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News Roundup 2024-11-03

Personal / Website News

Scholars From the Edge of Time

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

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

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

Panthans Journal #330

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

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

ECOF 2025

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

Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:

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

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

Publishing Recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calls for Papers/Proposals

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

Metal Music Studies Retrospectives

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

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

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

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

We have reviews lined up already for the following:

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

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

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

Miscellaneous Tidbits

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

Autographed Crawlspace

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

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

Art of Michele Brittany

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

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

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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2024-05-05

Personal / Website News

Scholars from the Edge of Time

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

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

Miscellaneous Tidbits

New Sword and Sandal Book Acquisitions

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

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

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

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

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

New Sword and Sandal DVDs Acquisitions

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

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

Autograph Treasures

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

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

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

CFPs

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

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

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

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

I Am a Barbarian

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

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

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News

News Roundup W/E 2022-06-26

Personal / Website News

Scholars From the Edge of Time

Brand new episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time on Hercules Invictus’ Mount Olympus programming is now online.

Personal Copy.

In this episode Michele and I talk about the 80s sword and sorcery film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, which was legit good! The episode can be streamed at BlogTalkRadio.

Next month we will be talking about DragonHeart (1996).

New H.P. Lovecast This Thursday

Our monthly Transmissions program will be published this upcoming Thursday, June 30th. We will be interviewing Lora Senf and Robert Ottone.

General Neo-Peplum News

“Temm the Riven” by Brian Matthews

Dark fiction writer Brian W. Matthews, author of The Conveyance (read my review over at Goodreads), Forever Man (which just got a re-release earlier this month) and its sequels Revelation and Dark Rescue, takes a plunge into the sword and sorcery genre with a new short story titled “Temm the Riven.” The story will be published in an upcoming issue of the recently revived Weird Tales magazine.

Amplifying Antiquity with Heavy Metal Music

Dr. Jeremy Swiss was recently interviewed Brandeis University in their BrandeisNow online news. The interview is called, “Amplifying Antiquity with Heavy Metal Music” and can be read here.

DMR Blog Entries

DMR Books is a publisher of sword and sorcery, pulp, and horror books that are in an old school pulp vein. In addition to their publishing endeavors they maintain a very active blog of contributors doing essays, interviews, and reviews. This past week saw:

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-12-26

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast

New episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! We had a bit of a modified schedule these past two months due to the holidays and other obligations, but we will be back to a regular schedule in January.

For our latest episode we take a look at the new Raw Dog Screaming Press anthology, Attack from the ’80s. Edited by Eugene Johnson, we dive into “Permanent Damage” by Lee Murray and “The White Room” by Rena Mason. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

Scholars from the Edge of Time

Michele and I had an episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time drop last Thursday.

Our episode was on the film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. You can stream the episode at BlogTalkRadio.

AnnRadCon CFP December Deadline

The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference closes at the end of the month.

AnnRadCon Logo by Greg Chapman

Details of the CFP can be found at the StokerCon website.

General Neo-Peplum News

MCU and Pepla

George Chrysostomou has an opinion piece at SreenRant called “10 Genres That Have Been Underutilized By The MCU.” The last genre Chrysostomou suggests in the article that the Marvel universe should dive into is the sword and sandal genre. From the article:

The sword-and-sandal genre fits perfectly with characters like Thor and Loki. It really hasn’t been used properly, though, with fantasy elements and sci-fi features becoming a mainstay of those movies instead. The genre itself has really died, but Marvel can be the company to renew it.

Hercules is a natural fit for this genre, as a film surrounding the early life of the Olympian before moving across time to the modern-day would be a fantastic introduction to the character. It could play into the mythology of Ancient Greece in a way Thor’s Norse history did not get featured.

George Chrysostomou

Yes, I agree! Bring forth Marvel’s Hercules!

New Hrossharsgrani Release

My friend Alex Wieser has a Viking metal project called Hrossharsgrani (which I have written extensively his Pro Liberate Dimicandum Est album in my essay in the forthcoming Gladiator book). After around a decade hiatus, his project is back in action with a new release.

It is a split album with German Viking/black metal Nachtfalke called Journey’s End. The album can be bought at Christhunt Productions.