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Biweekly News Roundup 2023-05-07

Personal / Website News

Another series of productive and hectic weeks. The big thing is the CFP for the Emmanuelle project closed at the end of April. I’ve sent out acceptances and am currently working on proposals to send to publishers. However, there is room for more essays in the book so I will probably reactivate the CFP and accept abstracts on a rolling basis. If you’re interested, reach out!

Weird Tales #367 Mini-Interviews

Last year for the sword and sorcery issue of Weird Tales I did a series of mini-interviews with a handful of contributors. That article can be found here.

I’ve done the same thing for the cosmic horror issue of Weird Tales that is being published later this month. Angela Yuriko Smith, Samantha Underhill, and Carol Gyzander all let me do a mini interview with them and they can be read here. Check them out and consider pre-ordering the issue.

“Strange Realities” Supplemental Material

Last year I had an essay about the movie Encounter with the Unknown published in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone.

The final bit of the essay I make reference to the various VHS releases of Encounter. As a supplement to that essay I’ve uploaded pictures of these releases. Check it out here.

Footage Fiends #1 Is Out

The debut issue of Footage Fiends is out!

It actually was released a month or so ago and the copy I bought has been sitting in my PO Box for a few weeks. Oops.

This zine contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.” This first issue is limited to 50 physical copies, but I believe digital copies are available. The zine can be ordered via subscription from the Footage Fiends Patreon.

New H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Our monthly Transmissions episode for H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online!

In April we interviewed some cool comic book kids: Bernie Gonzalez (also of Fan2Fan Podcast fame) and Joshua Pruett. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout site, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 21 Bernie Gonzalez and Joshua Pruett H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Thank you Bernie and Joshua for appearing on our show!

Scholars from the Edge of Time

New episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online!

Michele and I talk about the 1954 proto-Raiders of the Lost Ark film, Secret of the Incas. You can hear our discussion on YouTube. I’ll be turning my notes into an article for Exotica Moderne in a bit, so stay tuned!

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Scheduled to be published in May, this issue of Weird Tales contains my essay “When the Stars are Right.”

Weird Tales Product Page

Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”

Limited to 50 physical copies.

Order via Patreon.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Angela Sylvaine’s Frost Bite Cover Reveal

Angela Sylvaine (awesome friend and writer who we interviewed on H. P. Lovecast back in June 2021) has her debut novel, Frost Bite, coming out later this year. Her publisher, Dark Matter Ink, just did a cover reveal and it is the bomb dot com.

I am digging the 90s and shades of vaporwave going on here. And, it’s meteorite-horror adjacent, so I am triple excited.

Sylvaine’s book can be be pre-ordered at the Dark Matter Magazine shop.

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News

News Roundup 2022-12-11

Personal / Website News

Lots and lots of stuff have suddenly been coming to fruition in December, thus I am doing a news roundup a week later instead of two.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for EmmanuelleBlack Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Fan2Fan Podcast

Fan2Fan Podcast has a new short-form episode online that celebrates Albert Pyun (Rest in Peplum) who recently passed away.

Myself, Bernie, Joshua, Michele, and Pete all share some stories and memories. I share my story of Pyun autographing my Cyborg DVD.

Hi Nick!

Gee, I’m so humbled and honored by your interest in my films. Cyborg was a very tough shoot because originally it was going to be Master of the Universe 2 but that got cancelled. So out came Cyborg!

Thanks so much on your kind support of my work!

-Albert Pyun

A Hero Will Endure Preorder

A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, is set to be published this February by Vernon Press. The collection contains my essay, “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.” There is no cover art yet, but there is a product/pre-order page at the publisher’s website.

Footage Fiends #1 Cover Reveal

Found footage-centric zine Footage Fiends did a cover reveal of their debut issue which comes out this month!

This issue contains my essay, “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices” and can be pre-ordered at the Footage Fiends Patreon.

McFarland Holiday Sale

My publisher, McFarland, is doing a holiday sale for all their titles. Use the code HOLIDAY22 during check out to receive 25% off your order. If you want to order a book I am a part of (for yourself or maybe as a Yuletide gift), here they are:

The New Peplum

Awards Season

Horror/speculative award season is upon us. This year I have two pieces of writing eligible for the various awards out there:

  • “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise
  • “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices”

Thank you for your consideration!

Post Social Media

I’ve created an account under the beta-version of Post. It can be found here if you want to follow. I also have my account at Tribel which can be found here if you want to follow that one.

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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-12-04

Personal / Website News

Life Stuff

Apologies in advance that original writing here at my website has been sparse. Michele and I recently bought a house and we are in the process of moving in. The vast majority of my library is in boxes at the new place. We will be moved in by the end of the month with January being spent unpacking and getting settled. After that, I’ll be up and running again, writing content here but for other venues and projects as well.

Despite this, LOTS of cool stuff is still going on. Read below!

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for the EmmanuelleBlack Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

New H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode

A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online.

This is our monthly Transmissions episode, however we did a longer form interview instead of a handful of smaller ones. Our interview is with P. L. McMillan and her new novella, Sisters of the Crimson Vine. The episode can be streamed at the H. P. Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 17 – P. L. McMillan H. P. Lovecast Podcast

For December we are going to do a recap episode where Michele and I talk about projects completed this year, upcoming news, podcast news, and so on.

A Hero Will Endure Update

A few years in the making, but the collection, A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, is set to be published this February by Vernon Press. This book contains my essay, “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.” There is no cover art yet, but there is a product/pre-order page at the publisher’s website.

Footage Fiends Issue 1

Pre-orders are open for the first issue of the Footage Fiends zine. I have a short essay in this debut issue (tentatively) titled “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”

Issues are tied to tiers at the Footage Fiends Patreon: $5 digital and $10 for physical with issues being published quarterly.

A promotional clip for the Zine can be found on the Footage Fields Twitter:

Check it all out and consider supporting!

Awards Season

Horror/speculative award season is upon us. This year I really only have one piece of writing eligible for the various awards out there: my essay “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise. Thank you for your interest/consideration!

New Scholars from the Edge of Time

Michele and I appeared on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal cinema the last Thursday of November. I talked about the “City of Evil” episode of Thundarr the Barbarian while Michele talked about Ouja Mummy and Luxor. The episode can be heard via BlogTalkRadio.

Tribel Social Media

With all the brouhaha happening at Twitter, I’ve decided to start checking out alternative social medias. Unfortunately my iPhone is at capacity so I cannot install the app-only Hive social media. I’m on a waitlist for Post. However, I did setup an account at Tribel, which can be found here. Tribel is pretty much a ghost town right now, but I’ll wait and see what happens. Come give me a follow if you’re on the platform.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Mimic Soundtrack (And Plans)

Record Store Day had a Black Friday event this year. There was one vinyl I was really, really gunning for, and that was the new LP of the Mimic soundtrack, composed by Marco Beltrami. When I got to Zia Records, there was only one copy on the shelf and I snagged that bad boy.

Michele and I talked about Mimic and Mimic 2 on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast (check them out – links on the titles) and plan on doing Mimic 3 next year.

I have other plans for the Mimic soundtrack. The first Front Line Assembly album I ever bought was Implode which contains much sampling of dialogue and music cues from both Mimic and Event Horizon. It’s been on the idea board to write *something* about this. We shall see what I come up with.

Elmer Batters Polaroid

I am a huge fan of the stockings photography of Elmer Batters. Back in 2015 Michele and I were able to visit an Elmer Batters and Eric Stanton exhibit that Taschen Books was curating in LA. Lots of great art and photography, and polaroids too!

There was an option to buy the polaroids, but at that point I didn’t have the funds to do so.

Fast forward to autumn 2022 and I was able to work with Taschen to procure a an original Batters Polaroid:

Elmer Batters, unknown model.

The polaroid was taken in the 1970s and it is awesome. The model is unfortunately unknown. It’s a fairly conservative Batters piece and I adore it.

The back of the frame the polaroid came in was autographed by Dian Hanson, known for many of the pinup books and Big Book Ofs that Taschen published (I cited her Big Butt Book for my masters thesis). Sincere thanks to Bernard at Taschen for coordinating all of this.

Rest in Peplum

French actress Mylène Demongeot passed away on December 1st (Deadline Article).

Promotional image from IMDB.

She starred in peplum and peplum-adjacent films such as:

  • The Giant of Marathon (1959)
  • Romulus and the Sabines (1961)
  • Gold for the Caesars (1963)
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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-09-25

Personal / Website News

Welcome to the second instance of my biweekly news roundup. I am digging this schedule more than my prior weekly schedule. There is a lot of content below, so make sure you scroll through it all.

Alicia Carter and Robot #1 Review

The physical first issue of the crowdfunded pulp/sword and planet inspired comic The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carter and Robot arrived last week.

Check out my review of the issue here.

The New Peplum Citation News

One of my favorite things is finding new citations of the essays by the authors who appeared in the books I edited.

Dr. Hannah Mueller’s essay, “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus,” which appeared in The New Peplum, has been cited in Dr. Amanda Potter’s essay, “From Female Stereotypes to Women with Agency: Elite Women and Slave Women in Howard Fast’s 1951 Novel, Spartacus (1960), and Starz Spartacus (2010–13)” in Gender, Power, and Identity in the Films of Stanley Kubrick, edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Dijana Metlić, and Jeremi Szaniawski.

Super congrats!

The Kubrick collection has been published by Routledge and the product page can be found here.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Updates

New episode of H. P. Lovecast is online!

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.

In this episode we talk about the second film in John Carpenter’s informal apocalypse trilogy, Prince of Darkness. This episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout page, in the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Ep 54 – John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness H. P. Lovecast Podcast

On the 30th this month our September Transmissions episode will publish. This episode will have Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke.

Looking to the future, for October we will be covering the movie Mimic 2 (we covered the first Mimic film almost a year ago – here is the link). We are also solidifying our Transmissions guests as well.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance

The folks at Fan2Fan Podcast are collecting top five Halloween season films from their guests and I was honored to contribute mine.

The episode I appear on with my top five was published last Wednesday and can be heard at this Fan2Fan Libsyn page. Present in this episode was also Joshua Pruett. His top five movies can be heard on this Fan2Fan episode. Keep an eye out for Michele’s list!

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Footage Fiends Zine

Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:

This, of course, inspired me, so now I am working on an essay about the 1950s Italian cosmic horror film, Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (one of the first films to have a found footage scene). If you’re interested in submitting, check out the Tweet thread above for more information.

The Warrior and the Sorceress Re-Release

Shout Factory, under their Scream Factory label, is did a re-release of the Roger Corman 1980s sword and sorcery (sword and planet since it takes place on another planet?) film, The Warrior and the Sorceress.

My copy of The Warrior and the Sorceress with the poster.

I have not seen this film before, even though it is included in the four movie DVD release Shout Factory did a few years ago that contained Deathstalker, Deathstalker 2, and Barbarian Queen (side note: if you want to hear me talk Deathstalker 2 with the Fan2Fan Podcast crew, click here). Of course I had to pre-order the Blu-ray incarnation, plus it comes with a poster and the cover is reversible to a Cthulhu-looking one.

Reverse sleeve.

Here is a link to the Shout Factory product page for The Warrior and the Sorceress. My copy arrived extremely quickly.

Just Jaeckin Releases from Cult Epics

Emmanuelle director Just Jaeckin passed away earlier this month.

The filmmaker may be gone but his legacy lives on. Later in September Cult Epics released two Blu-rays of Jaeckin’s work: Madame Claude and The Last Romantic Lover. Commentary on the discs is done by Jeremy Richey who wrote Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol (read my review here). Check out the Cult Epics website for more info on these releases.

Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign

Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.

Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting!

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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-06-20

Personal / Website News

The 20th was my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

HP Lovecast Podcast Episode

New episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Fragments is now online. This is our discussion on the film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster, which was delayed from last month due to StokerCon/AnnRadCon. The episode can be found on our HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website or on your podcast application of preference.

Transmissions will drop June 30th and I believe we may have three (!!) interviews on this one.

This Thursday we will both be on an episode of Scholars from the Edge of time.

Chopping Spree Writeup

Michele and I interested Angela Sylvaine last week for an upcoming episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Transmissions. I plucked up her novella Chopping Spree and saw all the fun that was being had in the story by mixing around different genres (including pepla!) that I simply had to get a writeup about the novella out ASAP. My musings on Sylvaine’s debut can be found here. Stay tuned for when her interview will drop on HP Lovecast!

General Neo-Peplum News

Norse Mythology II #1 Review

Michele Brittany has a review at Fanbase Press on the first issue of Norse Mythology II.