New episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Fragments is now online. This is our discussion on the film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster, which was delayed from last month due to StokerCon/AnnRadCon. The episode can be found on our HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website or on your podcast application of preference.
Transmissions will drop June 30th and I believe we may have three (!!) interviews on this one.
This Thursday we will both be on an episode of Scholars from the Edge of time.
Chopping Spree Writeup
Michele and I interested Angela Sylvaine last week for an upcoming episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Transmissions. I plucked up her novella Chopping Spree and saw all the fun that was being had in the story by mixing around different genres (including pepla!) that I simply had to get a writeup about the novella out ASAP. My musings on Sylvaine’s debut can be found here. Stay tuned for when her interview will drop on HP Lovecast!
General Neo-Peplum News
Norse Mythology II #1 Review
Michele Brittany has a review at Fanbase Press on the first issue of Norse Mythology II.
Michele and I recently interview Amanda Desiree on the Scholars from the Edge of Time show about her debut novel Smithy. The episode can be downloaded/streamed at Blog Talk Radio.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Slight Delays
We sorta underestimated how much AnnRadCon and StokerCon was going to throw our writing and recording schedule awry, but it did. So for May, we didn’t get a chance to do our episode on Caltiki. Instead, we are going to move that discussion to June along with our discussion on the comic book series Vinegar Teeth. However, we did complete the interviews for our newest episode of Transmissions, one with Amy Grech and the other with Catherine McCarthy. That episode will go live on Monday (check the podcast appearances page).
Mark My Words Physical Edition
The physical edition of Mark My Words is out on POD at Amazon.
StokerCon and Cocktails
I totally forgot to mention this before StokerCon, but I was invited to be part of a StokerCon-Cocktail-Video thing where I talk about my cocktail of preference for StokerCon and what I’m doing. Gaby Triana edited the end product and it contains videos from herself, Sara Tantlinger, Cina Pelayo, and yours truly. The video can be found on her Witch Haunt YouTube page (and was available during the StokerCon Hopin as well!).
Working Classicists is a new endeavor and a knowledge hub, seeking contributors to write about Classical Studies across all mediums, with an emphasis on the working class in the classics. Their Twitter account is @WorkClassicists and their website is https://www.workingclassicists.com.
Rest in Peplum
Joe Lara, known for playing two incarnations of Tarzan, died in a tragic plane crash over the weekend. His contribution to the peplum genre was an appearance in an episode “The Cavern” in the Ralf Möller Conan the Adventurer television series in 1997.
Gavin MacLeod, famous for playing Captain Stubing in The Love Boat, passed away at the age of 90. He starred in The Sword of Ali Baba (1965).
Invincible Red Sonja #1 Preview
Comicon.com has a preview of Invincible Red Sonja #1.
StokerCon will start later this week. Along with Michele, I’ll be co-charing the AnnRadCon academic conference, giving a presentation on the film Encounter with the Unknown, and being a panelist on a panel called “Horror Pods and Vlogs Go Viral: The Pandemic and Beyond.” All of this will be able to be accessed ad hoc during the StokerCon event. More info can be found at the StokerCon 2021 website.
HWA Academic Board Updates
I’ve added some new CFPs to the HWA Academic board. They include CFP for the Aeternum Gothic Journal, a German language CFP for the worlds of Lovecraft, Undead Superheroes, and Cine-Excess.
General Neo-Peplum News
Call for Abstracts – Ancient World, Modern Music
Dr. Swist has an open CFP called “Ancient World, Modern Music” for the Classical Association of the Middle West & South conference in March 23-26 2022 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
We are seeking abstracts for a panel on the reception of antiquity in modern music. 15-minute papers on the topic may discuss any genre of modern & popular music, including folk & country, rock & metal, hip-hop & pop, and theater & soundtracks, and may focus on lyrics, album artwork, music videos, live performances, or the music itself. We are particularly interested in questions of how musicians integrate ancient culture, myth, and art into modern medium, and how they read antiquity in response to the personal, the aesthetic, and the political.
Send 300-word abstracts & questions to Jeremy Swist (jeremyswist@brandeis.edu) by 10 July 2021. Potential panelists must commit to present in person if accepted.
Classical Imagery in the Album Artwork of White Supremacist Metal Bands
In more Dr. Swist news, a lecture he did earlier this year has been turned into an article at Pharos. The article is called “Classical Imagery in the Album Artwork of White Supremacist Metal Bands” and can be read at the Pharos website.
Eaters of the Dead Book
Dr. Kevin Wetmore has a new book coming out from Reaction Books this September called Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters.
The book focuses on cannibal monsters, but makes mention of mythological entities such as Thyestes, Pelops, Dionysus, and so on. It can be preordered at Reaktion Books and Amazon.
A Knight’s Tale turns Twenty
Variety has a retrospective up on Heath Ledger’s film, A Knight’s Tale, which just turned 20.
Michele and I launched a new program under the H. P. Lovecast banner called H. P. Lovecast Presents: Transmissions. Transmissions is made up of small, 15-20 minute interviews with other authors (or content creators), more-or-less being asked the same six questions. The idea is to have a non-obstructive platform for folks to promote their newest releases. The format is flexible enough to accommodate not only books, but novellas, short stories, collections, and other texts. The idea being that a handful of the 15-20 minute episodes, combined with a one minute reading, are merged together for a longer episode.
Our first episode has interviews with Howard David Ingham and Candace Robinson. The episode can be streamed at Buzzsprout or your podcast platform of preference.
Transmissions is set to air on the final day of each month. If this is a program you’d like to be featured on, feel free to email us at hplovecast@gmail.com and we evaluate.
Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
If you’ve noticed that lately I have not posted much new content here (such as interviews, essays, etc.) it because for the past month I’ve been neck deep in preparing for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference, which is part of StokerCon in the latter half of May. In addition to getting my presentation in a row, it’s also being coordinating with the StokerCon chairs, working with the other presenters, lots of emails, and so on. Thankfully, the end is in sight for all the prep work for AnnRadCon (though there is still lots to do for StokerCon proper). So come June you’ll start to see an uptick in new content from your’s truly when StokerCon/AnnRadCon is over.
However, hope to see folks attend StokerCon and also AnnRadCon and support horror academic! The convention is May 20-23rd, and here is the link to register or get more info.
General Neo-Peplum News
The Forgotten City
Modern Storyteller is releasing a neo-peplum game across all major platforms called The Forgotten City.
From the publisher’s website:
The Forgotten City is a mature narrative-driven game, and a re-imagining of the critically acclaimed mod that won a national Writers’ Guild award and racked up over 3 million downloads.
Trapped in a secret underground city during the Roman Empire, twenty-three lost souls cling to life. In this precarious utopia, if one person breaks the mysterious Golden Rule, everyone dies.
As a time-traveller drawn two thousand years into the past, you’ll relive their final moments in an endless loop, exploring and interrogating, and changing the course of the day with each secret you uncover. Only by cleverly exploiting the time loop and making difficult moral choices can you hope to solve this epic mystery.
Here, your decisions matter. The fate of the city is in your hands.
Brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Presents: Fragments is online. In this episode Michele and I talk about the film The Vast of Night. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.
We’ve also finished conducting interviews for our first episode of H. P. Lovecast: Transmissions. This week, Michele will be editing the episode and publishing it the final day of April. Guests on the debut are Candace Robinson and Howard David Ingham.
Podcast News – Scaredy Cats
Recently I was a guest on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. That episode has been published and it can be listened to at Buzzsprout or any other podcast platform.
Podcast News – Scholars from the Edge of Time
New episode of The Scholar from the Edge of Time is online at BlogTalkRadio. In this episode I discuss the video game Story of a Gladiator. Stay tuned as I do a write up on this neo-peplum game for my website here.
This upcoming Tuesday I’ll also be making another appearance on the Voice of Olympus program.
Felix Silla passed away at the age of 84. He was in numerous sci-fi and fantasy products (such as playing an Ewok in Return of the Jedi) but for the sword and sorcery genre, he was a voice actor in Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings film.
Polish actress Wiesława Mazurkiewicz passed away at the age of of 95. She was in a Polish peplum film called Pharaoh (1966).
Rest in Peplum To Physical Media?
Animation historian Jerry Beck has posited that Warner Brothers is transitioning away from physical media and devoting more to streaming content and HBO Max. Come 2022, it sounds like Warner will shutter their physical line of DVDs and Blu-Rays being produced (but they could possibly be outsourced to another company). Regardless, there’s a few peplum films under the Warner Achives Banner at risk. Fans may want to consider plucking them up. Some titles include Hercules, Samson And Ulysses, The Colossus of Rhodes, and The Slave.
Hercules and the Captive Women
Hercules and the Captive Women recently got a nice re-release on Blu-Ray. Previously only available as a DVD in the long out of print Hercules Collection published by Retro-Media years ago, the new Film Detective release has many bells and whistles, including the MST3K version of the film. Specs can be found at DVDBeaver.
H. P. Lovecast celebrated its one year (resurrection) anniversary! A year ago last April the world was knee deep in an apocalyptic pandemic (which we are still in). With so much uncertainty out there, Michele and I decided to bring back the dormant podcast. Since then, we’ve consistanluy published new episodes, expanded the scope of the podcast, brought attention to new writers, and hopefully given a little hope out there. In this month’s episode, we recap the last year, talk about goals for the upcoming year, while also taking a deep dive into William Meikle’s “Dagon Rising.” The podcast can be streamed on Buzzsprout or on your app of preference.
The episode of Scaredy Cats that I am a guest on has been delayed in being published. Unfortunately I don’t have an ETA yet.
S.P.Q.R. Comic
Did an interview with Riley Hamilton about his comic, S.P.Q.R. It can be read here.
General Neo-Peplum News
CFP for Ancient World Academia
The Society of Classical Studies has a CFP out for their Annual Meeting for Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World. It can be found here.
Rest in Peplum
English actor Paul Ritter passed away at the age of 54. He was Galba in The Eagle (2011).
Italian make up artist Giannetto De Rossi passed away. He worked on a variety of filone films, and his peplum work includes:
This past Thursday, Jessica Scott and myself were guests on the Scaredy Cats Podcast talking about the film The Slumber Party Massacre. The episode will go online on Thursday the 8th across all major podcast platforms (I recommend their Buzzsprout page).
Michele and I appeared on the Voice of Olympus program on Tuesday to talk EC Comics. Michele covered War Against Crime while I talked about Valor.
Due to timing, billing cycles, and so on, the newest episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast will go online on April 5th.
Horror CFPs
I run the horror academics board for the Horror Writers Association. I try to add new CFPs for papers, presentations, and keep tabs on publishers who accept academic and non-fiction submission. When I update it, go forward, I’ll mention the updates here as well in order to help proliferate the CFPs. The board can be found here and can be viewed by anyone.
General Neo-Peplum News
Das Neue Evangelium
The Bible Films Blog has a write up of Das Neue Evangelium (The New Gospel, 2020), which contains shot-for-shot remakes of Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).
John Carter Video Game
Sword and planet hero John Carter is getting a video game treatment called John Carter: Warlord of Mars. A website has been setup about the game as it develops at http://jcwom.com.
Elysian Fields: “The Pyramid Gambit”
The newest issue of the Elysian Fields comic series, “The Pyramid Gambit,” has started shipping. I’ve received my copy:
Elysian Fields: The Pyramid Gambit: Loot from the Indiegogo campaign
A call back: I interviewed Michael Oden about Elysian Fields #0 on my website. It can be read here.
Isidora issue #2 News
G. A. Lungaro has completed the script for Isidora #2. The new issue will have four different covers (Jay Espin, Vic King, Mark McKenna, and a mystery person). Issue 2 will also be crowdfunded via Indiegogo this time instead of Kickstarter and is expected to go live May/June. Other related news is that issue #1 is going to be re-lettered and there appears to be a special edition that will contain issues 1 and 2.
Dr. Deb Trusty will be giving a talk titled “Playing in the Past: Reflections from a Classicist on Playing, Streaming, and Teaching with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” via Zoom on April 7th, 2021 at 7:00 pm PST. Registration is here.
Michele and I has our monthly appearance on the Scholars from the Edge of Time segment of the Voice of Olympus podcast. This month we discuss the toga and sandal film Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Great discussion and keep an eye out on a write up about the film here at my website. In the meantime, the episode can be downloaded/streamed at BlogTalkRadio.
Screen capture from the Eclipse release of Caesar and Cleopatra. Pictured is Claude Rains as Caesar and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra.
This upcoming Tuesday we will have a mini episode on Voice of Olympus as well.
General Neo-Peplum News
Polis Part 2 Comic
Jave Galt-Miller informs via Kickstarter that the second part of his Polis: The Trail of Socrates has been printed and in his possession. He expects to ship out to backers in the next couple of weeks. Historic info about the project can be found on Kickstarter.
Cover art of issue 2. Copyright by Jave Galt-Miller
Of note, back when I wrote for Fanbase Press, I did a review of issue one of Polis. It can be read here.
There is a cover reveal and a product page for The Many Lives of The Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise over at McFarland now! There’s no publishing date yet, but I am imagining it will be out late spring/early summer. To refresh, I have an essay in this book titled “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” which does a deep dive into the 70s horror anthology film Encounter with the Unknown that Rod Serling narrated.
Issue 11 of Exotica Moderne has a cover reveal as well! In this issue I conduct an interview with Miss Pinup Miami.
Podcast News
Michele and I recorded a brand new episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. In this episode we discuss William Eubank’s 2020 film, Underwater. Check it out on Buzzsprout or on your podcast platform of preference. Side note: we are finally on Pandora now!
General Neo-Peplum News
Sword and Sorcery Sketchbooks
Sword and Sorcery artist Gilead is selling sketchbooks of his fantasy art. If you’re in the US you can purchase them via PayPal for $12.00 at gilead@cox.net. More info in Gilead can be found at his Patreon.
Art copyright by Gilead.
Imperial Age to Debut New Song
Russian symphonic metal band Imperial Age, whose modus operandi is a melding of lots of different aspects of antiquity/mythology, has released a statement they will be debuting a new song on 2021-04-09 across all streaming platforms along with a music video on YouTube. The band is not doing preorders, and releasing the song’s title or cover art, though other things are being revealed via the band’s Facebook page and emails: screenshots seems to show the music video being vampire themed and Jane sings 100% of the vocals on the song.
Screencap of the new music video, promotional image made available on the band’s Facebook page.
Along with all of this, the band is working on a brand new album as well called New World.
The Midnight’s Horror Show Releases
Horror Show, the newest release from synthwave act The Midnight, was released this past Friday. The physical versions will be released later, but for now fans can enjoy digital incarnations at the project’s Bandcamp page. The release contains the track “Neon Medusa” which contains shades of mythology. Hope to dive into that track for a possible article.
Last week the CFP for the neo-medieval project came to an end. I’ve spent the last week juggling the project and came to the decision to shutter it for the simple reason that I did not receive enough abstracts to justice the project to any publisher. The medieval project is officially dead. However, keep an eye out here later in the year for a CFP for a different project. Thank you to all who submitted.
Podcast News
New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is live! In this episode Michele and I discuss “The House on Curwen Street” and “The Watcher from the Sky” both from August Derleth’s The Trail of Cthulhu. The episode is available on our Buzzsprout website or via the Podcast application of your preference.
General Neo-Peplum News
Swords, Sandals, and Synthwave
It’s not often the synthwave genre dives into subject matter older than the 80s, let alone into antiquity, yet The Midnight (retro wave band) is releasing a new LP called Horror Show that contains a track called “Neon Medusa.” The LP is available for pre-order on vinyl, cassette, and digitally at the band’s Bandcamp page and will be released March 19th.
Clash of the Titans 2010 on HBO Max
Article at Looper praising Clash of the Titans 2010 remake and encouraging folks to check it out on HBO Max.
Peplum Erotica Gaming
Ubisoft isn’t the only publisher/developer that has the market cornered in sword and sandal gaming, with their Assassin’s Creed series and Immortals Fenyx Rising. There is a WIP game on steam called Slaves of Rome that takes an erotic approach to the genre.
Slave of Rome banner provided by the developers
The game appears to be a BDSM simulator that allows players to create, train, trade, and have sex with enslaved persons in an ancient Roman setting. More info about the game can be found on the developer’s Patreon, Twitter, and Reddit.
SPQR Comic Ships
After a few minor setbacks and misprints, Riley Hamilton’s Kickstarted comic SPQR issue #1 has begun being shipped. If you didn’t contribute to the Kickstarter, no worries, the comic is available for purchase at Hamilton’s website.
I contributed to the Kickstarter so I reckon my copy will arrive in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for some sort of write up about it.
Rest in Peplum
British actress Nicola Pagett passed away at the age of 75 from a brain tumor. She played Messalina in an episode called “Claudius” in the 1968 miniseries The Caesars and Talia in The Viking Queen (1967).
