Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) 2025 Gathering Recap
Welp, I have been sharing it on the news updates posts at my website here for months, and now it finally happened: The Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering for 2025. Or, it happened a few weekends ago. It was a great time, I got to meet some awesome folks, and even go to do a presentation about the peplum genre and Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
The monument unveiled.
I did my best to document everything I could. My write up of Michele’s and my adventures driving to Willcox (and stopping at THE THING? on the way there) and of the ECOF event proper can be read here. Do check it out!
McFarland Horror Booksale
My publisher, McFarland Books, is currently doing a book stale on all their horror books. This includes four books I am a part of:
Since I’m the co-editor of Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern, purchases of this book send a few royalty dollars my way (so it is a great way to show support). But all four books are great references to purchase.
Cover of Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays.
Cover for Horror in Space.
When purchasing these (or other horror) books, use the code “HORROR40” at checkout to get 40% off. This sale ends Halloween, so don’t miss out!
Scholars from the Edge of Time
This upcoming Thursday Michele and I will be recording our discussion of Wrath of the Titans (2012).
Personal copy of the Clash of the Titans ’81, Clash of the Titan 2010, and Wrath of the Titans 3 Movie Blu-ray set.
Keep an eye out for the link when it goes live!
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335
“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Perfect Crime Party
A graphic novel-anthology was just recently released titled Perfect Crime Party.
Personal copy of Perfect Crime Party
Speculative fiction/cult author Nick Mamatas wrote one of the stories in it! I’m a fan of Mamatas’ work, so I bought a copy from him which he signed.
The 21 Foot Rule autographed by Nick Mamatas.
Have not read it yet, but looking forward to! The cover for the book is adorbs.
Grand Theft Auto IV
One of the things I have been doing lately if I have a few moments is going back and playing some of my video games I did not 100% complete (ie. get all the achievements). Grand Theft Auto IV is one of those games I have not touched in 17 years, and only had a handful of achievements.
Personal copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 autographed by Michael Hollick.
It has been both fun and frustrating revisiting the game after so long. What is cool about the game is back in 2008 Michele and I went to SDCC where Michael Hollick, who played Niko Bellic in GTA4, was one of the celebrity guests. I brought my Xbox 360 copy of the game for him to sign and he excitedly did. A real gem in my autograph treasure.
The Brood / Rest in Peplum Samantha Eggar
Rest in Peplum to Samantha Eggar who passed away last week! Peplum-wise she voiced Hera in the Disney Hercules movie and TV show.
Personal copy of The Brood DVD signed by Samantha Eggar.
She was a guest at a Hollywood Collectors Show back in the late 2000s/early 2010s, where she autographed my copy of David Cronenberg’s The Brood.
Joanna Pacula Addendum
Back on 8/17 I posted my copy of Gorky Park that was signed by actress Joanna Pacula.
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Ride the Stream Episode
Michele and Travis have a brand new episode of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. As they are currently recording episodes about season two of Lost, they done an in-between episode to talk about Raiders of the Lost Ark. Check it out here on YouTube or via the embedded player below:
Expect new episodes to resume being published every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
The Fan2Fan Podcast has released a lot of mini “Flash” episodes of their podcast for this Halloween season. Check these short episodes out:
It has been since August since I last posted to my website here! September was simply a crazy month. At work I am on two implementations at the same time, so that has been a big focus for me. The other thing was getting prepared for the 2025 ECOF that happened last weekend. I’m right in the middle of doing a big write up and picture gallery that recaps the event, which I’ll have posted this Wednesday. After that, back to the Emmanuelle book and cranking out the backlog of comic book reviews. In the meantime, here is a month’s worth of news to catch up on!
Panthans Journal #340 and #341
Since my last website update, two issues of The National Panthans Journal have been been published.
Issue #340 contains a re-print of my interview with Jeffrey Mariotte, “Thunder in God’s Country: Interview with Jeffrey Mariotte.” I also sent in a letter to the editor where I go over some Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired libations.
National Capital Panthans Journal #340
Issue #341, which came out this past Saturday, contains a reprint of my review of the third issue of Vanya, which can also be read online here.
National Capital Panthans Journal #341
Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is 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 AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.
Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.
Scholars from the Edge of Time – Clash of the Titans (2010)
In June, Michele and I announced we would start covering the three Clash of the Titans films: the original, the 2010 remake, and Wrath of the Titans for Scholars from the Edge of Time.
Our dialogue for the original film went online back in June. We had to skip July because someone (me) decided to fracture a toe.
Personal copy of the Clash of the Titans ’81, Clash of the Titan 2010, and Wrath of the Titans 3 Movie Blu-ray set.
Well for August we are back, baby! Our discussion about the Clash of the Titans remake can be watched on YouTube here. Give it a watch/listen!
For September we were scheduled to talk about Wrath of the Titans, but that Thursday we were in Willcox, AZ for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship gathering. Instead, when we got back, on Tuesday we did a recap of our adventures and talked about THE THING, the ECOF, and my presentation on the peplum elements of the novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire. That can be watched on YouTube.
Personal copy of the hardback edition of Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
In October we will finally conclude the trilogy by discussing Wrath of the Titans.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335
“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the Archive
Here are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Final Exam
Final Exam, a film that rides that early wave of 80s slasher movies. I have not watched it in many years, but I remember digging it, and also how it tip toed into genre meta-ness before the likes of Deadly Spawn and Scream.
Personal copy of Final Exam DVD signed by Julia Marchese.
Horror film aficionado, podcast, and film director Julia Marchese moderated the commentary track on the old DVD copy of the film, and she was kind enough to let me post it to her way back in the day to autograph.
Challenge the Devil
More Bella Cortez, queen of the pepla, goodness!
As folks know, I’m a super fan of peplum starlet Bella Cortez, got to interview her, and also had her autograph the films in my collection she stars in.
Personal copy of Challenge the Devil from the Severin Christopher Lee box set.
Challenge the Devil Blu-Ray sleeve, reverse side, signed by Bella Cortez.
While Cortez is mostly known for her sword and sandal appearances, she did star in a handful of other Italian genre films, such as the gothic horror film Challenge the Devil, which saw a new edition not too long ago in Blu-ray format as part of a Christopher Lee boxset from Severin Films. Here is the sleeve of the Blu-ray signed by Cortez.
New Sword and Sandal Acquisitions
The ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
William Castle pepla
On my last news roundup I shared I found a lobby card for a William Castle peplum film called Slaves of Babylon (1953). I was so caught off guard that the maestro of horror cinema had some some historic epics that I set out immediately to collection them. And here they are!
DVDs of William Castle’s pepla films
No Blu-ray treatments for these films, but I’m excited to give them a watch and see how the compare to the likes of House on Haunted Hill (1959). I ordered from Alpha Video the aforementioned Slaves of Babylon, and then got on eBay and found this multi-film set that contains the Egyptian peplum Serpent of the Nile (1953) and two other historic epics: Charge of the Lancers (1954) which takes place during the Crimean War (1853-56), and The Saracen Blade (1954) which is during the Crusades.
In the meantime I went to a sports card store and got a plastic sleeve big enough to hold my lonny card until I can get it proper framed.
The Norseman
I have a huge soft spot for the films of Charles B. Pierce. I was first introduced to his work by way of Boggy Creek 2 on MST3K when it first air on the Sci-fi Channel back in the 90s, and I thought it was a great episode! Years later I would finally watch the original Boggy Creek film, and it is a terrific faux documentary/horror film. In the 2000s I collected all the films of his that I could get my paws on at the time, such as his westerns. However it totally flew under my radar that he did a Viking peplum!
The Norseman Blu-ray.
That film is The Norseman (1978), which was released in that empty void of pepla, before 1979’s Caligula and before the Conan cycle of strongman films. The movie was apparently shot in Florida, which when I think Vikings, I think Florida. I do recall watching and enjoying Pathfinder (2007), which also deals with Vikings encountering North American indigenous folk, so this might be a good pair of movies to compare and contrast together.
The Rabbit Joint – Zelda vinyl
Back in the latter half of the 90s, during those halcyon days of Napster, apparently there was a parody song circulating out there called “Zelda” that was sung to the tune of the Zelda theme, and attributed to System of a Down. How this never, ever, ever showed up on my radar is a surprise to me.
Last month I get a news letter from Light in the Attic records about the song getting a vinyl release. What struck me was the cover art for the vinyl – showing princess Zelda under a tree with a town behind her. I really liked it! So I impulsively bought the record based on the lore behind it, and the cover art.
The Rabbit Joint’s “Zelda” vinyl.
Turns out the song sucks bad. It’s really annoying. It sounds shades like Group-X (remember Group-X? The “Mario Twins” song?). But, it is an interesting curio in the Zelda history, and to an extent, sword and sorcery history.
Digital versions of some of the tracks can be bought off Bandcamp thought I did a physical pre-order at Light in the Attic.
George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra Magazine Advert (and other swag)
Aside from the lobby card of Slaves of Babylon, I found another fun toga and sandal thing at the antique mall: a magazine advert for Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). There was a booth that was selling just advert pages from old magazines, and I saw this one a plucked it up. It’s really nice looking.
Magazine advert for Caesar and Cleopatra.
George Bernard Shaw on Film DVD Eclipse (Criterion) boxset.
Caesar and Cleopatra play.
Back in 2021 Michele and I talked about this film on an episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time. However, that episode was hosted on BlogTalkRadio, which went defunct earlier this year. Luckily, I saved an MP3 of the episode, I just need to find a venue to host it. Maybe in the meantime I should re-watch it for a Peplum Ponderings article.
Anywho, I have the Eclipse (Criterion Collection) boxset of some of the movies adapted from Shaw’s plays, and a copy of the Caesar and Cleopatra play in book form, so check all those goodies out in the slideshow above.
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan Episodes
Bernie and Pete have lots of new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online. Since it has been a month+ since my last news round up, there is a lot of epodes to get caught up on!
First they have an episode on the classic 1990 film Tremors (which will always rule):
Older episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
Michele Appearance on Mount Olympus Vidcast
Hercules Invictus, who hosts our Scholars from the Edge of Time vidcast, does tons of other programming. He recently did a panel vidcast on mythical creatures – winged humanoids. Michele was a guest on the episode, talking about the first Mimic film. Give it a watch on YouTube.
A side note, Michele has been recording new episodes of Ride the Stream with her co-host Travis Lakata, so expect to see new episodes soon!
It has been a while so it is time to dive back into my bread and butter, the world of the neo-peplum, so here is a brand new review online.
Cover art for Rome Eternal #1.
I’m fairly timely with this review as Rome Eternal came out in November, and I have issue #2 (which came out in January) in my paws as well. Should I aim to do back to back reviews?
Anywho, Rome Eternal is a neo-peplum comic about an Ancient Rome that did not fall but instead became a huge superpower that is just as corrupt and nasty as it has ever been. Just this time they have laser spears.
Sincerely chuffed that editor Naomi Simone Borwein mentions Michele and I in her acknowledgments in her upcoming edited academic collection, Global Indigenous Horror, from University Press of Mississippi.
Acknowledgments from Global Indigenous Horror.
We had the honour of having Dr. Borwein present at a past Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and to have her presentation published in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern.
I’ve shared prior, but want to re-iterate how awesome the cover art for Global Indigenous Horror is:
Cover of Global Indigenous Horror.
Global Indigenous Horror is slated to be published April 15th and can be pre-ordered at the UPoM website.
Scholars from the Edge of Time: Gentlemen Broncos
First episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time of 2025 is now online!
Cyclops from Gentlemen Broncos.
Back in 2024 Michele and I watched Krull and loved it (that episode can be viewed here). The cyclops in Krull made me recall that Gentlemen Broncos has homages to the iconic one-eyed character, so we decided to give that film a shot! The vidcast episode can be watched on YouTube, check it 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:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
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.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“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.
Selling Scary Movies: Horror Film Promotion & the American Market
While American horror cinema is among the most widely examined of all entertainment formats, scholarship on this topic has mainly focused on film content or its reception. Consequently, despite representing a profuse component of horror’s inter-textual replay, the marketing of such films remains under-theorized and supported by a relative paucity of case-studies. Indeed, the promotion of scary movies still tends to be imagined rather reductively as a nightmarish mix of terror, loathing, threat, violence, and monstrosity, exemplified by such oft-quoted taglines as “be afraid, be very afraid” and “keep repeating it’s only a movie!”. This collection of essays therefore proposes to broaden conceptions of how chillers, thrillers, and the like have been promoted on the US market. It shall do so by uniting diverse approaches focusing on the industrial, social, discursive, and aesthetic dimensions of horror film marketing across a range of industry sectors, windows of release, and time periods. In so doing, the collection aims to expand and clarify the terms under which we understand one of the most pervasive yet poorly appreciated aspects of American audiovisual culture.
Accordingly, the editor of this collection therefore solicits original essays of 6000-8000-words offering a variety of perspectives on topics including but not restricted to:
Marketing campaigns of individual horror films
Repacking horror films across windows of release
Marketing campaigns across horror film trends and sub-types
Horror film and print advertising
Horror film and audiovisual advertising
Horror film and radio advertising
Horror film and viral advertising
Horror films and synergy
Horror films and publicity tours
Exploitation sector marketing
Indie/Art horror marketing
Marketing extreme or niche horror
Hollywood horror marketing
Targeting horror at specific audiences
Promoting imported horror on the American market
Horror in the marketing of non-horror films
Non-horror in the marketing of horror films
Please send 200-word abstracts plus a short academic bio – or any questions and queries – to richardandrew.nowell@amu.cz
Abstract due date (31 May 2025), chapter submissions (circa. January-May 2027).
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
New Acquisitions
Gladiator 2
Gladiator 2 was release in theaters back in November 2024 and Michele and I got to see it on the big screen in December. I started a draft of a write up of the film, got 80% done, but decided to shelve it for when the Blu-ray comes out so I could re-watch it.
Gladiator II 4K Blu-ray.
And now, the movie is out on physical media! I got my pre-order the other week, so expect an upcoming Peplum Ponderings about the film, but also a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode devoted to it.
Helen of Troy
A recent pick up for an old film, here is Helen of Troy (Robert Wise, 1956).
Personal Blu-ray copy of Helen of Troy.
I have not seen this one yet, but this will be a great watch in tandem with Ruby Blondell’s Helen of Troy in Hollywood.
Personal copy of Helen of Troy in Hollywood.
Autographed Treasures
Lots of cool autographed treasures I’ve shared on Bluesky these past few weeks.
Rodan/War of the Gargantuas
I love kaiju films, but I am far from an expert on all the Toho and Toei monster films out there. Don’t laugh, but one of my favorite Godzilla films is All Monsters Attack (1969, Ishiro Honda).
Personal DVD copy of “Rodan” and “War of the Gargantuas” signed by Russ Tamblyn.
I have quite a Godzilla film collection, but I have only one autographed kaiju film, and that is War of the Gargantuas (1966, Ishiro Honda) by Russ Tamblyn. There was a West Side Story anniversary Hollywood Collector’s show way back in the day, and he was in attendance, so I had to get my monster movie signed!
When Women Ruled the Earth / War Goddess
Luciana Paluzzi is an iconic starlet of Italian genre cinema, and she has made frequent appearances at conventions, mostly James Bond-themed ones due to her being in Thunderball.
Personal DVD copy of “War Gods of Babylon” and “war Goddess” signed by Luciana Paluzzi.
I actually really liked her in the Eurospy film The Venetian Affair (1967, Jerry Thorpe). Paluzzi starred in her fair share of pepla, including the very late era peplum War Goddess (1973, Terence Young), which she signed my copy of.
Strike Commando
Reb Brown rules and Yor, the Hunter from the Future rules.
Personal Copy of the Mercs multipack DVD autographed by Reb Brown and the Severin Blu-ray release of Strike Commando.
Reb has done many other cult films and is probably (aside from Yor) best known for Space Mutiny which was on MST3K.
However, he was in a handful of other Italian genre films of the 80s, including the men-on-a-mission film, Strike Commando, which is awesome. Severin Films did a nice Blu-ray release a few years back, but 20 years ago the only way I could watch the film was in a multi-film budget DVD set called Mercs: Soldiers of Fortune 10 Feature Film Collection which contained a low quality copy of Strike Commando, which Brown graciously signed to me.
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
Bible Films Blog – House of David
Matt Page over at his Bible Films blog is on a roll doing write ups about season one of House of David. Check them out:
Standard cover of Becca Boo #3 by Kenan Halilovic. Photo taken from PDF.
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.
Castle of Horror podcast Logo
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.
Castle Talk: Daniel Kraus, author of the new book PARTIALLY DEVOURED: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World –
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!
Collage of the three upcoming New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazines.
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!
Author list for the upcoming NESS issues.
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:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
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.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109
“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.
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).
Personal copy of Boris and Natasha DVD signed by Sid Haig and Sally Kellerman.
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!
Personal copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Vol 1.
Donatello Sketch by Kevin Eastman.
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.
Personal copy of Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets.
Interior cover page of Adventure Time Bitter Sweets signed by 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.
Personal copy of the Criterion Collection DVD of Burden of Dreams signed by Les Blank.
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).
DVD copy of Phantasm signed by Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury, Kathy Lester, and Don Coscarelli.
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!
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.
Cover art for “The Eternal End” by Lee Mitchell.
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.
Cover art for Gyro and the Argonauts!
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.
Every year I like to do a recap of accomplishments for the prior year and talk about future projects and goals. You can find prior year end summaries here:
In short, 2024 was not a prolific year for me, especially compared to 2023. In terms of quantity of getting things published, it was a painful year. I definitely was not on my A-game this year. Now, part of this has been my focus on the Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle book, which has had its ups and many downs. That manuscript will be done soon and sent to the publisher, freeing me up to tackle my backlog and other items on my to do list.
Despite this, there was some pleasant surprises in 2024. Let’s take a look!
Publication Accomplishments
In the realm of physical publications, I had zero new essays published this past year. However, 2024 was the year of the reprint because I had a ton of content from my archives get a new life. I’ve never had reprints of my work before, so this was a comforting accomplishment.
“A Hero Will Endure”: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, which contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling” saw a softcover edition published in November.
A Hero Will Endure.
4K/Blu-ray boxset edition of Danse Macabre from Artus Films.
Portions of my master’s thesis on Antonio Margheriti’s film Castle of Blood was reprinted in the booklet for the Artus films release of the film.
National Capital Panthans Journal #328.
National Capital Panthans Journal #327.
National Capital Panthans Journal #329.
The National Capital Panthans Journal reprinted six of my Edgar Rice Burroughs comic book reviews and convention writeups across six issues.
My essay I did for Weird Tales was mentioned in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year #16.
Here at my website I had 13 articles published (so a bit better than 1 a month):
Peplum Ponderings = 3
Comic Book Reviews and Articles = 3
Book Reviews = 2
Music Reviews and Essays = 2
Interviews Conducted = 2
Videogame Articles = 1
Podcast Accomplishments
Michele and I went into 2024 with big plans and goals for the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. Early in the year though, however, we had a bad encounter, which killed our podcasting momentum. That, and combined that I was working on the Emmanuelle book and Michele on her Mummy ’99 book, we put HP Lovecast on the back burner until the autumn when we resumed making new episodes. We are climbing out the rut for sure.
23 Podcasts and Vidcasts in 2024:
11 appearances on Scholars from the Edge of Time
7 appearances on Fan2Fan
5 episodes of H. P. Lovecast
2025 Expectations
I’m hoping 2025 will be a big turnaround for me. There’s lots on my to do list and even a few items that floating out there waiting to be published.
Podcasting
2025 marks the 10 year anniversary of the HP Lovecast Podcast! What do Michele and I have planned? Not sure yet, but we will get it sussed out. We have an episode on The Prophecy that will be published in February (it was going to be our X-mas episode, so a little late).
Michele and I will also be continuing with the Scholars from the Edge of Time vidcast in March.
I’m already queued up to be on the Castle of Horror Podcast to talk about, well, Margheriti’s film Castle of Blood! So, folks, if you want me on your vidcast or podcast, feel free to reach out!
And not me, but I do want to plug Michele’s new vidcast, Ride the Stream, with Travis Lakata. They’ve got LOTS of episodes in the pipe on the TV show Lost.
Publications
The Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle book will be sent to the publishers in the next month or so. So, cross fingers all goes well for it!
Hopefully my essay on peplum cats will see publication this year.
I am on the hook to do a Roger Corman and Sampling essay due later this year. After doing the Gladiator and Sampling essay, it will be fun to build on my existing scholarship.
I’ve got a backlog of comic book and book-book reviews I am hoping to churn out for my website. Some of these writings will also be concurrently published in the Panthans Journal.
I’ve been asked to create some unique cocktails to be published in a few issues of a magazine (not tiki, surprisingly!). More info when I’m allowed to spill more beans.
On the subject of tiki, I’ll be getting some articles out there for Exotica Moderne as well.
Finally, my interview with peplum starlet Bella Cortez will be published in an issue of the Burroughs Bibliophiles Bulletin later this year.
Conferences
I’m only slated for one conference this year which will be the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship that will be in Willcox, AZ in late September. I have a presentation I’ll be doing on the sword and planet genre.
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025.
On top of personal ongoings, (I am working on getting my driver’s license, yay!), 2025 is going to be BUSY. I am not expecting my output to be like it was in 2023, but I’m optimistic I’m going to realize some cool stuff.
Thank you to all the friends, peers, and colleagues who support what I do. And thank you, yes you visitor to my website, as well.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
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.
The Handbook of Trans Cinema
Chapter proposals are invited for The Handbook of Trans Cinema. Join confirmed contributors like Cáel M. Keegan, author of Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender. We seek a broadly international group of scholarly contributors.
Past books have provided in-depth studies of transgender themes and filmmakers in selected works of cinema, e.g., Rebecca Bell-Metereau’s Transgender Cinema (2019), Eliza Steinbock’s Shimmering Images: Trans Cinema, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Change (2019), and Akkadia Ford’s Trans New Wave Cinema (2021). As a next step, The Handbook of Trans Cinema provides an encyclopedic overview of international trans cinema, with chapters examining the variety of genres of trans cinema from around the world, as well as the connections between these films and core concepts in trans studies and in film theory. Each chapter will provide a broad overview of its subject, with extensive references to both trans theory and film theory. In addition to giving surveys of the chapter’s topic, chapters will include in-depth discussion of at least three films. Abstracts for proposed chapters should include several references to both trans theory and film theory, and abstracts should list at least three films that will be explored in-depth.
Please see the list of high priority chapters at the end of this CFP. Proposals for other topics will also be considered, but all chapters will offer broad overviews of their subject, and not traditional scholarly analyses of a single film or filmmaker. To be most competitive, each chapter proposal should examine films from multiple countries and in multiple languages, with the exception of chapters in the handbook’s Part IV. “National Overviews of Trans Films,” which will each focus on a single country’s films. (See the listing of high priority chapters for the four parts of the book at the end of this CFP.)
Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to https://bit.ly/HandbookofTransCinema no later than January 30, 2025. Proposals submitted by email will not be accepted. Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as Word documents, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your biography file so we can contact you with our decision about your proposal.
You are welcome to submit more than one abstract. If you decide to submit multiple abstracts for different chapters, please add a note at the top of each abstract to indicate whether you wish to be considered for writing only a single chapter, or whether you wish to be considered for writing more than one chapter.
The most competitive proposals will detail the author’s argument. It is not enough to describe what you plan to do in your chapter. You should summarize what you will conclude. For example, it’s not enough to say you will examine multiple films from diverse countries. List the specific films you propose to include and then explain what your analysis will demonstrate.
Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by March 20, 2025. Partial first drafts are due by July 15, 2025; solid first drafts of full chapters are due by October 1, 2025; and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due December 1, 2025. All chapters must include at least one author with a PhD. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered.
Part IV. National Overviews of Trans Films (National Overviews Are Also Encouraged and Warmly Invited for Other Countries Not Listed)
Trans Cinema from Argentina
Trans Cinema from Australia
Trans Cinema from Brazil
Trans Cinema from Canada
Trans Cinema from Chile
Trans Cinema from China
Trans Cinema from Costa Rica
Trans Cinema from Egypt
Trans Cinema from France
Trans Cinema from Germany
Trans Cinema from Ghana
Trans Cinema from Hong Kong
Trans Cinema from India
Trans Cinema from Indonesia
Trans Cinema from Iran
Trans Cinema from Iraq
Trans Cinema from Israel
Trans Cinema from Italy
Trans Cinema from Japan
Trans Cinema from Mexico
Trans Cinema from New Zealand
Trans Cinema from Nigeria
Trans Cinema from Norway
Trans Cinema from Poland
Trans Cinema from Russia
Trans Cinema from South Africa
Trans Cinema from South Korea
Trans Cinema from Spain
Trans Cinema from Sweden
Trans Cinema from Switzerland
Trans Cinema from Taiwan
Trans Cinema from Thailand
Trans Cinema from the United Kingdom
Trans Cinema from the United States
Technical and Professional Knowledge in Late Antiquity
Society for Classical Studies 157th Annual Meeting JANUARY 7-10, 2026 SAN FRANCISCO
Call for Papers for Panel Sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity
Organized by Betsy Bevis, Department of Classics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Society for Late Antiquity invites papers that in some way situate themselves at the intersection of intellectual and economic history (broadly conceived) and speak to aspects of technical or professional knowledge in the long Late Antiquity. Because professional and technical knowledge is often knowledge intended to be put into practice, we encourage submissions that incorporate archaeological and other material evidence.
The past decade has been especially fruitful for both economic and intellectual histories of the ancient Mediterranean. Monographs, such as Bond 2016, or Hawkins 2016, have expanded our understanding of specific professions in the classical world, while intellectual histories such as Johnson 2010, Eshelman 2012, or Gellar-Goad and Poult 2024 have tackled topics such as reading, intellectual communities, or the transmission and creation of knowledge. Recent works such as Mark Lettney’s (2023) The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, or Salvatore Cosentino’s (2022) “Pillars of Empire,” that deal specifically with the later centuries of Mediterranean Antiquity continue these trends into Late Antiquity. This panel endeavors to bring together these two strands of scholarship and examine their continuing impact in the post-Classical world.
Ideas for submissions might include:
Technical Treatises – such as agricultural, military, or magical manuals. What role do compendia and encyclopedic works play in the transmission of technical and professional knowledge?
New Professions and Technologies – such as the expansion of imperial bureaucracies, professionalization of Christian clergy, or technologies (e.g., large-scale water mills, or tube-constructed vaulting) and art forms (e.g., cage cups or gold-sandwich glass) that expanded or developed after the 3rd century CE.
Technologies of Knowing – codices, tabulation, exegetical or typological readings of text or iconography.
Technique/Technology within Space – where and how is professional and technical knowledge visible in the environment? Can we reconstruct changes in technical knowledge from changes in workshop spaces?
Fragments of Knowing – where and how do technologies and professions end or break down? Processes of recycling, deconstruction, or de-skilling.
Professional Education and Organization – how did one become a “professional”?
Please send abstracts that follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (see the SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts) by email to Betsy Bevis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign at (ebevis@illinois.edu) by February 14, 2025.
Please ensure that the abstracts are anonymous.
The organizers will review all submissions anonymously, and their decision will be communicated to the authors of abstracts by March 21, 2025, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
Wildfire 7
I lived in Orange, CA from 2010 to 2020, so I am no stranger to the fires that happen in SoCal, but these fires going on right now are just Earth-shatteringly tragic. There’s places I’ve been to before that simply don’t exist anymore. I’m lucky that none of my friends have lost their homes, but thousands of others have.
I saw in the news about deployed prisoner fire fighters and it reminded me of the movie Wildfire 7:
DVD of Wildfire 7 signed by Bourque, Penikett, and DeVry.
My copy is signed by the director, Jason Bourque, and actors Tahmoh Penikett and William DeVry.
I have not seen this movie since the late 2010s, so I’ll be fuzzy on remembering the plot, but basically Tracy Gold is the victim of domestic violence, but winds up going to prison anyways, and joins the fire fighting squad in California. I’m pretty sure the movie is probably extremely relevant today regarding the punishing the women victims and the ideas of putting prisoners into legal slavery.
Nightmare Weekend
A fun one I shared on BlueSky, here is my copy of Nightmare Weekend signed by Andrea Thompson, best known for her portray of Talia Winters on Babylon 5.
Nightmare Weekend signed by Andrea Thompson, part of a Troma 3 DVD boxset.
We met her at an autograph show back in 2009. Here we are!
L – R, Michele, Andrea Thompson, Me at a 2009 Hollywood Collectors Show.
The Monuments of Mars
An odd duck in my autograph media collection, here is a copy of The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever signed by author/conspiracy theorist Richard C. Hoagland:
Personal copy of The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever.
The Monuments of Mars signed by Richard C. Hoagland.
Why do I have this book in my collection? Well, growing up in the 90s, the channel I watched the most often was the Sci-Fi Channel (Saturday Anime! MST3K!) An aside from commercials shilling Dianetics, the commercial that appeared the most often on the network was for a VHS tape of the Monuments of Mars: A Terrestrial Connection:
So, I grew up seeing that commercial many times a day.
Years, years later I am at a Half Price Books in Tacoma Washington, and a copy of the book was sitting there, on the shelf, all autographed, for not even eight dollars. Nostalgia kicked in and I bought it.
Have I ever read it? Not a chance. I am certain 95% of the book is totally made up.
Ride the Stream Vidcast 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 part 2 of discussing the pilot:
Here is their discussion on the episode “Tabula Rasa”:
And here is their discussion on the episode “Walkabout”:
Folks probably know that I am a big fan of the Margheriti film Yor, the Hunter from the Future. I was excited a month or so ago when I stumbled upon that Antarctic Press was reprinting the comic in English! You better believe I ran to my local comic book store and put it on my pull list.
It’s been a while since I’ve had some citation news, but here is a new one, fresh off the presses!
My essay, “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days,” was cited by Gabrielle Berry in her essay “[Bones cracking]: Reading and listening to Foley and captions” which was published in the journal The Soundtrack, vol 16, Sept 2024 by Intellect. Super flattered!
Panthans Journal #329
The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issues contains a re-print of my review of Carson of Venus / Warlord of Mars #1.
I love the cover by Mark Wheatley!
Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is 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.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
The September episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online!
For this vidcast Michele and I discuss the early 80s cult sword and planet film, Krull. How we have gone our entire life without watching this film is near criminal because it ruled.
Personal copies of the Krull Blu-ray and the soundtrack.
The episode can be watched on YouTube, have a listen/watch!
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.
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.
Roger Corman’s Horror Movies: Collected Essays
Edited by Sue Matheson
Part of theseries edited by Carl Sederholm
Indie filmmaker Roger Corman is known for producing and directing hundreds of B-movies, discovering industry stars (like Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, and Robert de Niro), anticipating Hollywood’s New Wave, and founding a profitable empire that included New World Pictures and Concorde/New Horizons. Entertaining, literate, and campy, his fast-paced, low-budget genre films, aimed at the youth market and generally shot in less than two weeks, included horror movies, horror comedies, and sci-fi/horror. The Beast With a Million Eyes(1955), It Conquered the World (1956), The Undead (1957), Not of This Earth (1957), A Bucket of Blood(1959), The Wasp Woman (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961), The Intruder (1962), The Terror (1963), The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963), The Haunted Palace(1963), and Dementia 13 (1963) helped make Corman “The King of the Drive-in” and the “King of Cult.” Cult classics, the gothic horror films of his Edgar Allan Poe cycle (House of Usher [1960], The Pit and the Pendulum [1961], Premature Burial [1962], Tales of Terror[1962], The Raven [1963], The Haunted Palace [1963], The Masque of the Red Death [1964] and The Tomb of Ligeia [1964]) also revived the careers of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre. As the “Orson Welles of the Z movies,” Corman was not only an auteur filmmaker and influencer; he was also a producer and distributor of horror movies. The last movie he directed was the under-appreciated Frankenstein Unbound (1990). Corman’s better-known works have been taught in courses on the history of the horror genre and cult films, while many others deserve critical reexamination.
This anthology seeks previously unpublished essays that explore Roger Corman’s body of horror films and mashups. It is open to submissions on films belonging to his Edgar Allan Poe seriesfranchise and his well-known cult horrors, but will particularly welcome interdisciplinary approaches that can illuminate overlooked films like The Beast With a Million Eyes (1955), It Conquered the World (1956), The Undead (1957), Not of This Earth (1957), Attack of the CrabMonsters (1957), Night of the Blood Beast (1958), Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), The Intruder (1962), Tower of London (1962), The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963), and Frankenstein Unbound (1990).
This volume will be interdisciplinary in scope, including approaches from philosophy, literary studies, film studies, gender studies, history, psychology, popular culture studies, hauntology, ecology, etc. The chapters will be peer-reviewed, scholarly, and written at a high academic level.
Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
Thematic and structural analysis of one or more films
Visual style
Notions of evil
Photography and cinematography
The supernatural
Corman as an auteur and/or influencer, producer, distributor
Mash ups and updated horror
Soundscapes and music
Film as philosophy/philosophy in film
Failed parenthood
Comedy, black humor, and irony
Social and cultural contexts
American youth and youth culture
Drive-in film culture
Landscapes as sites of horror
Literary and gothic adaptations
Exploration of the sub- and unconscious
Class, sexuality, abject, gender and queer readings
This anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. It is open to works that focus on other topics as well. Prospective authors are welcome to contact the editor with any questions, including potential topics not listed above. Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume. Please submit a 250-word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution, a brief CV / bio, current position, affiliation, and complete contact information to Sue Matheson (smatheson@ucn.ca) by the 30th of December 2024. Full chapters of 6,000-7,000 words are likely due in June/July 2025 after signing a contract with the publisher.
Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter.
The cool kids over at the Fan2Fan Podcast are continuing their marathon of episodes devoted to iconic horror director John Carpenter. They just published an episode on the Lovecraftian In The Mouth of Madness, with myself and Joshua Pruett as guests.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page, in the embedded player below, or in your podcast app of preference.
Sincere appreciation to Bernie and Pete for having me on. In case you missed it, Michele and/or I were on a few other Fan2Fan John Carpenter episodes, (Christine, The Fog, Prince of Darkness), so please check those episodes out as well.
Panthans Journal #326
The National Panthans Journal is a monthly PDF zine of Edgar Rice Burroughs-related reviews, essays, articles, artwork, news, etc.
Laurence G. Dunn, the editor/compiler of the Panthans Journal, has been gracious to give the many Edgar Rice Burroughs comic book reviews I penned in the late 2010s a second life. Issue #326 (pictured here, with artwork by Jim Burns) contains an updated version of my review of Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #1. Sincere appreciation to Laurence!
If you’re interested in contributing to Panthans or receiving copies of the publication, contact Laurence at laurencegdunn @ gmail dot com (sans spaces).
Scholars from the Edge of Time
June’s episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is now online! In this episode we conclude our retrospective of the pepla career of Bella Cortez by discussing the final sword and sandal film she made, Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens.
Poster for Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens from Wikipedia.
The vidcast can be watched on YouTube here. Check it out!
Michele and I have also planned out the next two episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. For July’s episode we will be discussing She Is Conan (2023) and in August we will be talking about Pilgrimage (2017). Stay tuned!
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2024.
Comic Book Review: “Carson of Venue: The Flames Beyond #1″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #326.
From the Archives
This following podcasts episodes and articles were published from 6/24 to 7/7:
The Fan2Fan Podcast are doing a themed months for May and June: John Carpenter films! Episodes published during these months are about John Carpenter films, with a few about Pete and Bernie’s travels to locales exploring Carpenter pop culture.
Two of these podcast episodes Michele, Joshua Pruett, and myself got to be guests on The first one is on Christine.
And the second is on Prince of Darkness.
The episodes can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website (link for Christine and link for Prince of Darkness), via the embedded players below, or through your podcast app of preference. Do check these episodes out!
The first is a “Support Me” page. For a consolidated list on ways to support me and my writing, this is the page to check out.
Next is a page of CFPs – calls for papers, proposals, and conferences. I like to proliferate other scholars’ CFPs when I can, so here is a resource folks can use. If you have a CFP you need shared around, let me know!
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.
“Children of the Night” International Dracula Congress 2024
It is our great pleasure to invite you to 2024 double edition of “Children of the Night International Dracula Congress”. This year, participants are invited to join the ONLINE part of the Congress on October 25th and 26th, 2024 (Friday and Saturday) via Zoom.
A few days later, we will gather IN PERSON for further Halloween sessions in Brașov, Romania from October 31st to November 2nd, 2024. We have decided to hold two parts of the Congress separate from one another, so that Brașov participants were able to fully engage in academic discussions, get to know each other and discover the wonders of Transylvania outside the conference venue.
October 31st (Thursday) and November 1st (Friday) will be devoted to academic speeches and discussions, with a walking tour of Brașov and various evening activities. On November 2nd (Saturday), we will set on a one-day trip to Bran Castle, a nearby Dracula related pop-cultural tourist attraction.
Additionally, from October 30th to November 2nd, International Dracula Film Festival is taking place in Brașov and the Congress participants will be able to join chosen festival events.
We invite everyone who is interested in speaking at the 2024 conference to submit an abstract of 150 – max. 250 words plus a meaningful title indicating the planned content of your presentation to dracongress@gmail.com. The official language of the conference is English. The abstracts must be submitted by email and fit the conference main topics (please, have a look at the slider with 8 workshops on our website). Deadline for abstract’s submissions: August 31, 2024. Please, state if you intend to participate online or in person.
Also, remember to dust your Vampire/Dracula/Gothic costume for our annual Costume Contest (in person and online entries welcome!).
Conference fee
50 euro (physical participation in Brasov)
10 euro (online participation).
Listeners join free of charge.
The 2024 COTN International Dracula Congress is organised by:
Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania (Florin Nechita),
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Lublin, Poland (Magdalena Grabias),
State University of Rio de Janeiro in Brasil (Yuri Garcia).
In collaboration with The Dracula Fan Club, Mexico (Enrique A. Palafox).
Preternatural in Popular Culture Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association 2024
The Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) invites submissions under the general theme of the Preternatural in Popular Culture.
For this year, submissions should focus on creatures and/or creations that exist above, beyond, and/or outside the natural world and the ways these entities are represented in popular culture (anime, comics, fiction, film, manga, streaming video, television, etc.) from across time and space.
The Monsters & the Monstrous Area is among NEPCA’s largest areas, and we often have blocks of sessions running across the full event. To best accommodate everyone, single presentation submissions are preferred over panel submissions.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Michael A. Torregrossa, Monsters & the Monstrous Area Chair, at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com, and check out our blog Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture for ideas and past sessions. The blog can be accessed at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.
Conference Information
The 2024 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) will host its annual conference this fall as a hybrid conference from Thursday, 3 October, through Saturday, 5 October. Presenters will be required to become members of NEPCA for the year.
Virtual sessions will take place on Thursday evening and Friday morning via Zoom, and in-person sessions will take place on Friday evening and Saturday morning at Nichols College, in Dudley, Massachusetts.
For more information about the conference and to submit a proposal, please visit our NEPCA’s dedicated Conference site at https://nepca.blog/2024-conference-page/. Be prepared to answer the following questions about your proposal:
Proposal Type (Single Presentation or Panel)
Modality (in person or virtual)
Subject Area
Working Title
Academic Affiliation (if any)
Abstract (250 words)
Short bio (50-200 words)
Accommodations
Preferences for when to present
The submissions site will be open until 11:59 PM (EDT) on 15 June 2024.
Toyetic Television: A Companion
From G. I. Joe workout routines and Sailor Moon wedding gowns to Bratz doll make-unders and Ferby modding, toyetic, merchandise-driven television from past decadeshas proved remarkably resilient. Toyetic television clearly holds a far greater and more enduring cultural significance than definitions such as “glorified half-hour commercials” (Hilton-Morrow & McMahan 2003, p. 78) might suggest. It is meaningful to individual viewers, it becomes “social lubricants facilitating communication between one child and another” (Steinberg 2012, p. 90), and it can connect generations through shared viewing and playing pleasures. The idea of the program created to sell merchandise has been reversed in cases where the production of a program is funded through the sale of its merchandise, such as The Amazing Digital Circus. The boundary between quality and merchandise-driven television is no longer clear, with even educational programs such as Sesame Street now associated with significant merchandising. One of the aims of this volume, then, is to ask how we might define toyetic television as we move into the second quarter of the millennium. Intended for Peter Lang’s Genre Fiction and Film Companions series, this volume turns a critical eye to the genre of toyetic television and its many transmedia intertexts, exploring the significance and resonance these texts hold for children, adults, and communities. It examines the movement of toyetic texts cross-culturally, intergenerationally, and between media. It analyses texts and audiences, industry and regulators, to uncover the significance of toyetic television to the contemporary moment.
Children’s programming is the most widely internationally traded category of television, while simultaneously being subject to intensely localized regulatory systems. Sesame Street has had numerous localized versions, for example, including Nigeria’s Sesame Square, Mexico’s Plaza Sésamo, and pan-Arabic collaboration Iftah Ya Simsim. When toyetic television moves transculturally, it encounters new reception contexts. Japanese animation Dragon Ball found a devoted fanbase across Latin American, leading to new merchandise such as Argentinian soccer jerseys featuring Dragon Ball characters. A particular focus of research, advocacy, and debate around toyetic television has been concern about potential negative impacts on children from the blurring of boundaries between entertainment and advertising. While it may seem quaint in the current era of toy unboxing YouTube channels, the fear that toyetic television would cause rampant consumerism, rigid perceptions of gender roles, increased American cultural imperialism, and actual acts of violence amongst children was widespread in the 1990s. Those fears are mirrored in recent years by hope that the same toyetic franchises could reflect socially progressive ideas such as body positivity in the remake of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020), queer representation in recent seasons of Power Rangers, and greater racial diversity in last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023). Toyetic Television: A Companion moves beyond these good/bad media effects binaries to consider how and what meaning is made with, through, from, and by the various networks surrounding toyetic television and its consumers.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Transnational and intercultural approaches to toyetic television
Gender, race, disability, and sexualities in toyetic television
Material cultures: Collections, cosplay, and toy modification
Toyetic television production and consumption in the Global South
The future of toyetic television in the streaming age
Remakes and reimaginings
Nostalgic engagement with toyetic television
Afterlives of toyetic television in fan fiction and paratextual play
Video games and digital paratexts
Theoretical approaches to transmediation, media-mix, and franchising
Regulation, national or cultural identity, and children’s television
Educational and psychology approaches to toyetic television
Music and sound effects in toyetic franchises
Toyetic media for adults and intergenerational consumption
Ludic approaches to television
Fan studies approaches to toyetic television
Toyesis and toyetics in unexpected places
Please send 300 word abstracts and a short biographical note (50-100 words) to Dr. Sophia Staite at staitepublications@gmail.com by August 30th 2024, with a view to having a completed essay by early 2025. Finished essays will be approximately 4000 words long (excluding bibliography), should be accessible but touch on the big ideas, and will ideally take a main example as a ‘lens’ to look at the wider topic.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
The Neverending Streamer – Fallout Episode 1 and 2
My friend, Travis Lakata, has started watching Fallout on Netflix and doing a write up on each episode. Check out his thoughts on episode one and on episode two at his Substack.
I take a look at the debut issue of Hearteater, a NSFW erotic pirate adventure comic. It can be read here.
HP Lovecast Podcast
A new episode of HP Lovecast Podcast is also online!
We have a returning guest, David Rose, on the show talking about his short story collection of Lovecraftian military fiction, Monsters in the Bush. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
The February Scholars from the Edge of Time vidcast is now online.
Michele and I start our retrospective of the peplum films of Bella Cortez with Vulcan, Son of Jupiter. I’ll be typing up my notes as a “Peplum Ponderings” article later this month.
The episode can be watched on YouTube. Stay tuned in March for the next Bella Cortez film we tackle which will probably be The Tartars (1961).
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 hereand it’s a major WIP.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Recent Peplum Acquisitions
I never heard the term “spear and fang” before as a genre, I just kinda called them “prehistoric peplum,” but alas, it’s a term and it has its roots in a Robert E. Howard story of the same name (story found here).
Coincidentally, at the same time of learning about “spear and fang” I had ordered such a film from Amazon. I never heard of it before, but it is called Alpha (2018). I learned of it while researching my In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds write up in that both films star Natassia Malthe).
I’ve never seen it, but it looks tough. I also know the poor pupper is not going to make it.
In the mood for some new peplum music to write to I plucked up off discos the soundtrack to the Conan TV series of the 90s.
This was a series that was greenlit to capitalize on the success of the Hercules/Xena shows. Conan managed to slip by me growing up, so I’ll have to hunt down the boxset of it to watch (but it’s way OOP). It does star Ralph Möller who is always bad ass, from Universal Solider to Gladiator. He looks like a good Conan on the cover of the album.
The music is fun – great background music to write to.
On the subject of Möller and music, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up his guest appearance in the E Nomine song “Schwarze Sonnne” which has Möller wielding a sword in a post- apocalyptic city while fighting tech ninja. The song slaps hard:
Next up is In The Name of the King 3: The Last Mission.
After seeing Two Worlds, I felt obligated to complete the trilogy. I hope in this one they actually lean into the modern day soldier/merc doing stuff in Medieval times. If you want to read my thoughts on In the Name of the King 2: Two World, click here.
Also procured is Damon and Pythias (1962), another classic era sword and sandal I have not seen.
I’ve been trying to get the Warner Archive releases of sword and sandal films when I can. I heard scuttlebutt that Warner was going to wind down their production of physical media, which would be a shame because they actually took care of their films so their peplum releases actually look decent on home video.
I don’t know how I stumbled across it, but it was random on Discogs, but I had to have a copy of Inferno’s The Roman Empire.
Someone on a Sword and Sorcery Discord I go to said the cover looks like Encarta barfed all over it (they’re not wrong!). I am going to try to hunt down all the pictured that where used in the collage work on this album. I’ve identified one: The chariot and horse scene near the top left is from the Hercules Unchained poster (see bottom right):
The music is early 90s Eurodance style. It’s campy, but kinda catchy and fun. If I can find more image sources I’ll do an article proper on this album.
A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast, and the last one for 2023, is now online.
This is a recap episode where Michele and I talk about what we accomplished with personal projects and podcast stuff for 2023 and what to expect for 2024. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference
Lots of citation news for The New Peplum. Two books have recently been published that cite essays in The New Peplum.
First is “The Performance of Plasticity: Method Acting, Prosthetics, and the Virtuosity of Embodied Transformation” by David LaRocca, published in Plastics, Environment, Culture, and the Politics of Waste by Edinburgh University Press. The editor of this tome is Tatiana Konrad, who wrote the essay “Laughing at the Body: The Imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody Films” that appears in The New Peplum.
Next up is Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Warfare on Film edited by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos and published by Brill. This collection contains five essays that cite contents from The New Peplum:
“Brad’s Biceps and Dwayne’s Delts: Stardom as Physicality and Digital Spectacle in Troy (2004) and Hercules (2014)” by Djoymi Baker (who also wrote the Hercules essay in The New Peplum)
Swords Made of Rubber: Cinematic Antiquity through the Lens of War” by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos
“Romans and Zealots in the Global War on Terror: Asymmetric Warfare and Counterinsurgency in Risen (2016) and Ben-Hur (2016)” by Oskar Aguado-Cantabrana
“Atalanta as Celluloid Warrior in Jason and the Argonauts (2000) and Hercules (2014)” by Patricia Salzman-Mitchell
“Rockules’ Revenge: The Portrayal of the Veteran Warrior in Brett Ratner’s Hercules” by Owen Reese
Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of the above books so I can’t say what specifically is mentioned. Once I suss that out I’ll add the information to the page for The New Peplum. As always, even years later, I am super happy and flattered to see scholars still citing the essays in The New Peplum.
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 hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors for the year of 2023. Next week this section goes blank, so wish me luck as I crank out a new batch of essays to be published in 2024. Thank you to everyone who took an interest in my publications for last year. You not only supported me, but you supported the different publishers and editors who gave me venues.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
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.”
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’.”
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.
