Check out my book review of Vilioti Vintage by Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa, which can be read here. he book contains an interview with Ken Holewczynski, the dude behind Exotica Moderne, a magazine I’ve contributed to many times. So, definitely check out the review and the book proper.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
My first podcast guest appearance for 2024 is over at the Fan2Fan Podcast!
In this episode we talk about the classic Italian gothic horror film, Castle of Blood. This was a lot of fun to revisit as it has been years – I dived deep into this movie over a decade ago when writing my thesis and since then I’ve grown to appreciate it more.
The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website, via the embedded player below, or through your favorite podcast app.
And, of course, I’d be remiss without showing our copy of Castle of Blood, autographed to Michele and I from both Barbara Steele and Edoardo Margheriti, son of director Antonio Margheriti:
I’ve also started annotating Emmanuelle scholarship and posting it here at my website so other scholars have a nice bibliographic resource. The bibliography and annotations can be found here and it’s a major WIP.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Issues 3 & 4
At the tail end of 2023 issues 1 and 2 of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which has been previously Kickstarted, was unleashed upon the world. I received my copies:
The Fall 2023 issue has an advert for H. P. Lovecast, how cool is that! Also, a reminder, I did a write up about issue 0, which can be read here.
On February 15th there will be a new crowdfunding campaign to publish issues 3 and 4. You can sign up for when the campaign goes live at this link. There’s details there of what to expect from the new two issues. Check it out!
Recent Pepla Acquisitions
Recently plucked up copies of Gold for the Caesars and The Tartars, both from Warner’s Archive Collection. If it’s a peplum film Warner had a hand in back in the day, they kept decent prints of them over the years and give them decent releases:
The Tartars star pepla starlet Bella Cortez. Michele and I are probably going to do a retrospective of her pepla appearances, talking about different movies of the next few episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time. I’ll be turning those discussions into articles for my Peplum Ponderings series which has been severely neglected.
Rest in Peplum Jesse Jane
This past week erotic actress Jesse Jane passed away. Jane appeared in many adult movies, including two pirate porno pepla: Pirates 1 and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge. Had the honor, way back in the late aughts, to meet not only Jesse Jane, but co-stars Stoya and Riley Steele at a meet and greet: won a raffle and received copies of both of the Pirates films in which the actresses autographed. Here is a mini-slideshow (NSFW images):
I have a polaroid somewhere as well documenting the meet and greet, soon as I find it I’ll add that to the gallery.
Autographed Stuff
Here is a summary of some of the autographed stuff from my library over the past two weeks on social media.
Robot Jox
Actor Gary Graham passed away on the 22nd. He didn’t star in anything I’d consider peplum, but he starred in lots of sci-fi movies and shows. Michele and I met him at a Hollywood Collectors show way back in the day. I had him sign my copy of Robot Jox:
As you can see, I’ve had quite a few people autograph Robot Jox over the years: Graham, director Stuart Gordon (RIP), producer Charles Band, and writer Joe Haldeman. It’s a fun mecha film. We see lots of mechs in anime and video games, but live action, not so much (but the ones we get, like Pacific Rim, turn out to be cult hits later on).
The Plain Janes
Here are copies of The Plain Janes and Janes in Love signed by author extraordinaire Cecil Castellucci.
And:
When we lived in Orange we would see Castellucci at many of the local cons and she was always awesome to say hi to. Michele moderated a panel on Star Wars at a Long Beach Comic Con that Castellucci was a panelist on.
Michele and I recently did an appearance on the Fan2Fan Podcast where co-host Bernie Gonzalez talked to us about H. P. Lovecraft. It was really awesome be asked to be on the podcast and to talk about Lovecraft things outside our own H. P. Lovecast Podcast. The dialogue has been broken up into two episodes.
The first episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website or via the embedded player below.
Sincere thanks for having us back on as guests, we appreciate it!
A Hero Will Endure Published!
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is officially out! The collection is available for purchase at the Vernon Press website.
This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling”. When my hardcover copy arrives I’ll be sure to share it.
There are a few essays in the collection that cite content of The New Peplum. As soon as I can verify what and were I will add the citations to the The New Peplum page.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Personal copy of Emmanuelle vs. Dracula. Note: decades prior Kristel starred in Dracula’s Widow (1988).
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Rest in Peplum Stella Stevens
Ok, Stella Stevens wasn’t in any peplum movies, but she was in an episode of Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman is a total peplum character and also The Poseidon Adventure (1972) being named after the Olympian, so I am calling it valid.
1960s kitten bombshell Stella Stevens passed away from Alzheimer’s at the age of 84 on the 17th (CNN Link). Stevens is probably best known for being in The Nutty Professor (1963). and the original The Poseidon Adventure. My first exposure to Stevens was in her Bond Girl-esque role opposite Dean Martin in The Silencers (1966).
I had the honor to meet Stevens at a convention back in 2010. She was a total doll and so swoonerific. She autographed my copies of The Silencers, Hard Drive (1994) (a straight to Cinemax erotic thriller) and a cute pinup photo of her. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate the items as of yet during my unpacking, but once I do I’ll post them here.
She will be greatly missed!
Fist of Jesus Blu-ray
A recent acquisition, I got my paws on a Blu-ray of Fist of Jesus:
Only 15 minutes long, I gave it a quick watch. It was funny: Dead Alive with Jesus. I’ll be doing a proper write up later (maybe for Easter?). The movie can be ordered at the Fist of Jesus website.
At a functional level, genre labels provide a short hand of attributes and qualities to assist in categorizing a text. By calling a film or a book or any sort of media a “comedy,” or “fantasy,” or “horror” and so on denotes that the text exhibits a large quantity of aspects associated with that label, with the assumption that genres are not absolute and that texts can straddle multiple genres (though some purists may argue for concrete borders on genre definitions). As time progresses and forms of media explore the limits of ur-genre boundaries, the development of subgenre labels come into being to assist in fine tuning categorizations: it’s not just a horror film, it’s a slasher film.
“New Edge Sword and Sorcery” can be thought of as a subgenre of the sword and sorcery genre, which is turn can be thought of as an offshoot of the fantasy genre. New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine acts as the first stake in the ground to lay the foundations of/crystalize the burgeoning subgenre.
What is New Edge Sword and Sorcery (NES&S) and what makes it distinct when compared to sword and sorcery proper? This is the question editor Oliver Brackenbury addresses in the final column of the first (zero) issue of New Edge magazine: a flexible iteration of sword and sorcery that embraces not only marginalized and outsider protagonists, but genre content creators as well (the magazine looks to be more rooted in literary New Edge, but the subgenre philosophy posited by the publication is certainly applicable to NES&S in other forms).
To illustrate these aspects of the subgenre, New Edge magazine is divided into 50% short fiction and 50% non-fiction that entails interviews, essays, and reviews. The non-fiction half of issue zero of the magazine contains the following: an extremely thoughtful, long-form interview with Milton Davis, one of the leading figures of the sword and soul subgenre; nice, succinct piece from Brian Murphy on the prevalence of the outsider in sword and sorcery fiction; a review on The Obanaax, and essay from Cora Buhlert about C. L. Moore and their S&S protagonist, Jirel of Joiry; and more. The fiction portion contains some great pieces, with “The Ember Inside” by Remco Straten and Angeline B. Adams being particularly stand out with its unique take on storytelling as a concept proper while the opening story, “The Curse of the Horsetail Banner” by Daniel R. A. Quioque offers up illustrative combat sequences with a hero that, against all odds, really overcomes the masses.
Peppered throughout issue zero of New Edge are a variety of black and white illustrations to accompany the various pieces, giving the whole issue a feel of classic RPG books.
The first issue (technically zero issue) of New Edge is both informative and fun. Old and new guard fans of the sword and sorcery genre will certainly appreciate the stories within, while the non-fiction pieces are thoughtful with the Davis interview being particularly insightful. The current trend of fantasy genre media seems to be sweeping toward titanic epics in the George R. R. Martin vein, which isn’t an antithesis of new edge per se, it is just a different approach via different modes. Fantasy is en vogue again, and it is the perfect opportunity to showcase that there are different, more inclusive ways to explore the genre, and that is were new edge (the subgenre) comes into play. New Edge (the magazine) acts as a portal for readers to enter the realm of new fantasy stories built upon the pillars of the old.
More information about New Edge the magazine and the genre can be found at the following links:
Digging through my archives I came across an article I wrote for my zine as part of S. T. Joshi’s Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. The article was in dire need of editing and spell checking, but it still seemed like a fun piece on retroism and sword and sorcery.
Michele also has an episode on her top 5 vampires which can be heard here. Sincere appreciation for Fan2Fan for having us on as guests!
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Collection of Emmanuelle comics by Guido Crepax (personal collection).
The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
For our monthly appearance on Scholars from the Edge of Time, Michele and I discuss the 1959 Biblical plum film Solomon and Sheba (see below). The episode can be viewed on Hercules Invictus’ YouTube channel.
James Bond and Popular Culture Review
Michele’s book, James Bond and Popular Culture, has a brand new review online!
Lex “Hugin” Karrila has an autobiography being published this year by Running Wild Productions: 40 Years a Black Metal Punk. The books covers his 40+ year musical career from his punk days to his later metal, industrial, dungeon synth, and other extreme genres with projects such as Uruk-Hai, Hrossharsgrani, BoneMachine, and many more.
I had the honor to collaborate with Karrila on a few songs for his Ceremony of Innocence project and have done a deep analysis of his Hrossharsgrani album Pro Liberate Dimicandum Est which is part of my essay in the upcoming A Hero Will Endure collection (see below).
In conjunction with the book, a double album is being released that provides an aural sampling of Karrila’s musical career. Included on the compilation is the Ceremony of Innocence track “Our Fire Burns” which I did lyrics and vocals for, so that is very cool (note: my old website has a discography section, I might have to bring that back!).
The German edition of the book is slated to be released this April (Bandcamp page for Running Wild Productions, keep an eye there) while an English edition will be published later this year.
A Hero Will Endure Preorder
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is available for preorder at the Vernon Press website.
This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling” and is slated to be released in February.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Rest in Peplum Gina Lollobrigida
Iconic Italian starlet Gina Lollobrigida passed away on the 16th this month.
My autographed 8×10 of Lollobrigida.
She didn’t star in too many historic epics, however she did star opposite of Yum Brenner in King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba.
The barebones Blu-ray of Solomon and Sheba.
Michele and I decided to make her and this film the primary focus of our Scholars from he Edge of Time appearance this month (see above).
New Edge Sword and Sorcery Kickstarter
The folks at New Edge Sword and Sorcery will be launching a Kickstarter very soon to fund publishing of issue 1 (issue 0 can be found on Amazon).
Personal copy of issue 0.
You can sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live at this link.
Note: This essay was first published in the autumn of 2018 in the Letters from Thanator zine that is part of S. T. Joshi’s Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. This essay has been updated with corrections to spelling, word usage, and various clarifications.
A Game Called Quest is author S. J. Larsson’s third book, after 2016’s Megalodon: Apex Predator and 2017’s Total Immersion. Published with Severed Press, (as with his other two titles), A Game Called Quest concerns brother and sister Donny and Amanda, joined by friend Kevin, as they play a video game on the Atari 2600 entitled Quest which seemingly has VR capabilities that puts them into a fantasy world called Quintarria. The novella itself has issues: misspellings pop up more frequent than they should and Larsson doesn’t appear to be up to task to convey the story at an appropriate pace and consistent fashion. Despite these shortcomings, A Game Called Quest is noteworthy for its attempt at blending retro-modernism in the form of 80s nostalgia that has surfaced in the past decade along with the neo-peplum/sword and sorcery genre. The ongoing wave of 80s nostalgia is mostly preoccupied with the era’s horror aspect, (as evident in the Netflix series Stranger Things), and Miami Vice-esque aesthetics and for the most part eschews the sword and sorcery element that were popular during the decade. A Game Called Quest’s intersection of 80s retro-ism and sword and sorcery is its strongest facet and deserves exploration.
Personal copy of A Game Called Quest.
This short-form article will first provide a plot summation of A Game Called Quest followed by an attempt to unearth both the 80s retro-modernism and sword and sorcery elements in the story. Next, additional contextualization will be pointed out between the text and the real world, specifically regarding the usage of Pac-Man and how A Game Called Quest relates to other early console fantasy games, some that flirt with ARG (alternate reality game)-elements, akin to Quest’s VR immersion.
A Game Called Quest centers on Donny, a fourteen year old freshman trying to purchase a copy of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 on launch day, but is thwarted by class bullies Brian, Duff, and Ernie. His punk-rock sister Amanda takes him and Kevin, a not-quite-a-friend of Donny’s, to purchase something else to cheer them up. They wind up in a mysterious trinket store where the eccentric proprietor, Royee, rents them an Atari game he created himself: Quest. The three take the game, along with its various peripherals, back home and play it. They are plunged into a fantasy world called Quintarria, with Donny assuming the role of a wizard and party leader, Amanda an elf archer, and Kevin a dwarf warrior. The three set off to save the kingdom, leveling up by killing monsters and bosses while gaining new skills and abilities in the process. At the same time, they also combat the real world bullies who intrude on them. The novella ends with the trio beating the VRgame, besting the bullies, and returning Quest to Royee, whose shop mysteriously disappears.
The 80s was perhaps the last gilded age of the sword and sorcery genre until the Lord of the Rings trilogy attempted to revive it twenty years later. The decade prior saw the cumulation of literary sword and sorcery, with folks like Lin Carter who edited many fantasy anthologies that gave visibility to both new talent and older, obscure works. The 80s saw the genre transcend the literary world and into other mediums, particularly in the cinematic realm. Examples include film adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s Conan such as Conan the Barbarian (1982, John Milius) and Conan the Destroyer (1984, Richard Fleischer), esoteric fare such as Hundra (1983, Matt Cimber), animated endeavors like Fire and Ice (1983, Ralph Bakshi) and even Italian derivatives such as Ator, The Fighting Eagle (1982, Joe D’Amato) and Conquest (1983, Lucio Fulci). The genre was also explored in video games, such as Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, Legendary Axe and Golden Axe, and tabletop games as with Dungeons and Dragons.
Despite the popularity of the genre, sword and sorcery elements are greatly lacking representation in the current 80s nostalgia trend. Outrun, the aesthetics that dominate 80s retro-ism and so named after the Sega arcade game of the same name, concentrates on components such as neon-magenta colours, vector gridlines, VHS tracking artifacts and faux VHS boxart, a setting sun broken by clouds, fast cars and palm trees. Synthwave, the music genre heavily inspired by the 80s, focuses mostly on horror elements (especially John Carpenter films and his music), as well police elements such as those in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, William Friedkin), and cyberpunk and 8-bit/16-bit video game aesthetics. Movies and television shows such as Stranger Things, Kung Fury (2015, David Sandberg), Turbo Kid (2015, Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell), and so on, also focus on these facets of the 80s. Stranger Things comes close to tackling the sword and sorcery genre during this time period, with the children in the show playing Dungeons and Dragons in season one and the arcade game Dragon’s Lair in season two. However, depictions of Frank Frazetta-styled barbarians and ruggedly harsh but fantastic worlds are absent in the present day trend of retro-modernism. Most sword and sorcery depictions appear in shows such as Game of Thrones, but even that series has its own identity and does not rely on 80s homage. The Fox television show Son of Zorn is perhaps the closest example of sword and sorcery done in a retro-modern fashion. Son of Zorn was a live action sitcom with a cartoonish He-Man inspired character named Zorn inserted into the “real world” à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Robert Zemeckis) and Cool World (1992, Ralph Bakshi). The show was not a success and was cancelled after its first season.
Therefore, while the greater outrun, synthwave, and retro-modernism movements are concerned with exploring the horror, retro-tech, cyberpunk and Miami Vice elements of the 80s, A Game Called Quest differentiates itself within 80s revivalism by centering itself at the crossroads of retro-gaming and the sword and sorcery genre while borrowing heavily from other popular and cult 80s stories. To begin with, A Game Called Quest shares much in common with The NeverEnding Story (1984, Wolfgang Petersen): both involve bullies harassing a young protagonist and a sequence in which the youth visits a store and procures an item (a book in The NeverEnding Story and a video game in A Game Called Quest) that transports them to a fantasy world full of magic and populated by fantastic beasts and denizens. There are also shades of Labyrinth (1986, Jim Hensen) and Tron (1982, Steven Lisberger) present in A Game Called Quest as well, with both films involving heroes going to another world, with Tron complimenting the video game aspect and Labyrinth the fantasy aspect. Though made in the early 90s, it should be pointed out that A Game Called Quest’s plot anticipates Full Moon Entertainment’s Arcade (1993, Albert Pyun) in which teenagers are transported into a virtual video game world.
Regarding the 80s sword and sorcery elements, attention should first be directed to the novella’s cover. The artwork is a stock piece of art called “Dwarf Knight on Winter Cold” by Vuk Kostic1 that depicts a heavily armored dwarf in a forest during a winter’s night. The placement of the artwork against a solid red background and the typeface of the title has the cover replicate the box art of an old Atari video game. Though the dwarf isn’t quite in the Frazetta or Boris Vallejo style, it still evokes 80s fantasy elements. The story proper, of course, is submerged in video game sword and sorcery, with a party of adventurers fighting dragons, dark elves, snow imps, trolls, chimeras, and more. While the sword and sandal and the sword and sorcery genres share some overlap, A Game Called Quest contains elements of the neo-peplum genre, having been written post-1990, and by playfully making use of the genre tropes in a unique fashion.2 Basically, a contemporary-written book that leverages the sword and sorcery genre but via an 80s retro-gaming framework.
There is some fortuitous irony in that Donny is able to get Quest over Pac-Man. Various times through the story, Donny or Kevin exclaim how Quest is the greatest game ever.3 This is in stark contrast to the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man that Donny had been pining for. This was the first home console port of Pac-Man, though it differs wildly in quality to the superior arcade version. Though initially a best seller, the port’s poor quality eventually had a negative impact to both Atari (who had manufactured an excessive number of cartridges)4 and the overall image of the video game industry. These would be elements that led into the video game crash of 1983.5
Poor reception of Pac-Man aside, there is a greater link between Pac-Man, Quest and fantasy games as they appeared on early consoles. The 2600 port of Pac-Man was programmed by Tod R. Frye who would go on to program the Swordquestseries of games for the 2600. Swordquest consisted of three games, Earthworld, Fireworld, and Waterworld with a fourth release, Airworld, being unreleased (though a version would appear on the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration compilation released in late 2022). The Swordquest games were not RPG games but instead adventure-puzzlers. Taking place in a fantasy world, players would move between rooms, dropping off items and solving puzzles. The innovative feature of the Swordquest games, much like Quest, is the ARG/metagame aspect of it: accomplishments in the game could impact the real world. In Swordquest, clues are unveiled within the game and crossed referenced in an accompanying comic book. Solving these puzzles would offer the player opportunities to win real world treasures created by the Franklin Mint: the Talisman of Penultimate Truth from Earthworld, the Chalice of Light from Fireworld, the Crown of Life from Waterworld, the Philosopher’s Stone from Airworld and ultimately the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. The series was ultimately cancelled after the limited release of Waterworld and Atari was purchased by Tramel Technology.6 It is quite uncanny that Quest attempts to blend a video game with the real world in its narrative while the Swordquest series was, in every practical sense, actually able to perform this feat.
A Game Called Quest is not the best written work as Larsson doesn’t posses either the technical writing or storytelling acumen to truly accomplish what they set out to do. However, the fragments that do exist, the intersection of 80s nostalgia and the sword and sorcery genre via retro-gaming, is a stand out, well executed aspect of the novella. It’s definitely aninteresting take on the sword and sorcery genre as well as a refreshing nostalgia piece that attempts to work with specific80s tropes that are not as popular as others.
A few of the tenants of neo-pepla is that while it is applicable mostly to the sword and sandal stories, it has a universality that is can be applied to stories with shades of sword and sandal and encourages different styles (especially post-modern) of storytelling as well. The genre is also not restricted to films, but instead is a true transmedia genre thatcan be found in television, video games, comic books, music, literature, and other media as well. Nicholas Diak, introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, ed. Nicholas Diak (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017), 6-14
S. J. Larsson, A Game Called Quest (Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018), 18, 130.
Steven L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 236.
Diak, Nicholas. Introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, 4-19. Edited by Nicholas Diak. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017.
Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Larsson, S. J. A Game Called Quest. Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018.
Good day everyone! Final update for October. I hope everyone has a great upcoming Halloween!
The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone
The academic collection, The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone, edited by Kevin Wetmore and Ron Riekki has been published by McFarland and is now out in the wild!
Me!
My contributor’s copy arrived and it looks awesome. The TOC sports some great academics.
My essay is titled “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” and is probably the most in-depth article out there on the movie. Note: this essay is eligible for various 2022 short non-fiction awards out there, so if it is a piece you enjoy, consider recommending it!
The collection is available to purchase at McFarland.
Galliano Mai Tai
I’ve got quite a handful of cocktail books from the 70s and 80s, most of them filled with recipes of a dubious nature. However, it’s fun to play cocktail archeology and try out some of the recipes in these books.
I have a new old school recipe exploration written up. It is on the Galliano Mai Tai. It can be read here.
H. P. Lovecast Transmissions
This month’s Transmissions episode for HP Lovecast will feature interviews with Erika T. Wurth and Chris Philbrook. This episode will publish on the last day of this month – Halloween!
Galactic Terrors Vidcast
Galactic Terrors is a monthly YouTube midcast from the Horror Writer Association’s New York Chapter. Each episode features three authors doing readings followed by Q/A. I’ve been invited to appear on the program, which will stream November 10th.
If you want to know more about Galactic Terrors, check out their Facebook group or have a look at their episode archive on their YouTube channel. Michele was a guest last month, so check that episode out for sure!
Miscellaneous Tidbits
New Edge Sword and Sorcery
Issue 0 of the new magazine, New Age Sword and Sorcery, it out.
Personal copy of the hardback edition.
The magazine looks like a great endeavor to make the S&S genre more inclusive. The digital copy is free (link here), while the paperback and hardback iterations are available at cost (Amazon link here). Consider plucking up a copy, show interest, so the magazine can get a great start.
Amon Amarth Album Review
Hal C. F. Astell has a new review up at his Apocalypse Later website.
It is on the Viking metal outfit Amon Amarth’s new album, The Great Heathen Army. Check it out here.
Three weeks in a row of articles at my website. I hope I can keep up the momentum.
Two New Book Reviews
I’ve published not one but two book reviews at my website in the past two weeks.
First up, stepping in the realm of middle grade, I’ve done a review on Lora Senf’s debut novel, The Clackity. It can be read right here.
Book Template
Monster mayhem continues in my second book review which is on Robert P. Ottone’s newest novel, Nocturnal Creatures. This one can be read right here.
New Episodes of H. P. Lovecast
More double trouble, two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast have also been published in the last two weeks.
First is our monthly Transmissions program. For September we interviewed Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke. That episode can be listened to at our Buzzspout page, the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.
McFarland is doing a sale on horror books during the month of October. During checkout, use the code “HORROR22” to get 25% of books in their horror category.
There’s three books included in the sale I have involvement in (The Twilight Zone book is tagged as horror, but it isn’t out yet, so I’m not sure if the sale applies to it or not):
This is a great opportunity to pluck these books up and be supportive to what Michele and I do.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Footage Fiends Zine
Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:
Exciting news: my good friend @DVDBoxSet and I are starting the first ever zine exclusively covering in-world camera films (found footage, mockumentary, faux doc, screenlife, hybrid, etc.) and we're now accepting pitches for the first issue!
I’ve completed and submitted a short-form essay about Mario Bava’s film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster. The submission window for issue 01 is still open, so send them a pitch! Email address is footagefiends at gmail dot com.
Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign
Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.
Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting.
Welcome to the second instance of my biweekly news roundup. I am digging this schedule more than my prior weekly schedule. There is a lot of content below, so make sure you scroll through it all.
Alicia Carter and Robot #1 Review
The physical first issue of the crowdfunded pulp/sword and planet inspired comic The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carterand Robot arrived last week.
One of my favorite things is finding new citations of the essays by the authors who appeared in the books I edited.
Dr. Hannah Mueller’s essay, “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus,” which appeared in The New Peplum, has been cited in Dr. Amanda Potter’s essay, “From Female Stereotypes to Women with Agency: Elite Women and Slave Women in Howard Fast’s 1951 Novel, Spartacus (1960), and Starz Spartacus (2010–13)” in Gender, Power, and Identity in the Films of Stanley Kubrick, edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Dijana Metlić, and Jeremi Szaniawski.
Super congrats!
The Kubrick collection has been published by Routledge and the product page can be found here.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Updates
New episode of H. P. Lovecast is online!
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.
In this episode we talk about the second film in John Carpenter’s informal apocalypse trilogy, Prince of Darkness. This episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout page, in the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
On the 30th this month our September Transmissions episode will publish. This episode will have Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke.
Looking to the future, for October we will be covering the movie Mimic 2 (we covered the first Mimic film almost a year ago – here is the link). We are also solidifying our Transmissions guests as well.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearance
The folks at Fan2Fan Podcast are collecting top five Halloween season films from their guests and I was honored to contribute mine.
The episode I appear on with my top five was published last Wednesday and can be heard at this Fan2Fan Libsyn page. Present in this episode was also Joshua Pruett. His top five movies can be heard on this Fan2Fan episode. Keep an eye out for Michele’s list!
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Footage Fiends Zine
Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:
Exciting news: my good friend @DVDBoxSet and I are starting the first ever zine exclusively covering in-world camera films (found footage, mockumentary, faux doc, screenlife, hybrid, etc.) and we're now accepting pitches for the first issue!
This, of course, inspired me, so now I am working on an essay about the 1950s Italian cosmic horror film, Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (one of the first films to have a found footage scene). If you’re interested in submitting, check out the Tweet thread above for more information.
The Warrior and the Sorceress Re-Release
Shout Factory, under their Scream Factory label, is did a re-release of the Roger Corman 1980s sword and sorcery (sword and planet since it takes place on another planet?) film, The Warrior and the Sorceress.
My copy of The Warrior and the Sorceress with the poster.
I have not seen this film before, even though it is included in the four movie DVD release Shout Factory did a few years ago that contained Deathstalker, Deathstalker 2, and Barbarian Queen (side note: if you want to hear me talk Deathstalker 2 with the Fan2Fan Podcast crew, click here). Of course I had to pre-order the Blu-ray incarnation, plus it comes with a poster and the cover is reversible to a Cthulhu-looking one.
Emmanuelle director Just Jaeckin passed away earlier this month.
The filmmaker may be gone but his legacy lives on. Later in September Cult Epics released two Blu-rays of Jaeckin’s work: Madame Claude and The Last Romantic Lover. Commentary on the discs is done by Jeremy Richey who wrote Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol (read my review here). Check out the Cult Epics website for more info on these releases.
Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign
Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.
Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting!
I am revamping my news roundups for the time being. I don’t think I am quite prolific enough to merit a weekly aggregation, so instead I’ll be switching to biweekly. Think that will also help reduce the clutter of news articles at my website. I’m doing some other changes as well, so read on!
Personal / Website News
Not changing anything in the “Personal / Website News” section. If anything, they might get longer (such as this week’s) as I’ll be sharing more news in each biweekly post.
New Website Articles
I’ve published two articles at my website over the past two weeks.
I haven’t quite written enough essays here on cocktail and tiki culture, so I felt one was overdue. I’ve got a handful of other cocktail pamphlets like this from the 70s, so expect some more write ups of a similar ilk in the future.
Next, there is a new issue of Weird Tales that will be coming out very soon. This issue will focus on the sword and sorcery genre so I thought it would be awesome to help do my part to promote the issue by doing some micro interviews with some of the authors and poets within. I put out a call on social media for interested parties and this aggregation of short-form interviews is the result.
The article currently contains interviews with Brian W. Matthews, Teel James Glenn, Dana Fredsti, and Dave Fitzgerald.
H. P. Lovecast Podcast Updates
For August we got a little off track with H. P. Lovecast as we had to hunker in and prep for CoKoCon (see below) and other projects. This means that while August had only one episode of H. P. Lovecast (our dive into Douglas Wynne’s collection Something in the Water and Other Stories), September will have three episodes!
First, we have a Fragments episode that contains our interview with Wynne about his new collection, Something in the Water. The episode can be streamed at the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Buzzsprout page, via your podcast app of preference, or via the embedded player below.
Second, our primary episode for September will be on the movie, Prince of Darkness, direct by John Carpenter. This episode will drop on Sunday the 18th. This episode will act as a companion episode to an upcoming Fan2Fan appearance (see below).
Personal collection.
Finally, for September’s Transmissions episode, we will be interviewing Ian Welke about his new novel, Union Station, and Brenda S. Tolian about her debut short story collection, Blood Mountain. That will drop the last day of September.
In no particular order, three episodes were recorded:
Discussion on John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness
Top Five Vampires Films
Top Five Halloween Films
Our forthcoming H. P. Lovecast Podcast episode on Prince of Darkness will act as a companion episode to the Fan2Fan In the Mouth of Madness. Check out both episodes when they are online!
For Scholars at the Edge of Time later this month, (Thursday, September the 22nd), Michele and I will be discussing Son of Samson.
Personal copy of the recent Kino release.
Finally, to have on the radar, I’ll be doing a reading on the HWA New York Chapter’s Galactic Terrors vidcast. That will be in November.
All of these appearances, along with their publish dates (if known) have been added to the Podcast Index page. As always, if you feel like I’d make a great guest on your podcast, please feel free to reach out to me at vnvdiak@gmail.com.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
I am going to cease doing peplum-specific news go forward. While one of my expertise is peplum, my interests run in a variety of subject matters. Instead, I’ll have a section called “Miscellaneous Tidbits” (temporary name until I can think of another) where I’ll post news relevant to my research or projects I’m working on. Could be peplum, could be something else.
However, if folks do have their own peplum news they want to share with me to promote here, I am still very much available to do that. I am here to help others.
Blog and Adventures
I’ll be adding a new section that will appear time-to-time, and that will be “Blog and Adventures.” I’ll kick it off for this post with a re-cap of CoKoCon.
CoKoCon 2022 Experiences
CoKoCon is a Phoenix fan convention in the old school sense of the early days of fandom: smaller, more intimate crowd taking over a bit of hotel convention space. This is the first in-person version of CoKoCon since 2019 due to the pandemic.
Hal C. F. Hastell and Dee Hastell are the two primary folks behind CoKoCo. Despite us being still fairly new to the Phoenix area and not really knowing anyone, they extended an invitation to us to be on a few panels. We are both extremely flattered and appreciative. Michele and I wound up on two panels: Pre-Code Hollywood Horror Films, and Swords, Sandals, Sorcery, Planets and Other Worlds.
Our first panel was Saturday and we got to the Tempe Double Tree around 9am-ish. This was our first appearance at any sort of public event, let alone a con, since the Covid Pandemic started. We were a little bit nervous as we both have evaded getting Covid thus far. We were so relieved that CoKoCon has strict mask mandates and vaccination or negative Covid test requirements. We felt so much better: everyone was masked, all spaced out. We felt super safe.
We also got a cool swag bag filled with books, stickers, and other goodies. There was also a nice program booklet which had our brand new H. P. Lovecast Logo as an advert! We were pumped.
The Pre-Code Hollywood Horror Films panel started at 10:0am. Hal was the moderator with Michele and I as panelists. Michele is an expert on silent cinema, particularly the city symphony genre, but because of her interest in mummies, she had seen a lot of Universal Horror films. So, she was the big subject matter expert. I’m not too much of a specialist of the period, but know enough since it is all precursor to my Italian genre film/exploitation film studies (but I do love Busby Berkeley musicals). We spent all August prepping for the panel by watching quiet a few Pre-Code horror films: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Kongo (1932), King Kong (1933), Island of Lost Souls (1932), and Life Returns (1934). Michele watched a plethora of even more films.
Pre-Code Horror from our collection.
I suspect this might have been a panel that Hal had wanted to do for a while, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We talked about how transgressive and ahead of their time these movies were compared to the films released in the years following the Hayes Code going into proper effect. We all agreed that Life Returns was a terrible film while Kongo was the most controversial and squeamish film we all saw. Definitely worth an experience.
After the panel we meandered around the con for a little bit. We ran into Beth Cato, steampunk author and baker extraordinaire. She gave us ooey gooey delicious cookies and a ribbon for our con badges that proclaimed we had taken part of her baked delectables.
We visited the dealers’ room which housed a handful of authors with tables along with the art that was up for auction. We met authors Adam Gaffen and David Lee Summers.They were cool folk and of course, we had to pluck up some books (can’t walk away empty handed!).
Michele and I returned Monday for the Swords/Sandals/Sorcery/Other Worlds Panel which was at 1:00 pm. This is a panel of Michele’s own creation which she has moderated at other cons, such as Long Beach Comic Con and LA Comic Con. I brought the sword and sandal knowledge while artist Gilead brought the sword and sorcery expertise. I believe this was the first time Michele had an artist instead of a writer on her panel, so it was nice to get a different perspective.
Gilead is an amazing artist. I had to purchase his original painting “Ziggurats and Tentacles” which was part of the art gallery/auction.
“Ziggurats and Tentacles” by Gilead. Now hanging in our living room.
This panel was a lot of fun. Gilead brought a list of sword and sorcery resources (websites, podcasts, Discord servers, etc.) and invited folks to copy it and check them out. He was super knowledgable about all facets of sword and sorcery.
Overall, CoKoCon was. a blast. It was a low-key event for us, which is exactly what we needed during these pandemic times. The 2023 conference is already being planned and has GoH information at the CoKoCon website. We will definitely be back!
The CoKoCon Facebook page is uploading photos, so keep an eye there for photos of the event.
There’s no time like the present to indulge in the stories of the heroic, mythical, and magical past. Streaming services from Amazon and HBO launched brand new fantasy shows, The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon respectively. Young adult fantasy continues to be a lucrative market and indie fantasy comics books are being realized via the power of crowdfunding.
Vanguard literary magazine Weird Tales pioneered pulp, cosmic horror, and sword and sorcery stories. Their upcoming issue, #366, is devoted to tales of heroic fantasy with new stories, poems, and essays contributing to the contemporary fantasy canon. A few contributors to this sword and sorcery special issue have graciously shared tidbits of their poems and stories along with their relationship with the genre.
Brian W. Matthews
Story Title
“Temm the Riven”
Story Synopsis
A knight is tasked by his king to save the realm, but to do so, he must return to his childhood home and confront the evil of his past.
Primary goal to accomplish with your story?
I wanted to create an effective blend of fantasy and horror. Clive Barker does it so well, but he blends horror with urban fantasy. I wanted to take a stab at injecting horror into an epic fantasy setting.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like R.E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
I’m more of an epic fantasy person. Nothing against heroic fantasy. I just never had much exposure to [Robert E.] Howard.
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
I grew up reading Tolkein and Donaldson and Zelazny and was taken by their characters and how the setting forged who they were into who they became. This is particularly true of Stephen R. Donaldson. He makes his characters quite human, injects common sense and self-preservation into them, and then puts them through the grinder of the fantasy setting to see what kind of person/hero they can become.
It recounts the life/career of a storyteller, and as a Celt a Seanache was an important part of the Celtic culture and means a lot to me.
Primary goal to accomplish with your poem?
I think all cultures, especially warrior cultures, the propaganda of narrative and drive much of their agendas. This is a tale of someone embracing that warrior ethic.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like Robert E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
Absolutely the R.E.H. type of tale. My own approach to poetry is very much in the shadows of Howard’s poetry. I much prefer the “in the streets” fantasy as opposed to the ‘from the place window’ type of story that has a grand, expansive view.
My own fantasy series of Altiva stories, which often contain poetry as part of the narrative, are very “down to earth.”
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
Clearly Howard is prime, but so are the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nancy Hansen, and even the Lin Carter books. All very much in the same “in the trenches” feel, though Ms. Hansen’s stories have a very wide world view they never feel ‘effete’ or fantastic—they stay grounded. And, Moorcock is the perfect mix of a grand vision but a very personal, human story telling. The characters never feel like analogs, they feel like real people.
It’s a classic hero’s journey with really nasty monsters.
How about: It’s a twist on the classic hero’s journey in a fresh fantasy milieu, with some really nasty monsters…
Primary goal to accomplish with your story?
Dana: We pretty much wanted to write a story that was original, but stayed true to the elements that make sword and sorcery so much fun to read. I was dying to return to the fantasy world I’d created a few years ago for another short story. It had strong characters, both male and female, with a really unique setting and all the makings of a truly great series. Dave and I couldn’t wait to build on the promise of the original story.
Your favourite type of sword and sorcery: classic heroic fantasy (like Robert E. Howard) or big epic fantasy (like Tolkien)?
Dave: I admire the beauties of high fantasy, but if pressed, I have to confess I prefer to play in the rough-and-tumble gutters and back alleys of low fantasy.
Dana: I definitely prefer heroic fantasy, and more specifically, the darker entries in the genre. I love a good mix of fantasy, swashbuckling, and horror.
Any S&S authors that have had an influence on you? If so, who and how?
Dave: Both REH and Tolkien, but also Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné series, Jack Vance’s Dying Earth stories, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, and so many others (RBT, Holdstock, Tanith Lee, Burroughs’ Warlord of Mars…). I especially love the blend of the outré and the strangely familiar in all these series.
Dana: While I love the works of Robert E. Howard, the king of dark S&S for me is Karl Edward Wagner and his Kanenovels and stories. I don’t think there’s a better anti-hero out there. I’ve reread them at least a half dozen times, my old Wagner paperbacks are very well-loved! I am also a huge fan of Jonathan Maberry’s epic S&S novel Kagen the Damned.
Sincere thanks and gratitude for all who partook in this collection of short form interviews to talk about their sword and sorcery texts. If you’re interested in reading these stories and poems when they are published, make sure to pre-order issue #366 of Weird Tales. The product page for this issue can be found here.
