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Down Willcox Way: 2025 ECOF Recap

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering is a periodic, small convention of sorts, hosted by a member of the Burroughs Bibliophiles in different cities across America. It is an event that allows Bibliophiles and the public to get together to celebrate the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, purchase books and memorabilia in the “Huckster Room”, listen to presentations, have a banquet, bestow awards, or partake in a huge event, such as the 2023 ECOF in Palm Springs that centered on the unveiling of a star on the walk of fame in Palm Springs for Burroughs.

The 2025 ECOF was held in Willcox, Arizona over the weekend of September 26th through the 28th, and was hosted by Bibliophile Frank Puncer, who had hosted a 2019 Burroughs event also in Willcox. The 2025 ECOF’s primary focus was to celebrate Burroughs’ 150th birthday and commemorate his military service as part of the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the nearby Fort Grant. The ECOF proper was held at the Willcox Elks Club, with the main attraction, the unveiling of the Burroughs monument, occurring at the Willcox city hall, that once served as the town’s train station (the very same that Burroughs arrived at), that was just a short walk away.

Michele and I have been extremely excited to attend the 2025 ECOF. Having moved to Phoenix in 2020, we have been eager to do more road trips to explore the desert lands of Arizona and see more of the Old West. The trip southeast to Willcox promised adventure. We also knew of THE THING?, a tourist trap on I10 on the way to Willcox, and we love to play tourist. We were excited to finally meet Puncer in person, who I have been in correspondence with since moving to Arizona and who has been the most welcoming individual in the Burroughs Bibliophiles since I joined. I was also invited to give a presentation, an opportunity I jumped at. There is quite a bit of cross over between the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and the peplum genre (my specialty), so I had been working on a talk about the sword and sandal elements of Burroughs’ book Tarzan and the Lost Empire.

With all of this in mind, Michele and I counted down the days that we could get a respite from work and go on a road trip and partake in a unique, momentous event. What follows is a recap of the 2025 ECOF along with multiple photo galleries of pictures I took to document the occasion. 

Thursday

We left Phoenix around 9:00 am Thursday morning, our mighty Fiat filled with our luggage, snacks, items to sell, and items to have autographed. The day started off bright and sunny with bagels in our tummies. As we got closer to Tucson, however, the horizon started to darken, with curtains of rain off in the distance. We stopped at a Pilot Express truck stop on S. Rita Rd. to get some Slushies, and we could start to see lightning and pillars of rain becoming more common. 

Desert landscape taken from a truck stop. The clouds are thick and grey, with occasional pockets of sun coming through. In the center is a pillar of rain coming down.
Curtains of rain in the not too far distance.

Shortly after getting back onto I10 our radio cut out with an emergency broadcast: warnings of heavy rain, flash flooding, and hail. And we were driving right into it.

Driving down I0. It's a near empty freeway that dips down and then back up a hill. Three cars far up the road. The entire sky is slate gray.
Ominous horizon.

Once the sky turned apocalyptic dark, the temperature dropped rapidly. Feeling the window on the door it was super cold. Lots of thunder in the distance, and then the sky broke with extremely heavy rain, huge globules battering the Fiat (lucky no hail). We had to pull off to the side of the freeway for a spell. We saw poor motorcyclists pull over to put on their raincoats. The rain would soon abate and stop by the time we reached Benson. For the rest of the day, however, the skyline would be perpetually dark with storm clouds and rain pillars.

When it became safe to drive and we were back on our way, the billboards along I10 decreasing stopped advertising lawyers and instead, more and more, began advertising, THE THING?.

Billboard along the desert freeway, surrounded by green shrubs. The billboard is yellow. It says "THE THING? Exit 332 Black Hills Gold". Also there is a Shell and Dairy Queen logo.
One of the many THE THING? signed on I10.

These yellow billboards were everywhere, sometimes one right after the other. With each one we passed we got increasingly excited about checking out what THE THING? was. We hyped it up for ourselves so much, it had to be amazing.

After driving through Texas Canyon, which is filled with eroded boulders and rockscapes that make it look like a planet from the original Star Trek series, we could see just down the freeway, THE THING?, beckoning to us.

The Thing?

Pulling off I10, the outside of THE THING? looks like a large Shell station with a Dairy Queen attached to it. An aside, southern Arizona takes their Dairy Queens seriously. We saw more roadside adverts for Dairy Queens than any other fast food burger chain.

Nondescript white building side with a pair of black glass double doors. Above it, in stylized font, it says "THE THING? Entrance". Michele stands below it, pointing at the sign in amazement.
Michele stand in front of the entrance to THE THING.

Walking inside THE THING?, to the right was a bustling Dairy Queen, and to the left, a huge gift shop. This shop was filled with snacks, postcards, shirts, local artist doodads, toys, necessities, jewelry, novelties, stickers, rocks, crystals, Dinosaur things, just everything. The store could probably be said to be 1/3 devoted to THE THING?, 1/3 devoted to general Arizona trinkets, and the rest to normal travel items. 

On the far back wall, a counter manned by a very disinterested youth, where it costs $5 a person or $10 for a family (reasonably priced!) was the door proper to THE THING?. Here is a slide show of the major points of interest of THE THING?:

  • An alien, holding a laser gun, sits atop a raptor that has cyborg implants on its head. The exhibit looks like it is from the desert. Behind it, it says "Aliens vs. Dinosaurs".
    An Alien riding a Raptor greets folks who enter THE THING.
  • A jackalope - which is a rabbit with antlers, poses on the rocks under a Dino tail.
    A Jackalope hiding under a dinosaur tail.
  • A large triceratops. It is brown with blue eyes. it is roaring. Behind it, on the mural, is a UFO swooping in.
    A large triceratops.
  • Three aliens stand in front of the ramp that leads to a blue and green lit UFO. They look like they are scouting around like a Star Trek away team.
    Aliens arrive by UFO.
  • A large T-rex with its mouth open going Roar. The mural behind it shows aliens shooting lasers at dinosaurs and UFOs flying away from explosions.
    A huge T-Rex.
  • One of the many walls that shows a timeline and how aliens interacted with history. The one picture here is of the Roman Empire. It is captioned "Ancient history retold".
    An alt-history time line wall. I’m not saying it’s aliens… but it’s aliens.
  • A red model T. It has 2 seats. Its wheels have wood spokes. It looks incredibly uncomfortable to sit in.
    A red 1917 Ford Model-T Speedster.
  • A black Rolls Royce. In the back seat is a mannequin of Winston Churchill. A grey Alien is driving the car.
    Winston Churchill being chauffeured by an Alien in this Rolls Royce.
  • The Placard says: Here lies...the thing? What is it? That question has bewildered us for over 50 years! Some have had their theories. It was suggested an ancient curse was placed upon it and dire consequences awaited those who touched it. Or, could it be part of a large government scandal to cover-up a secret so terrifying, it could cause mass hysteria? What if... this is the ancient artifact discovered deep within the copper mines of Arizona? This display represents what the setting may have looked like when it was discovered. Of course, no one may ever know! So, we are still left to wonder... What is this mystery of the desert, the thing?
    The THING? placard.
  • In a glass case, lit with orange and blue lights, lay the thing. It looks like a mummified person, holding a mummified baby, with a hat placed over them.
    THE THING!

So, what is THE THING? Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the John Carpenter movie of the same name. However, ironically enough, back up the road in Benson, there is a road that runs parallel to the freeway called Dark Star Road, which is named after Carpenter’s directorial debut. Overall, it can best be described that someone watched every single episode of History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, decided to go all in on that theme, and set up an elaborate backstory that would cumulate into THE THING?.

THE THING? can basically be divided into two large segments that each make up half of the exhibit: the dinosaur portion and the alt-history portion. 

The first, dinosaur, section of THE THING? tells the story about an alien race, the RAH’thians, that came to Earth during the Dinosaur times. They used their technology to enslave the Dinosaurs. There were also cave dwellers. At some point there was a civil war between the good and bad alien factions, and the Earth got destroyed (start of ice age). This entire portion of the exhibit was over the top, with many statues of aliens, dinosaurs, fossils, and placards that went into intricate “what if” history of the aliens in the prehistoric past. Each wall was a mural depicting Jurassic times, or epic space and land battles.

The second, alt-history, portion of the exhibit focused on the aliens returning back to earth and shaping human history. The good aliens did good things, and the bad aliens did bad things, like back Hitler. The walls had timelines from ancient Greece and Roman times up to World War 2 times were everything, from atomic bombs to sunken ships, are all entwined with the aliens. This portion of the exhibit also contained many old vehicles, like stagecoaches and wagons, old Model T cars, and even a Rolls Royce purported to have been owned by Winston Churchill.

This all cumulated into a small, dimly lit room made to look like the inside of a deep mineshaft, with a glass display case hugging the wall that contains… THE THING?, which is supposed to link all this alt-history and dinosaurs and aliens and cave dwellers together. THE THING? itself looks to be a mummified woman holding a mummified baby with a hat placed atop of them. I like to think it is an actual mummy found out in the desert a long time ago, but it also might be a fake. Regardless, the whole experience was AWESOME. Getting pumped seeing the billboards, arriving at THE THING?, seeing the outlandish story of the aliens and dinosaurs, all leading to the mummy. 100% worth it.

Enthralled having experienced the awe that is THE THING?, I purchased an armload of postcards, fridge magnets, hot sauce, peanuts, and a T-shirt like the tourist I am. We were soon back on the road and heading east to Willcox which was about twenty minutes away.

Willcox Cemetery

We arrived in Willcox a shade before 2:00 pm. Since our check in at the Holiday Inn Express was at 3:00 pm, we had some time to kill, so we drove straight to the Willcox cemetery at the northeast corner of the town, more-or-less right behind the Elks Lodge that we would be hunkered in for the next few days.

The road to the cemetery was unpaved, and with the sky threatening another storm, would easily turn into mud which would no doubt trap our Fiat. Because of this, and the armies of red ants that awaited us, we could not stay long at the cemetery. Oh yes, red ants. There was probably a ratio of three red ant hills to every grave in the cemetery. The cowboy ghosts have much company.

The cemetery. Not many grave stones or markers are visible as most have toppled over, and the cemetery is overran with weeds and cacti. The distance is dark and full of storm clouds. The mountains in the distance show the Dos Cabezas Peaks. It looks like a pair of lips pursed up, trying to kiss the sky.
Willcox Cemetery.

The cemetery dates from the late 1800s, so all of the graves we saw were from that time period. The area proper was overgrown with prickly weeds, which, of course, I was wearing shorts while adventuring. The majority of graves had toppled over, broken into pieces and were slowly dipping back into the earth. A few wooden markers somehow survived the century. With the thunder clouds approaching and the general quiet of the high plains of Willcox, the cemetery was indeed atmospheric.

Grave of Warren Earp. It is made out of metal. It says "Warren Baxter Earp 1855 - 1900, The way it was". The grave has a picture of a cowboy hat, a bottle, a gun, a sheriff star, and a bull head.
The grave of Warren Earp.

Warren Earp’s grave was at the far end of the cemetery, forcing us to traverse through weeds, red ants, and accidentally stepping on fallen graves (sorry about that!). Warren Earp may not have been present at the infamous O. K. Corral gunfight, but he none-the-less has his own notoriety. There is even the possibility he might have driven the coach that took Burroughs to Fort Grant!

But, it was humbling standing before Earp’s grave. Right in front of us, was a legend of the Wild West, whose own history was connected to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the frontier, and so on. His grave stood out in the cemetery, as it was made of metal and seemed invincible among the crumbling ruins elsewhere.

After visiting the grave, Michele and I made our way out of the cemetery and proceeded to the Holiday Inn Express in hopes of an early check in. Awaiting in the lobby, also hoping for an early check in, was prolific author Jeffrey J. Mariotte, who was also the guest of honour at the 2025 ECOF! I had the privilege to interview Mariotte the other month in anticipation of the ECOF, and that interview can be read here. It was fantastic to finally meet Mariotte in person, he was extremely affable and quiet soft spoken.

Our room turned out to be on the top floor, lucky number 313. It was a room that had seen some wear-and-tear, with chipped wall fragments and a window leak above the AC unit. But the beds were comfy, the pillows were huge and fluffy, and we had William Shatner hosting paranormal nonsense on the History Channel, so we were all good! 

Looking west from the hotel room. The sky is very clouds, but also fiery from the setting sun. There is also a truck stop with many semis pulled in for folks to get some sleep.
The sun sets on Willcox.

Our room had a great view looking west and we got to watch some great sunsets and lightning storms during our stay. 

Friday

Early to bed means early to rise Friday morning, the first official day of the ECOF. Michele and I had breakfast in the dining area of the Holiday Inn Express, a rather small area at that. Attendees of the ECOF were not the only folks headquartered at the Holiday Inn, but The International Cessna 170 Association as well. Older folks with name tags galore: are they there for Tarzan or tailspin? Both parties present meant the breakfast area got cramped quick, so Michele and I would not linger too long. Eat and leave so other folks could have our spot. We do have to give kudos to the Holiday Inn for continental breakfast variety: hot foods (scrambled eggs, omelets, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, sausages), a pancake making Rube Goldberg machine, cinnabons, cereal, yogurt, juices, milk. 

The conference’s hotel is about two miles as the crow flies northwest of the Elks Lodge, a super quick less than ten minute drive. On the way over we could see storm clouds already forming on the horizon.

We arrived perhaps a little before 9:00 am, and the ECOF’s room was probably halfway set up by the other vendors. Michele and I chose an empty table near the back, being neighbors with guest of honour Jeffrey Mariotte. Before we could get fully setup, we had to go register where we got our name tag:

A rectangular badge that says "Edge Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship - ECOF 2025 - Nicholas Diak - Willcox, Arizona". The lanyard is blue.
My badge for the 2025 ECOF.

A copy of the program:

ECOF 2025 ProgramDownload

And a goodie bag!

The Goodie Bag

When attending conferences and conventions it is always cool to get a bag-o-swag. The ECOF 2025 goodie bag was loaded with treasures. Here is a slide show of each item (use the arrows to flip through):

  • A black bag that has the Gilead event poster art on it.
    ECOF 2025 swag bag.
  • The ECOF pin. It's a match of the poster. Art by Gilead. In blue lettering it says "Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship - ECOF 2025 - ERB 7th Cavalry Monument, Willcox Arizona, September 25-28, 2025, Celebrating ERB's 150th Birthday". The top of the poster shows Burroughs in uniform, Tarzan, John Carter, Dejah Thoris, a green alien with four arms, and the Apache kid. Below them is a row of old houses.
    ECOF Pin with artwork done by Gilead.
  • The ECOF poster. Art by Gilead. In blue lettering it says "Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship - ECOF 2025 - ERB 7th Cavalry Monument, Willcox Arizona, September 25-28, 2025, Celebrating ERB's 150th Birthday". The top of the poster shows Burroughs in uniform, Tarzan, John Carter, Dejah Thoris, a green alien with four arms, and the Apache kid. Below them is a row of old houses.
    ECOF 2025 poster, art by Gilead.
  • A postcard of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Plaque. It reads: Edgar Rice Burroughs 7th US Cavalry, 1896-1897. Edgar Rice Burroughs arrived in Willcox, Cochise County, Arizona Territory by train on May 22, 1986. With only one dollar in hand, he was able to get a room at the Willcox Hotel, a meal, and a bath. The next day, he traveled by stage to Fort Grant, where he was sworn in as a private in the 7th US Cavalry. As a Solider in Troop B, he counted for the outlaw Apache Kid and his band north of Willcox in the summer of 1986. Burroughs became world famous as the creator of "Tarzan of the Apes," "John Carter of Mars," and other works of fantastic fiction. His cavalry service inspired him to write two historical novels of the Apache Wars. Arizona left an indelible mark on the author, who featured it in a number of his stories. This plaque honors Burroughs' military service and all troopers, Buffalo soldiers, and Apache scouts who served with him at Front Grant, A.T. Dedicated September 1, 2025 on the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Donated by the Burroughs Bibliophiles, Burroughs Family, Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society, and the City of Willcox. The plaque is bordered by black and white photos of ERB, The Apache kid, Fort Grant, and Company A of Apache Scouts.
    ECOF 2025 Postcard of the Plaque.
  • A magnet of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Plaque. It reads: Edgar Rice Burroughs 7th US Cavalry, 1896-1897. Edgar Rice Burroughs arrived in Willcox, Cochise County, Arizona Territory by train on May 22, 1986. With only one dollar in hand, he was able to get a room at the Willcox Hotel, a meal, and a bath. The next day, he traveled by stage to Fort Grant, where he was sworn in as a private in the 7th US Cavalry. As a Solider in Troop B, he counted for the outlaw Apache Kid and his band north of Willcox in the summer of 1986. Burroughs became world famous as the creator of "Tarzan of the Apes," "John Carter of Mars," and other works of fantastic fiction. His cavalry service inspired him to write two historical novels of the Apache Wars. Arizona left an indelible mark on the author, who featured it in a number of his stories. This plaque honors Burroughs' military service and all troopers, Buffalo soldiers, and Apache scouts who served with him at Front Grant, A.T. Dedicated September 1, 2025 on the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Donated by the Burroughs Bibliophiles, Burroughs Family, Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society, and the City of Willcox. The plaque is blue, with the text in yellow. The plaque has a yellow border.
    ECOF 2025 plaque in magnet form.
  • A pen. It has a copper tip and clingy bit. The rest is black. In white it reads "Edgar Rice Burroughs".
    Edgar Rice Burroughs pen.
  • Small, thin paperback book. It is white, with a black and white photo of Burroughs leading a horse. The font color of the title is red.
    Small booklet for “Arizona Connections: In the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs” by Alan Hanson.
  • A coin and a display, still in its packing. The coin is large and has a headshot of Burroughs. It says "Edgar Rice Burroughs - creator of Tarzan and John Carter".
    ERB Inc., commemorative coin of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Front).
  • Back of the coin. It reads "150 Years - Celebrating the master of adventure, 1875 - 2025"
    ERB Inc., commemorative coin of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Back).
  • A paper booklet, almost a zine. It is a preview of Mariotte's upcoming book. The artwork shows a man fighting a lion, in the archery of some stone ruins, with a ruined London (there's Big Ben present) in the background. In black ink it is signed by Mariotte.
    A sample bit of Mariotte’s upcoming book Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn.
  • A black and white map of southeast Arizona from 1895.
    Map of southeast Arizona in 1895.
  • Two keychains made out of beads, turquoise in color.
    Beaded keychains.
  • The Willcox Medallion's back shows a train, with farm lands, and 2 cows. It looks like a little kid drawing. It says "Willcox Arizona, founded 1880". The back of the peace coin says "War Peace Honour in both Dragooon Mts. A.T. Treaty by Cochise Gen. O. O. Howard To Jeffords".
    Medallions commemorating Willcox, and the Chiricahua Apache Peace Treaty (Back)
  • The Willcox coin shows an Arizona flag, a man on horse chasing a bull, a train, a tractor, and a native American holding a flag on a horse. The perimeter of the medallion reads "City of Willcox, incorporated May 1915" The Peace treaty coin shows 2 hands shaking. Its perimeter reads "Chiricahua Apache Peace Treaty Oct 10, 1872 - 2022"
    Medallions commemorating Willcox, and the Chiricahua Apache Peace Treaty (Front)
  • Blue USB stick with a blue cord.
    USB Stick of movies.

Included in the swag bag, which was black and adorned with the event’s poster art done by Gilead, was:

  • The program
  • A poster of the ECOF event done by Gilead
  • A pin of the poster
  • A postcard of the ERB monument
  • A refrigerator magnet of the monument
  • A Burroughs pen
  • A copy of Arizona Connections: In the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Alan Hanson
  • A large commemorative coin from ERB Inc. of Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • A sample chapter from Mariotte’s Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn (this was actually supposed to be part of the swag bag, but it did not arrive in time to be included, so copies were at Mariotte’s table. But I am including it here)
  • A black and white map of southeast Arizona from 1895
  • Two beaded keychains (from a local artist?)
  • Medallions commemorating Willcox and the Chiricahua Apache Peace Treaty
  • And a USD stick with Burroughs home movies

This goodie bag was set aside for the first fifty registrants to the event, and there is lots of good stuff in here!

Vendors

Goody bags procured, it was time for Michele and I to set up our table proper. This has been only the second time we have ever vended at an event, the first time being CoKoCon back in 2023. 

Half of our table. This shows all of Michele's arts and crafts: there's greetings cards (a cute halloween one with a cat), and journals and folios. Michele sits behind the table wearing a denim jacket because she is a cold panda.
Michele’s wares at our table.

Hard to believe that going to comic book conventions and other events for almost twenty years, we have never really vended before. So, we are total newbies at it. Rotten luck on top of it, the Elks Lodge’s wifi was not accessible, on top of there being no cellular reception, made it that our Square would not work. This turned out to be ok, everyone paid in cash and Michele wrote up receipts for everyone.

Our table! It show's Michele's half of crafts and the other half with stacks of our books from McFarland (James Bond book, Horror in Space book, Horror Literature book, The New Peplum, The Twilight Zone book, and the Stranger Things book).
Our table!

As shown, we had a pretty good setup with a range of stuff to sell. Michele had her crafts: cards, journals, and folios (make sure to check out her Facebook page for all her work). My half of the table was all of our books, from The New Peplum to Stranger Things. Since The New Peplum has an essay in it talking about the John Carter movie, that book sold the most. 

Jeff sits at his table, which has a blood red table cloth with vines and roses on it. He's got a skull with a raven atop it. A pile of pens and markers. He's got piles of books, from westerns to thrillers to super hero stuff. He also has a sword.
Guest of Honour Jeffrey Mariotte at his table.

As mentioned prior, we set up shop next to Jeffrey Mariotte. Mariotte is a seasoned pro at cons, with a red tablecloth and decorations like a skull with a raven on it, a pile of pens for every autographing scenario, stacks of books from all the different genres he’s written in, and some other IPs as well, and, the most important thing, a sword! Mariotte was able to bring in a replica cavalry sword from his personal collection that would have been akin to what Burroughs would have used when he was stationed at Fort Grant.

Four folks stand together, arms around each other. Christopher Paul Carey is super tall compared to everyone else. Sullos is wearing a tiki-style shirt but of the desert.
ERB Inc. Left to right: Christopher Paul Carey, Cathy Wilbanks, Llana Jane Burroughs, and Jim Sullos.

Next to Mariotte were the tables for ERB Inc. which were staffed by Christopher Paul Carey, Cathy Wilbanks, Llana Jane Burroughs, and Jim Sullos. Sullos was rocking some tiki-style shirts throughout the convention. I have not seen the ERB Inc. folks since pre-Covid, probably the last time at Wondercon, so it was great to see them all again. Their table was half books, with a focus on newer editions, such as the authorized Tarzans, and half shirts and wearables. They also had more of their commemorative coins for other ERB characters. Lots of great merch.

Griffin and Buckingham at their table. In front of them are Griffin's Tarzan books and copies of their newly launched magazine, Reverberate.
Scott Tracy Griffin (L) and Gary Buckingham (R) at their table.

Across from Mariotte and ERB Inc.’s tables were Scott Tracy Griffin and Gary Buckingham. Gary had a huge spread of his many Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as Tarzan and the Lion of Judah and Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers, and Griffin had copies of his ornate Tarzan film books. Together they had copies of issue one of their newly launched magazine, RevERBerate, and issue two, which they just debut at the ECOF. Michele bought the second copy of the second issue and got it autographed by the duo.

There were, of course, tables with other vendors and authors. Authors Robert Lupton, Robert Leeper, Doug Hocking, Frank Puncer (who we finally got to meet for the first time and he was incredibly friendly), had tables with their books or website posters. There was one vendor with many boxes of old pulp magazines, from Weird Tales to Amazing Stories. Robert Leeper’s write up about the event at Nerdvana (link here) contains many more photos that showcase the Elks Lodge and the vendors within.

Roughly an hour after getting set up and getting acquainted with the vendor’s room (Huckster Room) the clock struck 10:00 am and it was time to begin the presentations for the day.

Friday Presentations

The small stage on the west wall in the Huckster Room served as the presentation place, and I liked this. Many conferences, those on the larger side, typically separate presentations and panels into a side area from the vendor space. Since the ECOF was a lower key affair, everything was in one room, which allowed all of us vendors, and everyone else, to hear the presentations. The downside was the entrance to one of the bathrooms was right behind the podium. 

Dr. Seymour stands at a podium. The center of the picture is a pull down projector, flanked by 2 Elk heads. The slide being presented shows spears, pistol pieces, and other artifacts.
Dr. Deni Seymour presents on the newest discoveries of the Coronado expedition found near the local area.

The first presentation given was by Dr. Deni Seymour titled “Recent Discoveries about the Coronado Expedition (1539 – 1541)”. This was a fantastic presentation detailing all the archeological finds Dr. Seymour has been encountering along the San Pedro River. The slides showed so many artifacts: cannons, pistols, arrows, spears, jewelry, and so on. She talked about how they discover where the expeditions camped and where they got into skirmishes, and then using this information to form trajectories as to where the next movement of the expedition went. She also talked a little about the clandestine nature of the work because these sites are vulnerable to being visited by others and ruined/objects taken/vandalized/etc. A great presentation with lots of awesome visuals of what Dr. Seymour is uncovering.

Me! I am wearing a cowboy tiki shirt, standing at a podium, with a mic in my right hand, and script in my left. There is a giant elk head judging me.
Nicholas Diak presenting on Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Photo by Scott Tracy Griffin.

The next presentation of the day was me! My presentation was titled “Tarzan nella valle dei Romani: Tarzan as a peplum strongman in Tarzan and the Lost Empire” (sorry folks, it was a mouthful). In the novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire Tarzan finds himself in a hidden valley in Africa that has two mini Roman empires in it, both at odds with each other. Tarzan fights Roman soldiers and eventually finds himself in the arena, becoming a gladiator, an even fighting a lion like Hercules fights the Nemean Lion. For all purposes, Tarzan becomes just like a sword and sandal strongman character (Hercules, Ursus, Maciste, Atlas, etc.) and placed in an antiquity setting. This is what my presentation deep dove into, and I will probably wind up editing it and putting it into a formal essay and submit it someplace.

At the Q&A at the end of my presentation someone asked, “who would win in a fight, Tarzan or Hercules.” In a room of full of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans, scholars, and even representatives from ERB Inc. itself, I replied with “Hercules because he is a demigod.” The boos I got were warranted, but I stand by my decision. I do concede Tarzan is much more agile, which is in alignment with neo-peplum characters, such as Perseus in the Clash of the Titans remake who can do flying spin kicks while wielding a sword.

After my presentation was an hour break time in which sandwiches, wraps, chips, cookies, sodas, and snacks were brought in. It was also a good time to mingle. Between presentations I got to talk to other folks and meet some in person for the first time, such as Robert Lupton and Jim Goodwin, who both gifted me books. Bernd Brand, one of the upcoming speakers, was extremely outgoing and complimentary toward my presentation. 

Scott Tracy Griffin wears a green shirt and stands on stage, giving his talk. No slides for this one, but the two Elk heads still look on.
Scott Tracy Griffin presents on RevERBerate #2 and deep diving into ERB’s sources.

The presentations resumed at 1:00 pm with Scott Tracy Griffin discussing his and Gary Buckingham’s new publication, RevERBerate, and its newest issue, which focuses on the Westerns of Burroughs. Griffin deep dives into the ten sources that Burroughs used as reference for his writings, of which he was able to track down eight. Per Griffin, Burroughs was able to anchor his Westerns into real life stuff by leveraging the sources he had at the time.

Brand stands at the podium, pointing at the screen which is showing the AZ flag and ERB's headshot.
Bernd Brand presents on “Apache Scouts working for the U.S. Army with an overview of the life of the Apache Kid”

The next presentation was done by Bernd Brand and titled “Apache Scouts Working for the U.S. Army With an Overview of the Life of the Apache Kid.” Brand focuses on the Apache Scouts, from 1860 to 1947, and all the sorties they were involved in and their accomplishments.

At major conventions like Wondercon and San Diego Comicon, ERB Inc. usually hosts a panel showcasing all their works they have in the pipeline or have recently released. For the 2025 ECOF, Christopher Paul Carey, Cathy Wilbanks, and Jim Sullos had much to show to audience. Here is a few images from their presentation in this slideshow: 

  • Carey stands at the podium, the slide shows a picture of the ERB HQ in Tarzana.
    Christopher Paul Cary talks about upcoming projects from ERB Inc.
  • Carey at the podium, the screen shot the cover art for the ERB autobiography, Trailblazer.
    Christopher Paul Carey talks about the upcoming publication of Trailblazer.
  • Slide shows two book covers, both covers show a hideous face, one hooded.
    Carey talks about the reprint of Monster Men and the new story Return of the Monster Men.
  • Slide shows the cover art of the reprint of Beyond Thirty, which has a dude trying to take on a pride of lions unarmed.
    Carey talks about Mariotte’s upcoming novel Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn.
  • Slide shows the wraparound cover of the Taschen book (at the time). It is green, it shows Tarzan surrounded by monkeys.
    Carey and Wilbanks talked about the Taschen book of Tarzan Sunday strips.
  • The Woola plushy is adorbs. It is green, has multiple legs, big eye, and teeth that stick out.
    Carey and Wilbanks show off the Woola plushie.
  • Slide has the Victory Harben Logo and an empty landscape.
    Carey and Sullos talk about the Victory Harben animated series.

Some of the major releases from ERB Inc. include

  • Trailblazer, the Edgar Rice Burroughs autobiography
  • Concluding the Authorized Library editions of Tarzan and now moving on to editions for John Carter
  • A re-release of The Monster Men (a rare Burroughs foray into horror) and a new book, Return of the Monster Men, by Josh Reynolds
  • A re-release of Beyond Thirty
  • Jeffrey Mariotte’s sequel, Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn
  • Sequel to the “Dead Moon Arc” of Korak at Earth’s Core done by Win Scott Eckert (coming 2026)
  • New Victory Harben tales in 2026 with a possible TV deal
  • The Land that Time Forgot: Kingdom of Skulls by Mike Wolfer (2026)
  • Chris Adams’ Gauntlets of Mars (the 14th book in the Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs series) which made its debut at the ECOF. This book will reveal how Barsoom became a dying planet.
  • A Return to Pellucidar story, which will be a follow up to a Joe Lansdale story
  • A huge tome from Taschen which will reprint the Hal Foster Sunday Tarzan comics, edited by Dian Hanson
  • Burroughs expansions to the Overpower CCG
  • A John Carter figurine from Frazetta Girls
  • Amazon carrying Burroughs audio books
  • Plushies of Woola!!!!!

Jim Sullos talked a bit about film and television projects that were outstanding and waiting for actions:

  • A Korak adult anime series
  • A John Carter Warlord of Mars animated series (per Sullos, younger folks are more interested in Carter than Tarzan)
  • Victory Harben animated series in conjunction with Flying S Films (the hope here is to use Victory Harben as the glue to hold together a true ERB universe)
  • An option on The Land Time Forgot
  • An option on Carson of Venus, which has been held up due to requirements demands of streaming services (need a director, a writer, a screenplay, the actors, etc.)

After some small technical difficulties and a computer swap later, ERB Inc. ended their presentation showing an AI generated clip of Burroughs, speaking to the audience and thanking his readers. 

The final presentation of the day was from Gary Buckingham, who compliments Griffin’s talk about their RevERBerate endeavor. Buckingham also gave some insight into his time of being a writer, the woes he encounters getting his books printed, and how he goes about researching to make sure his period pieces reflect the times appropriately such as lingo used. Buckingham talked about how he used his story, Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers, to plug the narrative holes in Burroughs’ canon.

And with that, the presentations for Friday came to a close. The next activities for the ECOF where a board meeting for the Bibliophiles followed by a screening of Tarzan and his Mate. Michele and I, however, were famished and weary from the day’s events, so we called it early. We had dinner in downtown Willcox at Isabel’s South of the Border. Michele had a quesadilla and I had a chile relleno and two margaritas. Bellies bursting full, we headed back to the Holiday Inn to call it a day.

Saturday

Saturday began with a continental breakfast in the downstairs dining area of the Holiday Inn Express, mingled in with the ECOF attendees and the Cessna Club folks. We got to the Elks Lodge at around 9:00 am when it opened up and killed time talking with others and table browsing before walking to the train station/city hall for the big event at 10:00 am: the monument unveiling!

Monument Dedication

For the monument unveiling, the section of the street, S. Railroad Ave., in front of the train station / city hall was blocked off. Two canopies and foldout chairs were placed underneath, though thankfully this Saturday was a sunny day, a respite from the last two days of rain and thunder.

White, fold out table. Two postal workers present. The table is covered in stamps, envelopes, and copies of the program.
Post office setup, selling stamps and doing cancellations.

Set up on the deck of the city hall was an impromptu postal station, with postal workers selling stamps and performing cancellations using a special ERB commemorative stamp for the event:

The stamp is for the US Army. The pink stamp cancellation thing, the thing they do when they stamp the stamp when you mail something, shows Burroughs next to a horse and an Arizona. It says: "Edgar Rice Burroughs 7th Cavalry Historical Monument - ERB Monument Dedication Station, September 27th, 2025, Willcox AZ 85643."
Close up of an envelope, stamp, and cancellation.

There was quite the queue of folks who wanted their stamps cancelled! It was a neat service and definitely added a unique, “you-had-to-be-there”, aspect to the whole ceremony/ECOF. 

After a bit of milling about, with folks taking photos of other folks guissied up, the dedications began. Here is a slide show of the speakers:

  • Sunny day with blue skies and white clouds. There are two canopies setup with fold out chairs underneath. People are mingling about.
    The crowd gathers outside the monument at the train station/city hall.
  • Seven folks stand in front of the train station /city hall, with 4 dressed up: a soldier, a prospector, Tarzan, and another soldier.
    L to R, Doug Hocking, Kate Bonnaud, unknown, Patrick Quilter, Mayor greg Hancock, Llana Jane Burroughs, Floyd Gray.
  • Mayor Hancock at the mic in front of the city hall.
    Mayor of Willcox Greg Hancock.
  • Franke III in a veteran cap at the mic.
    Burroughs Bibliophile and Bulletin editor Henry Franke III.
  • Mariotte in a blue shirt and sunglasses at the mic.
    Guest of Honour Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • Griffin in a purple shirt, white hat, and sunglasses at the Mic.
    Scott Tracy Griffin.
  • Both Burroughs great-grand daughters at the mic.
    Kate Bonnaud and Llana Jane Burroughs.
  • Tracy Scott Griffin, Frank Puncer (seated), Llana Jane Burroughs, Kathy Klump (seated), Kate Bonnaud.
    Tracy Scott Griffin, Frank Puncer (seated), Llana Jane Burroughs, Kathy Klump (seated), Kate Bonnaud.
  • Bonnaud is wearing a black hat and speaking into the mic.
    Kate Bonnaud.
  • Gray is in a cavalry uniform speaking into the mic.
    Floyd Gray.
  • The monument (obscured by roses from my angle), Bonnaud, her son, Llana Jane Burroughs, and Frank Puncer, who all lifted the cover of the stone memorial.
    The monument unveiled.

Folks who introduced the event and talked about Burroughs and the community included:

  • Frank Puncer, who was the master of the ceremonies
  • Greg Hancock, the mayor of Willcox, who talked about growing up with Tarzan
  • Kathy Klump, the president of the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society
  • Henry G. Franke III who talked a bit about Burroughs’ military career
  • Jeffrey Mariotte, the guest of honour
  • Scott Tracy Griffin, who introduced the Burroughs great-grand daughters
  • Floyd Gray, a Buffalo Soldier historian who talked about what Burroughs would have seen his first nights under the open sky
  • Kathy Bonnaud
  • Llana Jane Burroughs

Before unveiling the plaque, it was revealed that the boulder it was installed in was brought down all the way from Fort Grant, so it very well could have been a boulder that Burroughs had laid eyes on. Periodically during the speeches, a train would pass behind the station, halting the ceremony temporarily, but definitely adding to the ambience and the lore of Burroughs getting off the train station, right there, at Willcox.

The Burroughs family lifted the covering of the monument, and like the amazing photographer I am, did not take a clear picture of it. But, Robert Leeper took many, so take a look at his coverage at Nerdvana. There are also photos of the dedication and monument at the Cochise County Voice.

After the dedication, we would be remiss if we did not check out the interior of the train station/city hall, which had its public area converted into a museum. Here are a couple of pictures:

  • And old wooden desk with chair. A black typewriter sits alone. On the left wall are black and white photos on the right wall are maps. In the center wall, it has a black and white photo of the train station. The display is called "Honoring our roots"
    An exhibit inside the city hall.
  • Photos and placards describing the restoration of the train station. There is also a door knob and a broom.
    Photographs, including the train station in a dilapidated state.
  • Four liquor bottles, the one in the center is broken. One is called "Tanlac" and it is a "Splendid tonic". The one next to it is "Splancaster Bourbon". Then "Old Prentice Whisky" and then a tiny bottle that has directions on it.
    Old liquor bottles.

It was neat seeing the restoration effort done on the train station, the glow up from being run down to the restored building it is today.

Saturday Presentations

The canopies and the chairs began the breakdown process and it was time to wander off. Michele and I spent some time walking around downtown Willcox, exploring an antique store where we ran into ERB Inc. folks doing their own shopping.

Franke at the podium under the Elk head on the wall. The projected slide is a run down of Burroughs' military highlights.
Henry Franke III speaks about Burroughs’ military career.

The ECOF presentations resumed at 2:00 pm, with three scheduled for the day. The first was Henry Franke III giving a speech on Burroughs’ military career. Though Franke had mentioned Burroughs’ service during the dedication earlier in the day, this talk went into greater detail, covering his time in the cavalry to his time in World War 2 as a war correspondent. An interesting fact Franke shared was that Burroughs had spent much of his life signing books to others that he flipped the tables during the Pacific Campaign and started collecting autographs of the servicemen he encountered.

Gray stands at the podium, with the projected screen titled "What did a 20 year old Edgar R. Burroughs see at Fort Grant in 1896-1897?"
Floyd Gray talks about Buffalo Soldiers.

The martial-themed presentations continued with Floyd Gray talking about the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and how integral, yet unacknowledged, they are in United States history. He spoke of why folks joined the Buffalo Soldiers, how they were confined to the west, and their accomplishments. 

Leeper at the podium. The projected screen shows images from a John Carter comic, of him wandering into the cave.
Robert Leeper talks about possible locations of John Carter’s cave.

The final presentation for the day, and for the ECOF, was from Robert Leeper titled “Geography vs. John Carter’s Arizona Cave”. Leeper talked about being in attendance at a pop culture event in Arizona, talking about John Carter, and having many folks question him as to where the location of the cave that John Carter found was. Leeper had a giant map of the south and east portions of Arizona and went through likely locations of where the cave could be. Using text from one of Burroughs’ books, he settled on the cave being located near the White Mountains in Eastern Arizona.

And with that, the presentations of the ECOF came to an end and the Huckster Room closed. Michele and I, and everyone else, packed up our tables to clear the area. It had been a fun two days headquartered in the vending/presentation room for the ECOF, but it was time to transition to the finale of the event: the banquet!

Banquet

The last bit of official programming for the ECOF was the banquet from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The banquet was held in a dining area of the Elks Lodge, with a buffet style dinner: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, beans, and vegetable lasagna. Kathy Klump brought in a homemade pineapple cake that was the centerpiece for the first part of the banquet: the Edgar Rice Burroughs birthday celebration. Pictures of folks going up to talk about Burroughs can be viewed in this slide show:

  • Small banquet room, filled with tables and filled to capacity with ECOf attendee.
    Banquet room at the Elks Lodge.
  • Lana Kane Burroughs standing in the door frame with a mic.
    Llana Jane Burroughs wishes Edgar Rice Burroughs a happy birthday.
  • Kate Bonnaud and her son. Kate has the mic.
    Kate Bonnaud speaks about Burroughs.
  • Mariotte uses a mic stand and has notes. One of the Elk Heads peers in from behind him.
    Jeffrey Mariotte speaks about swords and how he is honored to be part of the event.
  • Franke III stands in the doorframe with the mic stand.
    Henry Franke III speaks about Frank Puncer organizing the event.
  • Frank holds a wall plaque that says "outstanding achievement award" and poses with Jim and Mike.
    Frank Puncer is presented with an outstanding achievement award by Jim Goodwin and Mike Conran.
  • Jim Sullos in the door frame talking on the mike. The Elk head strikes again!
    Jim Sullos concludes the banquet.

Llana Jane Burroughs wished Edgar Rice Burroughs a happy birthday, which lead to the room singing the birthday song. Jeffrey Mariotte took the mic stand to talk about his youth and getting into fencing and sword collecting, and also his encounters with speculative fiction writing luminaries while he worked at various bookstores in California. 

The last portion of the banquet was devoted to honouring Frank Puncer, who was bestowed an Outstanding Achievement Award by the Burroughs Bibliophiles for all the work he had done, not just for putting on the 2025 ECOF, but all his prior Burroughs centric endeavors (which are many). The award was truly well deserved. Puncer worked super hard to make sure everyone had a memorable and successful ECOF. Michele and I certainly did.

Autographed Treasures

When I attend events like comic book conventions or horror cons I love to bring things to be autographed (just look at any of my social media or news posts at this website and you will see me often sharing my autographed treasures). The 2025 ECOF was no different as Michele and I brought a box of books and comics to get signed by folks at the event. Here is some of that loot.

Christopher Paul Carey

The last time I saw Carey I had an armload of then-recently published ERB comics put out by American Mythology. In the years since I have gotten more books and comics he’s had his paws in. Here is a gallery of what I brought to be signed:

  • Paperback of Before They Were Giants. The cover shows an astronaut in a retro looking space suit, holding a ray gun, standing above a canyon. Above him is a giant, tentacled, floating monster.
    Personal copy of Before They Were Giants.
  • Copyright page. In blue ink it says "Christopher Paul Carey".
    Before They Were Giants front matter page signed by Christopher Paul Carey.
  • Planet Stories double feature. It shows Sojan and the main character from Under the Warrior star, standing back to back. Sojan is holding a pistol and a shield while the dude from Warrior Star is holding a crystal sword.
  • Copyright page. Blue ink it is signed "Christopher Paul Carey".
    Front matter page signed by Christopher Paul Carey.
  • Graphic novel. It shows Harben in the center in a colorful, alien jungle. She has a ray gun in her hand and a white small cat-like alien on her shoulder. In gold ink at the bottom it is signed by Christopher Paul Carey.
    Personal copy of Victory Harben: Ghosts of Omos, signed by Christopher Paul Carey.
  • Grphic novel. Shows Victory Harben with her back to the reader, holding her ray gun up. There is a purple, space sky and the white cat alien who is now super huge. In gold ink it is signed Christopher Paul Carey.
    Personal copy of Victory Harben: Warriors of Zandar, signed by Christopher Paul Carey.

Firstly, going old school, many moons ago Carey worked at Paizo and one of the lines he worked on was the Planet Stories series of books, which were reprints of classic sword and planet stories along with other sci-fi fare. I love the sword and planet genre and I have been collecting these books when I happen across them. Two of the books I have, the anthology Before They Were Giants, and the double book that contains Sojan the Swordsman by Michael Moorcock and Under the Warrior Star by Joe Lansdale, were edited by Carey. I really love Under the Warrior Star, so much so that I may have designed a cocktail based on the story which is slated to be printed in an upcoming issue of a certain fantasy magazine. (Shhh! Secret!).

Next, going new school, are my Kickstarter copies of two Victory Harben graphic novels: Ghosts of Amos and Warriors of Zandor. Apparently, Carey had never signed the Kickstarter editions of these comics before, so that was cool I got to be the first. I like Victory Harben, and I think her stories are the future of ERB Inc. I know Tarzan is the company’s bread and butter, but Victory Harben feels much more modern and connected to today and she does not have the baggage that Burroughs’ work carries. I really hope her cartoon series happens because I have a feeling it will be amazing.

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

While conducting my interview with Mariotte I tried to get my paws on as many books and comics he had his hand in as possible. A writer as prolific across so many genres and mediums as he, there is so much out there to check out! So, I brought my modest collection of items for him to sign (I wish I could have procured his Conan books!). Here is the gallery:

  • Cover shows Tarzan holding a knight and wearing a loincloth. Behind him is a black horse, kicking around. They are in a desert canyon, with a rock wall behind them and small cactus trees and logs.
    Hardcover of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone
  • Bookplate is a faded version of the covers, sans the horse and Tarzan. It is signed by Jeffrey Mariotte, Douglas Klauba, Chris Gardner, and has a repro signature from Burroughs.
    Bookplate for Tarzan and the Forest of Stone.
  • Title page of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone. It is inscribed "For Nick, at ECOF 2025! Great to meet in person! Jeffrey J Mariotte".
    Personal copy of Tarzan and the Forest of stone, personalized by Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • Issue 1 of The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine crossover. There are five characters on the cover, but the only one I recognize is Picard and he is holding a laser rifle.
    Personal copy of Star Trek: Divided We Fall #1 signed by editor Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • Issue 2 of the Next Gen/DS9 crossover. There's 4 characters on the cover. One looks like he's wearing a green smock. Picard is in the background.
    Personal copy of Star Trek: Divided We Fall #2 signed by editor Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • Issue 3 of the Next Gen/DS9 Crossover. Dr. Beverly Crusher is on the cover holding a phaser. There is a Star Fleet dude holding a lady in his arms. There is also a blobby alien in the corner.
    Personal copy of Star Trek: Divided We Fall #3 signed by editor Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • The fourth and final issue of the Next Gen/DS9 crossover comic. There is a dude holding a green vial. There is a Star Fleet guy running, holding a rifle in one hand and a lady in red in the other. The green vial has JJ Abrams lens flare on it, foreshadowing that he will be directing a Star Trek movie in the future.
    Personal copy of Star Trek: Divided We Fall #4 signed by editor Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
  • Cover shows two space ships over two planets.
    Personal copy of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda: the Attitude of Silence.
  • Title page. In black ink it is personalized "For Nick, at ECOF! Jeffrey J. Mariotte"
    Title page of Andromeda: The Attitude of Silence signed by author Jeffrey J. Mariotte.

Firstly there is Tarzan and the Forest of Stone, Mariotte’s first contribution to the Burroughs canon. I bought my copy directly from the ERB website and it came with a bookplate already signed by Mariotte, Douglas Klauba, and Chris Gardner. However, I wanted my copy personalized and Mariotte gladly did so. It is the perfect book for the 2025 ECOF as it mixes Tarzan and the Wild West.

Next are the four issues of the Star Trek: Divided We Fall run that was published by Wildstorm. The story is a crossover comic of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and all four issues were edited by Mariotte. I am not a huge Trekkie, but I did watch a lot of Next Generation in the 90s when I was a teenager. I had gotten into the series when I started collecting the Star Trek: Next Generation CCG that Decipher was putting out. I was not able to watch much DS9, but probably my favourite episode I ever saw was the one where they time traveled back to the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode of the original series. I was able to find copies of these comics at my local comic bookstore, High Score Comics.

Finally, and related to Star Trek, is Andromeda: The Attitude of Silence. I recall in my college years, going home to visit my parents, and catching a few episodes of Andromeda, but I am far from familiar with the series. This was a random purchase: I was at Bookmans, browsing about looking for Mariotte’s Conan books in the sci-fi IP section of the store and happened upon this tome, so I plucked it up.

Burroughs Bulletins

One of the perks of being a member of the Burroughs Bibliophiles is you get copies of their journal, The Burroughs Bulletin. The journal publishes writings done by Bibliophile members and range from interviews to essays to galleries to retrospectives and other types of articles. My interview with pepla starlet Bella Cortez and her work on the Italian unofficial Tarzan film, Taur the Mighty, was published in issue 109. Since some of the attendees of the 2025 ECOF had articles published in the Bulletin, I brought a stack of issues, getting many of them signed by contributors. Here is a gallery of those issues:

  • Cover depicts humanoid with red skin and lots of cybernetic implants standing over a sleeping woman looked up to a machine. The room is filled with wires and lights.
    The Burroughs Bulletin, issue 100-102.
  • Page 87 of the issue, the first page for Puncer's article "Edge Rice Burroughs and Wild Willcox" signed by Frank Puncer in black ink.
    Burroughs Bulletin 100-102 with Frank Puncer’s autograph.
  • Page 144 of the issue "Interview of Neal Adams" signed by Gary Buckingham in blue ink.
    Burroughs Bulletin 100-102 with Gary A. Buckingham’s autograph.
  • Cover depicts Tarzan, crouching on a moss covered tree with a blank panther sitting behind him in an upper branch.
    The Burroughs Bulletin, issue 104-105.
  • Page 60 of the issue, "Interview of Mike Grell" autographed by Gary Buckingham in black ink.
    Burroughs Bulletin 104 with Gary Buckingham’s autograph.
  • Cover shows Tarzan, tackling a lion with a knife in hand, and in turn the lion is attempting to tackle a gorilla.
    The Burroughs Bulletin, issue 107.
  • Page 3, "Interview of Mike Grell, Second Session" signed by Gary Buckingham in blue ink.
    Burroughs Bulletin 107 with Gary A. Buckingham’s autograph.
  • Cover shows a tank-like vehicle with a giant drill on the front emerging from the ground (Think of those things the Shredder drove around in, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). There is a jungle girl in the foreground, a man approaching her, and his butler. In the background is a jungle and a T-Rex sticking his head out of the foliage.
    The Burroughs Bulletin, issue 108.
  • Page 14 "Interview of Joe Jusko" signed by Gary Buckingham in blue ink.
    Burroughs Bulletin 108 with Gary A. Buckingham’s autograph.
  • Page 38 "Interview with Rob Dorsey, Author of the Barsoom Pentalogy" signed by Scott Tracy Griffin.
    Burroughs Bulletin 108 with Scott Tracy Griffin’s autograph.
  • Issue 100-102 signed by Frank Puncer and Gary A. Buckingham
  • Issue 104-105 signed by Gary A. Buckingham
  • Issue 107 signed by Gary A. Buckingham
  • Issue 108 signed by Gary A. Buckingham and Scott Tracy Griffin

At the next Burroughs-centric event I hope to get even more issues signed! 

Tarzan and the Lost Empire

And finally, since my whole presentation was centered on the Burroughs novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire, I had to bring the new authorized library edition ERB Inc. published fairly recently to be signed by those involved. Here is a gallery of those signed pages:

  • Hardback of Tarzan and the Lost Empire. It is from the "Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library". The cover depicts Tarzan in a Roman-style colosseum, standing triumphantly over a defeated gladiator.
    Personal copy of the hardback edition of Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
  • Afterword page autographed by Henry Franke III.
    Tarzan and the Lost Empire afterword signed by Henry Franke III.
  • Page 232 talking about the archives, signed by Cathy Wilbanks.
    Tarzan and the Lost Empire archives page signed by Cathy Wilbanks.
  • Cover depicts Tarzan in a leopard skin, crouched over a slain lion, holding his knife, in the middle of a Roman-style arena.
    Tarzan and the Lost Empire, Dell edition.

I was able to get this handsome edition signed by Henry Franke III who composed the afterword and Cathy Wilbanks who wrote about the archival matter. Included in these images is the way old school Dell paperback of Tarzan and the Lost Empire, a gift from Frank Puncer, which I will cherish. 


 
 
 
 
 
 

Categories
Comics Peplum

Salvaged Goods: Alicia Carter and Robot Issue 01

The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carter and Robot is a brand new comic series by Tristan Vick, with Chris Awayan on art and Mirza Wirawan on colours. The debut issue of Alicia Carter and Robot (ACaR) was Kickstarted in February 2022 and released by Vick’s own publishing imprint, Regolith Comics. 

SFW cover for ACaR by Karen Darboe (for preview/thumbnail purposes)

ACaR is described on its Kickstarter campaign as an “action-packed sci-fi adventure” in the vein of classic pulps such as “Northwest Smith, Flash Gordon, and John Carter of Mars” with comedy thrown in. The Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character homage is immediately noticed in Alicia Carter’s last name. The comic shares the sci-fi pulp DNA in the same vein as Star Wars does. 


Personal copy of ACaR with NSFW Toshio Maeda-inspired cover by Awayan.

Carter is an infamous space thief whose latest escapade has her stealing a crystal from the reptilian criminal Klaven Skullvek and the two bounty hunters in his employ: the cybernetic Armitage and sniper Kira. While being pursued, Carter crash lands on Junk World, an entire planet converted into a garbage dump by Nova Corp. Amnesic from a head wound during her rough landing, Carter is rescued by Garbage Disposal Unit 3 (GDU-3), a bipedal robot that salvages treasures from the refuse. Together, Carter and GDU-3 team up to evade Skullvek and his henchpeople and escape from Junk World. 

Alicia Carter.

Carter as a character is a fun, rogueish heroine in the Han Solo/Star-Lord sense. As a sword and planet character, much like John Carter, she appears to be incredibly agile and able to leap large distances – or at least within the gravity on Junk World. If Carter has any fault it is due to the temporary amnesia she only suffers from for a handful of pages. If anything, this selective amnesia robs her of precious character development as it otherwise doesn’t advance or effect the plot at all. On the other hand, Carter is extremely animated and emotive. She pops off the comic’s pages with gestures and facial expressions that make her both endearing and easy to read, which is definitely in part due to the art and colour work of Awayan and Wirawan respectively. 

GDU-3 (The Robot).

GDU-3 is quite fleshed out as a robot character. While he has protocols he must follow, he exhibits numerous human-like traits, such as he collects books and other trinkets for his own collection. His relationship to his parent company, Nova Corp, is very like that of Robocop to OCP – he follows his directives, but with the help of others, is able to overcome some of his programming to be more capable and free. 

The art of ACaR is excellent. The Awayan and Wirawan team are able to make the muted, drab garbage planet of Junk World look interesting. All the characters look distinctive, at appropriate times stepping into cartoonish territory, but only for added comedic affect. 

No expense was spared on issue one of ACaR. The comic clocks in at thirty-six pages of content including a gallery of all the alternative covers. The back cover of the comic has a bit of texture on it as well. In addition, folks who contributed to the ACaR Kickstarter received a plethora of fantastic loot as part of the campaign’s stretch goals. 

Trading cards.

Firstly, there was six trading cards, one for each character. The backs of the cards contain stats (strength, speed, charisma, etc.) along with a biography of the pictured character. Hopefully the trading card trend will continue in successor crowdfunding campaigns. They are fun but they also provided paratextual information to supplement the world and character building in the comic.

Stickers and magnet.

Next, two chibi-styled stickers of Carter and GDU-3 along with a magnet of their ship were part of the stretch goals.

Foil art print by Shikarii.

Finally, a holofoil art print of Carter looking bad ass by artist Shikarii is also part of the package.

The Kickstarter campaign was also an avenue to pre-purchase exclusive cover variants of ACaR done by different artists, with most covers also having a NSFW incarnation. Interestingly, most Kickstarter comic book campaigns that have numerous NSFW covers also have corresponding content that is adult in nature (nudity, sex, and violence). Though ACaR has a handful of risque covers (see personal copy above), the comic proper is fairly PG-13. There’s no nudity and barely any profanity (swear words are replaced: “helios” for “hell,” “frack” for “fuck” and so on). The violence is cartoonish, with only one scene showing blood (on a regenerative character at that). 

ACaR is off to a great start. Carter is a fun heroine and GDU-3 a shocking fleshed out, unique character. Unknown if future issues of the series will be episodic in nature, with a different adventure in each comic, or one large arc spanning multiple issues, but the intergalactic antics of Carter and GDU-3 look promising and exciting.

More information about Alicia Carter and Robot and the team behind it can be found at the following locations:

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Comics Interview Peplum

We Are Barbarians: Interview with Mike Dubisch and Tom Simmons on I Am a Barbarian

I Am a Barbarian™ is a sword and sandal novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs that was published posthumously in 1967. Due to its historic antiquity subject matter, the novel is an outlier when compared to Burroughs’ speculative fiction bibliography of Tarzan®, Barsoom® (John Carter of Mars), and Pellucidar® novels for which he is most famous. In the 2010s, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. began posting a webcomic adaptation of I Am a Barbarian at their website, written by Tom Simmons with art by Mike Dubisch and lettering by L. Jamal Walton. In early summer of 2022, the entirety of I Am a Barbarian was published in an ornate, hardback collection. Simmons and Dubisch have graciously allowed an interview about the I Am a Barbarian project.

How do you get into Edgar Rice Burroughs? Do you have a particular fondness for I Am a Barbarian?

Mike Dubisch: I loved Tarzan and John Carter of Mars as a kid, and of course his works were a favorite subject among the classic fantasy illustrators who shaped me. Anything about hidden fantastic worlds and strange adventures fascinated me. While I knew and loved the original cover painting, I’m not sure I ever read I Am a Barbarian before the project.

Personal copy of I Am a Barbarian with slip case.

What were some of those illustrators that shaped you?

MD: Oh, it’s the usual pantheon: Frank Frazetta, Richard Corben, Hal Foster, Michael Whelan, Burne Hogarth, Wally Wood, Alex Nino, Nestor Redondo, John Buscema, in terms of artists who worked on ERB or ERB-like products. Otherwise, fairy tale and book illustrators like Arthur Rackham, H. J. Ford, Edmund Dulac, and the Brothers Hildebrandt. Pulp illustrators like Hans Bok and Virgil Finlay. I love studying the wood engravings of Doré illustrations, and the engravings of Albrecht Durer. Other comic book artists, particularly Europeans like Moebius, Jordi Bernet, Jose Ortiz, Tanino Liberator, as well as Charles Burns, Robert Crumb, Dave Stevens, Jack Kirby, Bernie Wrightson, and Basil Woolverton. 

What was the genesis of the original I Am a Barbarian webcomic?

Tom Simmons: I wrote an email to Jim Sullos, President of ERB, Inc., in 2012 offering to write a gratis screenplay (I’m a self-taught screenwriter); the script I wanted to adapt was the original Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. Jim replied that the character was “taken” by a licensing agreement at the time, but he must have been impressed by my offer to do work for free because when the online strips launched in 2013-14 he suggested I toss my proverbial writing quill into the ring and put together a collaborative team to do one of them; he even provided the name of an artist who had contacted him about getting involved with the online strips project. I Am a Barbarian is actually the third online strip with which I’ve been involved, and still am in the case of one of the three: The Outlaw of Torn. I chose Barbarian because it was available to adapt as a strip; I thought it would be a challenge to adapt (it was), and I’ve always had an interest in ancient history (I have a Bachelor’s degree as well as Master’s work in history). 

How was the creative team formed?

TS: Regarding how our creative team was formed, the artist I originally worked with on The Monster Men™ strip (which was among the first ERB, Inc. placed online in 2014) referred me to letterist/graphic designer/artist Jamal Walton of Durham, NC (full name: Larry Jamal Walton but he goes by “L. Jamal” or simply “Jamal”). As it transpired, Jamal has been involved in all three of the ERB, Inc. strips I’ve adapted, and was also the letterist for my 2015 e-book Crispus Caesar, which, indeed, is yet another “Swords and Sandals” story, adapted by me from my 2010 screenplay of the same name. My collaboration with Mike Dubisch came about when Mike contacted another ERB online strip artist and asked how he could become involved with the online strips; that artist referred Mike to me and the rest, as the cliche goes, is history. 

MD: After a period of trying to focus only on my own work in the comic industry, I decided it was time to seek out professional commissions again to advance my career. ERB was one of the markets I approached right away and fortunately Tom was manning the lines of communication and snatched me right up for his project. I knew instantly that I Am a Barbarian was the right fit because it would be a comic with the word “barbarian” in the title!

What were some of the challenges encountered when adapting the original novel into a webcomic format?

TS: The writing challenge for any adaptation to strip format (or any other, for that matter) is about scale/scope: we didn’t want the strip to continue indefinitely, set an end goal of roughly 225-245 weekly episodes (about five years of the strip being presented online), and worked toward that end. The second phase of the project after the online adaptation was complete was always to produce a printed graphic novel encompassing the entire online strip, and we achieved that goal. Apart from considerations of scale/scope, I did a thorough re-examination of Caligula, aided by a recent biography by Anthony Barrett. While there is little doubt Caligula was very likely a mentally unbalanced individual prone to cruelty and outright bloodthirstiness, the sources ERB used (historians Suetonius and Dio) also had a vested interest in painting an “over the top” picture of the assassinated ruler; I’d compare their accounts (and neither was an actual eyewitness to events) to Shakespeare’s lambasting of the Yorkists. Lastly, for me Barbarian is a love story wrapped around a tragedy; to dwell on Caligula’s misdeeds would not only have been a gratuitous waste of time but it would have obscured Brit and Attica’s character arcs. That said, I still included plenty of outrageous and bloodthirsty Caligulan behavior!

MD: For me the adaptation is from Tom’s script into the art for the strip, and so the re-imagining the scene from the book as comic pages has already been established when I start in. My biggest challenge is remembering to refer back to my historical architectural and costume references.

What would you say you each brought that is distinctively “you” to the comic?

TS: Mike and I formed a natural collaborative team, in my opinion. I did most of the historical research and (of course) writing the actual adaptation, but largely relied on Mike to place his own unique artistic stamping on the panels themselves. I know Mike will be speaking to his many projects currently underway, but for me he stepped up and out of his mostly Lovecraftian/horror mold to draw the history-based I Am a Barbarian, although those influences can be seen in many panels, in particular the scenes involving dungeons, prophecies and strange people. 

Mike Dubisch. Photo courtesy of Dubisch.

MD: I have a bad habit of only looking at reference when I don’t know how to draw something, and I know how to draw just about everything, and if I don’t, well then I usually know how to draw something after referencing it only once or twice. So, what you see with my work is devised almost entirely from my imagination, and that is why everything I do has a distinct style. Additionally, I tend to use a lot of black on the pages, using bold core shadows on figures and props, creating a feeling of dynamic lighting and adding volume, and bringing weight to the page.

Setting aside (since it is not a John Carter or Tarzan story), what do you feel is unique about I Am a Barbarianwhen compared to Burroughs’ other work?

TS: As far as I’m aware, Barbarian is the only ERB story in which the female protagonist dies. Overall, it’s a “darker” story than most of ERB’s work, and is likely a reflection of the dark period the writer was experiencing in his own life when he wrote the story in the spring/summer of 1941: his second marriage was on the rocks, he was drinking too much, and he was in and out of the hospital with health issues that year. 

MD: For me it’s the danger and trauma of Brit’s life; he loses everything and lives under the threat of torture and death his whole life. This seems a far cry from ERB’s superhuman heroes who rule their secret worlds.

TS: Good observation about Brit’s travails, Mike. If you want to test (and grow) your protagonist’s character arc, toss said protagonist under as many proverbial buses as possible.

Signed bookplate. I’m lucky number 7!

I Am a Barbarian has just been released in a luxurious, oversized, hardback edition in a slipcase. This is a stark contrast to how comics are normally collected in a trade paperback release. What were the reasons for going the “Roman Decadent” route for the comic?

TS: I wanted the IAAB graphic novel to be an instantly recognizable, collectible classic and used this approach when we designed and produced the book over a 10-month period starting in June, 2021. For me, we achieved that goal. It’s a “pandemic book,” however, and as such it ended up costing considerably more to produce. I had no choice but to increase the price commensurately, and it turns out we’re working with little or no margin. As often is the case with these projects, IAAB is a true labor of love, not money. 

ERB stories have seen many comic adaptations across many decades by a plethora of publishers: Marvel, Dynamite, Gold Key, American Mythology, and so on. Is there any particular run of a Burroughs comic that you hold in high regard?

TS: I’m so old school re: comics I’m probably not relevant; the first actual comic books I read (other than the newspaper version) were Classics Illustrated. That said, for me old school illustrators and writers like Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Russ Manning were always my favorites. 

MD: I recall OBSESSING on a big treasury edition sized Tarzan comic adaptation that I read to shreds as a kid – I no longer have it and can’t identify what edition it was. I do love Joe Kubert’s work on the character. I never really read the John Carter comics, but I love what I’ve seen in issues drawn by Gil Kane. I haven’t kept up with anything modern – I’ve enjoyed seeing Joseph Michael Linsners Dejah Thoris® cover art.

TS: If we’re talking about Dejah Thoris, for me Jay Anacleto and Michael C. Hayes are tops.

Deja Thoris by Jay Anacleto. Image provided by Simmons.
Deja Thoris by Michael C. Hayes. Image provided by Simmons.

I Am a Barbarian can be considered a sword and sandal story. Is this a genre you have appreciation for? If so, any particular texts over the years that have left an impression on you?

TS: The film Gladiator is a recent standout for me. I also very much liked Spartacus and Ben-Hur.

MD: Oh man, Old Testament Biblical epics were one of my favorite things to watch as a kid, and Biblical comic adaptations were always a favorite as well. I loved Conan and Kull too, especially the comic books, but also the Robert E. Howard stories. While I was drawing I Am a Barbarian I streamed the Spartacus TV series, which was also very entertaining.

TS: Also, thinking of further S&S influences for me, I loved Colleen McCullough’s First Man in Rome series of novels as well as the 2005 Rome TV series. 

Tom Simmons. Photo courtesy of Simmons.

What projects do you have on the horizon that you’d like to share?

TS: I’m continuing doing the online strip adaptation of ERB’s other historical novel, The Outlaw of Torn. I’m currently working with Benito Gallego, who does the art, colors and letters for the strip. The plan is to do a printed version of this story as well when it’s completed in 2024. The book will form a “companion volume” to the printed I Am a Barbarian graphic novel, and I envision a matte red board slipcase with silver foil lettering for the book which will have two parts, one containing the art of Jake Bilbao and the other that of Benito Gallego. I also have ongoing screenplay projects; this summer I’ll finally complete the pilot for an 8-part miniseries entitled The Nessus Shirt, a WWII story told from the German point of view through the eyes of an ordinary soldier who becomes involved in the pre-Valkyrie plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 

MD: My primary focus has been Forbidden Futures Magazine and the Forbidden Futures Book Club, where I am the illustrator of an entire line of books and magazines working with premiere science fiction and horror writers, that goes out as a quarterly package to our subscribers through Oddness Books.

We are currently printing Forbidden Futures issue #10 which is a double issue with new fiction by David Gerrold, creator of both Star Trek’s Tribbles, and the Sleestacks from the Land of the Lost TV series. The issue also presents the first fully illustrated publication of Philip K. Dick’s “Tony and The Beetles,” a new sci-fi comic story I wrote and illustrated, and contributions from John Shirley and Cody Goodfellow. Forbidden Futures will be reissuing several of my out-of-print comics and graphic novels, including my Cthulhu Mythos SF graphic novel Weirdling, body horror underground comix Mystery Meat, and a collection of short graphic stories “The Wet Nurse and Other Tales of Conception and Re-Birth.” We have been publishing illustrated novels and novellas under the “Forbidden Futures Presents” banner, and I have my own illustrated prose projects planned for that line, including a soon to be announced SF novella. Finally, we are also debuting a bi-yearly chapbook “In Human Skin: The Mike Dubisch Journal of Illustrated Verse,” which pairs my series of surreal drawings on black paper with my own written verse.

Additionally, I continue to contribute to Diabolik Books Adventures of Professor Dario Bava comics, with the epic graphic novel tribute to Italian horror films and mod culture, “Murder Vibes from the Monster Dimension” still available and the new “Orgy Of The Blood Freaks” out now with new issues on the way.

Sincere thanks to Simmons and Dubisch for this interview. Their release of I Am a Barbarian can be found in two editions – with and without a signed bookplate – at Cedar Run Publications. Consider checking it out!

Categories
Comics Peplum

Fitness to Purpose: Born of Blood Issue One

MERC Publishing is an Indiana-based comic book publisher that came onto the scene in 2020. Taking an approach similar to CrossGen in the late 90s, MERC’s ambitious goal is a shared universe of comic titles with aesthetics of a magazine (complete with faux adverts and story line titles on the cover) and a heavy emphasis on powerful women, such as mercenaries and Spartans. The three MERC product lines so far are Miss Meow, Deathrage, and the neo-peplum comic, Born of Blood, all funded via crowdfunding campaigns.

Born of Blood issue one completed its Kickstarter on the last day of December 2021 with backer awards being shipped in early May 2022. With numerous stretch goals realized, backers were treated with a treasure trove of Born of Blood and MERC-brand ephemera. The following is a showcasing of all the swag (in no particular order) packaged with the release of the first issue of Born of Blood followed by a few observations about the comic proper.

All pictures taken of the loot from my collection from backing the campaign.

First, for the non-Born of Blood MERChandise, is a sew-on badge for one’s battle vest and an enamel pin and poker chip that has the MERC mercenary logo adorned on them: a skull with wings giving the people’s eyebrow atop a rank insignia.

There is a trading card for Princess Giaris, the protagonist of Born of Blood. The front of the card displayis the cover art by Jay Ferguson (which is featured prominently on many of the stretch goal items) that gives Giaris a modern-gothic, vampiric look. The back of the card gives a brief bio along with her stats (she’s super strong, fast, and stealthy).

There is a Born of Blood lanyard, with blood-red lettering in a stylized typeface evoking antiquity. 

In addition to the MERC pin, there are also two Born of Blood pins/badges (all which would look snazzy on the aforementioned lanyard). One pin has the Ferguson cover art while the other has the Leirix cover art. 

There are four magnets included in the loot. Three display cover arts by (left to right) Sorah Suhng, Shikarii, and John Royal. The fourth magnet is a 2022 calendar with the Ferguson art.

There are three paper bookmarks as well.

And a paper coaster, though it looks a bit too small to be practical. It could function as a giant pog though.

There is also a Kickstarter sticker which adds an element of exclusivity. Most of the swag at this point is probably destined to be used as promotional items and giveaways by MERC at future comic cons and bonuses in website purchases, but the sticker is nice and distinct for campaign backers.

What is a welcome item in the Born of Blood package is the separate gallery booklet that contains all the Born of Bloodcover variants, both clothed and nude versions. Many comics have a cover gallery in their appendix, but Born of Blood goes the extra mile by putting all variations (and variations of the variations) into its own physical booklet which adds an appreciation factor. The Born of Blood covers are all works of art done by some fairly talented illustrators, and having them all consolidated into a booklet creates an experience akin to when one looks at art books from publishers like Taschen. Each page in the cover gallery booklet also displays a QR code to its respective artist’s online presence, adding functionality to help promote the Born of Blood’s artists even more. 

That’s me!

And finally, no crowdfunding endeavor wouldn’t be complete without a perk to have one’s name immortalized in the final product. This is always a fun thing to do: seeing one’s name in a comic is a highlight and adds a personal touch between buyer, creator, and end result. 

Two variants were plucked up during the Born of Blood campaign: the standard Sorah Suhng variant and the nude virgin (no letters/logos) Mike Krome variant. Of all the covers, the Suhng cover conveys the most sword and sandal iconography with its army of Spartan soldiers standing behind Princess Giaris – it’s quite evocative of Frank Miller’s 300.

Image from 300 found via Google Images.

The Krome variant is the most alluring and seductive of all the covers. The clothed version has Giaris looking akin to sword and planet heroine Deja Thoris from the John Carter universe. 

Deja Thoris status from my personal collection.

All in all, the Born of Blood issue one Kickstarter contained a treasury of fun trinkets, beautiful art, and a transgressive neo-peplum comic. 

Born of Blood issue one is the origin story of Princess Giaris who will form one of the pillars of the MERC shared universe. The first panel of the comic grabs a reader’s attention immediately as it depicts a blood covered Giaris (in a very Kill Bill Vol 1 fashion) having dealt a mortal blow to an Argive warrior, right to his exposed genitalia. 

The sword and sandal genre is perhaps the most body-centric narrative genre out there and Born of Blood leans into this facet with wanton abandon. The men channel the traditional Hercules strong man portrayal that has been a genre staple since the original Italian run of films in the early 1960s. Princess Giaris goes through a body transformation herself, somewhat parodied by one of the issue’s faux advertisements, from lithe and slender to muscular yet very much feminine.

An interesting aspect of Giaris is that within the story proper, she only appears nude once, in a bathing scene as she is recuperating from her injuries while undergoing forced combat training against Spartan warrior Mor. Her body is very much on display, usually in a gown or a Red Sonja-esque bikini armour, but she isn’t overly sexualized in the comic’s pages. It is the issue’s various cover arts that depict Giaris in different states of undress and poses, be it seductive, commanding, or both. The plethora of variant covers adds a new aspect to pepla’s relation to the body: for a consumer of sword and sandal media, one not only can gaze at the body, they can also control/select the desired body to be gazed at, in this case via the covers. (Note: a similar concept can be found in video games that has a character creation process). 

Body portrayal aside, Born of Blood borrows quite a bit from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, specifically from the character of Kassandra. Both characters have similar noble Spartan backstories and combat abilities, juggling stealthy kills to more brute force, mercenary tactics. Kassandra has more autonomy than Giaris who is thrown into a dungeon by her father, Spartan King Cleomenes, to endure months of combat training with the hopes she endures and becomes a hardened Spartan Warrior (she does). Kassandra has choices (though dictated by the player), while future Queen of Sparta Giaris has the illusion of choice of what she wants to become. If she had not been thrown into the dungeon, should would’ve have been content to live a simpler, royal life. 

In the final panel of the comic, after putting her strength and wits to the test by defeating a regiment from Argos, Giaris is depicted as completely transformed in attitude and body as she waves to her subjects, the people of Sparta, from the center of a coliseum in an excellently executed panel. Since the rest of the MERC universe takes place in modern times, it will be fascinating to see Princess Giaris’ journey to be incorporated into fold while at the same time contributing to the greater neo-peplum canon.

Excellent, commanding portrayal in the ending page.

More information about Born of Blood and MERC Publishing can be found at the below websites and social medias: 

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-03-13

Personal / Website News

Matthew Page Interview

I did an interview with Matthew Page of Bible Films Blog about his upcoming book, 100 Bible Films from BFI.

The interview can be read here.

D. J. Kirkbride Interview

I conducted an interview with comic book writer D. J. Kirkbridge about the upcoming trade paperback release of Errand Boys.

The interview is scheduled to be published Wednesday the 16th. It will be able to be read here.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

In late February I was invited on to the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about peplum and 80s’ sword and sorcery films. This weekend I was invited back on to continue the dialogue, focusing on specific films. These episodes will be published later on, but in the meantime check out the Fan2Fan Podcast library for some excellent episodes (or better yet, subscribe via your podcast app of preference).

AnnRadCon 2022 In Person Programming

The StokerCon 2022 website has been updating with the conference’s in-person programming, which includes the in-person portion of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Programming can be viewed here. Of, if curious about AnnRadCon programming only to save you a click:

Thursday, May 12th

Track 1 – Film an Television – 9:00 am

  • Karley Pardue: “Bathing Bad: Feminine Vengeance and Masculine Vulnerability in the Showers of HorrorSmith”
  • Jonathan Brooks Sanford: “Between the Known and the Unknown: Stranger Things, the Signifying Body, and the Permeable Border Between the Symbolic and the Real”
  • Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr: “Killing It on the Field: Athletics and Sport in Horror Cinema”
  • Sean Woodard: “Narcissistic Love and Object A: Obsession and Desire in Fade to Black“

Track 2 – Vampires – 10:45 am

  • Rocky Colavito: “Kolchak at Fifty: The Night Stalker Redux, “It’s hard to believe; isn’t it?””
  • Margaret Yankovich: ““It’s Like I Can Feel God Move Inside Me”: The Religious Ecstasy of Sensual Vampirism in Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass“
  • Cassandra Yatron: “Rats and the Queer Vampire: Dracula as a Commensal Creature”

Track 3 – Literature and Nature – 12:15 pm

  • Gavin Hurley: “The Diabolical Dialectics of Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game“
  • Brenda Tolian: “Gaia Screaming”
  • Talmage Joseph Wise: “Anatomical Theatre: Freak Show Horrors in Jekyll and Hyde“
  • Charles Yost: “Crazy Cat Women: The Contemporary Rebrand of Literary Witchcraft”

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

My Severin order for their Caligula boxset arrived.

This boxset contains two films: Caligula the Untold Story and Caligula and Messalina. I’ve seen my share of Joe D’Amato and Bruno Mattei films, but not these prono-pepla.

The original Italian cycle had long since been dead since the mid-60s. With Tinto Brass doing Caligula in the 70s, the door creaked open for imitators, which resulted in these films. Was these 80s peplum films, with wanton depravity and sexploitation that was only hinted at in the original 60s cycle be enough to resurrect the genre? No, of course not. It would have to wait almost two more decades when Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was released.

John Carter Video Game Q/A Sessions

The folks developing the John Carter video game have appeared in a few Q/As to help promote the game and answer fan questions. Episode one can be viewed here and episode two here. The Kickstarter can be found here, so consider chipping in a few dollars.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-03-06

Personal / Website News

Troy Director’s Cut Boxset Unboxing

New article up at my website, right here!

I plucked up the Troy Director’s Boxset from Zia’s Records in December and was nostalgic back to the 2000s when I was hardcore collecting DVDs and special editions. Since folks seem to like unboxing articles and seeing contents inside of stuff, I did one for the Troy boxset. Check it out here.

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.

Emmanuelle 2

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.

Upcoming Website Articles

Believe it or not, I have two interviews I’ve conducted that I’ll be publishing at my website over the next two weeks. That makes three weeks in a row of non-weekly news roundups for this website! Prepare to mark your calendars.

Matthew Page
D. J. Kirkbride

On Wednesday March 9th my interview with Matthew Page about his upcoming book, 100 Bible Films, will be published here. The following week my interview with D. J. Kirkbride on the trade paperback release of his comic series, Errand Boys, will go online. I also have some other mini-essays/interviews in the works, so stay tuned!

General Neo-Peplum News

Supporting Isidora #3

G.A. Lungaro, author of the Lovecraft/neo-peplum comic series Isidora (see my interview with Lungaro on issue 1, or check out my unboxing of issue 2) is selling new merch at his web store to help fund the production of Isidora #3.

Items include the Cute Cthulhu Collection – stickers of Lovecraftian monsters cute-ified. He will also be exploring NFTs later on. For now, check out the website at darthdaddylunga.com.

John Carter Video Game Kickstarter

In big sword and planet news, a Kickstarter to create a John Carter FPS video game has been launched by Sci-Fi-London.

Promotional image provided courtesy of Louis Savy from Sci-Fi-London.

The game is in development right now and has some promising aspects, a big one being relocating John Carter to a WW2 setting and having him a spy in the employ of Ian Fleming! Aside from the Kickstarter proper, news for the game can be found on the official game social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube. Right now it’s only for PC release, but cross fingers for a console version.

Adrastea Kickstarter

Another Kickstarter to take a look at is for the graphic novel Adrastea.

Image from the Kickstarter. Looks like a kick-ass Cyclops to me.

The campaign’s flavor text describes it as such:

Blessed or cursed with Immortality, the ageless king of Hyperborea wakes up from a millennium of self-imposed oblivion, having watched his kingdom crumble to time, along with all those he has ever loved. He decides to travel to Mount Olympus where he will confront the gods to ask why he was burdened with such an affliction and how he can end it. The journey will be long and treacherous and filled with unimaginable men and beasts of lore, but he has no fear of harm and all the time in the world…

The graphic novel is by Mathieu Bablet and published by Magnetic.

Gladiatrix Comic

Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, the masterminds behind the neo-peplum film Immortals and animated series Blood of Zeus are coming out with a new graphic novel called Gladiatrix. Screen Rant has some preview pages of the comic.

Ultimate List of Greek Mythology Films

Over at Bored Panda, writers Miglė Ivanauskaitė and Melanie Gervasoni list out the best Greek mythology pepla and neo-pepla. Not all these films are Greek Myth in origin, but regardless, their list (45 titles!) and order is as follows:

  1. The Odyssey (1997)
  2. Troy (2004) (note: see above or here for my unboxing!)
  3. Jason And The Argonauts (1962)
  4. 300 (2006)
  5. The 300 Spartans (1962)
  6. Immortals (2011)
  7. Hercules (1997)
  8. Wonder Woman (2017)
  9. Clash of the Titans (2010)
  10. Wrath of the Titans (2012)
  11. Spartacus (1960)
  12. Hercules (2014)
  13. Agora (2009)
  14. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
  15. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (2013)
  16. 300: Rise Of An Empire (2014)
  17. Minotaur (2006)
  18. The Legend Of Hercules (2014)
  19. Alexander (2004)
  20. Helen Of Troy (1956)
  21. Iphigenia (1977)
  22. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
  23. Spartacus (2004)
  24. Ulysses (1967)
  25. The Trojan Women (1971)
  26. Oedipus The King (1986)
  27. Antigone (1961)
  28. Orpheus (1950)
  29. Goliath And The Dragon (1960)
  30. Electra (1962)
  31. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
  32. Medea (1969)
  33. Black Orpheus (1959)
  34. Oedipus Rex (1957)
  35. Hercules In New York (1970)
  36. Oedipus Mayor (1996)
  37. The First King (2019)
  38. Helena (1924)
  39. Hercules The Invincible (1964)
  40. Hercules (1983)
  41. Young Hercules (1998)
  42. Hercules and Xena (1998)
  43. The Fury Of Hercules (1962)
  44. Pygmalion (1938)
  45. The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962)

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-09-26

Personal / Website News

Sorry folks, it’s been a slow September. I assure you, things are happening and I am making progress on projects. I just completed my interview with Miss Corsair Debonair and sent that off to Exotica Moderne (to be published early 2022). Lots of podcast recording for future episodes. Also, trying to hunker in and work on my MAPCA conference paper on Acylum and Vikings. So of course, stay tuned, lots of stuff going on!

Voice of Olympus Podcast Appearance

Our episode on Mimic for HP Lovecast is going to be delayed by a day. However, this past Thursday Michele and I were on Voice of Olympus as Scholars from the Edge of Time to keep talking about sword and planet films. We discussed the 2021 John Carter film. The episode can be found at BlogTalkRadio.

General Neo-Peplum News

Masters of the Universe Board game

In sword and planet news, there looks to be a He-Man board game being Kickstarted. It’s called Masters of the Universe: The Board Game: Clash for Eternia.

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-04-04

Personal / Website News

Podcast News

This past Thursday, Jessica Scott and myself were guests on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. The episode will go online on Thursday the 8th across all major podcast platforms (I recommend their Buzzsprout page).

Michele and I appeared on the Voice of Olympus program on Tuesday to talk EC Comics. Michele covered War Against Crime while I talked about Valor.

Due to timing, billing cycles, and so on, the newest episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast will go online on April 5th.

Horror CFPs

I run the horror academics board for the Horror Writers Association. I try to add new CFPs for papers, presentations, and keep tabs on publishers who accept academic and non-fiction submission. When I update it, go forward, I’ll mention the updates here as well in order to help proliferate the CFPs. The board can be found here and can be viewed by anyone.

General Neo-Peplum News

Das Neue Evangelium

The Bible Films Blog has a write up of Das Neue Evangelium (The New Gospel, 2020), which contains shot-for-shot remakes of Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).

John Carter Video Game

Sword and planet hero John Carter is getting a video game treatment called John Carter: Warlord of Mars. A website has been setup about the game as it develops at http://jcwom.com.

Elysian Fields: “The Pyramid Gambit”

The newest issue of the Elysian Fields comic series, “The Pyramid Gambit,” has started shipping. I’ve received my copy:

Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit: Loot from the Indiegogo campaign

A call back: I interviewed Michael Oden about Elysian Fields #0 on my website. It can be read here.

Isidora issue #2 News

G. A. Lungaro has completed the script for Isidora #2. The new issue will have four different covers (Jay Espin, Vic King, Mark McKenna, and a mystery person). Issue 2 will also be crowdfunded via Indiegogo this time instead of Kickstarter and is expected to go live May/June. Other related news is that issue #1 is going to be re-lettered and there appears to be a special edition that will contain issues 1 and 2.

Another call back, I interviewed Lungaro very recently about Isidora #1.

Teaching With Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Dr. Deb Trusty will be giving a talk titled “Playing in the Past: Reflections from a Classicist on Playing, Streaming, and Teaching with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” via Zoom on April 7th, 2021 at 7:00 pm PST. Registration is here.