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:
Valerie Estelle Frankel’s essay from The New Peplum, “Hercules, Xena and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup,” has been cited in Jonathan L. Friedmann’s book, Goliath as Gentle Giant: Sympathetic Portrayals in Popular Culture.
Ed Glaser has a new book titled How the World Remade Hollywood: Global Interpretations of 65 Iconic Films.
I’m honored to be mentioned in the acknowledgements!
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
My pre-order of The Sword and the Sorcerer arrived!
I have not seen this sword and sorcery film before. I’m an Albert Pyun fan, so I got good feelings about this one.
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.
