Tag: Joanna Pacula

Personal / Website News

Vanya #8 Review

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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).

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!

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!

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.