Tag: Mimic

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Biweekly News Roundup 2023-12-03

Personal / Website News

New Publication: The Journal of Stoogeological Studies Vol 1

The debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies is out now!

I received a draft PDF of the first issue and its 88 pages of essays, reviews, and other musings all about the Three Stooges (and, as of 12/27, there’s supposed to be a bit more content added this week, so it’s getting even bigger!). I’m honored to have a short piece in this journal called “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy.” I am no expert on The Three Stooges or a super fan or anything, but I love writing about sword n’ sandal stuff so this was a unique venue to talk about the genre in an eccentric way.

For information on procuring a copy of the zine contact editor Will Sloan (website is https://www.willsloan.ca).

UPDATE: Amazon product page here.

Becca Boo #1 Review

New review up at my website! I take a gander at the first issue of the sex-comedy comic book Becca Boo the Bimbo Ghost.

The review can be read here. I enjoyed the comic and chipped in the for Kickstarter for issue 2, so expect a review of that when it is published. The issue 2 Kickstarter can be found here.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Brand new episode of H.P. Lovecast Podcast is now online!

Episode 59 Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.

Michele and I finally conclude our annual Mimic series discussion by talking about Mimic 3: Sentinel. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Ep 59 – J. T. Petty's Mimic 3: Sentinel – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

McFarland Christmas Sale

My publisher, McFarland, is doing a holiday sale on ALL their titles. Use code “HOLIDAY23” at checkout to receive 25% off your order. The sale appears to go on for the entire month of December, but McFarland suggests placing orders before the 16th in order to receive them in time for Yuletide.

This is a perfect opportunity to scoop up books I’ve participated in. For editing:

And for contributing:

If you pluck up a book, thank you for your support!

Emmanuelle Legacy CFP Re-opened + Bibliography

Since garnering publisher interest, I’ve re-opened the CFP for the Emmanuelle legacy book. The updated CFP can be found here.

Monique Gabrielle as Emmanuelle in Emmanuelle 5.

I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Published in May, this issue of Weird Tales contains my essay “When the Stars are Right.”

Weird Tales Product Page

Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”

Limited to 50 physical copies.

Order via Patreon.

Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”

Order via Dark Dead Thingswebsite.

Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.

Amazon product page.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

“Azathoth” song on Bandcamp

John 3:16, the composer of the HP Lovecast podcast theme song, “Azathoth,” has released the track on Bandcamp!

Here is the link to check it out, stream it, or purchase it via name your own price. Sincere thank you to John 3:16 for being a super supporter of our podcast, sharing our content, and of course, creating this awesome tune.

CFP: The Mummy Edited Collection

Michele is teaming up with Sean Woodard to do an edited collection on The Mummy series. They have a CFP listed at UPENN, but I am also sharing a copy below.

Editors: Michele Brittany and Sean Woodard

Contact email: mummybookproject@gmail.com

Abstract Deadline: December 15, 2023

Chapter Drafts Deadline: June 15, 2024

Essays sought for an edited collection focused on Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise.

The 1999 Universal reboot of The Mummy, starring the indelible duo of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, remains a tentpole of ’90s popular culture and cinema. Not only did The Mummy launch two sequels, a spin-off series, and a reboot, but it has lived on as a cult film, loved by fans for its mixture of horror, action/adventure, and humor. The film has also developed a strong meme culture on social media — one of the most viral examples contains a photo of a car bumper sticker proclaiming: “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.”

While academic research has been focused on various releases of The Mummy (1932, 1959, 1999, and 2017), there has not been a singular scholarly text devoted to the film franchise. The recent “Brenaissance” in Fraser’s film career and the film’s anticipated 25th anniversary in 2024 make it an appropriate time to celebrate and re-evaluate the film.

The purpose of this edited collection is to place The Mummy into a cultural and theoretical context, as well as critically analyze the franchise, its connections to other genre films, and its continued influence.

We seek proposals for chapters that approach the subject matter with theoretical concepts that will appropriately meet the rigorous expectations of an academic work, but through a prose style that shall be accessible for both an academic audience and a general readership.  

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Resurgent interest in Brendan Fraser/“Brenaissance”
  • Stephen Sommers as an auteur
  • Representation of Egypt in popular culture and early filmic representation
  • Eastern mythology/culture/religion
  • Exoticism of non-western cultures
  • Post/De-colonialism 
  • Heroic representation
  • Body horror
  • Eco-horror/Ecocriticism
  • Gender representation
  • Toxic depictions in film
  • Queer/LGBTQ+ representation
  • Meme/GIF culture
  • Psychoanalysis
  • Generational nostalgia 
  • Element of music/film scoring
  • Genre hybridity
  • Film cycles/reboots/retcons (such as The Scorpion King, The Mummy animated series, Universal Classic Monsters, Hammer Studios, Dark Universe, etc.) and related adventure/archaeological-driven films (such as Ark of the Sun God, The Sphinx, The Librarian franchise, etc.)

Please send abstracts of 300 – 500 words with a working title and five (5) keywords, accompanied by a short third-person author bio (100 words max), to mummybookproject@gmail.com as a Word document. Final essays should be 6,000 – 8,000 words in length, including endnotes and bibliography, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The collection is being considered by a leading academic press.

Proposed Timeline

  • October 1, 2023 thru December 15, 2023 — Call for Papers
  • January 15, 2024 — Notification of abstract acceptances sent to authors  
  • January 15, 2024 thru June 15, 2024 — Book chapters drafting period
  • June 15, 2024 thru July 15, 2024 — Initial editorial review of submitted chapter drafts
  • August 1, 2024 thru October 1, 2024 — Double-blind Peer Review Period
  • October 1, 2024 thru November 15, 2024 — Contributor revision period
  • December 1, 2024 — Final editorial acceptance decisions
  • December 1, 2024 thru January 15, 2025 — Layout design, indexing, and proofing stage
  • January 15, 2025 thru February 15, 2025 — Copies of chapter proofs sent to contributors for copyediting review
  • March 1, 2025 — Final manuscript submitted in hard copy and digital formats to publisher

Editor bios:

Michele Brittany is a writer, editor, podcaster, and artist. She edited James Bond and Popular Culture and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre. She co-edited Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays and co-hosts H. P. Lovecast podcast with Nicholas Diak. She lives in Glendale, Arizona.

Sean Woodard (MA | MFA) is a PhD candidate in English at University of Texas at Arlington. He also serves as the Assistant Editor for Global Insight: A Journal of Critical Human Science and Cultureand the Film Editor for Drunk Monkeys. He has contributed chapters to the edited collections Journeys Into Terror: Essays from the Cinematic Intersection of Travel and Horror and Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in Italy and Abroad. His research interests include horror cinema, the American West, psychoanalysis, fairy tales, and film scoring.

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News

2022 Accomplishments

Happy 2023 everyone!

As with 2021, 2022 was a crazy year. Lots of life stuff: got a new job after 16 or 17 years at my previous job, and bought a house – first house ever! It’s been quite a process and these last few months busy with cleaning, packing, and moving. However, that is all done (well, except unpacking and furnishing) and Michele and I get to start 2023 off in a home with our cats.

I did a 2021 Accomplishments List and looking back on those, I actually got most of them done! Some projects have been delayed, and of course I have items and reviews on my to do list that have been pending for a while.

Now that I’m all settled in in the new house, with my own office, and library of research material close at hand, I look forward to taking a big bite out of 2023!

2022 Accomplishments

Podcast Accomplishments

Publication Accomplishments

  • 5 physical/print publications
  • 19 articles at my website
    • 10 comic book/book/movie reviews/write ups
    • 6 interviews
    • 3 cocktail articles
  • I also made short film called Dinosaur Joke

Conference Accomplishments

  • Co-chaired with Michele the 5th year of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
    • This is also the final year we chair this conference
  • 1 Conference Presentation
    • AnnRadCon
  • 1 Convention Appearance

I’d like to give a shout out to the following folks who have given me platforms to share what I’ve been working on or given me venues to contribute to:

  • Bernie Gonzalez and Pete Charbonneau (Fan2Fan Podcast)
  • Hercules Invictus (Voice of Olympus Network)
  • Ken Holewczynski (Exotica Moderne)
  • James Chambers, Carol Gyzander (Galactic Terrors)
  • Jonathan Maberry (Weird Tales)
  • Kevin Wetmore (Twilight Zone book)
  • Hal and Dee Astell (CoKoCon)
  • Michele Brittany (partner in crime)

You are all greatly appreciated!

2023 Projections

Three days into 2023 and projects are already lining up. Some are carryovers from 2022. Some have been legacy to dos. Some will be brand new. We’ve already been in touch with folks for future episodes of H. P. Lovecast, so expect lots of cool stuff there. I got some looming deadlines for essays for anthology editors, so time to get to work!

Things to look forward to in 2023

  • Publishing of the debut issue of the Footage Fiends zine which contains my essay on the Mario Bava cosmic horror/exotica film, Caltiki: The Immortal Monster.
  • A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is slated to be published this February. This contains my essay on industrial bands that sample the film. This book has been a long time in coming, so I am extremely excited to see it published!
  • My CFP for the Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle project will be open until the spring. Submit, submit, submit!
  • Essay to be published in Weird Tales. Proof was done and turned in.
  • New episodes of H. P. Lovecast Podcast
  • Appearances on the Fan2Fan Podcast
  • Appearance on the Scaredy Cats podcast discussing the film The Final Girls.
  • Being on panels for CoKoCon 2023.

Projects I’ll be starting in 2023

Projects I anticipate to be starting/working on in 2023:

  • Essay on peplum cats for a project for Simon Bacon about cats in cinema (due early spring!)
  • Essay on the Front Line Assembly album Implode and how it samples the films Mimic and Event Horizon (passion idea project)
  • Crossing fingers – get enough submissions for the Emmanuelle project to procure a publisher and get that book off the ground
  • Turning my Acylum/Vikings presentation in a journal article
  • And other legacy items on my to do list…

Thank you to everyone who has been with my on my academic journey, who has read and shared my material or given me platforms. You all rock socks!

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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-12-04

Personal / Website News

Life Stuff

Apologies in advance that original writing here at my website has been sparse. Michele and I recently bought a house and we are in the process of moving in. The vast majority of my library is in boxes at the new place. We will be moved in by the end of the month with January being spent unpacking and getting settled. After that, I’ll be up and running again, writing content here but for other venues and projects as well.

Despite this, LOTS of cool stuff is still going on. Read below!

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for the Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

New H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode

A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online.

This is our monthly Transmissions episode, however we did a longer form interview instead of a handful of smaller ones. Our interview is with P. L. McMillan and her new novella, Sisters of the Crimson Vine. The episode can be streamed at the H. P. Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 17 – P. L. McMillan – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

For December we are going to do a recap episode where Michele and I talk about projects completed this year, upcoming news, podcast news, and so on.

A Hero Will Endure Update

A few years in the making, but the collection, A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, is set to be published this February by Vernon Press. This book contains my essay, “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.” There is no cover art yet, but there is a product/pre-order page at the publisher’s website.

Footage Fiends Issue 1

Pre-orders are open for the first issue of the Footage Fiends zine. I have a short essay in this debut issue (tentatively) titled “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”

Issues are tied to tiers at the Footage Fiends Patreon: $5 digital and $10 for physical with issues being published quarterly.

A promotional clip for the Zine can be found on the Footage Fields Twitter:

Check it all out and consider supporting!

Awards Season

Horror/speculative award season is upon us. This year I really only have one piece of writing eligible for the various awards out there: my essay “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise. Thank you for your interest/consideration!

New Scholars from the Edge of Time

Michele and I appeared on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal cinema the last Thursday of November. I talked about the “City of Evil” episode of Thundarr the Barbarian while Michele talked about Ouja Mummy and Luxor. The episode can be heard via BlogTalkRadio.

Tribel Social Media

With all the brouhaha happening at Twitter, I’ve decided to start checking out alternative social medias. Unfortunately my iPhone is at capacity so I cannot install the app-only Hive social media. I’m on a waitlist for Post. However, I did setup an account at Tribel, which can be found here. Tribel is pretty much a ghost town right now, but I’ll wait and see what happens. Come give me a follow if you’re on the platform.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Mimic Soundtrack (And Plans)

Record Store Day had a Black Friday event this year. There was one vinyl I was really, really gunning for, and that was the new LP of the Mimic soundtrack, composed by Marco Beltrami. When I got to Zia Records, there was only one copy on the shelf and I snagged that bad boy.

Michele and I talked about Mimic and Mimic 2 on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast (check them out – links on the titles) and plan on doing Mimic 3 next year.

I have other plans for the Mimic soundtrack. The first Front Line Assembly album I ever bought was Implode which contains much sampling of dialogue and music cues from both Mimic and Event Horizon. It’s been on the idea board to write *something* about this. We shall see what I come up with.

Elmer Batters Polaroid

I am a huge fan of the stockings photography of Elmer Batters. Back in 2015 Michele and I were able to visit an Elmer Batters and Eric Stanton exhibit that Taschen Books was curating in LA. Lots of great art and photography, and polaroids too!

There was an option to buy the polaroids, but at that point I didn’t have the funds to do so.

Fast forward to autumn 2022 and I was able to work with Taschen to procure a an original Batters Polaroid:

Elmer Batters, unknown model.

The polaroid was taken in the 1970s and it is awesome. The model is unfortunately unknown. It’s a fairly conservative Batters piece and I adore it.

The back of the frame the polaroid came in was autographed by Dian Hanson, known for many of the pinup books and Big Book Ofs that Taschen published (I cited her Big Butt Book for my masters thesis). Sincere thanks to Bernard at Taschen for coordinating all of this.

Rest in Peplum

French actress Mylène Demongeot passed away on December 1st (Deadline Article).

Promotional image from IMDB.

She starred in peplum and peplum-adjacent films such as:

  • The Giant of Marathon (1959)
  • Romulus and the Sabines (1961)
  • Gold for the Caesars (1963)
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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-10-09

Personal / Website News

Three weeks in a row of articles at my website. I hope I can keep up the momentum.

Two New Book Reviews

I’ve published not one but two book reviews at my website in the past two weeks.

First up, stepping in the realm of middle grade, I’ve done a review on Lora Senf’s debut novel, The Clackity. It can be read right here.

Book Template

Monster mayhem continues in my second book review which is on Robert P. Ottone’s newest novel, Nocturnal Creatures. This one can be read right here.

New Episodes of H. P. Lovecast

More double trouble, two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast have also been published in the last two weeks.

First is our monthly Transmissions program. For September we interviewed Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke. That episode can be listened to at our Buzzspout page, the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 15 – Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Next, roughly a year after we discussed Mimic on our podcast, we return to the franchise by discussing Mimic 2.

This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Ep 55 – Jean de Segonzac's Mimic 2 – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Horror Book Sale at McFarland

McFarland is doing a sale on horror books during the month of October. During checkout, use the code “HORROR22” to get 25% of books in their horror category.

There’s three books included in the sale I have involvement in (The Twilight Zone book is tagged as horror, but it isn’t out yet, so I’m not sure if the sale applies to it or not):

This is a great opportunity to pluck these books up and be supportive to what Michele and I do.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Footage Fiends Zine

Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:

I’ve completed and submitted a short-form essay about Mario Bava’s film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster. The submission window for issue 01 is still open, so send them a pitch! Email address is footagefiends at gmail dot com.

Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign

Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.

Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting.

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News

News Roundup W/E 2021-10-03

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episodes

This past week we published not one, but two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast (due to timing: 4th Sunday and last day of the month).

Episode thumbnail by Michele Brittany

For the Fragments episode we took a look at the 1997 Guillermo del Toro’s film, Mimic. This episode can be heard on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.

Episode thumbnail by Michele Brittany

Next, our Transmissions episode also went up. This is our interview episode, and we talked to three folks, all three who are alumni of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference:

  • Farah Rose Smith on their short story collections Of One Pure Will
  • Rahel Sixta Schmitz on their debut non-fiction book The Supernatural Media Virus
  • Kevin Wetmore on their newest book, Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters

This episode can also be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

Exotica Moderne Cover Reveal

Issue 13 of Exotica Moderne will be released soon! House of Tabu has done a cover reveal:

This issue will contain my review of the book Cuban Cocktails. The pre-order page for this issue can be found at the House of Tabu website.

Of note, my article for issue 14 is in the can! It will be an interview with pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair. The interview is done and sent in, just waiting on photos to go with the article. That issue will be released in early 2022.

Issue 15 I hope to finally do my write up on Caltiki: The Immortal Monster.

Academic CV

Updated the About Me page to include a link to the newest version of my academic CV.

General Neo-Peplum News

Aegean RPG

Stoo Goff has a Kickstarter going for an interesting neo-peplum table top RPG called Aegean RPG.

The Kickstarter description is as follows:

Aegean is a tabletop role-playing game about a group of mythic heroes building a new, free city on the shores of the Aegean Sea. There are neighbouring cities to trade or war with, monsters to kill, gods to appease, deceptions, negotiations and bloody skirmishes.

The world of Aegean is an ancient Greece that never existed – a mix of mythology and classical history. The gods visit the earth and converse with mortals, granting gifts of magic and life to some and fear and terror to others. Fearsome monsters roam the lands and seas making every journey an adventure. Strange creatures, some mortal, others half-divine, can be found in the wilderness. These centaurs, nymphs and tritons teach, harass or ignore humans as their whim takes them.

The polis—the city and its surrounding lands—is your home and where your loyalties lie. Your polis is a recently founded colony on the coasts of the Aegean Sea. The leader is called an arkhon, a democratically elected ruler after the Athenian fashion, rather than the hereditary king that many cities still use. The polis sits in a precarious position, between many similar neighbouring states who may wish to trade, ally or make war.

Your character fits somewhere in this world, between the capricious force of the gods, the wilderness and the structure of the polis and its ambitions.

Gladiator 2 Being Written

An article at IndieWire says that Gladiator 2 is current being written and will be ready to hit production after Ridley Scott’s Napoleon movie is made.

Afterlives Podcast

Egyptologist Kara Cooney has started a new podcast in September called Afterlives.

It can be streamed on Spotify or your podcast application of preference. Newest episode talks about being an academia, so extremely helpful!

Recent Aquisitions

Figure I would jazz up my news my showcasing any new neo-peplum texts I pluck up. While at a Zia’s Records last week I happened upon two metal releases: Warkings’ Revolution and Ex Deo’s The Thirteen Years of Nero.

I’m enjoying both, especially the adventure metal sound of Warkings. That album is interesting in that in a true neo-peplum fashion, it’s blending genres/histories together: Vikings, Spartans, Templars, etc.