Tag: Cthulhu

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News

News Roundup: April 2026

Personal / Website News

I did not get much published at my website in April, but that does not mean a lot of news didn’t happen!

GosT/Perturbator Concert Archival Write Up

James Lollar, the mastermind behind the dark/synthwave band GosT passed away earlier this month. He was a pioneer of the retrowave genre.

GosT in a skeletal mask, behind a cloth covered table, playing electronic instruments.
GosT performing.

I was lucky to have seen GosT perform with Perturbator back in 2017. I did a concert write up that was published at Heathen Harvest, but that website is long since dead. Since it has been on my radar to bring some of my old articles back online and host them here, and I want to do what I can to help keep Lollar’s memory eternal, I’ve gone ahead and dug up my concert report and put it online. I’ve also included more photos than the original publication.

My republished write up can be read here. Enjoy!

Exotica Moderne #31

It has been a few years since my last piece being published in Exotica Moderne, but I am back!

Cover shows a blonde pinup girl, earring a tiki top and skit. She is holding a cocktail glass in her right hand. She is leaning against a palm tree. She is on the beach, with a wave crashing behind her and a mountain in the distance. The sky is blue-green with a few clouds. There is a parrot flying toward her. At her feet are some shells.
Exotica Moderne #31

Back in November 2025 I had the honour to interview Alex Lamb and Max Well, the filmmakers behind the documentary The Donn of Tiki. That interview will be published in the next issue of Exotica Moderne, which is issue #31. In fact, orders for that issue are already being taken at the House of Tabu website (product link).

I have other article ideas that have been on the back burner for Exotica Moderne, such as an essay on Secret of the Incas. It is probably a good time to realize them. Exotica Moderne has always been a great periodical and one of the best venues I have ever written for.

Vanya #10 Compendium

The neo-jungle girl comic series Vanya: The Lost Warrior (which I’ve covered extensively at my website here) had a successful Kickstarter this month to fund issue ten.

Banner says "Vanya: the lost warrior - cover D by Ignacio Noe. Launching April 14th on Kickstarter". The banner shows Vanya, holding a vine in her left hand, looking kind of angry, as a T-rex rampages in the jungle behind her. In the distance a volcano erupts.
Vanya 10 Kickstarter Banner

One of the items every backer will receive with their pledge is a digital compendium that includes supplemental material, such as character bios, universe lore, a short story, and even a recap of what transpired from issues one to nine to allow folks a quick way round catch up in the story.

I was humbled and honored to be asked by the Bad Bug Editor in Chief, and writer of Vanya, Mike Tener, to write this summary to be included in the compendium! So, keep an eye out here, or the various Bad Bug outlets (Facebook link here) for news on how the development of issue ten goes.

Panthans Journal #347

The April issue of the National Capital Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a reprint of my review of issue eight of Vanya: The Lost Warrior. The original can be read right here.

A black and white cover. It shows a four armed alien holding swords and a bow. Next to it is an alien gorilla.
National Capital Panthans Journal #347.

Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos, and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.

Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance

I had the honour to appear on two episodes of the Fan2Fan podcast that were published this month.

First, Michele and I are both guests on the episode where the topic is the 90s monster film, The Relic.

Thumbnail with a big monster on it that has teeth and looks rubbery. It says "F2F - New Fan2Fan Podcast! Monster Mania! The Relic"
Fan2Fan Podcast Thumbnail for The Relic episode.

It is a good movie, and a unique monster in that decade between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan website here or in the player below:

Monster Mania – The Relic – Fan2Fan Podcast

Next up there is an episode where I talk generally about the different Lovecraft monsters out there, from Cthulhu to Azathoth.

Banner says: F2F New Fan2Fan Podcast! Monster Mania! Lovecraft Monsters.
Fan2Fan – Lovecraft Monsters

That episode can be streamed here or in the player below.

Monster Mania: Lovecraft's Creatures – Fan2Fan Podcast

Sincere appreciation to Bernie and Pete of Fan2Fan for having Michele and I on as guests!

Scholars from the Edge of Time

For Scholars from the Edge of Time for April Michele and I went old school via new school and watched the new Deathstalker film. To sum it up: it ruled.

Graphic novel is hardback and has a wraparound of the original movie poster. The Blu-ray shows all the characters collage together with mountains behind them.
Deathstalker the graphic novel and the Deathstalker remake on Blu-ray.

Listen to our musings about this reinterpretation of a classic 80s S&S series on YouTube.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2026.

Cover shows a blonde pinup girl, earring a tiki top and skit. She is holding a cocktail glass in her right hand. She is leaning against a palm tree. She is on the beach, with a wave crashing behind her and a mountain in the distance. The sky is blue-green with a few clouds. There is a parrot flying toward her. At her feet are some shells.
Exotica Moderne #31

“Tellers of Tales: Interview with Alex Lamb and Max Well on The Donn of Tiki” in Exotica Moderne #31, May 2026.

Product page at House of Tabu.

Cover is by Mark Wheatley and called "The Beasts". It is red hued. It shows Tarzan riding atop of an elephant. Below the elephant are two gorillas and a lion. Behind them is a tree and a setting sun.
National Capital Panthans Journal #344.

“All E.T.’s Aren’t Nice: Vanya 06” reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #344, January 2026.

Original can be read here.

Cover by David Michael Beck. It's a drawing of Tarzan atop an elephant, with 2 axes in front.
National Capital Panthans Journal #345.

“The Prehistoric Purge: Vanya 07″ reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #345, February 2026.

Original can be read here.

Cover is called "The Land that Time Forgot" by Mark Whetley. It shows a man, crouched on one knee, holding a rifle, with safari attire, but shirt open. Next to him he has a barking dog that kinda look like Benji. Behind there is a roaring T-rex, a triceratops, and pterodactyls flying.
National Capital Panthans Journal #346.

“Journey to Agharti” reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #346, March 2026.

A black and white cover. It shows a four armed alien holding swords and a bow. Next to it is an alien gorilla.
National Capital Panthans Journal #347.

“Warpath and Rampage: Vanya 08” reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #347, April 2026.

Original can be read here.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path or I am sharing on behalf of my colleagues. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Dragon Age: Worlds of Power and Play

Edited by Adam Crowley (Husson University) and Daniel Reardon (Missouri University of Science and Technology) 

The Dragon Age franchise (BioWare, 2009–present) stands as one of the most narratively and philosophically ambitious bodies of work in contemporary role-playing games. Across its major titles, the series constructs a world shaped by conflict, belief, and consequence—where institutions govern bodies, identities are contested, and player choice operates within systems that both enable and constrain action. 

This edited collection invites scholars to examine Dragon Age as a site of meaning-making across narrative, mechanical, cultural, and philosophical dimensions. We seek contributions that engage the series not simply as a set of texts, but as a structured system in which power, identity, agency, and belief are produced, negotiated, and experienced. 

This collection takes a comprehensive view of the franchise, including Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. At the same time, Dragon Age operates as a transmedia world rather than a closed set of game texts. We therefore welcome contributions that engage the broader narrative and paratextual ecosystem of the series, including novels, comics, strategy guides, codices, and reference works such as The World of Thedas volumes, as well as screen-based media such as Dragon Age: Redemption and animated adaptations. Essays may focus on a single game, trace developments across multiple titles, or examine how meaning emerges through the interaction of game systems and transmedia storytelling. We are particularly interested in work that attends to the relationship between narrative, system design, and player experience across these materials. 

Areas of Interest 

1. Power, Authority, and Institutions 

Essays in this category may examine the structures that organize and regulate life in Thedas, including the Chantry, the Circles of Magi, the Templar Order, and the Inquisition. Approaches may include political theory, rhetorical analysis of governance, institutional critique, and studies of legitimacy, surveillance, and control.

2. Identity, Embodiment, and Otherness

This section invites work on race, gender, sexuality, and the body within Dragon Age. Topics may include the construction of elven, Qunari, dwarven, and human identities; representations of difference and marginalization; romance and intimacy systems; and the relationship between player identity and character embodiment. 

3. Systems, Choice, and Player Agency 

Contributions may explore how Dragon Age structures player action through dialogue systems, branching narratives, and moral decision-making frameworks. We welcome analyses of agency, constraint, consequence, and the role of the player as a co-creator within designed systems. 

4. Lore, Worldbuilding, and Transmedia Storytelling 

This category focuses on the narrative architecture of Dragon Age across games, codices, novels, comics, and other media. Topics may include paratexts, environmental storytelling, worldbuilding practices, and the role of distributed narrative in shaping player understanding. 

5. Ethics, Belief, and Moral Philosophy 

Essays may address the ethical and philosophical questions at the heart of Dragon Age, including justice, faith, sacrifice, and moral responsibility. We invite work that engages the series’ treatment of belief systems, divine authority, and the player’s role in navigating complex moral landscapes. 

Please submit proposals by June 1, 2026. Drafted chapters will be due September 15, 2026. 

Submission Guidelines

  • Abstracts: Maximum 750 words 
  • Include: Title, abstract, and brief bio (100–150 words) 
  • Format: Word document (.docx) 
  • Email submissions to: reardond@mst.edu 

New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions

The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal acquisitions.

Goliath and the Barbarians and Goliath and the Vampires

Michele and I went down to Tucson in mid-April to catch the Ray Harryhausen exhibit (that write up is forthcoming!) but also explore a little bit of the city. We wound up going to Booksmans on Speedway and one of the treasure I found in the cult movie section was this Goliath double feature.

Clear DVD Case. Top says "A Goliath Spectacular Double-Feature Program!" The bottom says "Another great double bill from Wild East". Center of the DVD sleeve shows two posters, one for each film. Goliath and the Barbarians shows Steve Reeves in shackles, with a fleet of horse back riders under him, and a woman in a red skirt holding a torch. Goliath and the vampires shows two strong men wrestling in a case. Two women look on, a man in a crown in the back holds a thunderbolt. A silhouette is at the cave entrance.
Personal copy of the Wild East 2 movie set of Goliath and the Barbarians and Goliath and the Vampires.

Looks like the company who put this out, Wild East, closed their doors earlier this decade. They seemed to have specialized in spaghetti westerns, with this Goliath and the Barbarians / Goliath and the Vampires DVD being their sole sword and sandal output. This looks like a lot of fun!

Rest in Peplum: Gerry Conway

At the end of April comic book legend Gerry Conway passed away. Conway appeared at many of the comic book conventions in the LA area and I had the honour to meet him a few times. Here is a picture of the first time I met him back in 2014:

Nick Diak and Gerry Conway at Gerry's Booth. We both have on glasses. He has short, red hair. We both have black shirts on, and an open over shirt over those.
Meeting Gerry Conway at a 2014 Long Beach Comic Expo.

Conway is probably best known for co-creating the Punisher, but I revered him for his contributions to the sword and sorcery genre. He wrote Conan the Destroyer (1984) and the Ralph Bakshi animated Fire and Ice (1983).

Standard blu-ray case. The sleeve is the poster art for the film. At the top is says Fire (in red) and Ice (in blue). There is an axe wielding barbarian standing on a cliff edge. In front of him is an amazing lady with a purple bikini top and black hair. There is a blonde warrior holding a dagger. Lunding at them looks to be a goblin or orc.
Personal copy of Fire and Ice Blu-ray autographed by Conway, Gordon, and Tataranowicz.

One of my prized sword and sorcery possessions is my Blu-ray of Fire and Ice signed by Conway, and artists/animators Steven E. Gordon and Tom Tataranowicz.

A true, sincere rest in peplum to Conway.

News from Friends

Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.

New Ride the Stream Episodes

New episodes of Michele Brittany and Travis Lakata’s vidcast, Ride the Stream, are online. The duo continue their deep dive into the sci-fi series Falling Skies.

Here is their discussion on season one episode seven:

Episode eight:

Episode nine:

And episode ten:

After this Ride the Stream pivots to talk about Dark Winds. Here is their analysis of season one episode one:

Make sure to subscribe the Ride the Stream YouTube channel to see when new episodes drop. There is also a BlueSky social media as well.

New Fan2Fan Episodes

Brand new episodes of the Fan2Fan podcast are now online. Pete and Bernie continue their discussions on different monster movies. Aside from the two monster movies episodes mentioned above, here are the others that dropped in April.

First they have an episode on Pumpkinhead:

Monster Mania: Pumpkinhead – Fan2Fan Podcast

And then one on Godzilla:

Monster Mania: Godzilla – Fan2Fan Podcast

Followed by another Godzilla episode:

Monster Mania: Godzilla Versus – Fan2Fan Podcast

And finally, an episode titled “When Monsters Lose Their Mojo“:

Monster Mania: When Monsters Lose Their Mojo – Fan2Fan Podcast

Older episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference. There is also the Fan2FanFacebook page.

The Many Worlds Interpretation of Azure Cove by Ian Welke

Author Ian Welke has a new book that just came out! It is called The Many Worlds Interpretation of Azure Cove and it is a loose sequel to The Azure Cove Assignment which came out last year. The cover art is done by Kelly Lyon-King.

Cover is a square within a circle. The circle has obelisks jutting out of it and from those there are tree branches. Inside the square are leaves and 4 eyes. It looks like a burst of water is happening behind the odd sigil type thing.
The Many Worlds Interpretation of Azure Cove by Ian Welke (photo provided by Welke)

The Many Worlds Interpretation of Azure Cove can be found on Amazon.

Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn by Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. announced that pre-orders are now open for the brand new ERB Universe novella, Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn. This book is penned by the prolific Jeffrey J. Mariotte, the guest of honour at last year’s Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship.

Cover shows a woman in Native American attire, holding a rifle, standing on a cliff made of debris, next to a lion.
Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn cover by Daren Bader.

The product page for all the different editions of this novella can be found here at the ERB website.

Categories
Comics

Release the Subterranean Kraken: Cavewoman: Extinction

Cover shows Meriem being grabbed/surrounded by tentacles. She has her knife out ready to slash one.
Personal copy of Cavewoman: “Extinction”.

Plot

In Marshville, a town that has been teleported to the prehistoric past, life goes on as normal as possible, despite being surrounded by the jungle primeval and dangerous dinosaurs. Children Lumpy, Will, Miguel, and Susie are about to play a game of baseball but need an umpire. Lumpy asks Meriem Cooper, the superhuman Cavewoman who acts as a guardian over Marshville, if she would be their umpire. Meriem, with plans already made to relax in the magma-heated pools outside the town and recompose herself, asks for a raincheck.

Meriem swings on a vine.
Meriem off to relax at the hot pools by swinging on a vine.

At the bottom of the ninth, Will hits a ball that gets caught by a pterodactyl and then dropped in the jungle. The children set off to retrieve one of the many lost balls and happen upon a dark cavern. Inside they discover a nest of eggs. Will handles an egg but winds up breaking it, awakening a slumbering monster in the process. The children attempt to flee the cave as they are pursued by dozens of tentacles from the shadows. Susie becomes trapped in a crevice while the other three kids escape to seek help from Meriem.

Meriem is on the ground, pushing herself back up with her front two arms. Behind her is the cave monster. Think of a crab without legs or claws, but instead dozens and dozens of tentacles coming from it.
Meriem fights the cave monster.

Meriem braves the cave by herself to rescue Susie and pit herself against the tentacle monster who has been angered by its eggs being disturbed, encountering a powerful foe of the likes she has never encountered before. Meriem takes a battering from the monster’s tentacles, but Susie distracts it with an egg, the last one since the others in the nest appear to have broken. Deducing the monster is the last of its kind, and the egg its sole lineage, Meriem and Susie give the egg to the monster, who retreats into the darkness, allowing the duo to escape. Back at the surface, Meriem promises Susie ice cream after demonstrating her braveness and teases the three boys to stay out of trouble.

Commentary

“Extinction” is a one-shot, self-contained comic in the Cavewoman series, published in 2010 with the story and art done by Rob Durham. Though Budd Root’s Cavewoman series is known for its cover nudity and cheesecake portrayal of Meriem, “Extinction” is rather chaste and instead feels like an 80s/early 90s Saturday morning cartoon that revolves around children getting into trouble and then getting saved. The first few pages feel like the movie The Sandlot (1993), where a group of kids playing baseball lose their balls over the fence into a backyard guarded by “The Beast” (a big English Mastiff). In “Extinction” the children playing baseball lose their balls in the jungle, and the beast they encounter is a Cthulhu-esque monster with dozens of tentacles that protrude from a central, crab-carapace-like, body. The children are put into peril, but it is no more violent than, say, what kids encounter in cartoons like Denver the Last Dinosaur or Dinosaucers. “Extinction” is also full of kid friendly messages akin to the endings of episodes of G.I. Joe or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: don’t play in unsafe areas (dark caverns), don’t be a bully (calling one a chicken to force them to go into said cave), seek the help of adults (Meriem), leave wild animals and their offspring (eggs) alone, the importance of bravery, and so on. All of the above demonstrates that Cavewoman, or at least this specific issue, can be surprisingly kid friendly and positive.

That is to say not all of “Extinction” is without some form of titillation. Aside from her standard issue attire of a leopard print bikini that showcases her body, there is a sequence of Meriem bathing in a hot pool. All of her nudity obfuscated by lapping water or wafts of steam, yet her voluptuousness is still on full display. Late in the issue when she is fighting the underground monster, there are numerous panels of Meriem surrounded and grabbed by tentacles, veering in the direction of Toshio Maeda territory.

Naughty tentacle innuendo aside, the underground monster in “Extinction” is quite cool. The monster does not fit into the cosmic horror bucket per se, so it is not Lovecraftian in the traditional sense, but all of its tentacles give it that Cthulhu, perhaps Gla’aki (from the Ramsey Campbell story “The Inhabitant of the Lake”) vibe. The beast is extremely formidable, and its one on one battle with Meriem at the issue’s climax is a great sequence. There is a series of panels that shows the monster grabbing Meriem and slamming her from side to side, like Bamm-Bamm from The Flinstones. It is a captivating battle.

Four panels, each one shows Meriem being slammed side by side by a tentacle.
The cave monster thwaps Meriem around.

Finally, aside from the aforementioned morality messages geared toward children, there’s other themes present in “Extinction”, especially around Meriem’s character. Selfcare is important, and Meriem realizes this has she has to say “no” to the children (and sometimes, one has to feel comfortable saying “no”), to go and relax in the superheated pools. But it is a short respite and Meriem is cursed with what other superheroes have to deal with: they always must be on “on mode” and be able to save the day at a moment’s notice. Rest is extremely important to avoid burnout, but it is easily taken away.

Meriem holds Susie in her arms close to her chest.
Meriem rescues Susie.

Just like Ripley and the alien queen in Aliens (1986), there are some matronly themes between Meriem and the underground tentacle monster. Meriem takes a motherly role to the four children, especially Susie when she rescues her from the dark and gives her comfort. Conversely, the monster is trying to protect its last egg, the last of its kind (of note – how did the rest of the eggs break between the children finding them and then giving one back to the monster?). Meriem and the monster have a lot more in common with each other, both being incredibly strong and protective of their children. 

Conclusion

“Extinction” is a terrific one-off, self-contained story in the Cavewoman series. It is a quick adventure, with fairly low stakes and that by the issue’s end, the narrative returns back to the status quo, with the hope that the children will stop peer pressuring each other and taking off on dangerous excursions. The issue standalone enough in that it is not too reliant on other issues to establish the universe. A general feeling of what Cavewoman is about is sufficient for reading the issue which can act as an entry point into the series proper. Meriem herself is selfless and brave, and Durham’s art renders her in a detailed and sexy style that brings these attributes to the forefront of the character.

For more information on Cavewoman “Extinction” and my other Cavewoman reviews, check these links:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-01-14

Personal / Website News

2023 Accomplishments

Michele and I recapped a majority of our accomplishments and projects on the last episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast, however I’d like to do a personal breakdown here.

Publication Accomplishments

Honoured to appear in five physical publications this year:

Sincere appreciation to Rachel Carazo, Jonathan Maberry, Evan Jordan, Michael Duda, and William Sloan for letting me be part of their projects.

Podcast Accomplishments

Links to all podcast appearances can be found on the Podcast Index page. Sincere thanks to Bernie Gonzalez, Peter Charbonneau, Hercules Invictus, and Sherri Nunn for having me be a part of their programs.

Conference Accomplishments

Michele and I attended CoKoCon 2023 and ere on two panels. It was also our first time ever vending at a con. Thank you to Hal and Dee Astell for having us.

2024 Looking Forward

I am hoping that 2024 will be as successful as 2023 was. This year will see a decade of me writing (since the publication of my first essay in James Bond in Popular Culture).

On the podcast front, Michele and I already have the first half of 2024 planned for H. P. Lovecast. We’ve also already recorded a few episodes with the folks at Fan2Fan Podcast, so expect those episodes to drop throughout 2024.

My essay on peplum cats, currently titled “Hic Sunt Leones: Peplum Strongmen and the Nemean Lion Legacy” was accepted last year by editor Simon Bacon for his collection, Cats: A Companion. The manuscript was sent to the publisher in early December, so hopefully this book winds up being published later this year! Nice to have a publication already on the docket.

I still have a pile of reviews I want to get done that have been piling up. I also have a list of essay ideas I have approval on, I just need to write and get out the door. It’s been a while since I’ve submitted to Exotica Moderne, so hopefully I can get an essay or two to them this year.

The main project for 2024, however, is the Emmanuelle Legacy book. On my timeline I have submit a manuscript to the publisher in October, which will be here before I know it. I have an intro and an essay to write, along with editing other folks’ essays. I’m super excited to try and realize this project, so it’s going to be nose to the grindstone for this one.

Thank you to all the folks who support me and my endeavors. You are sincerely appreciated!

Horror Literature.. Review

The collection, Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, that Michele and I edited has just gotten a new review from the Journal of Ecohumanism, and it is a very positive one!

The review (along with the rest of the journal) can be read in its entirety here.

New Episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast

New episode to kick off 2024! We kick off the new year interviewing Pat Shand about his three issue comic book miniseries I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter.

The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout site, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 28 – Pat Shand and I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund my Kickstarter – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

H. P. Lovecast on BlueSky

H. P. Lovecast is now on Blue Sky. If you’re using that social media please consider giving us a follow there! The username is: @hplovecast.bsky.social .

Emmanuelle Legacy CFP Re-opened + Bibliography

Since garnering publisher interest, I’ve re-opened the CFP for the Emmanuelle legacy book. The updated CFP can be found here.

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.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

The Neverending Streamer Substack

My friend, Travis Lakata, has started a Substack called The Neverending Streamer. Give him support and subscribe – check it out here: https://travislakata.substack.com.

Rest in Peplum Jennell Jaquays

Fantasy artist Jennell Jaquays passed away last week. She did lots of fantastic work. Her covert art for the Dragon Mountain boxset is probably one of the most iconic pieces of 90s 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

My copy of the box proper hasn’t survived the 30+ years, but the contents have! Here is book 1 of the module which sports the legendary red dragon.

Legends of the Lance Newsletter

While digging through my old Second Edition stuff I happened upon these five issues of the Legends of the Lance Dragonlance newsletter. Apparently these are extremely rare! I love how they look though and the art on them is aces.

Endless Armies Jeff Grubb Autograph

For this roundup of autographs, since I was going through my D&D stuff, figured I would show of my copy of Endless Enemies autographed by Jeff Grubb.

Way back in the 2000s my comic book store was Spy Comics in Federal Way. Apparently that was also Jeff Grubb’s comic book store to go to as well. The owner, Richard, arranged an in store event with Jeff Grubb who was on hand to autograph stuff he wrote. I got a few things signed by him, Endless Armies being one of them. Somewhere there is a photo of the event, I hope I can find it!

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-08-27

Personal / Website News

Dark Dead Things #2

Issue two of Dark Dead Things is officially out!

This issue contains my essay, “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.” It can be purchased at the Dark Dead Things website or at Amazon.

BlueSky

I have an account at BlueSky now. I can be found at: @nicholasdiak.bsky.social. I’ll try posting there concurrently with Facebook and Twitter. And maybe Post and Tribel, but I don’t see many folks on those last two.

IMDB Profile

I have a profile at IMDB now!

Granted, there is not much there, but I think it’s pretty cool I’ve got to be in a few things. Here is a frame capture from Best.Work.Weekend.Ever. that you can kinda see me in:

I am in front of the T-shirt, way in the back. Michele and I also play dead bodies in There’s No Such Thing as Vampires – you can’t miss us in that.

Anyways, if you want to help me grow my acting CV, I am totally available to appear in documentaries, supplemental features on blu-rays, you name it!

CoKoCon Schedule

The schedule for CoKoCon 2023 is online. 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.

Scholars from the Edge of Time

New episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is now online.

In this episode, Michele and I discuss the 1999 Highlander/Mortal Kombat hybrid film, G2: Mortal Conquest. 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.”

Vernon Press Product Page

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.

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’.”

Order via Dark Dead Thingswebsite.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Autograph Roundup

These past few months I’ve gotten into the habit of sharing some of my autographed items (mostly DVDs right now) on social media. Figure I can share them here too because I think I have some rad stuff.

First up is my copy of Contamination signed by director Luigi Cozzi. I remember first getting into Italo-horror and exploitation films being exchanged with the poster art. It looks so ominous. When I finally watched the movie, it turned out to be amazing. The beginning is just like Zombi but then you got all the exploding alien eggs. The final 1/3 of the film is like a spy-fi movie. Simple film that aims big and succeeds. I snail mailed my DVD sleeve to Cozzi way back in the aughts and he was gracious to sign it for me.

Next up is Nightbeast signed by director Don Dohler’s son, Greg Dohler, who acted in his dad’s films. Dohler was the king of 80s creature features. Another sleeve I snail mailed to Dohler asking for an autograph (always include as SASE folks!).

Abominable is a damn fine cryptid film full of cameo actors, both old guard and (then) new school. My copy was signed by Lloyd Braun himself, Matt McCoy, at a Hollywood Collector’s Show in Burbank in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

I remember being super hyped for the first Transformers movie when it was released and enjoying it. I saw the second one and was really disappointed, and have not seen any since. I might give Transformers: The Last Knight a watch because of the Arthurian/peplum elements.

This special edition of Transformers came out in the 2000s, back when super crazy special editions were all the rage. The DVD comes housed in am Optimus Prime that folds out. It’s pretty cool!

I had my copy signed by Mark Ryan who voiced Bumble Bee. He was a guest at a tiny comic book convention in Seattle back in the 2000s. Over time the silver ink from the booklet got a little stuck to the plastic box. Doh!

In the latter half of the 2000s Michele and I became Oliver Gruner super fans and were buying as many films as he was in as possible. Once of those films was Velocity Trap and boy is it a fun film. Basically a Die Hard in space. I have my DVD signed by a lot of folks: Gruner himself (his signature is in ballpoint pin and hard to see, but it’s under Bruce’s name), Bruce Weitz, James C. Burns, and Jaason Simmons.

There was a small, tiny window in the mid-2000s, after MST3K concluded, but before Film Crew, Rifftrax, and Cinematic Titanic, that Mike Nelson was doing solo commentaries for Legend Films. So, if you wanted MST3K-like content, this was the way to go. One of those releases of a colorized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space that came pre-signed by Nelson and also with an air freshener (because the movie stinks?). Great version of the cult film.

Apparently the North American region, Blu-ray release of Dawn of the Dead is super rare and OOP. Licensing issues I believe? I don’t have a Blu-ray of that classic film, but I do have this huge digipack edition Anchor Bay put out. There’s a few different versions of Dawn of the Dead in this edition. I had Ken Foree sign ming.

Can’t have Dawn of the Dead without following it up with Day of the Dead. Another digipack edition put out by Anchor Bay, mine is signed by Howard Sherman (Bub!) and Terry Alexander. I believe I met them both at a Crypticon in SeaTac back in the late 2000s.

And that is a recap of the last week or so of autographed stuff I shared across my social medias. If you want to see more of them, give me a follow!

Categories
Interview Lovecraft

Piercing the Veil of Reality: Cosmic Horror Stories in Weird Tales #367

The early days of Weird Tales are renown as the premiere venue of authors of cosmic horror. Writers and poets such as H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, E. Hoffman Price, Robert Bloch, and others have had some of their most influential work initially published in the magazine.

A century later, even after a few turbulent decades, Weird Tales is still regarded with prestige and as a premiere publisher of pulp stories, including the cosmic horror genre it pioneered. Issue 367, slated to be published in May 2023, is themed on cosmic horror, rounding up numerous authors and poets of the genre, both new and established. A few of these authors have graciously allowed me to conduct some short-form interviews with them about their works that will appear in the new issue. 

Angela Yuriko Smith

Story Title

“Lost Generations”

Story Synopsis

From Earth, a spaceship full of human seeds that have been programmed to procreate like mad when they are safely awakened at the end of their journey, thus ensuring offspring, and a future for humanity. Unfortunately, a black hole winds up being their unplanned destination.

Primary goal you wanted to accomplish with your story?

I enjoy the challenge of pairing contradictory ideas into a cohesive story. This was the result of pairing the joy of lovemaking and procreation with the opposite of that: death.

What cosmic horror authors/artists, both old school and contemporary, have had an influence on you and how?

Growing up I devoured all the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies I could find. I went through a period where I explored Lovecraft, but Edgar Allen Poe will remain my literary love until my own end, black hole or otherwise. I recently enjoyed Matt Huff’s Lovecraft Country and The Croning by Laird Barron.

Compared to other horror subgenres out there, what do you think are the appealing aspects and enduring qualities of cosmic horror?

For me, the appeal is the genre’s emphasis on our insignificance on this planet, in time and the universe in general. I think we make far too much of ourselves, in general, and that bloated sense of self-importance has been the catalyst for a lot of real horror in the world. The idea that a vast, overwhelming and omnipotent something might come and put us in our place is refreshing. In reality, I’m sure I’d be screaming with the rest of the fleeing mob, but I like to think I could appreciate a good, colossal doom for what it was before my own lights went out.

Your favourite Cthulhu Mythos deity or monster?

In the Cthulhu mythos, it would have to be Shub-Niggurath. Of monsters (cryptids) in general, I’m partial to Chupacabra. I’m positive if I ever cross paths with one, it will be instant mutual love at a glance.

Angela Yuriko Smith can be found at:

Samantha Underhill

Poem Title

“The Forest Gate”

Poem Synopsis

Using cosmic horror and existential dread poetic styles, this poem explores how people accept the rose-colored version of what they want to see as it presents itself on the surface in a new relationship only to learn that what they allowed themselves to fall so easily for might take them to dark, dangerous, and inescapable places.

Primary goal you wanted to accomplish with your poem?

I hoped to evoke elements of cosmic horror and gothic poets such as Borges, Lovecraft, and Poe while representing my personal experiences of the everyday horrors of life and relationships. I was wanting to convey a message about the nature of existence and the unknown beyond our world, particularly in how there may be more to life than what we can see and experience in our own world, but that there are dangers and uncertainties in exploring the unknown.

What cosmic horror authors/artists, both old school and contemporary, have had an influence on you and how?

Jorge Luis Borges is probably one of my largest influences. He was a renowned Argentine writer and poet, known for his surreal, metaphysical, and philosophical literary works. Although not traditionally considered a writer of cosmic horror, his writing often explored themes of existential dread, the limits of human knowledge, and the incomprehensible nature of the universe, which are all central themes in cosmic horror. He often constructed elaborate narratives that led to unexpected and unsettling conclusions. I draw heavily on his fascination with paradoxes and the interplay of reality and fiction. He had a unique approach to exploring the limits of human knowledge and understanding to create works that were both intellectually stimulating and deeply unsettling.

Compared to other horror subgenres out there, what do you think are the appealing aspects and enduring qualities of cosmic horror?

Cosmic horror appeals to horror lovers in an academic, philosophical way. It raises questions about the unknown, the nature of reality, the limits of our human understanding, and how humanity fits into a larger universe. This genre is thought-provoking and transcends the boundaries of specific cultures, time periods, and the like. Fear of the unknown is a universal fear that knows no limits. It evokes awe and wonder about our place in the larger piece of the puzzle of life. Essentially, cosmic horror hits on that very question we all inevitably come to now and then – why are we here?

Your favourite Cthulhu Mythos deity or monster?

Definitely Nyarlathotep. Nyarlathotep is a complex, multifaceted figure who embodies the unpredictable and incomprehensible nature of Lovecraftian horror. He is truly different from the other deities in many ways. Unlike other Lovecraftian gods who are often depicted as indifferent and distant from humanity, he takes an active role in interacting with humans. He is described as the “Crawling Chaos,” a shape-shifting entity who can take on any form he desires and manipulate humans into doing his bidding. His motives are unclear, and his actions are unpredictable, which adds to his allure as a character.

Samantha Underhill can be found at:

Carol Gyzander

Story Title

“The Call of the Void—L’Appel du Vide”

Story Synopsis

Ellen feels compelled to visit Utah’s Arches National Park. Her mother recently passed from Alzheimer’s, and Ellen wants to understand why she was so drawn to the red rock formation called Medusa—and see if her own life has a purpose.

Primary goal you wanted to accomplish with your story?

Much of the story comes from my real life! I wanted to explore my experiences during a trip to Utah’s red rock country in another light.

What cosmic horror authors/artists, both old school and contemporary, have had an influence on you and how?

One of the earliest I read was H. P. Lovecraft, “The Colour Out of Space”—and I was so taken with the story that I wrote a cyberpunk adaptation of it. I got to explore R. W. Chambers’ work, “The Repairer of Reputations” for the Under Twin Suns anthology. And of course, Poe—for example, “MS. Found in a Bottle” was one of the early influences. 

From current authors, Mary SanGiovanni has fabulous work and gave an excellent lecture at one of the Writing in the Dark events from AllAccessCon and Raw Dog Screaming Press. I was delighted to discover from her talk that I seemed to be doing it right!

Compared to other horror subgenres out there, what do you think are the appealing aspects and enduring qualities of cosmic horror?

Cosmic horror can resonate with the reader in different ways, depending upon their background. I love that it realigns the focus away from humanity as the most important thing in the story—because the cosmic entity does not care about us in the least.

Your favourite Cthulhu Mythos deity or monster?

Azathoth is cool. Imagine being able to change reality by just rolling over in your sleep!

Carol Gyzander can be found at:

Thank you Angela, Samantha, and Carol for being a part of this mini-interview compilation to talk about their cosmic horror texts. If you’re interested in reading their work, make sure to pre-order issue #367 of Weird Tales. If you enjoyed these mini-interviews, make sure to check out the one for issue #366 which is on sword and sorcery. 

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-09-12

Personal / Website News

Book Review: Mists and Megaliths

I did a write up of Catherine McCarthy’s short story collection Mists and Megaliths. The review can be found here.

New Episode of HP Lovecast

First episode for September for HP Lovecast is up! In this episode we discuss the one-shot comic book Lady Lovecraft, written by Mike Shea and art by Don Wilkinson. Episode can be found on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

Episode thumbnail by Michele Brittany
Categories
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.

Categories
Lovecraft

High Octane Octopi and Tentacle Treads: Maximum Performance in Jason Parent’s Eight Cylinders

Eight Cylinders is the newest novella by Jason Parent and published by Crystal Lake in November 2020. The story focuses on Seb, a mid-range Las Vegas criminal who is gravely injured during a shootout with a mobster after a deal gone bad. Seb flees Vegas in his Charger, and after consulting the magic 8-ball he plucked from the mobster’s eye, drives through the night and through the desert mountains. He awakens to find himself in a small desert camp with his wounds treated. The camp is full of other criminals and ne’er-do-wells (Earl, Malcom, Mary, Red, Sly, Helen, Skeeter, Malcolm, and Angelique) who all seem to come from different times and places. Seb and his companions are all trapped in the camp because giant tentacles shoot out from the mountains that encircle the area that whisk away unlucky persons who wander too far away. After Mary falls mysteriously ill and unresponsive, the motley crew band together to use their arsenal of vehicles and weaponry to escape the gigantic mollusk monster of the mountain and back to civilization.

Covert art for Eight Cylinders

If the above synopsis sounds fast-paced and cinematic, that is because Eight Cylinders is. Be it consciously, unconsciously, or coincidentally on Parent’s part, Eight Cylinders leverages elements from a variety of film (and video game) sources and blends them into a new narrative that gives the novella a cinematic quality. Examples of influences or apt comparisons include Fallout: New Vegas (both the game and novella begin similarly with the main protagonist being shot by a Las Vegas mobster and then being resurrected outside the city), Cube (all the characters are criminals trapped in a location they are trying to escape), Tremors (general tone of being trapped in a podunk desert locale with hidden monsters about), The Mist (characters who leave the safety of the area are quickly killed), Evil Dead 2 (similar fates for the main character at the story’s end), and Mad Max: Fury Road (climatic driving sequences through a desert) along with fast pace, car action sequences found in the likes of The Transporter and The Fast and the Furious series of films.

Though the tone is first and foremost an action centric, Lovecraftian elements seep into the story brining shades of horror and the grotesque. Overtly, the giant tentacles hidden in the mountains leverage distinctive Cthulu-ian imagery, but Eight Cylinders takes a self-aware approach to using Lovecraft elements. The antagonist character of Sly verbally references Lovecraft by equating the hidden tentacles to that of Cthulhu and referring the mountains that surround the camp as “The Mountains of Madness.” Unlike zombie films that are afraid to use the zed-word, Eight Cylinders embraces its few instances of being a metatext and uses it to full and realistic affect without relying on winking or easter egg-ing.

If there is an element in Eight Cylinders that seems out of place, it is that of the hero, Seb. In Crystal Lake’s promotional material for the novella, they quote author James Chambers who equates the story to a redemption tale, which Eight Cylinders certainly is. The issue is that Seb does not seem like a character who needs redemption. Though his character is a criminal, his portrayal in the story is extremely noble and he often thinks of others and their wellbeing. The few instances of selfish moments are quickly pushed aside to showcase his more positive leadership qualities as he puts others before him. If Parent was trying to write a criminal, anti-hero like that of Vin Diesel’s Riddick character, then it did not quite come across. Seb is still a fantastic character, easy to identify with, to follow along and root for, but he does not come across as a character who has done a tremendous amount of egregious activities in his past to merit his punishment in the desert mountains with the other characters.  

Regardless of Seb’s portrayal, his predicament is extremely relatable to readers, especially in the current period. Though probably written in the “before times,” Eight Cylinders manages to tap into the fears and emotions many are feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic: trapped and wanting to escape, but unable to leave their homes (desert camp) due to a deadly virus rampaging around (mountain tentacles). The purgatory nature of the book echoes the never-ending nature of the pandemic that currently does not seem to have an end in sight.

Clocking in at 102 pages, Eight Cylinders moves as fast as the cars within. The novella combines aspects of the pursuit genre with Lovecraftian monsters to create a gripping (be it armrests or steering wheels) tale that is fully loaded.

Links

Eight Cylinders can be purchased at the Crystal Lake store or at your bookseller of preference.

Jason Parent can be reached at the following platforms:

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2020-10-04

Personal / Website News

Book Citation

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

McFarland Book Sale

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

New Episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast

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

General Neo-Peplum News

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

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

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

Screen Rant ranks the 10 best gladiator films.

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

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