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Vanya #9 Review

A new Vanya review is now up and online at my website! Check out my write up of issue nine right here.

Cover is a scene at night. Vanya stands over a campfire, spear in hand. On a tree root next to her is a saber tooth tiger with a scar across its right eye. Beams of moonlight filter through the jungle foliage. — Vanya #09 cover by Zoran Jovicic.

This effectively puts me back to being current with all the published Vanya issues so far (digital and physical), so that means my next review won’t happen for quite a few months as issue ten gets made. In the meantime, to fill that gap, I’ll be busting out reviews for three other comics: Death Nell, Becca Boo, and Budd Root’s Cavewoman. Death Nell is a completed series, so I will get that reviewed soon (think I have three issues left?). Becca Boo is ongoing, but I am a few issues behind. For Cavewoman, I have a stack of issues I collected back in the 2010s that I want to revisit, do reviews/retrospectives of, and have those parallel published both here at my website and at the National Capital Panthans Journal.

Cavewoman: “Extinction”

And with the above in, here is a Cavewoman review!

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

I’ve got a whole stack of Cavewoman in my collection from when I was collecting it from 2011 to 2014, though I have many gaps. I am going to try to cover them chronologically as they were published. With that in mind, my write up of the single shot issue “Extinction” is online and can be read here.

The next Cavewoman issues I’ll be jumping on is the four issue “Snow” series. I am going to be ambitious and shoot to publish one a month along with my other articles and projects. Cross fingers!

Hercules and the Captive Women Blu-ray Compares

A final article for my website this month (three articles in a month! wow!) is comparing the new Blu-rays of Hercules and the Captive Women.

Two blu-rays side by side. Both show the same poster art of a Hercules with legs apart and a woman framed between them, on her knees, with flames behind her. — The two Blu-rays of Hercules and the Captive Women.

It has been a hot minute since I’ve actually did something sword and sandal related, time to rectify that! Check out my write up here.

Panthans Journal #346

The March issue of the National Capital Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my micro fiction/short story “Journey to Agharti”. This story was originally published in Trickster’s Treats 3: The Seven Deadly Sins back in 2019, however that anthology has been out of print for quite a while now. It is nice that the story has a second life in the Panthans journal.

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.

Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journalis 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.

Scholars from the Edge of Time

For the March Scholars from the Edge of Time Michele and I discuss the mid 90s fighting mecha film Robo Warriors (1996).

Cover has the synthwave colors of lots of purple on darkness. It shows 2 giant robots fighting amount power lines, with bolts of electricity flying everywhere. — Personal copy of Robo Warriors on Blu-ray.

Giant robots fighting each other gladiator style? How can one go wrong? Well……

The episode can be watched on YouTube. As a side, one of the villains in the film, Quon, was played by James Tolkan (probably best known from Back to the Future). Tolkan passed away on the day we recorded this episode. RIP sir. 🙁

For April we are going to be discussing the new Deathstalker (2025) movie, so we are excited about that.

Publishing Recap

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

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.

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

New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions

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

Samson and His Mighty Challenge (Crappy DVD)

From the 2000s to the mid-2010 was probably the halcyon days of the DVD. They could be made cheap, and releases ranged from ornate editions to bottom of the barrel bargain releases. Companies like Alpha Video, Sinister Cinema, Something Weird Video, Mill Creek Entertainment, Brentwood Home Video, and many, many others released low cost, quasi-bootleg-ish genre videos on home video. Sometimes these were single DVDrs with a generic graphic design, sometimes they were mega multiple movie pack boxsets with names like “50 sci-fi greats”.

Right, wrong, indifferent, this was a thing and it filled a void. Sometimes the only way to see an old genre film was via these means. This, unfortunately, perpetuated shoddy releases of films that deserve better. Heavily cropped and edited films, ripped from five generations of VHS tapes was the norm.

Those days are gone. With streaming services as the dominate medium to watch films, physical releases are the exception. In order to compete with streaming services, physical editions have turned to being released by boutique labels, like Vinegar Syndrome and Severin Films, to stand out form the crowd. This means there is really no market for the inferior, made on the cheap, DVD/DVDr releases from 15 years prior.

Some companies still (kinda) hold on to this old model, and CFV Ent. (no website that I could find) is one of them. I say kinda because instead of making cheap releases to sell at a budget price, they are making cheap releases to sell for much higher markups.

The other month Michele and I did a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode on Hercules Returns (link here). The Vinegar Syndrome release of the film already had an original version of Samson and High Mighty Challenge on it, but I wanted a solo release. I turned to eBay and saw a copy from CFV Ent. (slide show below).

Samson and His Mighty Challenge, CFV version, how it really looks.
Samson and His Mighty Challenge, CFV version, how it really looks (back side)

Looking at the eBay picture, it obviously is a mockup, but it presents itself as a DVD in a slipcover. Though if you look at the bottom right of the image, the artwork and the sleeve appear to veer away from each other. I knew this was a cheap affair, but I was actually curious how cheap would it be. Was there a company out there actually putting care into releasing peplum films and giving them a modicum of dignity?

Heck no. Click through the slide show above to see what I got. Definitely not a slipcover. The DVD is in a red, rather flimsy case. The exterior insert is made from a home printer. The copyright notice on the back is hilarious:

This film (or version of film) has never been released on digital media in the United States. It is therefore considered public domain.

I am not expert on copyright law, but I am 99% sure that is not how that works.

Anywho, I wanted to share this release. This is sort of a caveat emptor post, I do want to highland the difference between how product is depicted vs. how product really is as there are a lot of these releases on eBay. But mostly to illustrate how the market has changed, especially on these old peplum films. Still no love on physical release, but at a higher price tag for even dodgier editions.

Wizards of the Demon Sword

During my research for Robo Warriors I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and somehow ended up discovering cult film director Fred Olen Ray made a sword and sorcery film. It’s called Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991) and stars Michael Berryman – hells yea!

Personal copy of Wizards of the Demon Sword on DVD.

He was in The Barbarians (1987) which was a great 80s S&S film, so I could not pass plucking this one up! Though it does have Troma literally written all over it, so this could be rough.

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 four:

Episode five:

Episode six:

And episode seven:

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.

First there is “Monster Mania: Atomic Age Mutants & Mayhem“:

Next is “Monster Mania: Kaiju and Cryptids“:

Then a quick break with “Rewind: Friday the 13th Franchise Part 2“:

And back to monsters with a series of episodes on King Kong, starting with “Monster Mania: King Kong 1933“:

Followed by “Monster Mania: King Kong vs. Godzilla“:

And then “Monster Mania: King Kong 1976“:

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

The End is #Trending Kickstarter

The End is Trending, starring Dannie DeLisle, has a Kickstarter going.

Check out the campaign here.

Amityville Awakens

Robert P. Ottone has a brand new novel coming out called Amityville Awakens. The cover for the book just got revealed this past week:

Cover shows a screaming white face with kinda crooked teeth. The top of the person is actually the Amityville house - so the eyes are the circular/triangle windows. There is rubber underneath the house head. — Amityville Awakens by Robert P. Ottone.

A signed edition of Amityville Awakens can be pre-ordered from publisher Clash Books right here.

Michele’s Craft Books

Michele has been sharing her flip books and journals on her YouTube Channel:

A Tintin Postcard Book Junk Journal:

A Lady and the Tramp Golden Book:

And a Hug Book Golden Book:

Personal / Website News

Comic Book Review: Rome Eternal #1

It has been a while so it is time to dive back into my bread and butter, the world of the neo-peplum, so here is a brand new review online.

Cover art for Rome Eternal #1. It shows the Mysteries, standing in front of a Roman statue missing its head, and behind that a Colosseum that has been cyberpunked. — Cover art for Rome Eternal #1.

I’m fairly timely with this review as Rome Eternal came out in November, and I have issue #2 (which came out in January) in my paws as well. Should I aim to do back to back reviews?

Anywho, Rome Eternal is a neo-peplum comic about an Ancient Rome that did not fall but instead became a huge superpower that is just as corrupt and nasty as it has ever been. Just this time they have laser spears.

It’s hella fun and topical as well. Check out my review here.

Global Indigenous Horror

Sincerely chuffed that editor Naomi Simone Borwein mentions Michele and I in her acknowledgments in her upcoming edited academic collection, Global Indigenous Horror, from University Press of Mississippi.

Acknowledgments read: Many thanks to Deanna Reder, Lee Murray, Nicholas Diak and Michele Brittany, Simon Bacon, Brooke Collins-Gearing, and Judith Borwein. The complexity of seeing this volume to completion is a feature of both the subject matter and the event-based context in which the project developed. — Acknowledgments from Global Indigenous Horror.

We had the honour of having Dr. Borwein present at a past Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and to have her presentation published in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern.

I’ve shared prior, but want to re-iterate how awesome the cover art for Global Indigenous Horror is:

Cover of Global Indigenous Horror. It depicts a blue-skinned woman with a bird's head. She is wearing a dress with strawberry patterns and is holding a purpose. What looks like giant blue and red veins radiate from her head. — Cover of Global Indigenous Horror.

Global Indigenous Horror is slated to be published April 15th and can be pre-ordered at the UPoM website.

Scholars from the Edge of Time: Gentlemen Broncos

First episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time of 2025 is now online!

Cyclops from Gentlemen Broncos. They look exactly like the cyclops from Krull. There are two in the screenshot: one is holding a radar-dish listening devise and the other is patrolling with a gun. — Cyclops from Gentlemen Broncos.

Back in 2024 Michele and I watched Krull and loved it (that episode can be viewed here). The cyclops in Krull made me recall that Gentlemen Broncos has homages to the iconic one-eyed character, so we decided to give that film a shot! The vidcast episode can be watched on YouTube, check it out!

ECOF 2025

In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).

Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:

The flyer shows desert mountains with three insert images: one of a young Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1896, one of the author Jeffrey J. Mariotte (who is the guest of honour), and one of the Willcox train depot in the 1880s. The flyer reads was follows: Edgar Rice Burroughs ERB Inc.'s Commemoration of ERB's 150th Birthday! 7th Cavalry Historical Monument Celebration Willcox, AZ, September 25-28, 2025. Formal Dedication on September 27th, 2025. Sponsored by the Suplher Springs Valley Historical Society and the Arizona Apache Deveils Chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles. — Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.

I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.

Cover art of the Panthans Journal #332. It depicts a woman and a man with a hawk head, hunkered in a hole, firing laser pistols. The art is by Mark Wheatley. — Panthans Journal #332

Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.

A continuation of the cover of #332. This cover shows the woman and the hawk man, defensively shooting laser pilots out of a hole in the ground, wile savage barbarians with bows and axes descend upon them. The art is by Mark Wheatley. — Panthans Journal #333

Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.

Cover art for "Merry Creepsmas - The Red Book". It is red with a large X-mas tree that appears to have small, globby bodies as ornaments. The cover reads: Wicked Shadow Press Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book Christmas-Themed Horror Stories Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty — Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book

“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.

Cover art for the Burroughs Bulletin #109 by Dan Parsons. The top says "The Burroughs Bulletin New Series #109 Fall-Winter 2024". The art shows a T-rex chomping on a dude in a striped shirt. Below him are explorers with rifles. Behind him his a prehistoric sky, jungle, and a waterfall. — Burroughs Bulletin #109

“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Selling Scary Movies: Horror Film Promotion & the American Market

While American horror cinema is among the most widely examined of all entertainment formats, scholarship on this topic has mainly focused on film content or its reception. Consequently, despite representing a profuse component of horror’s inter-textual replay, the marketing of such films remains under-theorized and supported by a relative paucity of case-studies. Indeed, the promotion of scary movies still tends to be imagined rather reductively as a nightmarish mix of terror, loathing, threat, violence, and monstrosity, exemplified by such oft-quoted taglines as “be afraid, be very afraid” and “keep repeating it’s only a movie!”. This collection of essays therefore proposes to broaden conceptions of how chillers, thrillers, and the like have been promoted on the US market. It shall do so by uniting diverse approaches focusing on the industrial, social, discursive, and aesthetic dimensions of horror film marketing across a range of industry sectors, windows of release, and time periods. In so doing, the collection aims to expand and clarify the terms under which we understand one of the most pervasive yet poorly appreciated aspects of American audiovisual culture.

Accordingly, the editor of this collection therefore solicits original essays of 6000-8000-words offering a variety of perspectives on topics including but not restricted to:

Marketing campaigns of individual horror films
Repacking horror films across windows of release
Marketing campaigns across horror film trends and sub-types
Horror film and print advertising
Horror film and audiovisual advertising
Horror film and radio advertising
Horror film and viral advertising
Horror films and synergy
Horror films and publicity tours
Exploitation sector marketing
Indie/Art horror marketing
Marketing extreme or niche horror
Hollywood horror marketing
Targeting horror at specific audiences
Promoting imported horror on the American market
Horror in the marketing of non-horror films
Non-horror in the marketing of horror films

Please send 200-word abstracts plus a short academic bio – or any questions and queries – to richardandrew.nowell@amu.cz

Abstract due date (31 May 2025), chapter submissions (circa. January-May 2027).

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.

New Acquisitions

Gladiator 2

Gladiator 2 was release in theaters back in November 2024 and Michele and I got to see it on the big screen in December. I started a draft of a write up of the film, got 80% done, but decided to shelve it for when the Blu-ray comes out so I could re-watch it.

And now, the movie is out on physical media! I got my pre-order the other week, so expect an upcoming Peplum Ponderings about the film, but also a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode devoted to it.

Helen of Troy

A recent pick up for an old film, here is Helen of Troy (Robert Wise, 1956).

I have not seen this one yet, but this will be a great watch in tandem with Ruby Blondell’s Helen of Troy in Hollywood.

Hardcover of Ruby Blondell's Helen of Troy in Hollywood. It shows a silent-film era actress as Helen sitting on a chair. The colors of the cover are black, white, and gold. — Personal copy of Helen of Troy in Hollywood.

Autographed Treasures

Lots of cool autographed treasures I’ve shared on Bluesky these past few weeks.

Rodan/War of the Gargantuas

I love kaiju films, but I am far from an expert on all the Toho and Toei monster films out there. Don’t laugh, but one of my favorite Godzilla films is All Monsters Attack (1969, Ishiro Honda).

Digipack/book-style DVD from the Toho Master Collection. The cover is black, with 2 images, which are posters from each film. In silver ink it is signed "To Nick - All the Best - Russ Tamblyn" with an arrow pointing to himself on the "War of the Gargantuas" poster portion of the cover. — Personal DVD copy of “Rodan” and “War of the Gargantuas” signed by Russ Tamblyn.

I have quite a Godzilla film collection, but I have only one autographed kaiju film, and that is War of the Gargantuas (1966, Ishiro Honda) by Russ Tamblyn. There was a West Side Story anniversary Hollywood Collector’s show way back in the day, and he was in attendance, so I had to get my monster movie signed!

When Women Ruled the Earth / War Goddess

Luciana Paluzzi is an iconic starlet of Italian genre cinema, and she has made frequent appearances at conventions, mostly James Bond-themed ones due to her being in Thunderball.

DVD that has two movies on it. The cover says "Mammoth Double Feature, When Women Ruled the Earth 'War Gods of Babylon' and 'War Goddess'". The artwork is a collage of difference scenes from the movies. In black marker it is signed "To Nick with all my — Personal DVD copy of “War Gods of Babylon” and “war Goddess” signed by Luciana Paluzzi.

I actually really liked her in the Eurospy film The Venetian Affair (1967, Jerry Thorpe). Paluzzi starred in her fair share of pepla, including the very late era peplum War Goddess (1973, Terence Young), which she signed my copy of.

Strike Commando

Reb Brown rules and Yor, the Hunter from the Future rules.

DVD on the left says "Grindhouse Experience Presents MERCS Soldiers of Fortune 10 Feature Film Collection". The cover is a black and white image, a close up of a mercenary's face, holding a gun with a belt of bullets draped over his shoulder. Signed in silver marker it said "Nick Best Wishes Reb Brown". To the right is the Blu-ray edition of Strike Commando. The cover is an art piece that depicts Reb Brown firing a machine gun that also has a gatling gun and a grenade launcher on it. Behind him are helicopters with spotlights and on the ground are a whole bunch of other soldiers holding guns. In the distance there is an exploding bridge. — Personal Copy of the Mercs multipack DVD autographed by Reb Brown and the Severin Blu-ray release of Strike Commando.

Reb has done many other cult films and is probably (aside from Yor) best known for Space Mutiny which was on MST3K.

However, he was in a handful of other Italian genre films of the 80s, including the men-on-a-mission film, Strike Commando, which is awesome. Severin Films did a nice Blu-ray release a few years back, but 20 years ago the only way I could watch the film was in a multi-film budget DVD set called Mercs: Soldiers of Fortune 10 Feature Film Collection which contained a low quality copy of Strike Commando, which Brown graciously signed to me.

News from Friends

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

Bible Films Blog – House of David

Matt Page over at his Bible Films blog is on a roll doing write ups about season one of House of David. Check them out:

Ride the Stream New Episodes

Michele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.

Here is their discussion of episode nine of season one:

And their discussion of episode ten of season one:

And, finally their discussion of episode eleven of season one:

New episodes drop every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.

Monster Mania: Atomic Age Mutants & Mayhem – Fan2Fan Podcast

Monster Mania: Kaiju and Cryptids – Fan2Fan Podcast

Rewind: Friday the 13th Franchise Part 2 – Fan2Fan Podcast

Monster Mania: King Kong 1933 – Fan2Fan Podcast

Monster Mania: King Kong vs. Godzilla – Fan2Fan Podcast

Monster Mania: King Kong 1976 – Fan2Fan Podcast