Our monthly Transmissions episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online. This month we interview Kathleen Kaufman, Janet Joyce Holden, and Heather Herrman.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Isidora #2 Unboxing
Over the weekend I received my copy of Isidora #2 and wow! was it packaged with so much loot. I decided to do a write up of unboxing its contents.
Sword and Sandal Podcasts
On Tuesday I was a guest on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal Special episode. I talked about the neo-peplum video game, The Forgotten City. That episode can be streamed/downloaded at BlogTalkRadio.
On Thursday Michele and I had our monthly Scholars From the Edge of Time episode, which is currently focused on the sword and planet genre. We discuss Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. This episode can also be streamed/downloaded at BlogTalkRadio.
For the month of October, we’ve had to flipflop out flagship episode with our Fragments episode. In this month’s Fragments episode we discuss Robert Eggers’ folk horror film, The Witch (2015).
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout website or via your Podcast application of preference.
Bram Stoker Campaigning
For the first time ever, I am going to throw my hat into the ring for the Bram Stoker Award process. I have an essay called “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” that is eligible for the short non-fiction award. If you are a member of the Horror Writers Association that is recommending works and are curious about my essay, it can be read at Academia dot Edu.
AnnRadCon CFP
The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is now complete. It will be put online on Monday and I’ll be posting it at this website as well.
General Neo-Peplum News
Follow Me Down Table Top RPG
Drowning Moon Studios has started a Kickstarter campaign of their TTRPG called Follow Me Down.
The RPG is based on the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice and the Kickstarter page describes it as such:
Follow Me Down is a tabletop roleplaying game for two players [and is] divided into eight sections, called Books of the Dead, where the characters journey through different parts of the underworld in search of one another. It is designed to be GMless, with each player portraying two roles during the course of the game. In each Book, one player takes on the role of The Fates (in what would normally be considered the GM role) while the other player portrays a character based on the archetype of Orpheus or Eurydice. The two players trade off, alternating who is playing their character and who is playing The Fates, until they reach The Gauntlet of Hope and Regret to determine how their story ends. There is a final scene between Orpheus and Eurydice, called the Denouement, which reflects upon the journey the characters have taken, and their relationship to one another at the end of the game.
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.
I did a write up of Catherine McCarthy’s short story collection Mists and Megaliths. The review can be found here.
New Episode of HP Lovecast
First episode for September for HP Lovecast is up! In this episode we discuss the one-shot comic book Lady Lovecraft, written by Mike Shea and art by Don Wilkinson. Episode can be found on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
We concluded our King in Yellow month on the HP Lovecast Podcast. This past Tuesday our monthly transmissions episode went up which contained interviews with James Chambers, Carol Gyzander, and Meghan Arcuri about Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign. This episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Candyman Essay
Taking advantage of the renewed interest on Candyman ’92 because of the new Candyman ’21, I’ve written an article about bands and music projects that sample the original Candyman. This was a fun article to do and it continues one of my interests to explore the world of sampling.
General Neo-Peplum News
Essay on Antiquity and Far-Right in French Heavy Metal
Fascist Receptions of Antiquity in Metal Music Presentation
Dr. Swist will also be giving a presentation called “Fascist Receptions of Antiquity in Metal Music” at Brandeis University on October 19, 5pm via Zoom.
In sword and planet news, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. is publishing a new Carson of Venus novel, Skies of Venus: A Novel of Actor.
The new novel is written by Neal Romanek with cover art by Richard Hescox. The book is available for pre-order at the ERB website and is expected to be released in the upcoming Winter.
Hercules Invictus started a new program of sorts on his Voice of Olympus show called Hercules and the Planetary Powers, which has a focus on space stuff. Because of this, for the next few episodes, Scholars from the Edge of Time will be doing more sword and planet oriented programming. Our first episode kicked off with a talk about the cult film The Ice Pirates. Check it out on the Voice of Olympus BlogTalkRadio website.
HP Lovecast News
We’ve finished recording and editing the August episode of Transmissions. This episode will feature interviews with James Chambers, Carol Gyzander, and Meghan Arcuri and will conclude our King in Yellow month for August. This episode will post Tuesday the 31st.
The Podcast Appearance page has been updated with dates and programming until the end of the year. These are subject to change, of course, but should give you a general idea of what we are covering and when for the remainder of the year.
Horror Writers Association Cook Book
The Horror Writers Association did a cover reveal of their upcoming cook book.
Cover by Robert Payne Cabeen
The book is edited by Marge Simon, Robert Payne Cabeen, and Kate Jonez, with Cabeen also doing the spooky cover art. Currently unknown publish date. Also, I am not sure, but I may be in this book? Long ago the editors were collecting recipes and I did some sort of vegetarian dish. But that was way back in 2016. So, maybe 50-50 chance I got a recipe in this book or not. We will find out together!
General Neo-Peplum News
Bible Films Blog and Cover Reveal
Matt Page has added a new review to his Bible Films Blog: the silent film Absalon (1912).
Also, Page’s upcoming debut, 100 Bible Films, has a cover reveal!
More info and pre-ordering options can be found at the Bloomsbury product page for the book.
Ancient World in Media
Helicon Storytelling has a new article up called “Classical Reception Studies: The Ancient World in Media.” They cover movies Gladiator and Troy, the Hades video game, the 2000s Battlestar Galactica iteration, and the books Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and the Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris.
Sons of Chaos at UCLA
Sons of Chaos author Chris Jaymes will be speaking at the UCLA SNF Hellenic Center about his graphic novel. Zoom registration details are here. The event is September 18th.
Ancient Greeks on the Human Condition
My publisher, McFarland Books, has just published a new book by Matthew Sims called Ancient Greeks on the Human Condition.
Starting another series of articles at this website called “Dark Libations” where I look at the usage of cocktails in horror and dark fiction. My first article is online and it is on the Jungle Bird in Nisi Shawl’s short story “Street Worm.”
King in Yellow Month Continues on H. P. Lovecast Podcast
New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is now online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
In this episode Michele and I discuss the graphic novel adaptation of The King in Yellow done by I. N. J. Culbard. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
This episode, along with all of our other programming this month, is all themed on Robert W. Chambers’ influential collection, the King in Yellow. The first episode that dropped this month was on the Hippocampus Press release of Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign, in which we talked about “The Yellow Crown” by Carol Gyzander and “Found and Lost” by Meghan Arcuri. This episode can be listened to at our Buzzsprout website.
The final day of the month on our Transmissions episode we will be publishing interviews with James Chambers, Gyzander, and Arcuri about their work with Under Twin Suns.
In addition, I’d like to highlight that the Horror Writers Association released their own version the The King in the Yellow via their Haunted Library of Horror Classics series. Consider plucking up a copy (Amazon link), being supportive of the organization, and following along our podcast this month.
Michele and I were both interviewed on Brenda S. Tolian and Joy Yehle’sBurial Plot Podcast. We are both super honored and flattered to be invited onto their show were we talk horror academia, the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, our H. P. Lovecast Podcast, and much more. The episode can be streamed at the Burial Plot Podcast Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Earlier this month, Writerpunk Press released their sixth anthology called Taught by Time: Myth Goes Punk.
Looking at the table of contents, there is a lot of neo-peplum stories dealing with mythology:
AR DeClerck: “Drag Me Down” (A cyber/biopunk story inspired by the Greek myths of Hades and Persephone)
Nils Visser: “The Skirring Dutchman: A Sussex Steampunk Tale” (A steampunk story inspired by De Vliegende Hollander [The Flying Dutchman] by Piet Visser, 1901)
Lee French: “Little Red Riding Hood” (A cyberpunk story inspired by the European folktale of Little Red Riding Hood)
Phoebe Darqueling: “Making Bones” (A noirpunk story inspired by the European folktale of Cinderella)
Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins: “Lured” (A steampunk story inspired by Grimm’s fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”)
Rachel Brune: “H-Bomb Over Paris” (An atompunk story inspired by the various Greek myths of Helen of Troy)
Teel James Glenn: “Black Sails” (A biopunk story inspired by the legend of Theseus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses)
Virginia Carraway: “The Lost Princess Returns” (A steampunk story inspired by George MacDonald’s 1875 fairy tale novel The Lost Princess)
Rachel Brune: “Bea Wolf” (A dieselpunk story inspired by the Old English epic poem Beowulf)
Bryce Raffle: “Threads” (A dreadpunk story inspired by the Homerian myth of Althaea, Meleager and the Three Fates)
Carol Gyzander: “Dust to Dust” (A biopunk story inspired by the legend of Echo and Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses)
H. J. Lopez: “Corporate G.O.D.S.” (A nano/biopunk story inspired by Homer’s Odyssey)
H. P. Lovecast Podcast kicks off its King in Yellow August with a brand new episode. Live now is our deep dive into two short stories from the brand new anthology from Hippocampus Press, Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign: “The Yellow Crown” by Carol Gyzander and “Found and Lost” by Meghan Arcuri. The episode can be streamed on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
In other podcast news, Michele and I were interviewed by Brenda S. Tolian and Joy Yehle for their Burial Plot Horror Podcast. This episode will be published later on, but I strongly encourage a listen to their catalog of episodes which can be found at their Buzzspout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Exotica Moderne #12
The newest issue of Exotica Moderne is now out! This issue contains my write up of the video game The Touryst. So far, I have still be in all issues of Exotica Moderne, and I hope to keep it up.
The issue can be ordered from the House of Tabu website. The product page can be found here.
Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference
I have been accepted to present a paper at the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association conference in November. My paper is titled “Victory over Valhalla: Violence via Vikings Sampling in Acylum’s Kampf Dem Verderb” and continues my research of industrial bands that sample peplum/historic epic texts into their music. This will be the first time presenting at MAPACA, thought I have presented many years at the SWPACA. I’m excited for the opportunity. Time to get to work on that presentation!
Gladiator Book
On the subject of industrial bands that sample peplum films, the Gladiator book that contains my essay about industrial bands that sample Gladiator, is looking to be published in early 2022. Cross fingers!
Recorded a short segment on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal Special on his Voice of Olympus program. I talk about the indie Kickstarted Pandemic Peplum comics, Band of Warriors #1 and Teoatl #1. It can be listened or downloaded from BlogTalkRadio.
Brand new episode of HP Lovecast Podcast is also online. This is our monthly Transmissions episode. In this episode we interview S. T. Lakata and J. H. Moncrieff. The episode is on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.
Citation News
Just found out that my essay, “Permission to Kill: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact and Legacy” which appeared in Michele Brittany’s James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy has been cited in Michael Guarneri’s book Vampires in Italian Cinema, 1956-1975.
