For the month of October we have the honor to interview filmmaker Jesse Terrell about his Lovecraftian short film, Sights Unseen. The episode can be streamed via the embedded player below, at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, or through your podcast app of preference.
In October Michele and I appeared on two episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time.
First, for our typical 4th Thursday of the Month, we talked about the classic Mario Bava sword and sandal film Hercules in the Haunted World (1961), perfect for the Halloween season. That episode can be found on YouTube.
Next, on the 5th Tuesday, Michele talked about the neo-peplum film Centurion (2010) and I talked about Mondo Balordo (1962).
And finally, I made a good and forgot to share September’s Scholars from the Edge of Time episode. I flew solo on this one and talked about Ironmaster (19830. Here is its YouTube link.
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
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.”
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.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Thomas Simmons’ titanic graphic novel, I Am a Barbarian is on Sale for $49.95 through the month of November.
I had the honor to interview Simmons and artist Mike Dubisch about their graphic novel which can be read here. Check out the interview if you want to know more about the comic and if you are interested in purchasing, contact Simmons at cedar.run.publications@gmail.com.
Samson at Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has a new article on a Biblical peplum film at his Bible Films Blog!
A new episode of our monthly HP Lovecast Podcast is online!
Angela Sylvaine returned to the podcast to talk about her debut novel, Frost Bite. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
Later this month we will be discussing Mimic 3 on the podcast, concluding our year tradition of diving into the Mimic franchise (Listen to Mimic and Mimic 2).
McFarland Horror Sale
My publisher, McFarland, is having a sale this month on their horror titles. If you use code HALLOWEEN2023 during check out you’ll get a 25% discount on the horror tiles. An entire list of eligible titles can be found here.
Numerous books I’ve been a part of are included in this sale. If you want to pluck something up I’ve either co-edited or contributed an essay to, now is a good time!
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.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Michele is teaming up with Sean Woodard to do an edited collection on The Mummy series. They have a CFP listed at UPENN, but I am also sharing a copy below.
Essays sought for an edited collection focused on Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise.
The 1999 Universal reboot of The Mummy, starring the indelible duo of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, remains a tentpole of ’90s popular culture and cinema. Not only did The Mummy launch two sequels, a spin-off series, and a reboot, but it has lived on as a cult film, loved by fans for its mixture of horror, action/adventure, and humor. The film has also developed a strong meme culture on social media — one of the most viral examples contains a photo of a car bumper sticker proclaiming: “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.”
While academic research has been focused on various releases of The Mummy (1932, 1959, 1999, and 2017), there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film franchise. The recent “Brenaissance” in Fraser’s film career and the film’s anticipated 25th anniversary in 2024 make it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.
The purpose of this edited collection is to place The Mummy into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the franchise, its connections to other genre films, and its continued influence.
We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Resurgent interest in Brendan Fraser/“Brenaissance”
Stephen Sommers as an auteur
Representation of Egypt in popular culture and early filmic representation
Eastern mythology/culture/religion
Exoticism of non-western cultures
Post/De-colonialism
Heroic representation
Body horror
Eco-horror/Ecocriticism
Gender representation
Toxic depictions in film
Queer/LGBTQ+ representation
Meme/GIF culture
Psychoanalysis
Generational nostalgia
Element of music/film scoring
Genre hybridity
Film cycles/reboots/retcons (such as The Scorpion King, The Mummy animated series, Universal Classic Monsters, Hammer Studios, Dark Universe, etc.) and related adventure/archaeological-driven films (such as Ark of the Sun God, The Sphinx, The Librarian franchise, etc.)
Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to mummybookproject@gmail.com as a Word document. Final essays should be 6,000 – 8,000 words in length, including endnotes and bibliography, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The collection is being considered by a leading academic press.
Proposed Timeline
October 1, 2023 thru December 15, 2023 — Call for Papers
January 15, 2024 — Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors
January 15, 2024 thru June 15, 2024 — Book chapters drafting period
June 15, 2024 thru July 15, 2024 — Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts
August 1, 2024 thru October 1, 2024 — Double-blind Peer Review Period
October 1, 2024 thru November 15, 2024 — Contributor revision period
December 1, 2024 — Final editorial acceptance decisions
December 1, 2024 thru January 15, 2025 — Layout design, indexing, and proofing stage
January 15, 2025 thru February 15, 2025 — Copies of chapter proofs sent to contributors for copyediting review
March 1, 2025 — Final manuscript submitted in hard copy and digital formats to publisher
Here are some of the autographed treasures I shared on social media these past two weeks.
First up is my copy of Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. signed by longtime Wood collaborator, Conrad Brooks.
In the latter 2000s I contacted Brooks via his website and he reached out to me via phone. He actually thought I was a lady, probably because of my less-than-masculine voice. He let me send him all my Ed wood stuff for him to autograph (this book included) and he also sent me back some of his movies he directed himself and released via Alpha Video. He was a charming dude and we talked on the phone a few times, but I lost contact with him after we moved to California. I was sad to find out he died, one of the last vanguards of singular era of exploitation films.
Next, following along with classic exploitation, is The Complete Night of the Living Dead Film book, signed by John Russo.
Back in the latter 2000s Michele and I lived in Federal Way and our comic book shop was Spy Comics owned by Richard Spychalski. Richard was the man and we go to his shop every week to pick up our orders we made from Previews and stay well after the shop closed, talking with him and petting his dog Ollie. The bulk of my comic book collection was bought from Richard during this time.
This book popped up as something to order through Previews. The book is actually from 1985. I suspect Avatar Press, which was publishing some NOTLD comics, probably got a box of these books from Russo who has them sitting in his garage and asked for the publisher to sell them. Slap an autograph on them and a certificate of authenticity and voila! Anywho, I liked NOTLD well enough so I ordered this book with one of my previews orders and Richard was able to get it in for me.
I really, really miss having a local comic book store.
To go with my Mike Nelson autographed copy of Plan 9 From Outer SpaceI shared on 8/27, here’s my copy of Carnival of Souls signed by the MST3K alumni.
I bought this way back in early 20004 while living in University Place. This was an era I was hungry for more MST3K stuff, and at the time only Mike Nelson was doing anything like it. This version of Carnival of Souls was the first time I ever seen the cult film. It’s a great one – a very slow burn one.
#HorrorGameOctober
For #HorrorGameOctober I’ll be (well, am currently) playing two games: The Evil Within and The House of the Dead Remake.
There’s a theme to these two games: they both have lenticular covers!
Michele bought me The Evil Within as a yuletide gift way back in 2015. I played it for a bit, but something stopped me from getting too far in it. Something wasn’t jiving? I got distracted by another game? I’m not sure, but here I am 8 years later giving it a legit go.
The House of the Dead I used to play when I was a teen in the arcade at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso. I never got far. The game was for sale dirt cheap on Amazon this summer so I plucked it up. I was able to beat it a few times, something I would never think I would do! The game made me feel very nostalgic. I’m going to give it a few more play throughs this month and score a few more Xbox achievements.
I am going to try and fit in a proper write up about these two horror games before the month ends.
The monthly Transmissions episode of our H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online.
In this episodes we interview Ness Brown about their debut space horror novella, The Scourge Between Stars. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
In September or October we *should* be resuming our twice a month schedule. This summer has been crazy with projects, obligations, work, and prepping for CoKoCon.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
Michele and I did a second episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time in August. Michele talked about The Swordsman and I talked about the video game Starsand. Check it out on YouTube.
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.”
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.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Here is a round of autographed ephemera I’ve shared on social media the last two weeks.
First up is my copy of Bizarre Sinema! Horror all’italiana 1957-1979:
This is an incredible book. There’s an entire chapter + interview with Antonio Margheriti which I’ve cited in my masters thesis on Castle of Blood and in other essays as well.
Michele and I met Barbara Steele at a Hollywood Collectors Show back in July of 2010. She signed many of my movies but also my copy of Bizarre Sinema! in which she penned the foreword:
And, here is a picture of all of us from way back when. Queen!
Next up, part of my comprehensive Oliver Gruner library, is Crackerjack 3.
This DVD is signed by Gruner along with Bo Svenson, director Lloyd Simandl and WWE Diva Amy Weber. We met Amy Weber back in 2010 at a celebrity show in Burbank:
The folks at Boundheat Films coordinated the director signing my DVD. His auteur elements of including WIP/Lesbian Slave elements in his films are found in Crackerjack 3.
Next is Bikini Beach signed by the grooviest babe of the AIP beauty party films, Donna Loren.
These movies are always a lot of fun, especially when old guard folks like Buster Keaton show up.
Any finally, for this week, I have The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 3 signed by Gary Myers and George R. R. Martin.
Gary Myers is the bloody man and I would say is the most instrumental of me getting into the work of Lovecraft and cosmic horror. Myers’ Dreamlands stories are the best iteration of the Dreamlands and I suggest folks check his collection out.
George R. R. Martin was the guest of honor at StokerCon 2017 and that is were I got his autograph. I’ve never read Game of Thrones or watched the series, so his short story here is the only work of his I am familiar with.
CFP List
Here are a few interesting CFPs I want to help proliferate.
Music Medievalism In Popular Culture at ICMS in Kalamazoo (May 9–11, 2024)
Sponsoring Organization: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture Organizer: Anna Czarnowus
Jonathan Le Cocq (forthcoming, 2024) defines music medievalism as either the influence of the medieval on later music, or the impact on medieval music (real or imagined) on any later cultural practice. In popular culture, we can find both the music that has been influenced by the actual medieval one and music influenced by some folk music imagined as medieval. Medievalist music such as pagan folk music (Troyer in: Meyer and Yri, 2020) can be used in various media and there are various genres of it. Some music videos can be an example of the cultural practice that is influenced by the imaginary medieval music. Medievalist video games also contain “medievalized” music.
Please consider such topics and similar ones:
medievalist music as background
medievalist music and similar videos
medievalist music/folk music as medievalist
Please send your abstract to: annaczarnowus@tlen.pl by September 1, 2023, but an official proposal can only be made and accepted through https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi by September 15th.
Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (virtual)
Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan
Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan) Hybrid event: Thursday, 9 May, through Saturday, 11 May, 2024
Session Objective
Although we often refer to the Matter of Britain as the Arthurian tradition, the figure of King Arthur is merely the center point of the story. The tales are in fact about the community that Arthur builds and the ways those inside it (and outside as well) interact with each other. Through Arthur and those he surrounds himself with, Camelot becomes a living thing, and we experience its birth, maturity, and death, as well as its re-creation across the ages. In this session, we’d like to highlight the multiple ways that Arthur’s realm has been constructed from the Middle Ages to the present. Submissions can explore the Arthurian legends from across time and/or space as represented through diverse genres and media. We seek contributions from a range of scholars–those within the disciplines of Arthurian Studies and/or Medieval Studies as well as those in outside fields, including beyond the humanities–as they consider at least one of the following questions:
● What are the origins of Camelot? How do Arthur’s literary and/or historic predecessors (Ambrosius Aurelius, Arthur of Dal Riada, Constantine, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Lucius Artorius Castus, Riothamus, Uther Pendragon, Vortigern, etc.) influence the creation of his home base? What real locales inspired the idea or site of Camelot? ● Moving forwards, how has Camelot been built as a physical place whether in the Arthurian past or in post-Arthurian re-creations? What does the site look like? How does it function as a space where individuals live and work? ● Also, how has Camelot been shaped as a communal space, a location for people to come together in fellowship, and who has been included within this group? In what ways does the community grow and change under Arthur and/or his successors? ● Alternatively, who has been excluded and/or expelled from the space(s) of Camelot, and in what ways have those individuals dealt with this loss? ● Similarly, who has been invited to join the community at Camelot but resisted its entreaties and/or rebelled against Arthur and his rule (or that of his successors)? What are the reasons for their rejection of Camelot? How do their actions impact the Arthurian world? ● Lastly, do those removed from and/or repelled by Camelot ever integrate (or re-integrate) and become part of the community? How does this acceptance shape them and/or the world of Camelot?
Submission Information
All proposals must be submitted into the Confex system at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call by 15 September 2023. You will be prompted to complete sections on Title and Presentation Information, People, Abstract, and Short Description. Be advised of the following policies of the Congress: “You are invited to make one paper proposal to one session of papers. This may be to one of the Sponsored or Special Sessions of Papers, which are organized by colleagues around the world, OR to the General Sessions of Papers, which are organized by the Program Committee in Kalamazoo. You may propose an unlimited number of roundtable contributions. However, you will not be scheduled as an active participant (as a paper presenter, roundtable discussant, presider, respondent, workshop leader, or performer) in more than three sessions.”.
Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com.
For more information on the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please visit our website at https://KingArthurForever.blogspot.com/.
For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please visit our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.
There’s been an uptick in work being cited lately and I am here for it!
Firstly, my essay “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” from Uncovering Stranger Things has been cited in the essay “‘Dad, every serial killer is somebody’s neighbor!’ The Problem of White Supremacy in Summer of ’84” by Erika Tiburcio Moreno and published in the edited collection The ’80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now.
The book was published by McFarland in March earlier this year. More info can be found on the book’s product page at the McFarland website.
Next, Hannah Mueller’s essay “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus” from The New Peplum has been cited by James K. Beggan in his essay “Why is he there? Male presence in a sexually explicit magazine geared towards heterosexual men” that was published in the Porn Studies journal.
Cover art for The New Peplum
If you have access the essay can be read at the journal’s page at Taylor and Francis.
New Episode of HP Lovecast
A new episode of our monthly Transmission program is now online.
For July we interviewed Chelsea Pumpkins, editor of the horror anthology AHH! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of ’90s Horror. The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout page, the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
The schedule for CoKoCon 2023 is starting to take shape! You can find Michele and I on the following panels:
Saturday Sept 2 9pm – Fiesta Ballroom 2: From EC Comics to Shudder: Horror Comics That Excite and Scare Us
Sunday Sept 3 6pm – Coronado: Creepy, Crawly, Otherworldly Bumps in the Night, or Cosmic Horror Films
Monday Sept 4 1pm – Coronado: 1pm: Weird West in Popular Culture
I’ll be on premises the entire con, so feel free to hunt me down to say hi! Michele and I will also have a table we were sill be selling and signing books.
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.”
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.”
Kino Lorber just had a summer sale on their Blu-rays so I took the opportunity to pluck up some Italian films for the library.
The Last Hunter I already had on DVD, from Dark Sky Films. In fact, here is my copy autographed by Antonio Margheriti’s son, Edoardo Margheriti:
I did a presentation on The Last Hunter at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference waaaaaaay back in 2010. Not my best presentation and still very green at being an academic, but the text of it can be read at my Academia.edu account.
Ironmaster I have not seen. It sounds like an Italian sword and sorcery flick, but in a prehistoric age. I am a fan of Umberto Lenzi’s work so this should be a fun watch.
Lastly is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, which I also have not seen. I’ve seen the iconic image of Sophia Loren slipping off her stockings that I feel like I’ve seen the film. I always think of Mastroianni from Divorce, Italian Style.
Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew Commentary
Matt Page, author of 100 Bible Films, has recorded a commentary for Paolini’s 1964 Biblical peplum, The Gospel According to St. Matthew. The commentary and be streamed from YouTube. Criterion Collection recently released a Pasolini boxset that contains this film.
Call for Papers
Michael Torregrossa has a few CFPs out there. I’m sharing them here to help get the word out. Check them out and consider submitting!
Beowulfs Beyond Beowulf: Transformations of Beowulf in Popular Culture (Panel)
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Fahey, Carl Sell, and Benjamin Hoover
Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2023
55th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association
Sheraton Boston Hotel (Boston, MA)
On-site event: 7-10 March 2024
The Old English epic Beowulf remains an important touchstone for connecting us to the medieval past, yet it also has continued relevance today through its various transformations in cultural texts (especially works of popular culture). Our hope with this session is to expand our knowledge of these works and assess their potential for research and teaching.
Please visit our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (available at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for resources and ideas.
Over a millennium old, the story of Beowulf is disseminated primarily through its editions and translations and its transformations. These three types of Beowulfiana represent a massive corpus of over 1000 works according to the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database; though, as medievalists, we tend to focus on the first two categories rather than the last concentrating on scholastic pursuits rather than entertainments. Consequently, many are often surprised by the variety and vitality of this corpus and its vast potential for research and teaching.
New versions of the Beowulf story feature in all forms of modern mediævalisms, yet (as is true with most medieval texts) research continues to focus primarily on depictions of Beowulf on screen (about 100 examples according to the Internet Movie Database). We hope in this session to expand our view of Beowulf’s reception by creators and look more deeply at the text’s wider use.
We are particularly interested in explorations of the adaptation and/or appropriation of the text, its characters, and its themes in works of fiction (at least 250 examples according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and much more recorded by the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database) and comics (at least 380 examples according to the Grand Comics Database), as well as their representations in new and neglected works on screen (including film, television, entertainment consoles, and the Internet). Additional versions of Beowulf can be found in works of creative, performative, and visual arts that also need more attention.
We hope to make our conversation productive. Therefore, we request that submissions highlight the ways the new text transforms the old (for example as interpretations or appropriations of the poem or as an intertext for another work) as well as its value in furthering the Beowulf tradition rather than focusing solely on any perceived defects.
Please see our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for a growing list of ideas, resources, and support.
All proposals will also be considered for a themed issue of the open-access journal The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe.
All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20596 by 30 September 2023. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.
Notification on the fate of your submission will be made prior to 16 October 2023. If favorable, please confirm your participation with chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2023.
Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/policies.html, for further details,)
For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.
The weird fiction/poetry literary magazine Dark Dead Things is publishing their second issue. I’m incredibly honored to be included in this issue with my essay on a Rene Girard reading of Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu.”
The issue can be ordered from the Dark Dead Thingswebshop as a bundle with a rad T-shirt of Meowlister Crowley. Issue 1 is still available, so check that out too and supporting this indie endeavor.
Sincere gratitude to Mike Salinas for including me in this issue.
Stranger Things Essay Citation
My essay, “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” that was published in Kevin Wetmore’s book, Uncovering Stranger Things, has been cited in Jutta Steiner’s book Nostalgie Im Upside Down: Das progressive Potenzial von Nostalgie in Der Retro-Serie Stranger Things.
My Stranger Things/synthwave essay continues to be my most cited piece of writing. Very flattered!
Bibliography Updates
I’m increasing seeing other texts aside from The New Peplum becoming cited and reviewed. Because of that I am creating subpages for some of these works with more detail. If you click the dropdown on the Bibliography menu you’ll start seeing them. These updates are a work in process, but I look forward to sharing more detail about these pieces I’ve composed or edited over the years.
Atlantis, the Lost Continent
A new episode of Scholars from the Edge of time is now online! In this episode Michele and I discuss the 1961 American sword and sandal film, Atlantis, the Lost Continent. Check it out on YouTube.
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.”
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.”
Published in early August, the second issue of Dark Dead Things contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
An organized panel to be proposed for the 120th annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West & South, April 3rd – 6th, 2024 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA at the invitation of Washington University, St. Louis.
After a successful 1st edition of the panel in 2022 at Winston Salem, we are seeking abstracts for another panel on the reception of antiquity in modern music. 15-minute papers on the topic may discuss any genre of modern & popular music, including folk & country, rock & metal, hip-hop & pop, and theater & soundtracks, and may focus on lyrics, album artwork, music videos, live performances, or the music itself. We are particularly interested in questions of how musicians integrate ancient culture, myth, and art into a modern medium, and how they read antiquity in response to the personal, the aesthetic, & the political.
Send 300-word abstracts and questions to Jeremy Swist (swistjj@miamioh.edu) by 15th August 2023. Potential panelists must commit to present in person if accepted.
Recent Peplum Acquisitions
I’ve plucked up two peplum films recently to add to the library.
First is Land of the Pharaohs which just got the Blu-ray treatment this past June. Michele and I recently talked about this movie on Scholars from the Edge of Time (YouTube video link here) and I really dug it! When I saw Warner Archive was going to do a new version of it I had to pre-order it.
Next is an old release of a movie called G2: Mortal Conquest. Apparently this movie is a re-worked version of the 1995 movie Gladiator Cop. A name like Gladiator Cop, I gotta watch it! However it’s OOP and kinda pricy, so I’ll pluck up a copy later. In the meantime, this alternate version in the form of G2 will have to do. I remember Daniel Bernhardt from Future War which was on MST3K, which was baaaaad. So, I am hoping this movie will be just as campy fun.
Secret Agent Barbie GBA Game
Last weekend was Barbenheimer – when two blockbuster films, Barbie and Oppenheimer, got released the same weekend. It looked like a pretty fun pop culture event, two movies at the polar opposites of tone and subject matter, but linked none-the-less.
I didn’t get a chance to partake, but I’ll definitely watch both movies when they are released on Blu-ray. In the meantime, just for fun, I’ll share the odd Barbie artifact in my collection: a complete, in box (CIB) copy of Secret Agent Barbie: Royal Jewels Mission.
I bought this game long ago, I believe at the SoCal Retro Gaming Expo in Ontario, CA. I don’t have many CIB retro games in my collection (then and now), and I recall this game being extremely cheap. It was also a time, I believe, I was knee deep in spy-fi studies when Michele was working on her James Bond book. So because of all of that, I plucked up this game when I happened upon it. I recall playing it for a bit on my Retron-5 and enjoying it. Perhaps I’ll have to give it a proper play through.
Anyways, a rare opportunity to see a CIB Barbie game: box, cartridge, poster, manual, and Nintendo booklet. Not pictured is my plastic case I keep the game in to keep it in the best condition I can (the outer box is a bit bent in though).
The New Peplum, specifically Kevin Wetmore’s essay, was referenced in Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen: Myth versus Reality that was published this past May by Rowman and Littlefield.
Michele and I will be participants at CoKoCon 2023 this upcoming Labour Day. Michele will be vending a table with her journals and our books. Panels we are on will TBD. More info to come but keep an eye on the CoKoCon 2023 website for the most current news.
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
Published in May, this issue of Weird Tales contains my essay “When the Stars are Right.”
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.”
Joan Jocson-Singh, who I had the honor of interviewing about her book, Heavy Music Mothers: Extreme Identities, Narrative Disruptions (read here), has just revamped and updated her website, On the Shelves. Check it out!
CFP: Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity II
There’s a brand new call for abstracts for the second Heavy Metal and Premodernity conference. Details are as follows:
Last year, the first manifestation of Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity forged an international fellowship of scholars working in a rich array of disciplines, along with musicians, artists, and journalists, in order to critically explore how metal music and its scenes throughout the world have engaged with the history, mythology, literature, and art of premodern and precolonial cultures. Through panel presentations, roundtable discussions, and unstructured and multilingual social hours, we shed light from a variety of perspectives upon metal’s entanglements in such areas as precolonial Mexico, the ancient Near East, classical Greece and Rome, and medieval Europe and Byzantium.
Next year, we hope to expand and enrich our fellowship. We invite contributions/proposals for engagement from all interested individuals working inside or outside the academy, including musicians and journalists involved in metal scenes anywhere in the world. We especially welcome those from backgrounds historically underrepresented in either academia or metal. You don’t need an advanced degree or know how to play guitar. If you have a topic of interest you would like to explore, we want to hear from you!
We welcome abstracts for panels and individual presentations, creative and traditional in form and varying in length, related to metal’s reception of the history and culture of any period, people, and place from premodern and precolonial worlds. We define global premodernity as human culture of any period roughly prior to 1600 CE, and we have chosen this delineation to be inclusive of texts, traditions, and narratives outside of the traditional study of classics or biblical studies, which often ignores the rich cultural history of the majority world and narratives outside standard eurocentric education.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, to following:
Premodern or neoclassical art, architecture, dress, symbols, and/or other material culture in album artwork, music videos, promotional photography, and live performances
The incorporation of premodern music and/or instruments into metal songs
The reception of historical, literary, and religious and philosophical texts and ideas in song lyrics
Issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, and the reception and inclusion of premodern and contemporary women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other historically marginalized groups
Political activism of musicians who engage with premodernity
Interviews and/or auto-ethnographies of fans, musicians, (photo)journalists, and/or scholars
Methodologies in the study of metal’s reception of premodernity
Pedagogical strategies for teaching premodern history and cultures with metal songs
Performance and creative demonstrations of music.
Please send abstracts and any questions to metalpremodernity@gmail.com. The submission deadline is 2 October 2023.
Abstracts should be roughly 300 words maximum, and include author name and affiliation (if appropriate).
We are concerned to make the conference as accessible as possible to disabled people and those for whom English is not their first language. Captions will be supplied, but if you have other access needs for presentation please mention these upon submission of your abstract and we will work with you to fulfill these.
Charlotte, Jeremy, & Shamma
Call for Submissions: Three Stooges Zine
Will Sloan is looking to start a zine about The Three Stooges and is looking for submissions. Here is the flyer:
And here is the text:
Call for Submissions: The Journal of Stoogeological Studies: an Unauthorized Three Stooges Fanzine.
Are you a knucklehead? Do you find yourself a “victim of circumstance”? Is your head so full of thoughts and opinions about the life and art of the Three Stooges that a hammer and buzzsaw can barely sent it?
We want YOU to contribute to the world’s greatest Three Stooges Fanzine!
What we want:
Reviews
Essays
Interviews
Biographical Studies
Personal Essays/Autobiography
Journalism/Reportage
Poetry
Fiction
Art/Comics
Suggested Topics:
Anything and everything to do with Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, “Curly Joe” DeRita, Ted Healy, and of course, Jerome “Curly” Howard
Stooge and Stooge-adjacent movies and TV shows, from the Columbia Shorts Department to Kook’s Tour and beyond
Stooge supporting players, directors, coworkers
Personal stories of your relationship with the Stooges’ work
The Robonic Stooges
Stooge comic books, records, failed TV pilots, merchandise, and other ephemera
Three Stooges Coffee (particularly the “Three Bean Blend,” although the “Angry Moe” blend has its good qualities)
Sociopolitical musings on the Stooges and race, class, gender, sexuality, and other academic lenses
Send submissions to editor/publisher Will Sloan at thewillsloan@gmail.com. Feel free to get in touch if you want to workshop a pitch. Submissions are due Sunday, August 13th at 9pm PST.
Good day everyone! No new content at my website these past two weeks (or, I guess, for the entire month of March for that matter?). And for good reason: deadline for not one, but two essays! First, an essay for a book about cats in cinema was due at the end of the month. Well, I hunkered in this month and got my essay (about the Nemean Lion in sword and sandal cinema, of course) completed and submitted this past weekend. Second, not a looming deadline, but I wanted it done ASAP, I took my Rene Girard/”The Call of Cthulhu” presentation I did at AnnRadCon in 2022, edited it to be in essay format and got that sent off to an editor for an upcoming magazine issue.
So, very cool to get those two gigs off my plate! Cross fingers for acceptances and smooth rewrites! But now, my plate is more cleared off so I can get to those to-dos that have been accumulating.
Fan2Fan Appearance
Both Michele and I have made recent appearances on the Fan2Fan Podcast who just hit 30,000 downloads. Congrats F2F!
First up, hosts Bernie, Pete and guests Josh, Scott, and Michele and I all got together to talk about the classic 90s monster film, The Relic. The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via the embedded player below
And just for fun, here is my autographed copy of C.H.U.D. signed by producer Andrew Bonime (RIP):
Sincere appreciation for Bernie and Pete for having us on. We always have a blast being on talking pop culture. Check out their archives and give them a follow on Twitter or Facebook.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black 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.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Helping proliferate a CFP for Black Metal bands contributing essays to a forthcoming collection on antifascist black metal.
The collection is slated to be published by Red N’ Noir in Greek with a self-published English edition to follow. Submissions or requests for more info can be sent to sbarbalexis@gmail.com.
CFP – Russell Crowe
My editor for A Hero Will Endure has a new CFP that is live: a call for papers on essays about Russell Crowe. More info on the CFP can be found at the UPENN Listing. Abstracts are due July 25th.
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black 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.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Final episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast for 2022 is online. It is our monthly Transmissions episode and in this one we interview author Jason Rekulak about his novel, Hidden Pictures.
The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
We will be resuming our 2+ episodes a month in 2023. Michele and I have been in the process of moving to our first home, so the last few months have been quite hectic preparing for that. However, we are all done (except for lots of unpacking yet to do). Happy to have everyone along for the ride with the podcast and appreciate everyone who has listened and shared.
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.
2022 Accomplishments
Much like I did for 2021, I’ll be doing a recap of 2022 accomplishments later this week. Stay tuned!
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Rest in Peplum Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato, legendary Italian genre director best known for his found footage horror film, Cannibal Holocaust, passed away at the age of 83 (Variety Article). I am a huge appreciator of Deodato’s films and his contribution to cinema. His peplum and sword and sorcery work include:
Ursus and the Valley of Lions (1961) (assistant director)
Devil of the Desert Against the Sun of Hercules (1964) (assistant director)
Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964)
The Barbarians (1987)
And many collaborations with Antonio Margheriti.
Michele and I recently discussed The Barbarians on Scholars from the Edge of Time, which can be listened/watched at this YouTube link.
One of my favorite Deodato movies is the underrated Cut and Run. Basically, a more palatable version of Cannibal Holocaust. One of my treasures is my copy of Cut and Run autographed by Michael Berryman and Richard Lynch (rest in peplum).
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 Emmanuelle, Black 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:
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”
The Call for Papers for the Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is now live!
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 Appearance
Fan2Fan Podcast is doing a series of John Carpenter-centric episodes. I had the honor, along with Joshua Pruett, to appear on an episode discussing Carpenter’s ode to King and Lovecraft, In the Mouth of Madness.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website or via your podcast app of preference.
Around the time this Fan2Fan episode was recorded, Michele and I did an H. P. Lovecast episode on Carpenter’s Princess of Darkness. That episode can be seen as a companion piece to the Fan2Fan episode, so check both out!
Sincere thanks to Fan2Fan for having me on!
Galactic Terrors Appearance
The New York chapter of the Horror Writers Association does a monthly vidcast called Galactic Terrors which features authors doing readings of their work followed by Q/A.
I was very honored to be asked to appear on the November episode of Galactic Terrors. This episode featured authors Kenneth Cain, Karen Heuler, and myself. It can be streamed at YouTube or the embedded player below. Check it out!
A few citations have popped up in Google scholar in the last couple of weeks.
First, a journal article called “XVII New Literatures” from This Year’s Work in English studies looks to have cited or referenced Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays. The description makes mentions of Australia, so I highly suspect what is specifically referenced is Naomi Simone Borwein’s essay “Synchronic Horror and the Dreaming: A Theory of Aboriginal Australian Horror and Monstrosity.” However, since I lack institutional access, I can’t confirm this (so if you can, I’d be appreciative!).
Next, Karl Otty’s article “GTA Vice City Created a New Wave of ’80s Nostalgia” at SuperJump looks to have been re-published. This article cites my essay “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” that was published in Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Born of Blood Issue 2 Kickstarter Loot
My swag from the Born of Blood 2 Kickstarter arrived.
