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.
Review Republished: Awen’s The Hollow in the Stone
Last week I re-published another older piece of mine, a look at the album The Hollow in the Stone by Texas neofolk outfit Awen.
I originally published this on my neofolk blog back in 2020. It’s new home can be found here.
General Neo-Peplum News
Weird Tales #366 Cover Reveal
Issue #366 of the resurrected Weird Tales magazine will be devoted to all things sword and sorcery. The Weird Tales Facebook page revealed the cover art by Bob Eggleton:
The list of authors on the front looks epic. Keep an eye out at the Weird Tales official website when the issue becomes available to pre-order.
Gladiator 2 News
Article over at MSN/MovieWeb has a write up on all things known so far about Gladiator 2.
New Warkings Music Video
Austrian neo-peplum power metal outfit Warkings has a brand new music video online.
The song is called “Monsters” and has a guest appearance from Morgana le Fay. The video can be watched on YouTube or in the embedded player above. The song will be appearing on Warking’s next album, Morgana, slated to be released November 11th.
I had the honor to interview Tom Simmons and Mike Dubisch, the creative team behind the comic book adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel I Am a Barbarian.
This is the first episode of our themed month on the anthology, Even in the Grave. In this episode we take a look at “What’s Your Secret?” by Trevor Firetog and “Blind Spot” by Steven Van Patten. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player above, or at your podcast app of preference.
For our transmissions episode this month we will be interviewing editor Carol Gyzander, and contributors Firetog and Van Patten. Stay tuned!
Short Film: Dinosaur Joke
I made a short film and put it on YouTube!
I bought a box of Trix cereal this past week, and on the back, to promote the new Jurassic Park film, there were cutout dinosaurs and pop up trees, inviting you to make a movie with the back of the box. I don’t know how many kids actually do these things, but I decided I would! So, give it a watch, and maybe a like or a comment. It was silly, but a fun thing to do.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances
The folks at Fan2Fan had me back on their podcast for two (2!!) new episodes that dropped this past week!
The first episode is about sword and sorcery cartoons of the 80s, which can be heard at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page (or via your podcast app of preference).
A chance to show off my autographed animation cell of Teegra from Fire and Ice!
The second episode is an entry in their series where they ask folks about their dream Saturday morning cartoon lineup. You can hear mine here.
Here’s four of my dream line up! Gotta listen in to hear the rest.
Sincere thank you to Pete and Bernie for having me on their show. It has been a wonderful experience and I always appreciate their support.
CoKoCon 2022 Panel Appearances
Michele and I will make an appearance at CoKoCon 2022 this labour day weekend!
CoKoCon is a local (Phoenix) sci-fi/fantasy fan con. Michele and I will be appearing on a few panels. More info to come, but for now, check out the CoKoCon website for ticket information and guest news.
General Neo-Peplum News
Blog Entries at DMR Books
Here a listing of genre relevant blog articles at DMR Books this past week:
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:
My essay, “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth,” has made the preliminary Bram Stoker Award ballot in the short non-fiction category. Note: this does not denote I am nominated or a finalist. It simply means I am on the preliminary ballot and have a 50% chance to advance to the final ballot.
Active and Lifetime members of the Horror Writers Association who would like to read my essay for final ballot consideration (which closes February 15th) you can find it online at Academia.edu. Note: if there is a big ad in the way taking up the screen, just hit the X at the top right. Academia.edu is silly that way.
New Issue of Exotica Moderne
Issue fourteen of Exotica Moderne is now out!
Celebrating my newest publication with a Death & Co. inspired Mai Tai
This issue contains my interview with New Zealand stockings/pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair and it can be purchased at the House of Tabu website.
Things in the Well Closing Shop
Small press publisher Things in the Well looks to be closing shop in a few weeks. This means two of their anthologies that I have short stories published in will be going OOP:
Amazon links to buy both books are in the links above. Thank you all who have been curious about my fiction work and who have bought these books. I’ll find a home for these short stories in the future.
Highlander Call for Papers
Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.
If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of.
Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.
Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.
General Neo-Peplum News
Rest in Peplum
Monica Vitti, who stared in many, many Italian auteur films, passed away at the age of 90 (article at CNN.com).
She starred in the Medieval peplum/comedy film On My Way to the Crusades,I Met a Girl Who… which is also known as The Chastity Belt.
The Sword and the Sorcerer Release
Shout Factory announced they are doing a 4K/Blu-ray release of the Albert Pyun sword and sorcery film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, which is slated for a March 15th release.
***OFFICIAL EXTRAS ANNOUNCEMENT***
THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER UHD, coming March 15th, has extras worthy of a princess. (🧵)
I actually have not seen this film since most older releases are way OOP so you better believe I pre-ordered this. Side note: I dig Albert Pyun films, with Cyborg and Nemesis being my favorites.
Zeus Super Bowl Commerical
I’m always down for some neo-peplum commercials (anyone remember the Gladiator/Jif one from last year?)
Per Cinema Blend, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek will star as Zeus and Hera respectively in a series of Super Bowl ads for BMW.
Recent Acquisitions
I love buying art prints and getting commissions done when at comic books cons. I’ve made lots of friends over the years going to cons and I’ve accumulated quite a bit of art!
I was only passingly familiar with Les Edwards, due to him doing the cover art of Hero Quest, but I am certain I’ve seen his sword and sorcery artwork in other places. Recently, I am not sure where, but I saw his art piece, TheInvocation, and I was just mesmerized by it. Simply a beautiful piece. Yes, there is a naked lady featured prominently, but the sky in the background – I am always in awe in powerful skies. When I see a cloud filled sky, be it ominous with storm clouds or full of huge, puffy white ones, I get that feeling of “something big is coming.” TheInvocation does that.
Anywho, turns out Edwards has a website and sells prints of his work. So, I ordered a print of TheInvocation.
Even autographed to me. I love it.
On Sunday Michele and I went to Half Price Books (we had not been in a while) to scour material for some of our respective projects.
I may double dipped on that Historic Epics boxset, but if I did, it’s in an inaccessible box. For sure though I didn’t have that Hail, Caesar! soundtrack. Coen Brothers films usually have fantastic soundtracks, and since Hail, Caesar! is a fantastic neo-peplum and one of the source films that launched The New Peplum, I had to pluck it up.
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)
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.
