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?).
The Kickstarter for issue 2 is also in the interview, so consider supporting.
Cthulhu Mansion Voted for HP Lovecast Episode
It’s unanimous: 92.9% of voters on our Twitter poll selected Cthulhu Mansion as the film Michele and I will watch and discuss on the June episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast.
Blu-ray from my personal collection.
We have not seen it before, and though it is Spanish, it looks like it has all the right qualities of a fantastic 80s Italian horror film. We’re excited to watch it and talk about it.
For fans of Feed the Light, worry not! We will visit that movie down the road.
Thank you all who partook in our poll. We will do another in the future.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Transmissions – May
The May episode of HP Lovecast Transmissions will be published Tuesday, May 31st. In this episode we interview writer Thomas Blakeley and director Matthew Toronto about their upcoming musical, A Dream at the End of Time, and Dorian Williamson and Jim Field of the dark ambient band Northumbria. Subscribe to our podcast via your app of preference to be notified when it goes live!
Scholars from the Edge of Time – Moon Knight
New episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online. This one is on YouTube (was done via Zoom) and has special guest Travis Lakata. We all talk about the Disney+ series, Moon Knight. I, unfortunately, had to take off mid-vidcast for unexpected phone call.
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
Witcher Short Story Review at Fanbase Press
In sword and sorcery news, Michele has a write up over at Fanbase Press on The Witcher: A Grain of Truth.
I’ve been playing a lot of State of Decay 2 on the ol’ Xbox lately, having a blast… blasting zombies.
Screenshot I nabbed. Might have to zoom in, it’s kinda dark.
Over the weekend I was looting a house and was kinda checking out some of the background elements in the game and I found a faux-boardgame sitting on someone’s table. It’s called The Aquaductor, and it looks to be a neo-peplum board game of sorts – probably like Carcasonne but with Roman aqueducts. I’d play it if it existed!
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!
My essay, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth,” has made the preliminary Bram Stoker Award ballot in the short non-fiction category. Note: this does not denote I am nominated or a finalist. It simply means I am on the preliminary ballot and have a 50% chance to advance to the final ballot.
Active and Lifetime members of the Horror Writers Association who would like to read my essay for final ballot consideration find it online at Academia.edu. Note: if there is a big ad in the way taking up the screen, just hit the X at the top right. Academia.edu is silly that way.
New H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode
New episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany. Mighty cat of Ulthar is Algernon.
In this episode we focus on two short stories from New Maps of Dream, released by PS Publishing and edited by Cody Goodfellow and Joseph S. Pulver Sr.: “The Dankness over Dylath-Leen” by Scott R. Jones and “The Malls of Ulthar” by Matthew M. Bartlett. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
The last day of this month we will post our Transmissions episode which will feature interviews with Matthew M. Bartlett, Christine Morgan, and Kaaron Warren. Stay tuned!
H. P. Lovecast Bram Stoker Prelim Ballot Recap
During 2021 Michele and I had the honour to review the works / interview the folks that have appeared on the preliminary ballot. A listing of those episodes (from both H. P. Lovecast and Scholars From the Edge of Time) will be listed below in an effort to promote the writers and their works in their respective paths to the final ballot.
Small press publisher Things in the Well looks to be closing shop in a few weeks. This means two of their anthologies that I have short stories published in will be going OOP:
Amazon links to buy both books are in the links above. Thank you all who have been curious about my fiction work and who have bought these books. I’ll find a home for these short stories in the future.
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 Acquisitons
Been a while since I plucked up some pepla films. I went on Amazon and procured these two items:
I’d never seen Ulysses before, but Justin Decloux mentioned it as an essential sword and sandal film in one of the supplements in his release of Fury of Achilles (read my write up) and it’s been on the wish list to get for a while, so time to scoop it up.
I was also in the mood for some 80s sword and sorcery. The new Blu-ray releases of the Deathstalker films from Shout Factory are already out of print! So this four pack will do instead, and that’s fine. But seriously, some Shout Factory Blu-Rays just go OOP right away. I recall last year trying to find their versions of Slumber Party Massacre 2 and 3 and what the hell?
While exploring the Transcending Obscurity Records Bandcamp site I happened upon the neo-peplum metal album Dust of Aeons by Towards Atlantis Nights.
I ordered this album back in November I believe and it came all the way from India, arriving last week. I’ll be giving it a listen this upcoming week. Cool cover!
I’ve aggregated all my 2021 accomplishments on this post while also listing projects I expect to realize in this new year. I thank the folks who have supported me or provided me platforms immensely.
H. P. Lovecast Transmissions Episode
Our last episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast for 2021 is online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
This is our monthly transmissions episode where we interview a few folks. In this episode we interview Jennifer Barnes, Lee Murray, and Rena Mason about their work with Attack from the ’80s. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or your podcast app of preference.
AnnRadCon CFP is Closed
The CFP for the 5th Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference at StokerCon 2022 has now closed. Thank you to all who submitted abstracts. Michele and I will be going over them during the first two weeks of January and sending out acceptances.
Highlander CFP
When one CFP closes another one opens!
Adrian Paul has way more charisma than Christopher Lambert.
Michele has a CFP that just opened on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays about 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
Recently I scored two Black Emanuelle vinyls from Light in the Attic records and it got me really nostalgic.
Two Black Emanuelle vinyls I procured. I just need a record player!
I grew up with the Sylvia Kristel Emmanuelle films and got into the Laura Gemser Black Emanuelle films when I started studying Italian genre films when I was working on my masters. One of my bucket list items has been to do a book on the Emmanuelle films and their various knock offs, sequels, and so on because no such book exists. I think it’s time to bite the bullet and get the process going for this project.
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I’ll be publishing an official CFP for essays on Emmanuelle, Emanuelle, and the other Emmanuelles out there. 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!
Things in the Well Closing Shop
Small press publisher Things in the Well looks to be closing shop in a few weeks. This means two of their anthologies that I have short stories published in will be going OOP.
Amazon links to buy both books are in the links above. Thank you all who have been curious about my fiction work and who have bought these books. I’ll find a home for these short stories in the future.
General Neo-Peplum News
Bible Films Blog: Once Upon a Time in Bethlehem
Matt Page has a new review up at his Bible Films Blog.
It’s on the 2019 Italian Biblical neo-peplum film titled Once Upon a Time in Bethlehem. Page’s write up can be read at his blog.
Severin Caligula Releases
Severin Films is releasing two Italian porno-pepla in February.
The first is Joe D’Amato’s 1982 film Caligula: The Untold Story and the second is Bruno Mattei’s 1981 Caligula and Messalina. Severin is offering quote a few options on pre-ordering these films:
Yours truly, of course, has already pre-ordered these. Expect essays later on!
Born of Blood Comic
I only learned about this comic because it appeared in an update email from another peplum comic I contributed to on Kickstarter. Of course, upon discovery, it has 40 hours left of its campaign, so by the time this news post goes up it will have ended. Regardless, a newish publisher called Merc Magazine is putting out a neo-peplum comic called Born of Blood.
Sorah Suhng cover
Mike Krome virgin cover
It looks like Born of Blood was previewed in prior published comics of Merc Magazine, Miss Meow and Deathrage, so I am a bit out of the loop of plot. Looking at the cover art, I see lots of Spartan imagery, so I am definitely intrigued.
As an aside, there has been a great uptick in what I call “pandemic peplum” comics appearing on Kickstarter. I have interviewed many of those creators already at my website:
Not to mention many others I’ve Kickstarted as well that I either have not written about or haven’t received yet: Gilgamesh Eternal #1, Teoatl, and Aztlan.
Anywho, I hope once I get Born of Blood 01, maybe I can do a review or interview the team behind it. But it’s so curious that so many sword and sandal crowdfunded comics have come out since the pandemic began.
I put in monies to get two versions of the first issue: a cover by Sorah Suhng and a virgin cover by Mike Krome. As you can see above, they look really sweet!
2021 was definitely a crazy and hectic year. The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world with multiple variants. Michele and I continue to play it safe: we mask up, limit us going out, and received our vaccines, though we need boosters soon. The move from Orange to Phoenix also required some normalization. There was also personal ailments, family issues, work woes, and lots of anxieties.
Despite all this, 2021 was a successful year on many fronts. I didn’t have any books published and outside my regular contributions to Exotica Moderne, nothing else saw physical print. However, Michele and I really ramped up the focus on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast. We launched an additional show and tweaked the format a little bit and the results so far have been quite positive. In 2022 we are going to concentrate on growing our audience, which right now as a cult following. But with 30 episodes published this year plus other podcast appearances, we were both successful on this front, and we hope the books and authors we featured also received a spike in promotion.
Vanity shelf at the end of 2021
What follows is a break down of all major 2021 accomplishments.
Co-chaired with Michele the 4th year of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
2 Conference Presentations
AnnRadCon
Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association
For some of the above accomplishments I’d like to give a shout out to: Brenda S. Tolian and Joy Yehle (Burial Plot Podcast), Sherri (Scaredy Cats Podcast), Hercules Invictus (Voice of Olympus Network), Ken Holewczynski (Exotica Moderne), Josh Viola (Hex Publishers), and Lee Murray (Mark My Words) who all gave me platforms and opportunities. I sincerely appreciate you all. Of course I have to think Michele for being my biggest supporter and partner in crime in these endeavors.
2022 Projections
Only a few days into the new year and 2022 is already filling up with new projects, opportunities, and publications!
A reminder, as the timeframe for recommendations closes at the end of the month, my essay, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” is eligible for the short non-fiction Bram Stoker award. Interested parties can read the 1,600 word essay at Academia Letters. Thank you for your consideration!
Citation News: Any Time But Now
Just discovered that back in 2019, my Stranger Things/Synthwave essay, “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days,” was cited numerous times in University of Cologne student David Hornyak’s bachelor’s thesis, “Any Time But Now: The Cultural Environment of Synthwave.” If you read German, their thesis can be read online. I am super flattered to find out I was cited 15 times!
AnnRadCon CFP December Deadline
The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference closes at the end of the month.
In case you missed it, Michele and I published a new episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast.
Michele at The Frida when we saw The Void back in 2016. Photo by Nicholas Diak.
Our new episode is on the cosmic horror/homage horror film, The Void. It can be streamed on our Buzzsprout website or your podcast app of preference.
General Neo-Peplum News
Aexylium’s The Fifth Season Review
Hal C. F. Astell has reviewed the new Aexylium folk/Viking metal album, The Fifth Season, at his website, Apocalypse Later.
Medusa Horror Film
Per this article at Deadline, Anna Chazelle is looking to write and direct a horror film centered on the mythology of Medusa for Fangoria Films. This will be great!
Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity Conference
Dr. Jeremy Swist will be curating a virtual conference called Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity.
Registration for the conference is free and is being held via Zoom.
Went to the Book Gallery in Phoenix today and plucked up this autographed book:
It’s called Gladiator: Fight for Freedom and appears to be the first book in a series. I’d never heard of Simon Scarrow before, but it looks like he has a fare share of neo-pepla fiction out there, so I’ll have to check it out. I love the autograph and the stamp in this one. Copy 50 of 100, woo!
Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, the academic anthology that Michele and I edited that is based on presentations from the first two years of our Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, is listed in the non-fiction section of Ellen Datlow’s book, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 13.
For November we will be doing an 80s-themed month for the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. We will be watching the film, The Void, and then looking at the Raw Dog Screaming Press anthology, Attack from the 80s. Keep an eye out for these episodes at our Buzzsprout website or on your podcast app of preference.
NanoWriMo
Michele is doing NanoWriMo! She’s working on a novel called Land of the Riverbank.
If you want to support her or follow her progress, her username is Mbrittany at the NanoWriMo website.
General Neo-Peplum News
Band of Warriors #2 Kickstarter
Samuel George London has officially launched the Kickstarter to fund issue #2 of his neo-peplum comic series, Band of Warriors.
Here are some new sword and sandal and neo-peplum artifacts I’ve procured.
Physical releases of sword and sandal films are drying up. These used to be very plentiful in the 2000s and early 2010s from budget companies. However, these mostly skipped the Blu-ray format and now exist on YouTube in even worse edits. Had an opportunity to pick up this 50 movie back of sword and sandal films which plugs a lot of gaps on my collection.
I really enjoyed Warkings’ Revolution that I bought from Zia’s Records a few weeks ago. I decided to buy their first two albums, Reborn and Revenge. Very nice power metal, though the lyrics at times are a little silly.
Our monthly Transmissions episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online. This month we interview Kathleen Kaufman, Janet Joyce Holden, and Heather Herrman.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Isidora #2 Unboxing
Over the weekend I received my copy of Isidora #2 and wow! was it packaged with so much loot. I decided to do a write up of unboxing its contents.
Sword and Sandal Podcasts
On Tuesday I was a guest on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal Special episode. I talked about the neo-peplum video game, The Forgotten City. That episode can be streamed/downloaded at BlogTalkRadio.
On Thursday Michele and I had our monthly Scholars From the Edge of Time episode, which is currently focused on the sword and planet genre. We discuss Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. This episode can also be streamed/downloaded at BlogTalkRadio.
For the month of October, we’ve had to flipflop out flagship episode with our Fragments episode. In this month’s Fragments episode we discuss Robert Eggers’ folk horror film, The Witch (2015).
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout website or via your Podcast application of preference.
Bram Stoker Campaigning
For the first time ever, I am going to throw my hat into the ring for the Bram Stoker Award process. I have an essay called “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” that is eligible for the short non-fiction award. If you are a member of the Horror Writers Association that is recommending works and are curious about my essay, it can be read at Academia dot Edu.
AnnRadCon CFP
The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is now complete. It will be put online on Monday and I’ll be posting it at this website as well.
General Neo-Peplum News
Follow Me Down Table Top RPG
Drowning Moon Studios has started a Kickstarter campaign of their TTRPG called Follow Me Down.
The RPG is based on the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice and the Kickstarter page describes it as such:
Follow Me Down is a tabletop roleplaying game for two players [and is] divided into eight sections, called Books of the Dead, where the characters journey through different parts of the underworld in search of one another. It is designed to be GMless, with each player portraying two roles during the course of the game. In each Book, one player takes on the role of The Fates (in what would normally be considered the GM role) while the other player portrays a character based on the archetype of Orpheus or Eurydice. The two players trade off, alternating who is playing their character and who is playing The Fates, until they reach The Gauntlet of Hope and Regret to determine how their story ends. There is a final scene between Orpheus and Eurydice, called the Denouement, which reflects upon the journey the characters have taken, and their relationship to one another at the end of the game.
