A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast, and the last one for 2023, is now online.
This is a recap episode where Michele and I talk about what we accomplished with personal projects and podcast stuff for 2023 and what to expect for 2024. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference
Lots of citation news for The New Peplum. Two books have recently been published that cite essays in The New Peplum.
First is “The Performance of Plasticity: Method Acting, Prosthetics, and the Virtuosity of Embodied Transformation” by David LaRocca, published in Plastics, Environment, Culture, and the Politics of Waste by Edinburgh University Press. The editor of this tome is Tatiana Konrad, who wrote the essay “Laughing at the Body: The Imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody Films” that appears in The New Peplum.
Next up is Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Warfare on Film edited by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos and published by Brill. This collection contains five essays that cite contents from The New Peplum:
“Brad’s Biceps and Dwayne’s Delts: Stardom as Physicality and Digital Spectacle in Troy (2004) and Hercules (2014)” by Djoymi Baker (who also wrote the Hercules essay in The New Peplum)
Swords Made of Rubber: Cinematic Antiquity through the Lens of War” by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos
“Romans and Zealots in the Global War on Terror: Asymmetric Warfare and Counterinsurgency in Risen (2016) and Ben-Hur (2016)” by Oskar Aguado-Cantabrana
“Atalanta as Celluloid Warrior in Jason and the Argonauts (2000) and Hercules (2014)” by Patricia Salzman-Mitchell
“Rockules’ Revenge: The Portrayal of the Veteran Warrior in Brett Ratner’s Hercules” by Owen Reese
Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of the above books so I can’t say what specifically is mentioned. Once I suss that out I’ll add the information to the page for The New Peplum. As always, even years later, I am super happy and flattered to see scholars still citing the essays in The New Peplum.
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 hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors for the year of 2023. Next week this section goes blank, so wish me luck as I crank out a new batch of essays to be published in 2024. Thank you to everyone who took an interest in my publications for last year. You not only supported me, but you supported the different publishers and editors who gave me venues.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Published late November/early December of 2023, my essay “An Imperial Decree? Soitenly! Matri-Phony as Proto-Toga and Sandal Comedy” appears in the debut issue of The Journal of Stoogeological Studies.
I had the honor to interview Ian Ross from Flesh Field about their newest album, Voice of the Echo Chamber, their first album in album two decades! Back in the aughts I listened to Flesh Field all the time and even caught them live in Seattle in 2005. I’m so happy to see the project resurrected. So, check out the interview and check out the new album!
The New Peplum Citation
Dr. Connie Skibinski’s essay “Crazy Man-Killing Monsters: The Inimical Portrayal of the Amazons in Supernatural‘s ‘Slice Girls'” cites Valerie Estelle Frankel’s essay “Hercules, Xena and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup” from The New Peplum.
Dr. Skibinski’s essay has been published in the open access journal Thersites and can be read here.
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 hereand it’s a major WIP.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Will Penny (Tiki Surf Witches Want Blood) has a new Kickstarter going on for the next project via his Sex and Monsters endeavor: Skinny Dipper.
From the Press Release:
Chillwave pioneer Nite Jewel is making her comics debut alongside a variety of talented writers and artists in Skinny Dipper. This 32-page comic zine launches October 31, 2023 from Sex and Monsters and is accompanied by an original soundtrack single from the internationally lauded singer/songwriter.
Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, R.H. Barlow, and H.P. Lovecraft, Skinny Dipper is a meditation on love, death, and the mysterious lure of the ocean. The zine features the talents of Emily Roberts, April Snellings, Jelena Đorđević, and more – and is perfectly complimented by Nite Jewel’s hypnogogic siren song, which serves as a haunting electro-pop soundtrack for
the story.
Both the Skinny Dipper zine and soundtrack single will be available from Sex and Monsters on Kickstarter starting October 31, 2023 (www.sexandmonsters.com/skinnydipper). The zine features 32-pages of art printed on silk matte stock with spot UV coating. The single will be available on 7” vinyl in a deluxe gatefold cover featuring artwork by Emily Roberts. The music will also be available to stream online and can be purchased digitally from Gloriette Records (https://nitejewel.bandcamp.com/music).
There’s been an uptick in work being cited lately and I am here for it!
Firstly, my essay “Lost Nights and Dangerous Days: Unraveling the Relationship Between Stranger Things and Synthwave” from Uncovering Stranger Things has been cited in the essay “‘Dad, every serial killer is somebody’s neighbor!’ The Problem of White Supremacy in Summer of ’84” by Erika Tiburcio Moreno and published in the edited collection The ’80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now.
The book was published by McFarland in March earlier this year. More info can be found on the book’s product page at the McFarland website.
Next, Hannah Mueller’s essay “Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz’s Spartacus” from The New Peplum has been cited by James K. Beggan in his essay “Why is he there? Male presence in a sexually explicit magazine geared towards heterosexual men” that was published in the Porn Studies journal.
Cover art for The New Peplum
If you have access the essay can be read at the journal’s page at Taylor and Francis.
New Episode of HP Lovecast
A new episode of our monthly Transmission program is now online.
For July we interviewed Chelsea Pumpkins, editor of the horror anthology AHH! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of ’90s Horror. The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout page, the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
The schedule for CoKoCon 2023 is starting to take shape! You can find Michele and I on the following panels:
Saturday Sept 2 9pm – Fiesta Ballroom 2: From EC Comics to Shudder: Horror Comics That Excite and Scare Us
Sunday Sept 3 6pm – Coronado: Creepy, Crawly, Otherworldly Bumps in the Night, or Cosmic Horror Films
Monday Sept 4 1pm – Coronado: 1pm: Weird West in Popular Culture
I’ll be on premises the entire con, so feel free to hunt me down to say hi! Michele and I will also have a table we were sill be selling and signing books.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Kino Lorber just had a summer sale on their Blu-rays so I took the opportunity to pluck up some Italian films for the library.
The Last Hunter I already had on DVD, from Dark Sky Films. In fact, here is my copy autographed by Antonio Margheriti’s son, Edoardo Margheriti:
I did a presentation on The Last Hunter at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference waaaaaaay back in 2010. Not my best presentation and still very green at being an academic, but the text of it can be read at my Academia.edu account.
Ironmaster I have not seen. It sounds like an Italian sword and sorcery flick, but in a prehistoric age. I am a fan of Umberto Lenzi’s work so this should be a fun watch.
Lastly is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, which I also have not seen. I’ve seen the iconic image of Sophia Loren slipping off her stockings that I feel like I’ve seen the film. I always think of Mastroianni from Divorce, Italian Style.
Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew Commentary
Matt Page, author of 100 Bible Films, has recorded a commentary for Paolini’s 1964 Biblical peplum, The Gospel According to St. Matthew. The commentary and be streamed from YouTube. Criterion Collection recently released a Pasolini boxset that contains this film.
Call for Papers
Michael Torregrossa has a few CFPs out there. I’m sharing them here to help get the word out. Check them out and consider submitting!
Beowulfs Beyond Beowulf: Transformations of Beowulf in Popular Culture (Panel)
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Fahey, Carl Sell, and Benjamin Hoover
Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2023
55th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association
Sheraton Boston Hotel (Boston, MA)
On-site event: 7-10 March 2024
The Old English epic Beowulf remains an important touchstone for connecting us to the medieval past, yet it also has continued relevance today through its various transformations in cultural texts (especially works of popular culture). Our hope with this session is to expand our knowledge of these works and assess their potential for research and teaching.
Please visit our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (available at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for resources and ideas.
Over a millennium old, the story of Beowulf is disseminated primarily through its editions and translations and its transformations. These three types of Beowulfiana represent a massive corpus of over 1000 works according to the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database; though, as medievalists, we tend to focus on the first two categories rather than the last concentrating on scholastic pursuits rather than entertainments. Consequently, many are often surprised by the variety and vitality of this corpus and its vast potential for research and teaching.
New versions of the Beowulf story feature in all forms of modern mediævalisms, yet (as is true with most medieval texts) research continues to focus primarily on depictions of Beowulf on screen (about 100 examples according to the Internet Movie Database). We hope in this session to expand our view of Beowulf’s reception by creators and look more deeply at the text’s wider use.
We are particularly interested in explorations of the adaptation and/or appropriation of the text, its characters, and its themes in works of fiction (at least 250 examples according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and much more recorded by the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database) and comics (at least 380 examples according to the Grand Comics Database), as well as their representations in new and neglected works on screen (including film, television, entertainment consoles, and the Internet). Additional versions of Beowulf can be found in works of creative, performative, and visual arts that also need more attention.
We hope to make our conversation productive. Therefore, we request that submissions highlight the ways the new text transforms the old (for example as interpretations or appropriations of the poem or as an intertext for another work) as well as its value in furthering the Beowulf tradition rather than focusing solely on any perceived defects.
Please see our website Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story (at https://beowulf-transformed.blogspot.com/) for a growing list of ideas, resources, and support.
All proposals will also be considered for a themed issue of the open-access journal The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe.
All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20596 by 30 September 2023. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.
Notification on the fate of your submission will be made prior to 16 October 2023. If favorable, please confirm your participation with chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2023.
Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/policies.html, for further details,)
For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.
Mighty prolific last two weeks with articles, podcasts, and other projects. It’s also three consecutive weeks of me publishing an article at this website, and I have another one queued up this Wednesday. Feeling good!
Buzzworthy Book Review
I have a new book review up at my website. I return to the world of Jennifer Croll’s homage cocktails. Previously I did a review of her Art Boozel.
Croll’s newest book, Buzzworthy, was published earlier this month, and holy smokes in a rare instance of me being timely, I had a review of it written up and posted. Not to brag, (but I will), I think one of the things I do when I review cocktail books that other websites don’t do is actually make some of the cocktails inside. Anywho, my review of Buzzworthy is online, check it out and consider plucking up Croll’s newest release.
Claus Larsen Interview
Next up I return to my roots of music journalism! I have not really written about/interview anyone since my Heathen Harvest days, so I thought it would be fun to dip back into penning an article on something industrial.
Claus Larsen’s EBM act, Leæther Strip, recently released a new album and I enjoyed it throughly. I reached out to Larsen to ask if I could ask him some questions about it and he said sure! So, here is my mini-interview with Larsen about his newest album, Last Station.
New H. P. Lovecast Podcast
Happy three year anniversary to the resurrected H. P. Lovecast Podcast! Back in 2020 when the pandemic had really started, Michele and I brought the podcast back and have done quite a bit since: read some good (and bad) works, interviewed lots of cool people.
On this episode we discuss the 1970 AIP adaptation of The Dunwich Horror. Arrow Video did a restored release of the film on Blu-ray this past January and we had hoped to do an episode then, but house stuff and other projects got in the way. So, a little late but here is our episode. It can be steamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.
Princeton University Press recently published the book, Helen of Troy in Hollywood, by Ruby Blondell (a super expert on classics and Helen of Troy canon).
Very flattered to see essays from The New Peplum cited in this tome! Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the book so I am using preview pages from Google Books to deduce what has been cited. From what I can tell:
Steven Sears’ afterword
My introduction
Haydee Smith’s “Queering the Quest: Neo-peplum and the Neo-femme in Xena: Warrior Princess“
Valerie Estelle Frankel’s “Hercules, Xena, and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup”
Paul Johnson’s “Adapting to New Spaces: Swords and Planets and the Neo-peplum”
I love to see The New Peplum continued to be cited and used in new scholarship. More information about Helen of Troy in Hollywood can be read at the Princeton University Press’ product page for the book.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances
The cool kids at the Fan2Fan Podcast are doing a series of episodes about folk’s favorite theme songs from TV shows.
Michele and I are on an episode talking about ours which can be heard at the Fan2Fan Libsysn, on your podcast app, or via the embedded player below. Sincere thanks to Bernie and Pete for having us on.
A side note, one of the shows I mention is the theme song to Mission Hill, which is an edited version of Cake’s “Italian Leather Sofa.” It’s one of my favorite cartoons ever and I talk about why on the episode.
But, for fun, here is my autographed copy of the Mission Hill DVD signed by Brian Posehn. I met him at an Emerald City Comic Con way back in the late 2000s.
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open until the end of this month (April 30th).
Emmanuelle the Private Collection Soundtrack.
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.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.
Personal copy of Emmanuelle Pie signed by Summer Altice.
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.
Fan2Fan Podcast
The fine folks at Fan2Fan podcast are doing episodes about the best things (movies, books, music, etc.) that came out in 2022.
The next episode is called “The Best of 2022: Movies, TV, Comics and More.” Bernie, Pete, Josh, Michele and myself are on both of these episodes. Sincere thanks to the Fan2Fan crew for having us!
McFarland Holiday Sale
My publisher, McFarland, is doing a holiday sale for all their titles. Use the code HOLIDAY22 during check out to receive 25% off your order. If you want to order a book I am a part of (for yourself or maybe as a Yuletide gift), here they are:
A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, is set to be published this February by Vernon Press. The collection contains my essay, “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.” There is no cover art yet, but there is a product/pre-order page at the publisher’s website.
Footage Fiends #1
Found footage-centric zine Footage Fiends debut issue is slated to be published this month.
This issue contains my essay, “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices” and can be pre-ordered at the Footage Fiends Patreon.
Awards Season
Horror/speculative award season is upon us. This year I have two pieces of writing eligible for the various awards out there:
“Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise
“Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices”
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!
The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout page, the embedded player above, or via your podcast app of preference.
CoKoCon 2022 Appearance
CoKoCon is a Phoenix speculative fiction conference that is being held over Labour Day weekend.
Michele and I will be in attendance as panelists. Programming is still being solidified, but keep an eye out at the CoKoCon website or Twitter as news comes in.
The New Peplum Citation
The New Peplum appears in the bibliography of the edited collection La Strada: The Cinema and Cinematographers of Italy, edited by Alexander A. Sinitsyn.
I’m not sure which specific essay(s) in the collection cites The New Peplum, or what specifically from The New Peplum has been cited, but you can see the bibliographic entry in the uploaded paper “Antiquity in the Cinema of Italy in the 1910s – 1930s” by Alexandra Solovyeva, which happens to include the bib for the entire book.
Very cool. I’m always humbled and honored to see other academics referencing The New Peplum.
Exotica Moderne Book Review
Turned in a book review to be published in an upcoming issue of Exotica Moderne (hopefully the next one!). In the meantime, check out the publisher, House of Tabu, who has various mugs, pins, and the latest issue, #15 with the Shag cover, still for sale.
General Neo-Peplum News
Blog Entries at DMR Books
Here a listing of genre relevant blog articles at DMR Books this past week, both are author interviews:
A new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! This is the 50th episode of our flagship program (though we have more if one includes our Transmissions and Fragments programs).
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany.
For this episode we take a dive into James Wade’s short story “The Silence of Erika Zann” from the 1970s anthology The Disciples of Cthulhu. The episode can be streamed at Buzzsprout or via your podcast app of preference.
H. P. Lovecast Film Poll for June Episode
For our June episode of our H. P. Lovecast Podcast we are going to dive into a Lovecraftian movie (sorta like what we did previously with Underwater and The Void).
Blu-rays of Feed the Light and Cthulhu Mansion from my personal collection.
We’ve narrowed what movie to cover down to two possibilities: Feed the Light released by Severin Films or Cthulhu Mansion released by Vinegar Syndrome. But, we don’t know which to pick!
What movie should we cover in one of our June podcast episodes?
To remedy this, we put the fate of what movie we will be watching and doing a podcast on in your hands! We’ve created a poll on the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Twitter account. Head on over there (or use the embedded tweet above) and cast your vote no later than May 24th.
Between now through May 31, use coupon code MEDIEVAL25 to receive 25% off all medieval studies books on the McFarland website.
Michele Appears on Fan2Fan Podcast
Michele makes her first appearance on the Fan2Fan Podcast!
Promoting her CFP (see below), she talks all things about the first Highlander film. Have a listen at the Fan2Fan Podcast Page.
AnnRadCon Mk 1 2017-2022
Michele and I have voluntarily stepped down from chairing the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. For more information on future endeavors from the Horror Writers Association, please visit Horror.org.
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
Son of Samson Review at DVD Beaver
Essential Blu-ray/DVD compare and review site, DVD Beaver, has a write up about the newly released Son of Samson Blu-ray from Kino.
Son of Samson Blu-ray from my personal collection.
MERC Publishing just released issue one of their neo-peplum comic series, Born of Blood.
Two versions of issue 1 from my personal collection.
I did a write up of all the Kickstarter loot I received along with a few observations in the first issue. Check out my article here.
AnnRadCon Presentation Online
This past weekend was StokerCon and with it was the fifth year of Michele’s and my Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Still decompressing from the event. Our scholars rocked it out the park with their presentations.
I am making my presentation, “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in The Call of the Cthulhu,” publicly available. It is a short, 17 minute presentation applying Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Desire to H. P. Lovecraft’s renown story. Check it out in the embed above.
Raw Dog Screaming Press/AnnRadCon News Articles
Michele and I are deeply grateful for Raw Dog Screaming Press for sponsoring AnnRadCon this year. RDSP sent out a press release about their sponsorship and other endeavors, “Black Authors and Academics Shape Horror Business,” and it was picked up by a few venues:
Between now through May 31, use coupon code MEDIEVAL25 to receive 25% off all medieval studies books on the McFarland website.
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
I am a Barbarian Preorders
A luxurious version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ peplum story, I am a Barbarian, is being released by Cedar Run Publications.
Limited to 600 copies, the graphic novel will come in two versions, the difference being a presence of a bookplate signed by Thomas Simmons, Mike Dubisch and L. Jamal Walton. The book will be posted the week of June 15th. More information can be found at the Cedar Run Publications website.
Jesus the Christ (1923) at Bible Films Blog
Matt Page has updated his Bible Films Blog with a write up of the silent film Jesus the Christ from 1923.
Picture from Page’s Bible Films Blog
As a reminder, Page’s book, 100 Bible Films, comes out this week! Don’t forget to preorder at Amazon and Bloomsbury.
Recent Acquisitions
Lots of sword and sandal loot arrived in the mail last week!
Shout! Factory had a sale on their going out of print titles, so I used the opportunity to pluck up Blu-Rays of Hercules and Hercules 2 starring Lou Ferrigno. I also picked up a Lethal Ladies 2 Collection that contains the original version of The Arena.
Kino did a nice release of Son of Samson which I’ve had pre-ordered for a while now. That pre-order just arrived. Side note: Kino, if you need someone to do a commentary track or essay on a future sword and sandal release, hit me up!
I did a review/write up about the neo-peplum Viking comic, Seidr. Since doing my presentation on Vikings sampling and the band Acylum, I wouldn’t mind diving more into Viking scholarship. Maybe.
A new episode of our HP Lovecast Podcast was published this past Sunday.
Thumbnail by Michele Brittany
This episode was supposed to go up in April, but we got his with an onslaught of other things (I started a new job, trying to finalize AnnRadCon stuff, a kitty doctor visit, and so on). Better late than never, here is our dive into David Rose’s novella Lovecraft’s Iraq. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout Podcast website or via your podcast app of preference. Don’t forget our prior episode episode in which we interviewed Rose followed by Jonathan Maberry. That episode can be streamed here.
Citation News
My introduction to The New Peplum has been cited in the essay “Olympos, gladiátorok, krémesség és Britney Spears: Az antikvitás megjelenése a kortárs reklámiparban” by Gábriel Nóra and Marton Máté. The essay can be read at Academia.edu. It is in Hungarian, so if you want to translate where footnote 29 points to and let me know, I’d be appreciative.
Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances
I was invited back onto the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
I not only got to hang out with the Fan2Fan crew of Peter and Bernie, but also with with Joshua Pruett, who has written and designed the door sequence for the new episode of MST3K (what an honour!). The dialogue got parsed into three episodes – check them all out:
Michele will be interviewed this upcoming week about James Bond (wish her luck!) and her Highlander episode will be dropping soon (keep an eye out!).
AnnRadCon and Raw Dog Screaming Press
The fifth annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference (AnnRadCon) is this upcoming weekend! Part of StokerCon, AnnRadCon contains the academic track of programming for the conference. This year there is both an in person and online component.
Anywho, you can still attend StokerCon and see the AnnRadCon presentations. More info can found at Stokercon.com.
A delight though is finding out that Raw Dog Screaming Press will be sponsoring AnnRadCon this year! This is amazing because I love RDSP. Here is the Tweet announcement:
ANNOUNCEMENT: RDSP a Sponsor of @StokerCon We are a proud sponsor of @AnnRadCon1 which is part of StokerCon weekend and features the academic study of horror and its cultural effects. Check out our full announcement and a list of topics and presenters: https://t.co/rtVjTjtDuFpic.twitter.com/Ps7KnWmWbW
But the full announcement can be found at the RDSP website here. We are sincerely grateful to Jennifer and John for all that they do for the writing community.
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
Recent Acquisitions
Shout Factory recently had a sale of their titles going OOP. The Lou Ferrigno Hercules films of the 80s were part of that list, so I plucked them up along with a few other titles. For some odd reason my order got split into two and this Hercules Collection arrived by itself and before the other items.
The DVD contains:
The Loves of Hercules (1960)
The Trojan Horse (1961)
Medusa Against the Son of Hercules (1962)
The Conquest of Mycenae (1963)
The Triumph of Hercules (1964)
Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun (1964)
I am certain I have double, nay, triple dipped these titles and there are so many bargain sword and sandal boxsets full of public domain pepla. My hope is that since this is a Shout Factory release, perhaps the image/sound quality on these versions might be better.
I also got my Kickstarter loot from backing Born of Blood #1. However, stay tuned for later this week for a write up on that. But for now, here is a preview of all the loot:
The following isn’t sword and sandal related but it is Emmanuelle related. Since I am dead serious on doing an anthology of Emmanuelle essays, perhaps I should list Emmanuelle loot/findings here too. Thoughts?
Anyway, Cult Epics did an Indiegogo a few months ago to fund a book about Sylvia Kristel. My copy arrived:
I have not had time to sift through the book proper, but it reminds of a FAB Press book: immaculate quality and every page in color. I got a version with an autographed dust sleeve. This also came with a boxset of some early Sylvia Kristel films too. Excited to dive into this proper and hope I get to use this for future scholarship!
