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News Roundup 2025-02-23

Personal / Website News

Becca Boo #3 Review

Two articles in a month! I’m on a roll!

Brand new comic book review here at my website, I take a gander at issue three of Becca Boo: The Bimbo Ghost.

This has been a fun adult comic from Obscura Comics. I previously reviewed issue one and issue two. My issue two review has been updated to reflect that the publisher corrected their missing swag issue and sent it on over. Top notch for Obscura!

Castle of Horror Podcast Appearance

My first podcast appearance of 2025 is on the Castle of Horror Podcast! I was invited on to talk about Antonio Margheriti’s 1964 gothic horror classic, Castle of Blood.

The episode can be streamed at the Castle of Horror Spreaker website here, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference. Sincere appreciation to Jason Henderson for having me on.

WOLF (1994) – Podcast/Discussion Castle of Horror Podcast

If you can’t get enough of me talking about Castle of Blood, make sure you give a listen to the Fan2Fan Podcast episode where I talk about the film.

New Edge Sword and Sorcery 5, 6, and 7

New Edge Sword and Sorcery are currently crowdfunding the next three issues of their magazine, which will be two issues of sword and sorcery and one issue of sword and planet!

I am excited to announce I’ll be part of this project! The NESS magazines have featured cocktails in prior issues done by Kevin Beckett, and I’ve been asked to develop brand new cocktails for these upcoming three.

Here is a graphic from the Backerkit campaign of the authors involved in these three issues, and I am chuffed to be listed among them all!

The Backerkit Campaign for NESS 5,6,7 can be found here. Please consider contributing! The campaign ends on March 15th. Sincere appreciation to Oliver Brackenbury for having me on board for this project.

If you’re curious, I did a short interview of issue 00 back in 2023, so check that out!

ECOF 2025

In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).

Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:

I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. 

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.

Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.

Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.

“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.

“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Medieval + Monsters in Comics

Online Sponsored Session Proposed for Medieval + Monsters: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM), Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA), Illinois Medieval Association (IMA) Joint Conference with The Newberry Library
Hosted at Dominican University & the Newberry Library
17-18 October 2025

The Medieval Comics Project and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association seek proposals of 250 words for a proposed online panel devoted to the theme of the medieval and the monstrous in sequential art, comics, manga, and related media.

Topics might include:

  • Adaptations of medieval monsters in modern comics/manga/related media
  • Monsters in sequential art of the medieval era
  • Monsters in marginalia in medieval manuscripts (akin to modern panel comics)
  • New monsters in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
  • The use of horror in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
  • The use of monstrosity to represent issues of class/gender/race in comic/manga versions of the Middle Ages

Please send submissions (250-word proposal plus a short biographical statement) to the session organizers (Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Benjamin H. Hoover) at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com by 15 March 2025.

For more information on the Medieval Comics Project, please see our blog at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.  

For more information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association, please see our blog at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.  

Further details on the conference itself can be accessed at https://www.dom.edu/medieval-monsters-conference.  

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.

Boris and Natasha DVD

Someone posted on Bluesky that they made a Letterbox list of original movies for Showtime. Seeing that made me recall I have some of those films on DVD, including this stately copy of Boris and Natasha: The Movie, signed by Sid Haig and Sally Kellerman (both RIP).

I know next to nothing about Rocky and Bullwinkle, maybe seeing a handful of cartoons growing up. However the Boris and Natasha live action movie was on all the time, and I thought it hilarious when I was a kid.

Sid Haig I met at Crypticon in SeaTac in the late 2000s. Sally Kellerman was at a Hollywood Collectors show, either late 2000s or early 2010.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol 1

I am a kid of the 80s, so of course I grew up with the TMNT cartoon and live action films. I had not really been into TMNT since I was a kid, but every one in a while I check something out in the franchise. Last month I watched Mutant Mayhem and it was awesome!

Anywho, I do have some of the IDW collections of the original mid-80s Turtles comics. I’ve met Kevin Eastman a few times at different cons, but at a Long Beach Comic Con in the later 2010s I took him the Ultimate Collection Vol 1 to autograph, which he did, and he drew a sweet Donatello (my favorite turtle) in it!

Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets

Another treasure from a comic book con, a copy of Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets signed by artist Chrystin Garland.

I had the honour to meet Garland at a Wondercon in the mid 2010s.

Burden of Dreams

Fitzcarraldo is probably my favorite Herzog/Kinski collaboration, both on screen and off screen. Burden of Dreams is a documentary that captures the mammoth undertaken of this tour de force film.

Les Blank, who passed away a few years ago, was gracious to let me post him my DVD back in the late 2000s to be autographed by him. Probably time for a re-watch, and to also re-watch the supplement where Herzog eats his shoe!

Phantasm & Reggie Bannister

Fangoria reports the sad news that horror icon Reggie Bannister has entered hospice care due to dementia and Parkinson’s. They have an article up letting people know where to send fan mail to him to keep his spirits up (link).

We’ve met Bannister at a few different horror cons over the years. The first time was at a horror con in Seattle that was also a reunion of Phantasm alumni. There Michele and I got our DVD copy of Phantasm signed by Bannister, Bill Thornbury, Kathy Lester, and Don Coscarelli. Bannister joked he loved to sign over Angus Scrimm’s face to tease him.

Back in 2023 Michele appeared on the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about her memories of Phantasm. Give it a listen!

Phantasm 1979 Fan2Fan Podcast

Wishing Reggie the very best care.

The Eternal End

My friend Lee Mitchell has a new book out! It is called The Eternal End. It’s the third book in her “Divine Darkness” trilogy after The Divine Darkness and The Lasting Light.

More information about the book can be found at Mitchell’s Substack. The book can be found at Amazon as well as at all major book vendors online.

Gyro and the Argonauts!

Joshua Pruett, who has been on many episodes of the Fan2Fan Podcast, and even appeared on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast has a new book coming out, and it is kiddo neo-peplum! It is called Gyro and the Argonauts! and I am super excited for it.

This book can also be ordered at Amazon and other major vendors.

Michele’s 2025 Reading Vlog #2

Michele has a new Vlog up about her 2025 Book challenges!

If you want to see Michele talk about what she is reading as well as seeing some cat cameos, give it a watch!

New Ride the Stream Episodes

Michele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.

Here is their discussion of episode seven of season 1:

And episode eight:

New episodes drop every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.

Categories
News

News Roundup 2024-11-03

Personal / Website News

Scholars From the Edge of Time

A brand new Scholars From the Edge of Time vidcast is online!

For the spooky month of October Michele and I revisit the world of sword and scary with a horror-filmed Neo-peplum film, The Head Hunter!

The episode can be viewed on YouTube here – check it out!

Panthans Journal #330

The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my convention coverage of the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. panel at Wondercon 2019.

Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journalis a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn@gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.

ECOF 2025

In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).

Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:

I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. There currently is a fundraiser going on to raise funds for the ERB plaque, and details for that can be found in the QR code in the above graphic, or by checking out the donation page at the Sulphur Springs Valley Valley Historical Society. 3.5K of 5K has been raised already.

Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #327.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond#3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #328.

Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #329.

“Wondercon 2019 Coverage: Tarzan, John Carter, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.: What’s New?” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #330.

A side note, I’ve done some organizing on my bibliography page. The magazines/zines/etc. section was getting rather long so I broke it up into a section for Exotica Moderne, a section for Panthans, and a section for the rest. In the future, when a particular outlet starts to appear more than a few times I’ll parse it to its own area as well.

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Metal Music Studies Retrospectives

In celebration of the 10th year of Metal Music Studies, we (Ross Hagen and Edward Banchs) are compiling a section of short retrospectives on foundational and important publications for the reviews section. We are aiming for a mix of titles that includes books aimed at general audiences in addition to academic monographs and edited collections. We are looking for short retrospectives of around 1000-1500 words that would address the following threads of inquiry: 

  • What is the significance of the work?
  • What did it contribute to Metal Studies?
  • What aspects of the book still seem most relevant today?
  • Are there aspects of the book that you are critical of? 

The tone of the writing does not need to be rigorously academic; we are looking for more personal sorts of reminisces about these publications. 

If you are interested in writing a retrospective, please reply with up to three titles you are interested to write about. We’re operating on a “first-come, first-served” basis so it will be good to have some alternative titles in case your first choice is already spoken for.  We would like to have the first drafts by Dec. 1 – it’s a quick turnaround but since these will be short and less academic hopefully that won’t be too much of a discouragement.

We have reviews lined up already for the following:

  • Christie, The Sound of the Beast
  • Dawes, What are You Doing Here?
  • Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal
  • Moynihan, Lords of Chaos
  • McNeil, Please Kill Me
  • Clifford-Napoleone, Queerness in Heavy Metal Music
  • Roccor, Heavy Metal. Die Bands. Die Fans. Die Gegner. 
  • Hein, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal: Histoire, cultures et pratiquants

We would like to get 5–10 more pieces to round out the section. We’d be particularly interested in reviews of some of the early collections like Scott & von Helden’s Metal Void: The First Gathering (2010) along with other edited collections and special issues of journals.

Please send replies and any questions to both ross.hagen@uvu.edu and edwardbanchs@gmail.com.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.

Autographed Crawlspace

The folks at RedLetterMedia recently did a two-part episode on Full Moon’s Puppet Master series of films. They briefly brought up Puppet Master one’s director David Schmoeller and how he did a movie called Crawlspace with Klaus Kinski who was a nightmare to work with – so much so that Kinski became the inspiration for the Blade puppet.

Back in the late 2000s I contacted Schmoeller and asked him if I could post him my copy of Crawlspace to be autographed and he said sure! So, pictured here is my copy of Crawlspace, signed by Schmoeller (and producer Charles Band), along with a copy of “Please Kill Mr. Kinski” that Schmoeller sent as a gift.

Art of Michele Brittany

Michele has started a Facebook Page devoted to her crafting and art. If you want to check out her projects or purchase some of her journals, give the page a like and follow!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565895377463

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-05-05

Personal / Website News

Scholars from the Edge of Time

The April episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online.

In this vidcast Michele and I take a small break from talking about the films of Bella Cortez and talk about the 1985 Spanish sci-fi/fantasy film, Star Knight. The episode can be watched on YouTube.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

New Sword and Sandal Book Acquisitions

Two new tomes have been added to the sword and sandal/pop culture library.

The first is Helen of Troy in Hollywood by Ruby Blondell. This book cites The New Peplum, which is wicked cool (I always gush when my work gets cited). I don’t know too much about Helen of Troy mythology and I have not seen too many films based on her, so this book will definitely fill that knowledge gap. A few years ago Michele and I watched/did a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode on the film The Lion of Thebes (1964) [listen to it here]. Looking at the index of this book, The Lion of Thebes doesn’t appear to be mentioned. So, perhaps a future essay idea to apply Blondell’s work to that film?

Second up is the Cult Epics book The Films of Tinto Brass. I’ve been a huge Tinto Brass fan for years, probably due to his emphasis on stockings – he’s like an Elmer Batters, but for Italian erotica. Aside from all the hosiery-focused films, Brass did the most infamous porno peplum ever, Caligula (1979), which there is an entire chapter dedicated to in this book.

This book was funded from a crowdfunding campaign, so I have my name listed in the back, which is always fun. Cult Epics also published the Sylvia Kristel book a few years back, which you can read my review here. As soon as I can clear my review plate off I’ll try and do a write up of this book.

Though The Films of Tinto Brass was a crowdfunded endeavor, the book is readily purchasable from Cult Epics which comes with some exclusives such as a disc of trailers, a poster, and an autograph from Nico B.

New Sword and Sandal DVDs Acquisitions

An opportunity to pluck of Princess Warrior (1989) presented itself, so I had to go for it.

I had never heard of this film until I saw a RedLetterMedia review on it, and it looked bad (and by bad I mean awesome). It’s an 80s sword and sorcery film, with maybe a little sword and planet element thrown in. It mostly has the heroine traveling to Earth where the plot is akin to The Terminator combined with an extended a wet t-shirt contest.

Autograph Treasures

Karen McDougal, 1998 Playboy Playmate of the year, is in the news related to the trial of Trump falsifying business records in violation of campaign finance law (among other things). So, I’ll take advantage of the news to show off my autographed copy of The Arena (2001) in which she starred in.

The Arena is remake of the Pam Grier 1974 version of the same name. The 2001 version is directed by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, who did the amazing film Night Watch (2004). Bekmambetov would revisit the neo-pelum genre in 2016 with another remake, this time of Ben-Hur.

I had the honour to meet McDougal at Glamourcon in Long Beach, November of 2011, where she signed my DVD of The Arena. It’s been over a decade since I last watched the film, but I remember enjoying it, so time to revisit it!

CFPs

Simon Bacon has a new CFP on Folk Horror and UFO/Alien Narratives:

I’m putting something together on a prospective project on the intersection of Folk Horror and UFO/Alien narratives. This could include, but not limited to:

  • The intersection of Folk Horror and Cosmic Horror
  • Lovecraft, Hope Hodgeson, and Folk Horror
  • Texts (films/games/lit/comics/etc) that use historical alien visitations as the basis of folklore/cults
  • Summonings that turn out to be alien entities
  • Alien encounters/visitation texts that use Folk Horror tropes
  • Examples of alien planets that feature their own versions of Folk Horror
  • Human/Alien futures that see past versions of humanity as sources of Folk Horror
  • Folk Horror and series such as Star Trek, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Dune, etc.

At this stage it’s just ideas/abstracts I’m needing (final essays wouldn’t be before end 2025). If interested contact me at: baconetti@gmail.com

I Am a Barbarian

Stock of Thomas Simmons and Mike Dubisch’s graphic novel, I Am a Barbarian is getting low, so if you want a copy – especially a limited edition one with an autographed book plate, scoot over to the Edgar Rice Burroughs website.

I had the honor to interview Simmons and Dubisch about their work, so check that out here, and then consider checking out their work proper.