Tag: Hercules and the Captive Women

News

News Roundup: March 2026

Post author By Nicholas Diak
Post date March 31, 2026

Personal / Website News

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:

Peplum

Peplum Ponderings: Comparisons of Hercules and the Captive Women Blu-rays

Post author By Nicholas Diak
Post date March 25, 2026

Hercules and the Captive Women (1961, Vittorio Cottafavi) is a classic peplum from the golden age of Italian sword and sandal films of the late 50s to early 60s. Focusing on the more fantastique elements of the genre (that fight with Proteus!), the film received a second life and renewed longevity when it was riffed on a season four episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, joining the ranks of other pepla such as Hercules Unchained (1959, Pietro Francisci), Hercules Against the Moon Men (1964, Giacomo Gentilomo) who were also honoured on the series.

Aside from its appearance on MST3K, Hercules and the Captive Women has another unique facet to it: its availability in physical releases that sports a print/cut of the film in a decent condition. The peplum cycle contains a few hundred entries, but a vast majority of them have not seen re-released in an accessible fashion, and those that have are often released on subpar editions derived from generations of VHS recordings, cropped, stretched, degraded, blurry, and so on, but released by budget labels such as Brentwood and Alpha Video. These are epic movies, but the viewing experience for many of them is anything but. So, when a classic peplum title gets a release that has a quality image to it, that is a big deal!

Back in 2021 The Film Detective released a Blu-ray of Hercules and the Captive Women. This release was jam packed, not just with an HD version of the film, but also the MST3K version, a commentary, documentary, essay, and other supplemental features. The sleeve states the movie is a “4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative”. This sounds like a great thing!

The website PeplumTV did a review of The Film Detective Blu-ray of the film (which can be read here) and found the release to be disappointing regarding its image quality (especially with colours). The website did a vast number of comparisons between the Retromedia DVD, an Italian TV broadcast version, and the Blu-ray edition of the film, and visually, well, there are some huge differences.

Technical specification of a film is not my forte since I am more into the textual aspect of a movie, so I cannot really comment if The Film Detective version is inferior or superior, only that it is different (at least colour-wise). Since this edition purports to come from the original negative, I have to assume it captures Cottafavi’s original vision of the film as close as possible, which could mean the colours are actually correct (note: I have not dived into all the supplemental material on this release, so this matter may be overtly addressed). Or it could mean it is a botched restoration.

DVDBeaver, whose specialty is comparisons of physical releases of a film, doing not just frame comparisons but dive into hard technical subjects like bitrates, codecs, etc., also has a write up about The Film Detective release of Hercules and the Captive Women (which can be read here). Surprisingly, their write up does not do a frame comparison to other physical releases (but that is like their thing!) like the PeplumTV review does. They do provide lots of screenshots, praise the supplemental material, but do state that the film looks

“..abnormally faded. The source density appears compromised in the beginning but eventually holds up reasonably well. The overall 1080P is modest, mostly flat without an abundance of grain but some colors have depth (more in the second half – plenty of burnt orange) and it has instances of showing a pleasing image.”

This statement, coupled with PeplumTV’s write up, paints the picture that, though HD, this is a lackluster edition of the film.

Cut to five years later. Film Masters, who specializes in restored editions of classic films, though go the route of bare bones on supplements, release their edition of Hercules and the Captive Women. The cover simply states “restored in HD.” In my February news roundup at my website (link here), I briefly talk about picking up this new copy of Hercules and the Captive Women and thought about doing a comparison between it and The Film Detective version for fun. So, let’s do it! Let’s see what I can add to the dialogue about this film and its HD editions.

Firstly, I lack the technical prowess that DVDBeaver has, and like I mentioned before, film specs are not my forte. I want to make sure I make that overt as I put this write up here.
My methodology for this:

I used a Pioneer BDR-XD08S Blu-ray player to read these discs.
I used MakeMKV (I’m at vesion 1.18.1) to import the movies onto my Mac.
Watched the movies using VLC (version 3.0.20).
Skimmed through the movies looking for scenes with different colours or lots of objects in the mise-en-scene. Used the snapshot function to take a picture of the frame.
I noted the time stamp, put the other movie in, fast forward to that time stamp as close as possible and used snapshot (so it is possible I may be a few milliseconds off between the frames).
Because my webhost has limits on image size, I opened up each image, resized each one so the longest side was 1000 px (note: I do this with all images I upload to my website). These snaps were not altered in any other way (such as using a cropping tool).

Of quick note:

The Film Detective Blu-ray had four files on it (three being the supplemental material) with the movie coming in at 19.18 gb.

The Film Masters version had only one file (the movie) which came in at 21.51 gb. The difference in file size could be attributed to compression?

Title Screen of the movie. It says Hercules and the Captive Women and the words sit atop a pillar. — Film Detective – 22 seconds.

On the title card, the Film Masters edition looks slightly redder.

An older man in a white toga talked to another man in a stone room filled with candles. — Film Detective – 5 minutes, 11 seconds.

Film Masters looks darker, but only by a little bit.

Hercules stands in a sail boat in the middle of the blue sea. — Film Detective – 12 minutes, 10 seconds.

Again, not much of a difference save Film Masters appears darker, most noticeable in the hair.

Hercules strains to pull a large chain. — Film Detective – 20 minutes, 29 seconds.

Both versions have a very thin, vertical “scratch” near the top right of the frame. It looks equally pronounced in both. Though my timing skills are lackluster at capturing the exact frame, (side by side Hercules moves a bit), looking at the rock background and all the nooks and crannies, everything lines up. This tells me that both versions are at least cropped the very same and show the exact same information in each frame.

A royal woman with a totally not anachronistic black beehive hairdo stands menacingly in a courtroom. There are lots of men in white robes behind her. — Film Detective – 33 minutes, 40 seconds.

Again, only a subtle difference in the Film Masters being a tad bit darker, mostly noticeable in the background stone roof.

A man in a white robe talks to the black beehive lady in a bedroom. — Film Detective – 44 minutes, 9 seconds.

Unlike the title screen in which the red was “redder”, that is not the case here. Both frames looks equally orange-red, with Film Masters, again, being darker.

Hercules stands in a dark cavern with a toppled wall behind him. — Film Detective – 69 minutes, 11 seconds.

Last set of images, again, Film Masters looks darker, more apparent in this already dimly lit scene.

Overall, both The Film Detective and Film Masters version of Hercules and the Captive Women look comparable to each other. There is not a huge, glaring difference in colour between these two Blu-ray releases, unlike the PeplumTV article which shows radical differences between the editions it examines. The biggest difference of these two release is the Film Masters iteration looks darker. I am not sure why, perhaps The Film Detective version has contrast boosting? However, the title screen of the Film Masters edition has more pronounced reds, which overall, is a colour that has been orange-ified in both Blu-rays. With that in mind, that means the Film Masters version is probably closer to being the version with the most ideal presentation of the film between these two specific releases. In my opinion, both are fairly interchangeable with each other, and both convey the movie in a nice resolution. Aside from The Film Detective having more supplemental materials, either version of the film will do for a pleasing viewing experience.

Tags Hercules, Hercules Against the Moon Men, Hercules and the Captive Women, Hercules Unchained, MST3K, Peplum, Sword and Sandal, Vittorio Cottafavi

News

News Roundup: February 2026

Post author By Nicholas Diak
Post date February 28, 2026

Personal / Website News

Vanya #8 Review

First new article for 2026 and it is a review of the adult, neo-jungle girl series Vanya!

Cover depicts Vanya, crouched in foliage, drawing back on a bow. It is kind of dark, with a little beam of light coming through the leaves. Her red hair is in a pony tail. — 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!

Image shows the Synapse blu-ray boxset next to the Synapse DVD. On top of both is a well space Deadly Spawn toy. The DVD is autographed "Thanks Nick! Best Wishes, Douglas McKeown" — 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!

Square podcast thumbnail. Done in an old Golden Age of Hollywood style. There is a chevron style diamond in each corner. In the center is a film reel. It says Talkin' Talkies hosted by Robert O. Ottone. — Logo for Robert Ottone’s Talkin’ Talkies IG vidcast.

Aside from Ottone hosting and myself as a guest, the other two guests were some rad folks: Michael Varrati (co-host of Midnight Mass podcast) and Adam Allen (co-host of the Horrifically Well Read, Bled, and Said podcast). Check out their pages and podcasts.

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.

Standard Blu-ray case. Cover shows A roman soldier swinging a sword at a legion of other soldiers. Above them are headshots of Olga Kurylenko, Michael Fassbender, and Dominic West. — Personal copy of Centurion on Blu-ray.

The episode can be streamed on YouTube.

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.

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

Original can be read here.

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

Original can be read here.

New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions

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).

Standard blu-ray case. Cover is mostly white. It shows the legs of a Hercules character, with a goblet in hand, spilling out. Between his legs is a blonde woman in a blue top and bottom. There are flames behind her. You know that poster for the Bond film, For Your Eyes Only? it's just like that, but with a muscle man legs instead of a Bond girl's. — 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!

Standard black 4K case. Cover shows a statue holding a shield. The words "Ben-Hur" diagonal. Below that is Charlton Heston on the Chariot with 4 horses. — 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!

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

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.

Snap case DVD. Cover shows a woman in the throes of passion, eyes closed, holding a candle in her hand. In black marker it is signed "Nick - Lots of Love! Stella Stevens — 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.

The duo kick off their post-Lost content talking about The Thursday Murder Club:

And then move on to a new show, Falling Skies!

Here is their discussion on Falling Skies, season 1, episode 1:

And then episode 2:

And finally, episode 3:

Make sure to subscribe the Ride the Stream YouTube channel to see when new episodes drop.

New Fan2Fan Episodes

Brand new episodes of the Fan2Fan podcast are now online.

First is their episode “Earl Owensby with Noel Manning“:

Then “Cinema, Criticism & Classrooms with Noel Manning“:

Followed by “Friday the 13th Franchise Part 1“:

And “Film Reviews: At the Movies to the Algorithm“:

This is followed by a new series of episodes called “Monster Mania”.

First there is “Monster Mania: Defining Monsters & Universal Horror“:

Next is “Monster Mania: The Wolf Man 1941“:

And then “Monster Mania: Creature from the Black Lagoon“:

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).

Cover is a black and white photo of actress Joanna Pacula. It is a close up of her head, with her chin resting on her arms. — 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.

Cover depicts a woman with long hair, lots of magic/rune-like tattoos on her face and arms. She is walking barefoot through a forest with pointy sticks and thorns on the ground. — Morgana Pendragon cover art by Claudia Ianniciello.

Check out the campaign on Kickstarter.

The End is Trending Trailer

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.

Cover depicts two ladies, both new wave style, kind of like Gem and the holograms. They are holding guitars/guns and have stars painted over their faces. They look to be rocking out. — Laser Joan and the Rayguns.

Check out the campaign here.

Action Girls Kickstarter

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.

Cover says "Action girls: Triple Threat. Jungle Jitters. Into the Bush. Space Escapades." It shows there circles, each with a themed lady in them: a jungle girl, a safari lady, and an astronaut girl wearing fishnet stockings. — 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.

News

News Roundup W/E 2021-04-25

Post author By Nicholas Diak
Post date April 26, 2021

Personal / Website News

Podcast News – H. P. Lovecast

Brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Presents: Fragments is online. In this episode Michele and I talk about the film The Vast of Night. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.

We’ve also finished conducting interviews for our first episode of H. P. Lovecast: Transmissions. This week, Michele will be editing the episode and publishing it the final day of April. Guests on the debut are Candace Robinson and Howard David Ingham.

Podcast News – Scaredy Cats

Recently I was a guest on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. That episode has been published and it can be listened to at Buzzsprout or any other podcast platform.

Podcast News – Scholars from the Edge of Time

New episode of The Scholar from the Edge of Time is online at BlogTalkRadio. In this episode I discuss the video game Story of a Gladiator. Stay tuned as I do a write up on this neo-peplum game for my website here.

This upcoming Tuesday I’ll also be making another appearance on the Voice of Olympus program.

General Neo-Peplum News

Thor: Love and Thunder

Gladiator star Russell Crowe has revealed he will be playing Zeus in the upcoming Thor film.

Rest in Peplum

Felix Silla passed away at the age of 84. He was in numerous sci-fi and fantasy products (such as playing an Ewok in Return of the Jedi) but for the sword and sorcery genre, he was a voice actor in Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings film.

Polish actress Wiesława Mazurkiewicz passed away at the age of of 95. She was in a Polish peplum film called Pharaoh (1966).

Rest in Peplum To Physical Media?

Animation historian Jerry Beck has posited that Warner Brothers is transitioning away from physical media and devoting more to streaming content and HBO Max. Come 2022, it sounds like Warner will shutter their physical line of DVDs and Blu-Rays being produced (but they could possibly be outsourced to another company). Regardless, there’s a few peplum films under the Warner Achives Banner at risk. Fans may want to consider plucking them up. Some titles include Hercules, Samson And Ulysses, The Colossus of Rhodes, and The Slave.

Hercules and the Captive Women

Hercules and the Captive Women recently got a nice re-release on Blu-Ray. Previously only available as a DVD in the long out of print Hercules Collection published by Retro-Media years ago, the new Film Detective release has many bells and whistles, including the MST3K version of the film. Specs can be found at DVDBeaver.

Tags Hercules, Hercules and the Captive Women, Lord of the Rings, MST3K, Pharaoh, Podcast, Ralph Bakshi, Return of the Jedi, Russell Crowe, Scaredy Cats, Story of a Gladiator, The Slumber Party Massacre, Thor, Ulysses

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