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News Roundup W/E 2022-05-08

Personal / Website News

Seidr #1 Comicbook Review

I did a review/write up about the neo-peplum Viking comic, Seidr. Since doing my presentation on Vikings sampling and the band Acylum, I wouldn’t mind diving more into Viking scholarship. Maybe.

Regardless, my write up can be read here.

New Episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast

A new episode of our HP Lovecast Podcast was published this past Sunday.

Thumbnail by Michele Brittany

This episode was supposed to go up in April, but we got his with an onslaught of other things (I started a new job, trying to finalize AnnRadCon stuff, a kitty doctor visit, and so on). Better late than never, here is our dive into David Rose’s novella Lovecraft’s Iraq. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout Podcast website or via your podcast app of preference. Don’t forget our prior episode episode in which we interviewed Rose followed by Jonathan Maberry. That episode can be streamed here.

Citation News

My introduction to The New Peplum has been cited in the essay “Olympos, gladiátorok, krémesség és Britney Spears: Az antikvitás megjelenése a kortárs reklámiparban” by Gábriel Nóra and Marton Máté. The essay can be read at Academia.edu. It is in Hungarian, so if you want to translate where footnote 29 points to and let me know, I’d be appreciative.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

I was invited back onto the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

I not only got to hang out with the Fan2Fan crew of Peter and Bernie, but also with with Joshua Pruett, who has written and designed the door sequence for the new episode of MST3K (what an honour!). The dialogue got parsed into three episodes – check them all out:

Michele will be interviewed this upcoming week about James Bond (wish her luck!) and her Highlander episode will be dropping soon (keep an eye out!).

AnnRadCon and Raw Dog Screaming Press

The fifth annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference (AnnRadCon) is this upcoming weekend! Part of StokerCon, AnnRadCon contains the academic track of programming for the conference. This year there is both an in person and online component.

Anywho, you can still attend StokerCon and see the AnnRadCon presentations. More info can found at Stokercon.com.

A delight though is finding out that Raw Dog Screaming Press will be sponsoring AnnRadCon this year! This is amazing because I love RDSP. Here is the Tweet announcement:

But the full announcement can be found at the RDSP website here. We are sincerely grateful to Jennifer and John for all that they do for the writing community.

Highlander Call for Papers

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

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

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

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

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

General Neo-Peplum News

Recent Acquisitions

Shout Factory recently had a sale of their titles going OOP. The Lou Ferrigno Hercules films of the 80s were part of that list, so I plucked them up along with a few other titles. For some odd reason my order got split into two and this Hercules Collection arrived by itself and before the other items.

The DVD contains:

  • The Loves of Hercules (1960)
  • The Trojan Horse (1961)
  • Medusa Against the Son of Hercules (1962)
  • The Conquest of Mycenae (1963)
  • The Triumph of Hercules (1964)
  • Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun (1964)

I am certain I have double, nay, triple dipped these titles and there are so many bargain sword and sandal boxsets full of public domain pepla. My hope is that since this is a Shout Factory release, perhaps the image/sound quality on these versions might be better.

I also got my Kickstarter loot from backing Born of Blood #1. However, stay tuned for later this week for a write up on that. But for now, here is a preview of all the loot:

The following isn’t sword and sandal related but it is Emmanuelle related. Since I am dead serious on doing an anthology of Emmanuelle essays, perhaps I should list Emmanuelle loot/findings here too. Thoughts?

Anyway, Cult Epics did an Indiegogo a few months ago to fund a book about Sylvia Kristel. My copy arrived:

I have not had time to sift through the book proper, but it reminds of a FAB Press book: immaculate quality and every page in color. I got a version with an autographed dust sleeve. This also came with a boxset of some early Sylvia Kristel films too. Excited to dive into this proper and hope I get to use this for future scholarship!

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-04-03

Personal / Website News

Fan2Fan Podcast Interview #2

The second part of my interview with the Fan2Fab Podcast called “Sword, Sandals, and Sorcery Part 2” has been published.

Banner made by the F2n2Fan Podcast.

The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference. There is also a video version on YouTube (complete with 100x more arm flailing). Sincere appreciation to hosts Pete and Bernie for having me as a guest!

Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern Citation

AnnRadCon frequent presenter, Dr. Gavin Hurley, has a new essay published in volume 8, number 1 of Metal Music Studies: “Funeral Doom Metal as the Rhetoric of Contemplation: A Burkean Perspective.”

Dr. Hurley cites his own essay, “Richard Laymon’s Rhetorical Style: Minimalism, Suspense, and Negative Space,” which was published in Horror Literature From Gothic to Post-Modern.

Highlander Call for Papers

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

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

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

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

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

General Neo-Peplum News

The Kings of Strength

Not really sword and sandal, but definitely adjacent, my publisher, McFarland, just released a book called The Kings of Strength: A History of All Strong Men from Ancient Times to Our Own.

The book looks to focally mostly on early 1900s strongmen, however it does contain a small section called “Physical Strength in Antiquity” which may provide some historic contextualizing to use while watching pepla. The book can be ordered at McFarland.

“Enjoy My Flames”

Dr. Jeremy Swist has a new essay published titled “Enjoy My Flames: On heavy metal’s fascination with Roman emperors”. It can be read at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Kagen the Damned

In sword and sorcery news, Jonathan Maberry has a new epic fantasy novel coming out titled Kagen the Damned.

The book can be preordered at Macmillan.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-03-27

Personal / Website News

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance

I had the honour to be invited onto the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about the peplum and sword and sorcery genres. I recorded a few episodes with hosts Bernie Gonzalez and Pete Carbonneau who are terrific hosts and made the interviews seamless and fun.

The first episode is now online on the Fan2Fan Podcast Lybsin page. It can either be streamed there or via your podcast app of preference. They have also been posting snippets, excepts, and mini-videos on the Fan2Fan Twitter account, so be sure to give that a follow.

Sincere gratitude to Gonzalez and Carbonneau for giving me an opportunity and a venue. Stay tuned for subsequent appearances from yours truly!

A Vindication of Monsters

Michele will have a new essay published in an upcoming non-fiction anthology!

The collection is called A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Michele’s essay is titled “Beauty in the Grotesque: Bernie Wrightson’s Lifelong Obsession with Frankenstein’s Monster.” More information on the other contributors can be found at editor Claire Fitzpatrick’s website.

Highlander Call for Papers

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

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

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

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

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

General Neo-Peplum News

Scholars from the Edge of Time

This past week Michele and I had our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time appearance on Hercules Invictus’ program.

Version of The Lion of Thebes in my personal collection.

This month we talked about the Mark Forest toga and sandal film, The Lion of Thebes. A movie that has a lot of potential but was squandered with bad directing and cinematography. There is not much online about this film, with the most detailed plot synopsis being in Barry Atkinson’s Heroes Never Die, and next to nothing on analysis. I think I’ll have to get my thoughts down on a Peplum Ponderings article ASAP. In the meantime, you can hear my and Michele’s thoughts on BlogTalkRadio.

Recent Acquisitions

Another crowdfunded neo-peplum comic arrived in my paws. This one is the first issue of Gilgamesh Eternal.

Autographed issue #1 I received

The comic is written by Cam Kerkau and is new take on the Epic of Gilgamesh. This isn’t covered a topic depicted often in the sword and sandal genre, which makes this title a bit more standout. Also standout is the artwork of Kostas Pantoulas. Definitely excited to give this a read soon. If you’re interested, the comic can be purchased at Kerkau’s Gumroad Website.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-03-13

Personal / Website News

Matthew Page Interview

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

The interview can be read here.

D. J. Kirkbride Interview

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

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

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

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

AnnRadCon 2022 In Person Programming

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

Thursday, May 12th

Track 1 – Film an Television – 9:00 am

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

Track 2 – Vampires – 10:45 am

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

Track 3 – Literature and Nature – 12:15 pm

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

Highlander Call for Papers

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

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

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

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

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

General Neo-Peplum News

Recent Acquisitions

My Severin order for their Caligula boxset arrived.

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

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

John Carter Video Game Q/A Sessions

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