First new article for 2026 and it is a review of the adult, neo-jungle girl series Vanya!
Vanya #08 standard cover by Zoran Jovicic and Zork Marinero.
I take a gander at issue eight from the series, and my review can be read right here. A review for issue nine will be published in early March.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Returns
After over a year of hibernation the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is back!
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode 63 thumbnail – The Deadly Spawn
Recorded in January but published early February, we just dropped our first episode since November 29th, 2024. So, it has been a while. Sorry about that folks, things have just been busy with Michele and I juggling a lot of projects and doing real life stuff.
We return back with the great cult film and Lovecraftian horror movie, The Deadly Spawn (1983)! One of our favorites, it was great to talk about, so hear us discuss it at our Buzzsprout page here, at the player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
The plan for our next episode is the 1991 Dan O’Bannon film The Resurrected.
Talkin’ Talkies Appearance
Author Robert P. Ottone, who has been a guest on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast (check out those appearances here and here), has his own vidcast called Talkin’ Talkies that he does via Instagram livestreaming/reels. I was super honored to be invited on his last episode to talk about non-Italian giallo films!
Logo for Robert Ottone’s Talkin’ Talkies IG vidcast.
The episode of Talkin’ Talkies I am on is hosted on Instagram, so you may have to be on your IG account on your mobile to view it. Here is the direct link. Sincere appreciation Rob for having me on!
Scholars from the Edge of Time
For February’s Scholars from the Edge of Time Michele and I talk about the 2010 neo-peplum film, Centurion.
Note: Centurion was heavily written about in Dr. Wetmore’s essay in The New Peplum. If you are curious, consider plucking up a copy of the book at McFarland.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2026.
National Capital Panthans Journal #344.
“All E.T.’s Aren’t Nice: Vanya 06” reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #344, January 2026.
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal acquisitions.
Hercules and the Captive Women Film Masters Blu-ray
Back in 2021 The Film Detective released a Blu-ray edition of Hercules and the Captive Women (1961) that was full of special editions, such as the MST3K version of the film, documentaries and commentaries (PeplumTV did a review of the release and compared it to other versions. It can be read here).
Film Masters 2026 Blu-ray of Hercules and the Captive Women.
Not five years later another Blu-ray of Hercules and the Captive Women has been released! This one is put out by Film Masters and is a bare bone release (no supplemental material). I decided to double dip (well, triple dip, since I have this on the Retromedia DVD) and pluck this copy up. Maybe I’ll do a comparison between the two Blu-rays, see if there is a difference in image? Might be fun!
Ben-Hur 4K
Hercules and the Captive Women is not the only classic sword and sandal getting a re-release in early 2026! Mutha-fucking big daddy papa pump OG Ben-Hur (1959) is as well!
Personal copy of the 2026 4K release of Ben-hur.
Back in 2022 I did an unboxing article for the Ben-hur 50 year anniversary Blu-ray set (which can be read here). That edition came out in 2011. So, 15 years later (65 year anniversary!) there is now the 4K edition of Ben-Hur.
Amazon sold out of the steel book edition, so I had to go with this version. Going to DVDCompare, the 2026 release vs the 2011 release, it looks like the 2026 version lacks trailers and the 1925 version of Ben-Hur. The 2026 version omits the 57 minute “Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema” 2005 documentary that appeared on the 2011 version, but replaces it with two new, way shorter featurettes: “Ben-Hur: Anatomy of an Epic 2026″ (6 minutes) and “The Cinematography of Scale 2026” (8 minutes).
Both have the 78 minute “Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey” 2011 documentary, the 58 minute “Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic” 1994 documentary, the 5 minute “Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures” 2005 featurette, 29 minutes of screen tests, and some other features. The 2011 has a plethora of other, smaller, features, such as newsreels, Academy Award ceremonies, etc. that are not present on the 2026 edition.
So overall, just at a cursory glance, it looks like the new Ben-Hur may have better image quality at 4K, but scales back the supplemental material. Maybe this is ok: you can only re-re-re-re-release the movie so many times and re-re-re-re-re-reuse the same supplemental material before it gets stale?
Deathstalker Comic and Remake
2025 was the year for the cult 80s sword and sorcery series, Deathstalker, and I got some loot!
Deathstalker the graphic novel and the Deathstalker remake on Blu-ray.
First, there is a remake of the film, simply called DeathStalker. I’ve heard good things about the remake, and I actually dig Daniel Bernhardt (Michele and I talk positively of him in G2: Mortal Conquest [1999] on Scholars from the Edge of Time). I’m excited to watch this one!
The next thing is the Deathstalker graphic novel that was done via Kickstarter. I did the Tier IV plus which was supposed to be a cloth bound hardcover, a standard dust jacket, a Kickstarter exclusive dust jacket, and a book plate. Instead the hardcover is not cloth bound, and no book plate has been sent. Per a January 12th post, it sounds like book plates will be sent later on, and they decided to change from a cloth bound book mid-production. Thems the risks doing Kickstarter, I guess.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Hard Drive
On Robert Ottone’s Talkin’ Talkies vicast (see above) we brought up 90s erotic thriller films.
Personal copy of Hard Drive on DVD signed by Stella Stevens.
This was a perfect opportunity to show off my copy of Hard Drive (1994) which is signed by legendary starlet Stella Stevens (RIP). Her son, Andrew Stevens, acted and produced a lot of erotic thrillers, and Stella appeared in a handful of them. It’s been probably 1.5 decades since I last saw this, maybe time for a re-watch!
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
Michele Brittany and Travis Lakata have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast, but something has gone down! Netflix has removed Lost from their services! That means Ride the Stream is looking at other shows and movies to talk about.
Older episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
Pacuła: Najsłynniejsza Polka na świecie
Marta Górna has a new book coming out and about cult Polish actress Joanna Pacuła (Gorky Park, Dinocroc, Tombstone, Virus). This is the first laser focused retrospective on the actress. The booked is titled Pacuła: Najsłynniejsza Polka na świecie (Pacuła: The Most Famous Polish Woman in the World).
Pacuła: Najsłynniejsza Polka na świecie by Marta Górna.
Górna’s book can be (pre) ordered here. It is slated to be published March 25th by Agora Publishing House.
Morgana Pendragon Kickstarter
Madeleine Holly-Rosing (Boston Metaphysical Society) has a new Kickstarter up for issue two (with issue one caked into some of the reward tiers) of her other comic series, Morgana Pendragon.
Morgana Pendragon cover art by Claudia Ianniciello.
Dannie Delisle is in an upcoming movie called The End is Trending. Check out the trailer at Youtube or below. Dannie is the conspiracy lady!
The director, Mark Christopher (husband to Kathleen Kaufman who has appeared on a few episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast [this one and this one]), has a Substack where more info about the film can be found. There is also an entry at IMDB.com.
Laser Joan and the Rayguns Kickstarter
D. J. Kirkbride (whom I’ve interviewed prior on my website, check it out!) has a Kickstarter going to reprint his comic miniseries Laser Joan and the Rayguns that was originally in Dark Horse Presents.
J. Manfried Weichsel (whom I’ve also interviewed before on my website, check that out here) has a Kickstarter for an omnibus called Action Girls that collects three of his prior stories: Jungle Jitters (2021), Into the Bush (2024), and Space Escapades (2025) into one book.
Action Girls by J. Manfred Weichsel.
This campaign can be found on Kickstarter and it goes live March 3rd at 4pm EST. Click the “Notify Me on Launch” button if checking out the campaign before then.
This is my first News Roundup post for 2026. This is also my first post of moving to my new schedule of publishing these once a month at the end of each month.
2025 Accomplishment Recap
My recap of 2025 – writing I got done (published or reprinted), vidcasts, podcasts, conferences, etc. is now online.
Works published physically in 2025: Three issues of NESS, 1 issue of Burroughs Bulletin, and Merry Creepmas.
Last year was a pretty good year! I did not get to everything I wanted to (Emmanuelle book), but I was pretty prolific! Feel free to read the recap here.
Panthans Journal #344 and #345
The newest issue of the National Capital Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my review of issue five of of the adult/neo-jungle girl series Vanya: The Lost Warrior. The original version of my review can be read right here.
National Capital Panthans Journal #344.
The February Panthans issue #345 came out a day earlier on January 31st. This issue has a reprint of my review of Vanya #7, and the original can be read here.
National Capital Panthans Journal #345.
As a preview of things to come, the March issue of the National Capital Panthans Journal will contain a reprint of one of my short stories that has been OOP for a few years. Stay tuned!
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.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
The cool kids at the Fan2Fan Podcast have been dropping episodes recently about collecting physical media (see below).
Fan2Fan Podcast episode thumbnail for the episode about CD collecting.
They just dropped an episode about CD collecting and both Michele and I are on it. The episode can be streamed at this link here, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
Following that they have another episode about how Michele and I’s collection of movies, games, etc. and how we collect lots of media.
Fan2Fan episode thumbnail on Physical Media.
That episode can be heard here or in the player below.
Physical Media: Heavy Boxes, Special Editions, and Video Games –
Fan2Fan Podcast
Check out both episodes!
H. P. Lovecast Podcast
H. P. Lovecast Podcast will return in February! We’ve already recorded our discussion on the 80s creature feature classic, The Deadly Spawn, it just needs to be edited and published.
The New Peplum Citations
It has been a hot minute, but new citations for The New Peplum have just popped up!
Audio-Visual Roman Women cover.
The open access collection, Audio-Visual Roman Women: Gender, History & Screen Media, contains two essays that reference The New Peplum. Martin M. Winkler’s essay “Caesar’s Daughter: Lucilla on Screen” while Panayiota Mini’s essay “British Women in a Roman World: Female Figures in Audio-Visual Works about the Ninth Legion” cites Kevin Wetmore’s essay. Always wonderful to see The New Peplum continue to be cited by others.
The last episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time in 2025 was on the David Carradine/Roger Corman 80s S&S classic, The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984).
Blu-Ray of The Warrior and the Sorceress.
The cover promises a lady with four boobies and a Cthulhu and gosh darn it, the movie actually delivers four boobies and a Cthulhu. Our discussion of The Warrior and the Sorceress can be watched on YouTube. Check it out!
For January 2026 we kick of a new year of Scholars on the comedy side by discussing Hercules Returns (1993). An Australian movie that is essential a comedic redubbing of Samson and His Mighty Challenge (1964) with a thin plot of sorts that act as bookends. It’s a hilarious film.
Personal copies of Hercules Returns on DVD and Blu-ray.
Our discussion of Hercules Returns can also be watched on YouTube.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2026.
National Capital Panthans Journal #344.
“All E.T.’s Aren’t Nice: Vanya 06” reprinted in National Capital Panthans Journal #344, January 2026.
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.
Werewolf Media Journal
Seeking paper abstracts for an upcoming WEREWOLF MEDIA-themed literary journal. Abstracts are open for critical theory papers discussing ANY MEDIA OR FRANCHISE WITH WEREWOLVES. The Horror Scholar Journal Vol 8 aims to be made available online in July 2026. This opportunity is paid 50 USD upon receipt of the final paper. Abstracts should be ~300 words briefly describing the scope and topic of your paper.
Final papers must be anywhere from 2000-5000 words. Not accepting reviews or previously published papers. This journal attempts to prioritize underserved or less published horror academics. Proposals and papers should be submitted in a readable, neutral size 12 font.
CUT OFF DATE FOR ABSTRACTS: FEB 3rd, 2026
CUT OFF DATE FOR FINISHED PAPERS: JUNE 1st, 2026
STEPS FOR APPLICATION:
Submit your abstract via email to horrorscholar@gmail.com, along with your name, a 3-sentence bio, and social media links.
Once your abstract is accepted, a finished paper can be submitted via email any time until the cutoff date above.
Payment for your work will be sent upon reception of the first draft.
Each paper will have 1 round of edits.
ABOUT HORROR SCHOLAR
HS is an independent horror research brand and one-woman publishing operation. It strives to make academic publishing more accessible and to celebrate both critical theory and fandom. @scholarhorror on Twitter or horrorscholar@gmail.com for questions.
Contemporary Indigenous Horror – Creative Writing
Contemporary Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi, 2027) solicits original, unpublished short horror fiction, poetry, and experimental works by self-identifying Indigenous creatives. No work produced with AI will be accepted.
Honorarium: $250 (Canadian) per accepted piece
Deadline for submissions: July 14th, 2026
Name of organizer: Dr. Naomi Simon Borwein and Dr. Krista Collier-Jarvis
Contact email: Naomi Simone Borwein (nborwein@uwo.ca) and Krista Collier-Jarvis (Krista.Collier-Jarvis@msvu.ca)
As a companion to analysis in Contemporary Indigenous Horror (contracted with University Press of Mississippi), we are looking for creative pieces to be published within this academic volume.
To acknowledge the various ways in which Indigenous scholarship may engage in an ongoing conversation with other forms of expression and writing, we welcome both traditional as well as more exploratory approaches to fiction, poetry, flash, and related hybrid, experimental intertexts that rupture settler-colonial categorizations of genre. Word/line count should be as follows:
Flash Fiction: about 500-1000 words
Short Stories: about 1000-4000 words
Poetry: maximum of about 110 lines
Experimental, hybrid words: some flexibility
Please send submissions and a 100 word bio to editors Naomi Simone Borwein (nborwein@uwo.ca) and Krista Collier-Jarvis (Krista.Collier-Jarvis@msvu.ca) by July 14th, 2026.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Student Bodies
Student Bodies (1981) is one of, if not the first, slasher comedy film. It is fairly rough around the edges if I recall, but still an important film in the early days of the genre. It would take a while to kind of juggle the two genres successfully, perhaps the first Scary Movie (2000)?
Personal copy of Student Bodies on DVD.
Student Bodies DVD signed by Robyn Flanery.
Way back in the 2000s, I was hooked on buying Mike Nelson commented movies from Legend Films, and they released Student Bodies, so of course I plucked it up. I sent my copy off to actress Robyn Flanery who graciously signed it.
The Strangeness
Two decades before The Descent (2005) there was The Strangeness (1985), though The Strangeness did come 5 years after Alien 2: On Earth (1980), when it comes to subterranean horror.
The Strangeness was one of those films I discovered during my Stephen Thrower/Nightmare USA phase in the 2000s. This movie was talked about in great detail in Thrower’s book, and I was tracking down all the movies I could. The only copy of The Strangeness I could find at the time was a British import from 23rd Century, a DVD label of dubious quality. I mean, look at that skull on the back. Generic much?
Personal copy of The Strangeness DVD.
Strangeness DVD signed by Mark Sawicki.
Regardless, I plucked up this film to add to my growing Nightmare USA collection. I did reach out to Mark Sawicki, who worked on the film and asked if he could autograph it for me, and he said sure!
Years later Code Red released a much better version of this film. Time for a re-watch!
New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal acquisitions.
The Last Legion and Seventh Son
Michele and I took our periodic trip to Zia Records the other weekend. I’m always on the lookout for some peplum and peplum-adjacent movies when we are out and about and this time I scored two!
Personal copies of The Last Legion and Seventh Son.
The first is The Last Legion (2007). I’ve been on the prowl for this one for a while, especially since it is mentioned in Dr. Wetmore’s essay in The New Peplum. That’s on the to watch pile for sure, and possible Peplum Ponderings article?
The second is Seventh Son (2014). I’ve never heard of this movie before and bought it because it looked like a post LOTR cash grab. Turns out I was wrong and it is based off a series of grim dark young children’s fantasy novels from the Spook’s series by Joseph Delaney. So, this is more of a post-Harry Potter cash grab as kids fantasy was in. Didn’t no one learn from Eragon (2006) a decade earlier? Regardless, it could be fun, so I look forward to checking it out.
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
Michele Brittany and Travis Lakata have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast where they dive into season 2 of the cult television series Lost.
Philippe Gerber has a new remix that just dropped.
Sobaki Tabaka Remixes cover art.
Under his John 3:16 moniker, Philippe has done a remix of the song “V Bezdne” by Sobaki Tabaka that appears on the remix album Sobaki Tabaka Remixes. The album is released by Industrial Complexx and is available at Bandcamp.
New Janet Joyce Holden Books
My friend Janet Joyce Holden has two books that are coming out at the very beginning of February.
Palladium’s Resolution and Palladium’s Insurrection by Janet Joyce Holden.
They are titled Palladium’s Resolution and Palladium’s Insurrection. Blurb below for what these are all about.
Here is the Amazon link for all of the books in Holden’s Palladium series.
Press Blurb
Rogan is a troubled clairvoyant who can see more than most, but when he teams up with the monstrous Jake, a Khir’gham Guardian of the Void, it’s for an undeniably good cause. Keeping the hungry Void from invading Jake’s home of Palladium, and thereby saving Rogan’s own world from destruction.
Except a hitherto mysterious threat has now fully revealed itself. Carl Drake, visionary CEO of Stormquell and secretly one of Palladium’s mighty dragons, is not only hellbent on breaking his exile and reclaiming what he has lost, he has greedy ambitions regarding Rogan’s world, too.
The series reaches its climax in the final two novellas, Palladium’s Insurrection, and Palladium’s Resolution. The confrontation they always feared is now on the horizon, its arena shifting from the glossy mansions of Benedict Canyon, to the Southern California high desert, and finally into the fragile world of Palladium, and it’s up to Jake and Rogan to save the day. Except the task of killing dragons, not only seems impossible, its consequences will prove devastating and unforgivable. Perhaps Rogan and Jake will survive, but at what terrible cost?
Palladium is a series of high fantasy and dark adventure, containing monsters, dragons, interdimensional worlds, along with the all too human attributes of trust, courage, and family treachery.
Arriving on Tuesday 2nd February.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Brand new episodes of the Fan2Fan podcast are now online. Aside from the CD collecting episode above, there’s a plethora of other episodes since the end of December. Check these all out:
Alas, I could not keep the momentum going so I missed a week, but this is still pretty prolific for me getting these reviews written and published.
Vanya #7 cover done by Sean Joyce. Image from the Bad Bug website.
My review of issue seven of the neo-jungle girl series Vanya is now online and can be read here. Technically, I am now all caught up on this series! I do have a PDF of issue eight, but not the physical copy and associated Kickstarter swag, and since I like to cover that sort of stuff, a review of issue eight will have to wait until it arrives (which should be in the near future).
Upcoming: Interview with Jeff Mariotte
Want to give a heads up to my readers to come back this Wednesday. I conducted an interview with Jeffrey Mariotte and it is going online on the 6th! You don’t want to miss it!
UncoveringStranger Things – Italian Edition
Uncovering Stranger Things, edited by Kevin Wetmore and published by McFarland in 2018 (see their product page here) now has an Italian edition!
Publisher Cue Press has published a translated version of this collection (it looks like back in 2023?) and here is the cover art:
Italian edition of Uncovering Stranger Things published by Cue Press.
I segreti di Stranger Things can be purchased at Cue Press at this link here. If you want to read my essay about Stranger Things and synthwave music in Italian, it is called “Notti perse e giorni pericolosi: Il disfacimento delle relazioni fra Stranger Things e synthwave” in this publication. Check it out for sure!
Aside from a brief snippet of my Castle of Blood/Danza Macabra masters thesis being translated into French (see below!), this is the first time something I’ve written has appeared in another language (in its entirety). Career milestone unlocked!
Panthans Journal #339
The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my review of issue two of the adult/neo-jungle girl series Vanya: The Lost Warrior. Of course my write up can also be read at my website here.
National Capital Panthans #339.
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.
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 there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry 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 the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chiefand Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335
“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
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 or I am sharing on behalf of my colleagues. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain
This session is sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America.
American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1935-1910) achieved lasting fame as Mark Twain, an identity that served as both his pen name and the persona he cultivated for the public. Twain’s writings and his distinctive character have dispersed across time and space, and the resulting Twainian tradition incorporates these elements in many ways.
Importantly, his works and iconography have long been the focus of adaptation. This process begins with the illustrations commissioned for the initial publication of his texts, Twain’s own attempts to rework and expand his stories, and contemporary caricatures of his person, and it continues with retellings of Twain’s stories, linked texts (such as prequels, midquels, and sequels) connected to his work, recastings and restagings of his tales, and new adventures for Twain himself. These adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of Twain appear in diverse forms and formats including anime series, artworks, cartoons, comics, films, games, historical fiction texts, home video releases, graphic novels, illustrations, memorials, musical theater productions, mysteries, performances, plays, radio broadcasts, science fiction works, sculptures, song lyrics, stamps, television programming, theme park attractions, and tourist sites.
Each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy. They also highlight both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired. A resource guide for the session can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/TwainianRegenerationRG.
We seek proposals that engage with these texts in the belief that each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy and highlighting both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired.
Friday and Saturday, October 17–18, 2025 (Eastern Time) Virtual conference (digiHPAC)
Deadline for proposals (academics & community members): September 1, 2025
ABOUT: The Harry Potter Academic Conference returns for its 14th annual gathering, which will be a fully online format known as digiHPAC. We are a non-profit, interdisciplinary conference that provides a forum for scholarly inquiry surrounding the Harry Potter literature and related cultural phenomenon. Open to scholars of any experience level, from established academic researchers to community members and students, this is a space curated to be inclusive and welcoming to all. The conference is held in person at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in even-numbered years and online in odd-numbered years.
PRESENTATIONS: digiHPAC presentations are presented over Zoom, live or pre-recorded, in 30-minute windows (20 minutes for presentations and 10 minutes for Q&A). Panel discussions, teaching sessions, or other alternative proposals may request a longer presentation time. Topics can include, but are not limited to, close textual criticism, diversity and inclusion, psychology, philosophy, political science, and film, music, religious, and fandom studies. Past presentations have been accepted on the Harry Potter book and film series, the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the Potterverse in dialogue with other works. More information about HPAC can be found at harrypotterconference.com.
PROPOSALS: Please submit abstracts of 150–250 words describing your proposal at harrypotterconference.com/submit. Multiple abstracts may be submitted but will be evaluated individually. Submission deadline is September 1, 2025, and acceptance notifications will be sent by mid-September 2025. Any questions? Please email Patrick McCauley (mccauleyp@chc.edu) and copy harrypotterconference@gmail.com.
Please see our website for HPAC’s statement on our commitment to maintaining an LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive space in the fandom.
Cinema’s First Epics in Focus: Silent Epic Film from Literary Adaptation to Contemporary Epic Narratives
Though epic cinema is most commonly associated with the mid-century triumphs of Hollywood, its origins extend far deeper into the history of the medium, reaching back to the earliest days of film, long before the advent of sound. The first documented uses of the term “epic” in relation to film stem from the nascent Italian industry, where monumental productions like L’Odissea (1911, dir. Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan) not only astonished audiences with unprecedented scale but employed vast promotional efforts to assert a distinctly national— and as Maria Wyke and Pantelis Michelakis have noted, overtly nationalistic—cinematic identity. This movement towards epic during the silent era, often drawing inspiration from classical epic poetry and Christian narrative, has been understood to be important in the broader context of the nationalist fervor that swept through Europe in the years leading up to and following the First World War, yet has been curiously overlooked by film scholars, due in large part to the fragility of early film materials and inconsistent archival practices which have led to the loss of many key works. This neglect is particularly regrettable when we consider that the silent epic was central to the major artistic and ideological shifts that defined the early cinematic project, deeply enmeshed in the ontological debates over cinema’s status as a visual and rhythmic art—debates that were especially vibrant in early French and German cinema—and later in the drive toward naturalism that would come to dominate Hollywood, championed by figures such as André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. The continued presence of the epic, from the silent era through to the sound era, underscores its fundamental role in cinema’s dialogue with other arts as well as its longitudinal development, and in recognizing the centrality of early epics to the history of film, this edited volume seeks to reassert their study, not only as historical artifacts but as key contributions to an ever-evolving art of cinema.
Building on the conversations initiated during the Cinema’s First Epics in Focus conference (May 2025), we aim to build a comprehensive edited volume which gathers a selection of expanded papers from the event, complemented by new scholarly contributions that critically engage with the silent epic and its reverberations across film history, media theory, and related fields. We hope to move beyond the framework of film philology completely, opening up the field to more interdisciplinary approaches that consider aesthetics, temporality, material culture, and the shifting meanings of “epic” across media in interconnected relation. We believe this collection would fill a significant gap in the scholarship and could serve as a foundational reference for future work on both epic and early cinema as, to our knowledge, no existing volume addresses the silent epic across such a broad yet coherent set of methodologies and global perspectives. We are particularly interested in contributions that interrogate the intersections between epic form and silent cinema through innovative and open methodologies—whether from film and media studies, classical reception, visual culture, performance studies, or archival research. By foregrounding these diverse perspectives, the volume seeks to move beyond narrowly textual or genealogical approaches, and instead open up a wider discursive field through which the silent epic can be understood as a transmedial and transhistorical phenomenon.
While the volume retains the conference’s original focus on adaptation, national identity, cinematic scale, and the episteme of early film, the discussions brought forth by participants have revealed key thematic axes that we now wish to foreground:
Genre:
The volume seeks to examine the epic as a contested and evolving genre. Contributions may explore the tensions between prescriptive and descriptive models of genre, the shifting boundaries between epic and tragedy across media, and the historical and theoretical slippages in the definition of “epic” across literature, cinema, and other arts. We welcome work that revisits classical, romantic, and modern theories of genre in light of early cinematic practice.
Time and Temporality:
Essays may address the intersections between epic time and cinematic time, considering how film reconfigures notions of epic duration, rhythm, and repetition. We are particularly interested in studies that employ film theoretical methodologies—such as montage theory—to reframe literary epic, and vice versa.
Material Culture and Reception:
We encourage research on the material and institutional contexts of silent epic film: distribution networks, live musical accompaniment, promotional ephemera, newspaper reception, and archival challenges. To what extent do these material elements participate in constructing the epic as a form? How might production and reception conditions shape our understanding of the epic mode in film? How important was this surrounding context for the epic’s formation as a cinematic mode in the silent era?
The Silent Era:
What makes the silent period uniquely generative for the epic form? We invite proposals that attend to the technological, stylistic, social, economic and industrial specificities of the silent era, and their formative impact on the emergence of cinematic epic traditions.
Adaptation and Intermediality:
How are epic modes rearticulated through the visual and narrative strategies of early film? What happens to epic’s narrative authority, scale, or temporality when it migrates across media? How does medial transposition function for the epic—what is gained, lost, or transformed in the process of adaptation? We welcome contributions that consider the semiotic logics at work in each medium and how these shape the reception and reinterpretation of epic structures, characters, and themes.
Identity:
We welcome analyses of the epic as a cultural and political form, examining how epic narratives serve as mediators of national, social, or class identity. How does the epic negotiate questions of inclusion, exclusion, and transformation within diverse sociopolitical contexts, both in its production and reception?
In addition to these central themes, the volume remains open to broader considerations of silent epic film, including (but not limited to):
Representations of mythological, biblical, or historical themes;
National cinemas and epic aesthetics;
Theatricality, realism, and expressionism in silent epic form;
Gender, class, ethnicity, colonialism, and spectatorship in early epic cinema;
Archival recovery and the status of lost or restored epic films;
Scale and mise-en-scène in silent epic film;
Modern cinema and silent epic film;
Comparative studies of silent epic film, particularly on marginal or non-angloeuropean film.
We are currently preparing a formal book proposal to be submitted to a major academic press, with Blackwell and Routledge among our intended publishers.
Submission Details:
Please submit your complete text (maximum of 8000 words), along with a short biographical note (max. 150 words), to the editors by September 15th, 2025. Contributions may be written in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, but accepted papers must be submitted with an English version for publication.
Contact:
Vítor Alves Silva (University of Porto) – up202204445@up.pt
João Paulo Guimarães (University of Porto, ILCML) – guimaraesjpc@gmail.com
Larson Powell (University of Missouri Kansas City, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Film – Emeritus) – powelllar@umkc.edu
We look forward to receiving your proposals and continuing the vibrant conversations sparked by the conference.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Lord of the Rings (Bakshi Version)
Decades before Peter Jackson amazed audiences with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi put out the rotoscoped masterpiece of The Lord of the Rings. I’m a huge Bakshi fan (Cool World FTW!), and I remember watching this movie when I was young and, frankly, being kind of terrified by it.
Personal copy of the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings film, signed by Peter S. Beagle and Steven E. Gordon.
Anywho, I met Bakshi once, at SDCC back in 2006, where he signed some of my other movies, but at the time I didn’t have a copy of LOTR. However, in the years since I’ve procured a copy and had it signed by two folks.
The first is Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, but who also did the screenplay of the Bakshi LOTR. He was a guest at a Glendale Vintage Paperback Show where he signed my DVD.
Next animator/cartoonist Steven E. Gordon sign my DVD. Gordon worked with Bakshi on a couple of projects (like Fire and Ice). He is a staple of the different comic book conventions in the LA area. He did a pinup girl commission for me one time – I’ll have to share that!
New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-rays
Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959) have two brand new HD/Blu-ray releases from Artus films! Check these bad boys out:
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-rays from Artus Films.
As far as I can tell (looking at dvdcompare.net) there has not been an English/state-side Blu-ray release of either Hercules or Hercules Unchained yet (which is rather strange since they are iconic, important films in the peplum genre). So if you want a Blu-ray of these films, Artus seems to be the only release currently (but there is no English audio or subtitled on either). PeplumTV.com has a few musings about the possible print source of these releases, which can be read here.
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Bernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
Cyanide Constellations and Other Stories (Photo provided by Sara Tantlinger)
Sara’s new book can be pre-ordered from Dark Matter Ink – here is the book’s product page. The release date is October 21st, just in time for Halloween!
My publisher, McFarland books, is having a Holiday sale on all of their tiles! From November 15th to December 2nd, if you use code “HOLIDAY24” during checkout, you’ll get a 35% discount.
If you want to support me, consider buying a copy of The New Peplum or Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern:
Normal Price: 19.99 35% = 6.99 Price after coupon: 12.99
A Hero Will Endure Paperback Relese + Discount
Vernon Press, the publisher of A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, has just released a cheaper, paperback version of the book, just in time for Gladiator 2!
A Hero Will Endure.
The paperback is at the much more friendly price of $57 compared to $96 for the hardcover and $107 for an electronic version. All editions of the book can be found at the Vernon Press product page.
In addition, the publisher is offering a coupon on purchases of the collection! From now until the end of January 2025, if you use code SLZM30 at check out, you’ll get 30% off the title. So, the $57 book now becomes $39.99. Nice!
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:
I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. There currently is a fundraiser going on to raise funds for the ERB plaque, and details for that can be found in the QR code in the above graphic, or by checking out the donation page at the Sulphur Springs Valley Valley Historical Society. 3.8K of 5K has been raised already.
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 publishing endeavors so far in 2024.
National Capital Panthans Journal #326.
Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.
National Capital Panthans Journal #327.
Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.
National Capital Panthans Journal #328.
Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #328.
National Capital Panthans Journal #329.
Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #329.
National Capital Panthans Journal #330.
“Wondercon 2019 Coverage: Tarzan, John Carter, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.: What’s New?” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #330.
Calls for Papers/Proposals
Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Edited by Dr. Naomi Simone Borwein and Dr. Krista Collier-Jarvis
Building on discussions in the edited volume, Global Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi, 2025), this is a call for chapter proposal submissions focused on the topic of Contemporary Indigenous Horror. Beautiful, luminous and resonant moments of horror exist in the work of writers like Shane Hawk, Kim Scott, Tiffany Morris, Waubgeshig Rice, or Ambelin Kwaymullina. But Indigenous horror tales thrive in many narrative or storying forms—from fiction, plays, and music, to graphic novels, art installations, or experimental films fortified by sonic and oral manifestations.
In response to the forthcoming inaugural essay collection, Global Indigenous Horror (2025), Judith Leggatt states, “Global Indigenous Horror is a timely and welcome addition to the growing field of Indigenous Horror studies.” Over the past decade, there has been a (re)surgence in Indigenous works focusing on tales of horror, such as Anoka: A Collection of Indigenous Horror (2011; Hawk); Ajjiit: Dark Dreams of the Ancient Arctic (2011; Tinsley and Qitsualik); Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Anthology Collection (2023; Hawk and Van Alst Jr.); Whistle at Night and They Will Come: Indigenous Horror Stories (2023; Soop); Midnight Storm, Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories (2022; Soop); Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories (2019), Moosebumpz: Scary Stories from the Rez, and The Land Has Spoken—Tales of Indigenous Horror (2024; Hawk and Rogers), and Zegaajimo: Indigenous Horror Fiction (2024; Akiwenzie and Adler), just to name a few.
Responding to the widening gap between Indigenous horror and academic responses to it, editors Naomi Simone Borwein and Krista Collier-Jarvis solicit contributions for Contemporary Indigenous Horror. Shane Hawk broadly defines horror as that which “prioritizes the fear factor, often using graphic depictions of violence, monstrous beings, or otherworldly threats to achieve its effect. The ultimate purpose of horror is to confront the reader with their deepest fears, creating an experience that is visceral and unsettling.” When taken up by Indigenous storytellers, horror often engages with a colonial past that has never really passed, and as such, it haunts contemporary Indigenous peoples and communities. Indigenous horror thus often blends traditional stories as well as Indigenous ways of knowing and being with contemporary issues. In many cases, Indigenous horror is about our lived experiences, not as the victim of ongoing coloniality, but as resistance. According to Elizabeth Edwards and Brenna Duperron, “Indigeneity is a resistance — in the usual sense of opposition, repudiation, and refusal to comply […but also] resistant to assimilation. Indigeneity is the lived and embodied experience of peoples who have participated in that resistance” (94). In many other cases, Indigenous horror is about what Scott Gordon calls “colonial whiplash,” where “white people who haven’t turned into zombies [or other monsters] are at the mercy of the oppressed”—their Indigenous saviours. And in other cases, what Indigenous horror is has yet to be revealed.
Chapters (6,000-8,000 words including bibliography) may examine modern, contemporary representations of Indigenous Horror from a variety of perspectives. With a focus on analysis of current horror (narrative) production by self-identifying artists, writers, and other creators, some areas of consideration include, but are not limited to:
the future of Indigenous Horror;
Indigenous futurisms;
Indigenous futurism in relation to Afrofuturism;
the post-apocalyptic;
after the Anthropocene (or other labels);
pre-contact/post-contact;
Indigenous “monsters”;
Indigenous identity/identities;
unsettling, activism;
love, reciprocity, and horror;
Indigenous horror and visual, digital, or textual sovereignty;
mixed media, experimental media;
virtual, embodied, extended, or augmented reality;
multisensory installation and the horror experience;
ecological discourses and horror manifestations in relation to speculative narratives;
interrogation of “rewilding” and alternatives;
decolonization of Indigenous stereotypes in mainstream Horror and their counterparts in Indigenous narratives;
authentic Indigenous horror images, visions, “metaphors” or “motifs”;
social media and h/Horror in relation to fiction marketization;
sonic landscapes of horror;
systems of Indigenous horror that move between fiction, film, music, and other media;
NDN and Horror media;
inter-tribal horror/Horror and trans-Indigeneity or pan-Indigeneity;
exploration of various land-based, place-based, sky-based, star-based, or water-based horrors in narratives by Indigenous creators;
blood, heredity, categorization, and holocaust/genocide narratives;
reconciliation;
virtue signalling, horror, media cultures and spaces;
metacommentary;
analysis of Indigenous Gothic and Horror;
Indigenous Horror fiction and ways of knowing;
reading (and teaching) Indigenous horror fiction;
horror systems as epistemologies;
Indigenous Horror fiction and scholarship;
and more.
This follow-up collection seeks contributions from self-identified Indigenous scholars in any stage of their academic journey. We also encourage submissions from allies to the community. To acknowledge the various ways in which Indigenous scholarship may emerge, we welcome both traditional as well as more exploratory approaches, including submissions of proposals for non-fiction works by self-identified Indigenous storytellers reflecting on the process of writing, or otherwise producing, horror.
Please send a 250-word abstract and a 100-word bio to editors Naomi Simone Borwein (nborwein@uwo.ca) and Krista Collier-Jarvis (Krista.Collier-Jarvis@msvu.ca) by May 30, 2025. Accepted chapters will be due June 30, 2026.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
Gladiator 2 Cinemark Popcorn Bucket
Collectable popcorn buckets are becoming a big thing now. Gladiator 2 has one, of course. Thankfully this bucket could be ordered online instead of actually going to a Cinemark theater. So, of course I ordered a bucket:
Gladiator 2 Popcorn Bucket – Side View
Gladiator 2 Popcorn Bucket – Top View
Sword and Sandal Blu-rays
Coinciding with the release of Gladiator 2 in November, there’s been a handful of older pepla getting new releases on UHD/Blu-ray. In mid November three came in the mail: Steelbook edition of the original Gladiator (2000), a new cut of Caligula (1979), and a new edition of Hercules Returns (1993).
4K/Blu-ray releases of Gladiator, Hercules Returns, and Caligula.
Rest in Peplum Tony Todd
Tony Todd, horror actor extraordinaire best known for his portrayal as Candyman, passed away. He starred in a handful of pepla: Xena (1995-2001), Hercules (1995-1999), Beastmaster 3 (1996), and Minotaur (2006).
Michele and I had the honor to meet him way back in 2008 at a horror con in SeaTac. He autographed my Criterion Collection edition of The Rock (1996):
Criterion Collection version of The Rock, autographed by Tony Todd.
When Candyman 2021 came out I did an article on bands that sample dialogue from the original Candyman (1992). Do check out that article to see some innovative ways that Todd lives on via textual sampling.
Art of Michele Brittany
Michele has started a Facebook Page devoted to her crafting and art. If you want to check out her projects or purchase some of her journals, give the page a like and follow!
The peak years of the 60s Italian peplum cycle and the 80s sword and sorcery cycle have many films with transgressive, subversive, erotic, or excessively violent content. The Italian wave of pepla presented overt sexuality with their portrayal of vamps, belly dancers, shirtless strongmen, harems, and sexual seductions. With lax attitudes of what could be portrayed in media, the 80s wave of barbarian films upped with violence with overt gore, but also turned retrospective with more meta and parodic content.
Iconoclastic writer J. Manfred Weichsel seeks to tap into these eras of subversiveness with his new edited anthology, Sword & Scandal. The volume contains twelve short stories of sword and sorcery that is on, as the title suggests, the scandalous side. In this interview Weichsel talks about his newest endeavor and the future where he wants to take the scandal formula with other genres.
Sword and Scandal cover.
What is your relationship with the sword & sandal and sword & sorcery genres? What got you into them? What are some of your favourite texts from these genres?
I’ve been reading sword & sorcery for as long as I’ve been reading books. I’ve probably read all the same stories everybody has; Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mauser, Kane, and stuff like that.
As for sword & sandal movies, a friend from college who first got me into world cinema, Evan A. Baker, showed me the Mario Bava Hercules movie in the late 90’s, but I didn’t do a deep dive into the Italian peplum stuff until very recently.
I’m a regular contributor to Cirsova Magazine. The publisher was doing an anthology called The Mighty Sons of Hercules, that was an homage to the old peplum movies. I was invited to contribute, so of course I did a thorough study of the genre in preparation for writing my story. And that’s how I got into it. I think my favorite one I’ve seen so far is Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules.
Calydonian Boar Hunt by J. Manfred Weichsel
You’ve dabbled with the sword and sandal genre before with “Maciste in the Land of the Snakes” (from the aforementioned The Mighty Sons of Hercules anthology) and your short novel The Calydonian Boar Hunt. What was the genesis of how this story came about? What was the primary goal you wanted to accomplish with this specific book?
The Calydonian Boar Huntis actually set during the bronze age, before there was hard metal to make swords with. I know it looks like the guy is holding a sword on the cover, but it’s supposed to be a stone knife!
The book is based on the eponymous Greek myth. I became interested in The Calydonian Boar Hunt years earlier, after seeing the famous Peter Paul Rubens painting at the Getty Museum in LA illustrating a scene from the story. Years and years after first seeing the painting, I was sitting at home during the pandemic, deciding what to write next, and I realized it was the perfect time to do a deep dive into Greek mythology. I remembered the painting and the impact it had on me and began to research the myth.
The Calydonian Boar Hunt takes place shortly after the story told in the film Jason and the Argonauts, and features many of the same characters. It’s the generation before the Trojan War, and many of the Calydonian hunters also either appear in the Trojan War as older versions of themselves, or are the parents of major figures in that story. It’s a very central myth in the Greek canon, so it gave me a lot to work with.
Of course, my books are comedies, so my retelling of the myth may be a little different in tone from what modern readers are used to. Well, many of the original Greek myths, such as the Argonautica of Rhodes, were comedies too, so my retelling is also closer in spirit to the original than many modern readers might suspect.
he Calydonian Boar Hunt by Peter Paul Rubens. Public Domain image provided by The Getty Museum.
The Kickstarter for Sword & Scandal hinted it was looking for transgressive peplum-inspired stories, but the final collection is less sword & sandal and more sword & sorcery. Based on the types of submissions you were getting for the project, was there a commonality you noticed? Something like you didn’t receive as many peplum stories as sword & sorcery (that one genre is more popular than the other)? Or maybe you received a decent amount of stories from both genres but that the sword & sandal stories tended to be lacking in those transgressive elements that you were looking for when compared to sword and sorcery? Or something else?
Of the twelve stories in the anthology, most can be described as falling into various subgenres of sword & sorcery. For example, “Kai-zur the Godless” by David Carter is a pretty pure barbarian story. But “Windblades” by C. L. Werner is a samurai tale, and a really violent one too, like a 70’s Toei movie. And “Flesh and Ink” by Rebecca Buchanon has a really unique premise. It’s about a female assassin whose tattoos leap off her body and kill her victims.
There are also a few folk tales in the mix. For example, “The Baron with a Thousand Cats” by Gary Every is a retelling of an Italian tale about a groom who must save his bride from suffering prima notte with a grotesque baron. And “The Harem of Al’Azeri” by Jasiah Witkofsky is set in the Arabian world in 1,001 Nights. There’s even a weird tale the anthology in “Vermina’s Creature,” by Bitter Karella.
I really only received two submissions that read like peplum movies, and while both were great, they shared the same problem, which was that I was looking for stories that placed their focus on sex, and these stories placed their focus on the violence. So, they were good, but they weren’t great fits for the anthology.
Sword & Scandal is overt in its want to feature stories heavy on sex, nudity, and violence. Aside from these facets, there other means to push genre boundaries to their limits. What are other transgressive and avant garde elements featured in Sword and Scandal?
The most subversive element you can put into fiction nowadays is humor. If you look at old books and movies, even if they weren’t comedies, they still had humorous elements, such as, for example, irony. But nowadays, humor is so absent from popular entertainment that audiences don’t know what to do when they encounter it. And because they don’t know what to do, they become frustrated, and respond by getting angry at the book or movie for frustrating them. This had led to a pervasive idea in our culture that if something is funny, that must mean it’s bad.
I want to help society get beyond this prejudice. This shouldn’t be terribly hard a task. It’s such an ingrained part of human nature, that it should be obvious what you are supposed to do when you encounter humor. You’re supposed to laugh! So, I actively looked for stories that were funny, in order to reintroduce humor into popular entertainment.
One of the funnier stories in Sword & Scandal is “Abduction from the Seraglio” by David J. West. This is about a sellsword who is hired by a man to rescue his girl from a harem, but… well… I don’t want to give the punchline away. Another funny story is “Shaven Beards” by Ross Baxter. This one is full of rude British humor!
Were there any specific stories in Sword & Scandal that blew you out of the water because you had never read anything as uncompromising/perverted/graphic/etc. before?
Every single story in Sword & Scandal was one that, the moment I read it, I knew I needed it in the anthology. Many of the stories contain graphic sex, but not all of them. That wasn’t a prerequisite. A few were chosen not because they have sexual content, but because they have sexual themes. I was looking for stories that were dangerous in some way, and I think that describes all the tales in the book, whether they are graphic or not.
But, to answer your question, the sex scenes in “The Gateway of Pleasure” by Jim Lee are insane, like, really hardcore. This is a story where a knight rescues a damsel in distress, and she rewards him with a blow job and a lot of sex. “The Snow Princess” by Pip Pinkerton is, in part, an outrageous porn parody of Disney’s Frozen, with a great scene where the girls use magic to create an Ice Golem and then have sex with it. There’s lot of lesbian sex in this one too. And “He Who Sows” by Austin Worley is about two female thieves who break into a temple to steal the stone phallus from a fertility God, only to become enchanted by it and start playing with it.
In 80s sword & sorcery cinema terms, on a scale of Deathstalker I (for sex and nudity) to Deathstalker II (for irreverent humour), how would you situate Sword and Scandal?
I love both the Deathstalker movies for different reasons. Jim Wynorski has a few movies like Deathstalker II, where they were sequels to bigger budget movies, but instead of going for a cheap cash grab like other directors in such situations would, he created really unique movies that, while they don’t have much to do with the original, are a lot of fun. 976-EVIL II is probably my favorite out of these.
As for your question, there is a lot of sex and a lot of irreverent humor in Sword & Scandal. Enough to satisfy fans of either film.
Sword & Scandal was financed via a successful Kickstarter campaign. What were some of the obstacles you encountered while running the Kickstarter? Will crowdfunding be a model you will use go forward for other entries in your Scandal series?
I got the idea to use Kickstarter because Cirsova used it to raise money for The Mighty Sons of Hercules, a book I mentioned above. I made sure to play an active role in the Kickstarter, both to help that anthology happen, but also to learn about fundraising so I could run my own campaign one day.
Kickstarter was great because it allowed me to do so much more than I would have been able to otherwise. I mean, without Kickstarter, I wouldn’t have been able to offer payment to the writers or have interior illustrations! I would have just written the book myself like I normally do, which was my actual backup plan had the campaign failed. So, I will definitely use Kickstarter for any future anthologies I do, including my next one, Jungle Scandals.
My process was a little different from Cirsova’s. He asked the writers to write stories up front, and then used the table of contents in his fundraising campaign as he raised the money to pay us. I ran the Kickstarter first and then had an open call for submissions. I like doing it this way because it gives me the greatest flexibility in choosing the stories that are best for the anthology.
Author photo provided courtesy of J. Manfred Weichsel.
Your contribution to Sword and Scandal, “Confessions of a Wicked Harpastum Player,” was the result of one of the Kickstarter perks where the pledger could design their own story. That pledger, Alexander Joyner, wanted “a tale with a female protagonist, about women’s soccer, with torture and lesbians.” That is quite the order – how did you go about tackling this compared to stories you pen yourself?
Well, instead of soccer, I used Harpastum, which is an ancient ancestor of modern soccer. Then I added a lot of sword & sorcery elements, such as having them play the game with a severed head instead of a ball. I came up with a sexy plot involving torture and lesbians, and voila.
Overall, writing it was a fun experience. I often start outlining a story with an image or a few images in my head, so outlining one where the images were given to me didn’t change my process very much. If anything, it forced me to be more creative and to think outside the box. It was a fun experience, and one I hope to repeat in the next book.
Aside from your introduction to the book, you also gave space for your artist, Apolonster, to share his musings and importance of working on the project. How did you connect with Apolonster? How did you two collaborate on the interior artwork, juggling artistic asks, feedback, and so on.
When I want to hire an artist, I usually go onto websites like DeviantArt and search artists until I find one that is already doing what I want to do. Then, I contact the artist to see if they are looking for work.
I found Apolonster when I was looking for somebody to do the cover to my novel Into the Bush. The moment I saw his portfolio, I knew I wanted to hire him, because he had some pictures that were exactly in the style I wanted.
I knew Sword & Scandal would be a much more complex project than that one was, because it needed a painted cover as well as interior illustrations. Apolonster is a talented and versatile artist who was classically trained at a European art academy, so when I started thinking of people to ask to do Sword & Scandal, he was my first choice.
My process for working on illustrations is that I write a worksheet that usually ends up being a couple of pages describing for the artist what I want, and then the artist gives me concept sketches. I pick one, and the artist makes the art.
Unfortunately, Apoloonster won’t be available for the next anthology for personal reasons. I already have the painting for the cover, and I’m looking for somebody right now to do the interior illustrations.
The next anthology in your Scandal series is going to be Jungle Scandals. What is some news you can share about that project? And aside form Jungle Scandals, what can folks expect to see from you in the near future?
I’m currently writing a science fantasy book called Space Escapades, which I plan to be the final book in my Action Girls trilogy of books about three ditzy wannabe Hollywood starlets.
I am creating the Kickstarter campaign as we speak. I hope to launch it early next year. I’m also working on a novel for the first time since my last one came out in March. Exciting things are on the horizon.
The Mighty Sons of Hercules anthology published by Cirsova.
Do you see yourself revisiting the sword & sandal genre? If so, where would you like to take it next?
I want the “scandal” to be its own genre. I get into this in the introduction to Sword & Scandal. So, I want to do a bunch of differently themed books in the Scandal anthology series. The next one is Jungle Scandals, and then after that I want to do a science fantasy themed book, maybe called Planet Scandals or Outer Space Scandals. I’m going to do one called Scandal & Sorcery at some point, and might also do one called Sword & Scandal vol. II. I’m really taking them one at a time right now, so we will see what the future holds!
I do know that Cirsova is thinking of doing another Mighty Sons of Hercules anthology, and I really want to be a part of that if he ends up doing it.
I’ll probably revisit peplum at some point regardless. The thing is, if you look over my website, I have a pretty restless imagination and my books tend to all fall into different genres. I never really know what I am going to write next until I finish the book I’m working on.
Sincere appreciation to Weichsel for his time for this interview. For more information on Sword & Scandal, J. Manfred Weichsel, and Apolonster, check out the following links:
The first issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies: An Unauthorized Three Stooges Fanzine is slated to be published in mid-November. I have an essay in this debut zine on the Three Stooges short, Matri-Phony (1942). For more information contact Will Sloan (website) or keep an eye out on his social media.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
The cool kids at Fan2Fan Podcast have published an episode on the 1985 Lovecraftian cult, splatstick classic, Re-Animator. I am honored they have asked me to be a guest on this episode!
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
For fun, here is my Re-Animator DVD (the old school version from Elite Entertainment) autographed by Charles Band (who owned Empire who produced the film).
Band autographed this at his Full Moon Roadshow he did in Seattle in the late 2000s. I am not sure why I don’t have Stuart Gordon’s signature on this, I met him at a Monsterpalooza in Burbank and he signed my other movies. I can only think that I couldn’t locate this DVD in time or it was packed away.
And finally, here is my copy of Bride of Re-Animator, also signed by Band.
Alas, I do not own a copy of Beyond Re-animator.
McFarland Horror Sale
My publisher, McFarland, is having a sale this month on their horror titles. If you use code HALLOWEEN2023 during check out you’ll get a 25% discount on the horror tiles. An entire list of eligible titles can be found here
Numerous books I’ve been a part of are included in this sale. If you want to pluck something up I’ve either co-edited or contributed an essay to, now is a good time!
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
We are running a little off kilter this month for podcasting (getting prepped for CoKoCon, other projects popping up). We are a week late, but our monthly episode is now online!
In the newest episode, Michele and I discuss two short stories from Douglas Wynne’s new collection, Something in the Water and Other Stories: “The Enigma Code” and “Tracking the Black Book.”
The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player above, or through your podcast app of preference.
General Neo-Peplum News
Recent Acquisitions
This past week has been great for loot being delivered.
First, issue #2 of Band of Warriors, which was Kickstarted earlier this year, arrived. It came with a poster signed by Samuel George London, a copy of the issue proper, and a bookmark.
An ICYMI, I interviewed London twice about his Band of Warriors comic. Those interviews can be found here and here.
Next my preorder of the new Kino release of Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World arrived. It contains a reversible wraparound, so pictured here is the sleeve and the alternative cover art.
Finally, a copy of 1313: Hercules Unbound! also arrived. This is a David Decoteau film, and his modus operandi is young shirtless guys in their undies walking around (see Bigfoot vs. D.B. Cooper). I’m intrigued by his dabble in neo-peplum fare – we will see how campy it might get (Meet the Spartans campy?).
Issue 16 of the tiki magazine Exotica Moderne has been published!
Cover art by James Owens.
This issue contains my review of the forthcoming coming bizarro novel Dead Monkey Rum by Robert Guffy. This issue can be ordered at its product page at the House of Tabu website.
Republishing Zeena Schreck Interview/Review
I am working on consolidating my writing I’ve done for other websites and my old neofolk blog into one location. This also gives me an opportunity to edit or remove content as well.
The first article I’ve brought over is from 2020 and it is my interview with Zeena Schreck about her debut EP, Bring Me the Head of F. W. Murnau, that also has a review as well.
Back in June (on my birthday!) I did a recap of all the projects I’m juggling. Almost all those projects got completed/released, so it’s time to show what I am working on currently:
CoKoCon Prep – CoKoCon will be over Labour Day Weekend. Michele and I were asked to be on a panel about pre-code horror films. That means through August we are going to [re]watch some classic films to get some refreshers. We are also going to double stack and use one of the films we watch as a topic for this month’s Scholars From the Edge of Time episode.
H. P. Lovecast – New episode will drop this upcoming weekend and an interview episode at the end of the month. Our August focus is on Douglas Wynne’s new collection, Something in the Water and Other Stories.
Acylum/Vikings Sampling Essay – Still working on this presentation to turn it into journal format.
Exotica Moderne – My next submission for the tiki magazine will be a write up on the video game Call of the Sea. Michele and I will also use this as a subject for a future H. P. Lovecast episode.
Writing Consolidation – I’ll be moving my Awen interview/review over to this website this Wednesday.
Sylvia Kristel Book Review – This will be the next book review I’ll published here. I’m 2/3s done reading it, I’ve been reading a chapter a night.
General Neo-Peplum News
Those About to Die Series
Roland Emmerich is working on a series for the Peacock streaming service called Those About To Die, which is about gladiators. Deadline has a full article about it.
Recent Acquisitions
Went to Zia’s over the weekend which is always a fun get away that also turns up interesting treasures. My haul on music and movies was really light this time, despite being prepared with an actual list!
Aside from plucking up an MCD single (remember those?) of [:SITD;]’s Laughingstock (side note: check out my write up of the music projects that sample the original Candyman movie, which [:SITD;} is one of), I found a vinyl release of the original Hercules soundtrack and a budget DVD of Demetrius and the Gladiators (I believe Twilight Time put out a nice edition a while back, but it is way OOP).
MERC Publishing just released issue one of their neo-peplum comic series, Born of Blood.
Two versions of issue 1 from my personal collection.
I did a write up of all the Kickstarter loot I received along with a few observations in the first issue. Check out my article here.
AnnRadCon Presentation Online
This past weekend was StokerCon and with it was the fifth year of Michele’s and my Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Still decompressing from the event. Our scholars rocked it out the park with their presentations.
I am making my presentation, “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in The Call of the Cthulhu,” publicly available. It is a short, 17 minute presentation applying Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Desire to H. P. Lovecraft’s renown story. Check it out in the embed above.
Raw Dog Screaming Press/AnnRadCon News Articles
Michele and I are deeply grateful for Raw Dog Screaming Press for sponsoring AnnRadCon this year. RDSP sent out a press release about their sponsorship and other endeavors, “Black Authors and Academics Shape Horror Business,” and it was picked up by a few venues:
Between now through May 31, use coupon code MEDIEVAL25 to receive 25% off all medieval studies books on the McFarland 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
I am a Barbarian Preorders
A luxurious version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ peplum story, I am a Barbarian, is being released by Cedar Run Publications.
Limited to 600 copies, the graphic novel will come in two versions, the difference being a presence of a bookplate signed by Thomas Simmons, Mike Dubisch and L. Jamal Walton. The book will be posted the week of June 15th. More information can be found at the Cedar Run Publications website.
Jesus the Christ (1923) at Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has updated his Bible Films Blog with a write up of the silent film Jesus the Christ from 1923.
Picture from Page’s Bible Films Blog
As a reminder, Page’s book, 100 Bible Films, comes out this week! Don’t forget to preorder at Amazon and Bloomsbury.
Recent Acquisitions
Lots of sword and sandal loot arrived in the mail last week!
Shout! Factory had a sale on their going out of print titles, so I used the opportunity to pluck up Blu-Rays of Hercules and Hercules 2 starring Lou Ferrigno. I also picked up a Lethal Ladies 2 Collection that contains the original version of The Arena.
Kino did a nice release of Son of Samson which I’ve had pre-ordered for a while now. That pre-order just arrived. Side note: Kino, if you need someone to do a commentary track or essay on a future sword and sandal release, hit me up!
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.
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:
ANNOUNCEMENT: RDSP a Sponsor of @StokerCon We are a proud sponsor of @AnnRadCon1 which is part of StokerCon weekend and features the academic study of horror and its cultural effects. Check out our full announcement and a list of topics and presenters: https://t.co/rtVjTjtDuFpic.twitter.com/Ps7KnWmWbW
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!
