriors #2 Kickstarter

Samuel George London has officially launched the Kickstarter to fund issue #2 of his neo-peplum comic series, Band of Warriors.

I had the honor to interview London back in January. Stay tuned to this website for a follow up interview about issue #2. In the meantime, check out the Kickstarter campaign for the second issue.

Recent Aquisitions

Here are some new sword and sandal and neo-peplum artifacts I’ve procured.

Physical releases of sword and sandal films are drying up. These used to be very plentiful in the 2000s and early 2010s from budget companies. However, these mostly skipped the Blu-ray format and now exist on YouTube in even worse edits. Had an opportunity to pick up this 50 movie back of sword and sandal films which plugs a lot of gaps on my collection.

I really enjoyed Warkings’ Revolution that I bought from Zia’s Records a few weeks ago. I decided to buy their first two albums, Reborn and Revenge. Very nice power metal, though the lyrics at times are a little silly.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-10-24

Personal / Website News

Gold Ninja Video’s Fury of Achilles Write Up

I recently interviewed Justin Decloux about his release of Fury of Achilles via his Gold Ninja Video imprint.

Copy 77 of 500!

I’ve compiled his responses with my impressions into a nice write up of the Blu-ray. It can be read here. I strongly encourage purchasing a copy of the Blu-ray, it’s limited to 500 numbered copies.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online! In this episode Michele and I talk about “Every Hole in the Earth We Will Claim As Our Own” by Gemma Files and “Eye of the Beholder” by Nancy Kilpatrick both from the Dark Regions Press published, Lynne Jamneck edited anthology, Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror.

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany

This episode can be streamed from our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

McFarland Horror Book Sale

McFarland Publishing is doing a promotion during October for their horror books: if you use the code SPOOKY25 during check out, you’ll get a 25% discount.

There are three books I am involved with that are part of this promotion:

This is a great opportunity to pluck these books up!

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference CFP

The CFP for the 2022 AnnRadCon is now LIVE! Open until the end of December, AnnRadCon 2022 will be hybrid, both online and in person. The CFP can be found at the AnnRadCon page at the StokerCon website. Please share far and wide!

Michele at HWA Halloween Haunts

Michele has an article up at the Horror Writer Association’s website for their Halloween Haunts series going through the month of October.

Thumbnail created by the HWA.

Michele’s article is a “how to” feature called “How To Make a Spooky Zig Zaggy Mini Halloween Journal.” There is a contest open as well: if you leave a comment (you don’t need to be an HWA member) you have a chance to win the journals Michele made.

General Neo-Peplum News

History of the World Part 2

Looks like a sequel to Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I is in the works! Per this article at Variety, it sounds like it will be a series on Hulu with Brooks writing and producing.

For those curious, Tatiana Prorokova writes extensively about History of the World: Part I in her essay “Laughing at the Body: The Imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody Films” that appears in The New Peplum.

Women in Classical Video Games Cover Reveal

Bloomsbury will be releasing a new book called Women in Classical Video Games edited by Jane Draycott and Kate Cook. Here is the cover reveal:

Salomé Footage Found

Per an article at Benzinga, 2 minutes of footage of the 1918 lost, porto-peplum film Salomé has been found.

Theda Bara in Salomé.
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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-10-10

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episodes

For the month of October, we’ve had to flipflop out flagship episode with our Fragments episode. In this month’s Fragments episode we discuss Robert Eggers’ folk horror film, The Witch (2015).

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany

This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout website or via your Podcast application of preference.

Bram Stoker Campaigning

For the first time ever, I am going to throw my hat into the ring for the Bram Stoker Award process. I have an essay called “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” that is eligible for the short non-fiction award. If you are a member of the Horror Writers Association that is recommending works and are curious about my essay, it can be read at Academia dot Edu.

AnnRadCon CFP

The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is now complete. It will be put online on Monday and I’ll be posting it at this website as well.

General Neo-Peplum News

Follow Me Down Table Top RPG

Drowning Moon Studios has started a Kickstarter campaign of their TTRPG called Follow Me Down.

The RPG is based on the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice and the Kickstarter page describes it as such:

Follow Me Down is a tabletop roleplaying game for two players [and is] divided into eight sections, called Books of the Dead, where the characters journey through different parts of the underworld in search of one another. It is designed to be GMless, with each player portraying two roles during the course of the game. In each Book, one player takes on the role of The Fates (in what would normally be considered the GM role) while the other player portrays a character based on the archetype of Orpheus or Eurydice. The two players trade off, alternating who is playing their character and who is playing The Fates, until they reach The Gauntlet of Hope and Regret to determine how their story ends. There is a final scene between Orpheus and Eurydice, called the Denouement, which reflects upon the journey the characters have taken, and their relationship to one another at the end of the game.

Follow Me Down can be supported via Kickstarter.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-05-09

Personal / Website News

Podcast News – H. P. Lovecast

New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! We are doing tiki month for the month of May. For our primary episode we did a deep dive on the short story “Blood of the Kapu Tiki” by Eric C. Higgs. The episode is on Buzzsprout and all major podcast platforms.

StokerCon Panel on Podcasting

StokerCon is about two weeks away! Michele and my main priority will, of course, be the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, however we’ve both been invited to be on a panel about podcasts! We don’t have a date/time yet (or many it will be an on demand panel?), but here are the details:

Horror Pods and Vlogs Go Viral: The Pandemic and Beyond

Moderator: Lee Murray
Panelists:
Behind the Keyboard: R.F. Blackstone
Galactic Terrors: James Chambers and Carol Gyzander
H. P. Lovecast Podcast: Nicholas Diak and Michele Brittany
HWA Skeleton Hour: Kathryn E. McGee

If you’re interested in attending StokerCon (online this year!) and to see all the great programming, and to check out the AnnRadCon or the panel I am on, more info on how to register can be found at the StokerCon2021 website.

McFarland Sci-fi Book Sale

McFarland is currently doing a sale on their books classified as sci-fi. Up until May 17th, if you use the code SFF25 during check out, you’ll get a 25% discount. Included in this sale is Kevin Wetmore’s Stranger Things book and Michele’s Horror in Space book, both contain essays I’ve penned.

“Cullzathro Fhtagn!” Paper Published

My paper, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” has been published at Academia.edu’s experimental Academia Letters publishing endeavor. I’ll eventually turn my adventure of publishing this essay via Academia Letters into write up as the whole process definitely needs more illumination. However, it’s nice to have a new publication out in the world. Let’s just see how successful it becomes.

General Neo-Peplum News

Rest in Peplum

Actress Tawny Kitaen passed away at the age of 59. She played Deianeira in many episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-02-07

Personal / Website News

New issue of Exotica Moderne

Exotica Moderne #10 is out! Copies can be ordered from House of Tabu. My contribution to this issue is pretty minimal, I only did a mini review of Zeena Schreck’s EP Bring me the Head of F. W. Murnau. However, I am ahead of the game for issue 11, which will contain my interview of Miss Pinup Miami. That interview is conducted, concluded, edited, and turned in!

Cover for Exotica Moderne #10

StokerCon 2021/AnnRadCon News

Official announcement has been made through the Stokercon channels that StokerCon 2021 will be a digital-only conference, with a physical one to resume when the world is safer from the COVID19 pandemic. This also means the AnnRadCon for 2021 will also switch to an online/digital mode. More details forthcoming as we get things sussed out. The official announcement can be read at StokerCon2021.com.

On a slight positive note, the cover art for the StokerCon 2021 souvenir book has been published online! Michele and I have a short essay in the book about AnnRadCon and the conference’s accomplishments thus far. The book is edited by Josh Viola, with cover art by Aaron Lovett and will be published by HEX Publishing.

Cover art for the StokerCon 2021 book

Podcast News

Episode 7 of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Presents: Fragments is online! In this episode we interview Lee Murray. The episode can be listened to on our site at Buzzsprout or on your podcast application of preference.

Call for Papers

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

Citation News

In the autumn of 2020, James Arthur Anderson had his book, Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction, published by Lexington Books. This text cites his essay, “Four Quadrants of Success: The Metalinguistics of Author Protagonists in the Fiction of Stephen King,” which appeared in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays.

Cover Art

My essay “Permission to kill: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact and Legacy” from James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy has been cited by Samhita Sunya in their essay “On Location: Tracking Secret Agents and Films, between Bombay and Beirut” which appears in the journal Film History Vol. 32, No. 3, Fall 2020.

Journal issue cover

General Neo-Peplum News

Story of a Gladiator Physical Release

On Friday Limited Run opened a pre-order for 1,500 copies of Brain Seal’s game Story of a Gladiator for the Playstation. It, of course, sold out by the day’s end (but your’s truly, who has an Xbox and not a Playstation, had to buy a copy because reasons). Though the physical copy of the game was sold out, digital copies can readily be had on the Xbox, Playstation, Switch, and Steam. As I’ve been enjoying the Xbox incarnation, expect some sort of write-up about it in the very near future.

Rest in Peplum

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer passed away at the age of 91 from hitting his head from a fall. Renown for The Sound of Music (1965) he starred in numerous pepla productions:

  • The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  • Oedipus the King (1968)
  • Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
  • Caesar and Cleopatra (2009)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011 – voice)

Haya Harareet passed away at the age of 89. She is best known playing Esther in Ben-Hur (1959)

Italian cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno passed away at the age of 97. He worked on numerous filoni and his sword and sandal contributions include:

  • The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966)
  • Fellini Satyricon (1969)
  • Red Sonja (1985)