Nicholas Diak's Blog
October 6, 2025
News Roundup 2025-10-05
It has been since August since I last posted to my website here! September was simply a crazy month. At work I am on two implementations at the same time, so that has been a big focus for me. The other thing was getting prepared for the 2025 ECOF that happened last weekend. I’m right in the middle of doing a big write up and picture gallery that recaps the event, which I’ll have posted this Wednesday. After that, back to the Emmanuelle book and cranking out the backlog of comic book reviews. In the meantime, here is a month’s worth of news to catch up on!
Panthans Journal #340 and #341Since my last website update, two issues of The National Panthans Journal have been been published.
Issue #340 contains a re-print of my interview with Jeffrey Mariotte, “Thunder in God’s Country: Interview with Jeffrey Mariotte.” I also sent in a letter to the editor where I go over some Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired libations.
National Capital Panthans Journal #340Issue #341, which came out this past Saturday, contains a reprint of my review of the third issue of Vanya, which can also be read online here.
National Capital Panthans Journal #341Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos, and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.
Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.
Scholars from the Edge of Time – Clash of the Titans (2010)In June, Michele and I announced we would start covering the three Clash of the Titans films: the original, the 2010 remake, and Wrath of the Titans for Scholars from the Edge of Time.
Our dialogue for the original film went online back in June. We had to skip July because someone (me) decided to fracture a toe.
Personal copy of the Clash of the Titans ’81, Clash of the Titan 2010, and Wrath of the Titans 3 Movie Blu-ray set.Well for August we are back, baby! Our discussion about the Clash of the Titans remake can be watched on YouTube here. Give it a watch/listen!
For September we were scheduled to talk about Wrath of the Titans, but that Thursday we were in Willcox, AZ for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship gathering. Instead, when we got back, on Tuesday we did a recap of our adventures and talked about THE THING, the ECOF, and my presentation on the peplum elements of the novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire. That can be watched on YouTube.
Personal copy of the hardback edition of Tarzan and the Lost Empire.In October we will finally conclude the trilogy by discussing Wrath of the Titans.
Publishing RecapBelow is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
Panthans Journal #338“She’s Got the Killer Instinct: Vanya Issue 01” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #338.
National Capital Panthans #339.“Hunter – Lover – Killer: Vanya 02” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #339.
National Capital Panthans Journal #340“Thunder in God’s Country: Interview with Jeffrey Mariotte” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #340.
National Capital Panthans Journal #341“Jungle Romps and T-Rex Chomps: Vanya 03″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #341.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous TidbitsSome fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the ArchiveHere are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Final ExamFinal Exam, a film that rides that early wave of 80s slasher movies. I have not watched it in many years, but I remember digging it, and also how it tip toed into genre meta-ness before the likes of Deadly Spawn and Scream.
Personal copy of Final Exam DVD signed by Julia Marchese.Horror film aficionado, podcast, and film director Julia Marchese moderated the commentary track on the old DVD copy of the film, and she was kind enough to let me post it to her way back in the day to autograph.
Challenge the DevilMore Bella Cortez, queen of the pepla, goodness!
As folks know, I’m a super fan of peplum starlet Bella Cortez, got to interview her, and also had her autograph the films in my collection she stars in.
Personal copy of Challenge the Devil from the Severin Christopher Lee box set.
Challenge the Devil Blu-Ray sleeve, reverse side, signed by Bella Cortez.While Cortez is mostly known for her sword and sandal appearances, she did star in a handful of other Italian genre films, such as the gothic horror film Challenge the Devil, which saw a new edition not too long ago in Blu-ray format as part of a Christopher Lee boxset from Severin Films. Here is the sleeve of the Blu-ray signed by Cortez.
New Sword and Sandal AcquisitionsThe ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
William Castle peplaOn my last news roundup I shared I found a lobby card for a William Castle peplum film called Slaves of Babylon (1953). I was so caught off guard that the maestro of horror cinema had some some historic epics that I set out immediately to collection them. And here they are!
DVDs of William Castle’s pepla filmsNo Blu-ray treatments for these films, but I’m excited to give them a watch and see how the compare to the likes of House on Haunted Hill (1959). I ordered from Alpha Video the aforementioned Slaves of Babylon, and then got on eBay and found this multi-film set that contains the Egyptian peplum Serpent of the Nile (1953) and two other historic epics: Charge of the Lancers (1954) which takes place during the Crimean War (1853-56), and The Saracen Blade (1954) which is during the Crusades.
In the meantime I went to a sports card store and got a plastic sleeve big enough to hold my lonny card until I can get it proper framed.
The NorsemanI have a huge soft spot for the films of Charles B. Pierce. I was first introduced to his work by way of Boggy Creek 2 on MST3K when it first air on the Sci-fi Channel back in the 90s, and I thought it was a great episode! Years later I would finally watch the original Boggy Creek film, and it is a terrific faux documentary/horror film. In the 2000s I collected all the films of his that I could get my paws on at the time, such as his westerns. However it totally flew under my radar that he did a Viking peplum!
The Norseman Blu-ray.That film is The Norseman (1978), which was released in that empty void of pepla, before 1979’s Caligula and before the Conan cycle of strongman films. The movie was apparently shot in Florida, which when I think Vikings, I think Florida. I do recall watching and enjoying Pathfinder (2007), which also deals with Vikings encountering North American indigenous folk, so this might be a good pair of movies to compare and contrast together.
The Rabbit Joint – Zelda vinylBack in the latter half of the 90s, during those halcyon days of Napster, apparently there was a parody song circulating out there called “Zelda” that was sung to the tune of the Zelda theme, and attributed to System of a Down. How this never, ever, ever showed up on my radar is a surprise to me.
Last month I get a news letter from Light in the Attic records about the song getting a vinyl release. What struck me was the cover art for the vinyl – showing princess Zelda under a tree with a town behind her. I really liked it! So I impulsively bought the record based on the lore behind it, and the cover art.
The Rabbit Joint’s “Zelda” vinyl.Turns out the song sucks bad. It’s really annoying. It sounds shades like Group-X (remember Group-X? The “Mario Twins” song?). But, it is an interesting curio in the Zelda history, and to an extent, sword and sorcery history.
Digital versions of some of the tracks can be bought off Bandcamp thought I did a physical pre-order at Light in the Attic.
George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra Magazine Advert (and other swag)Aside from the lobby card of Slaves of Babylon, I found another fun toga and sandal thing at the antique mall: a magazine advert for Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). There was a booth that was selling just advert pages from old magazines, and I saw this one a plucked it up. It’s really nice looking.
Magazine advert for Caesar and Cleopatra.
George Bernard Shaw on Film DVD Eclipse (Criterion) boxset.
Caesar and Cleopatra play. Back in 2021 Michele and I talked about this film on an episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time. However, that episode was hosted on BlogTalkRadio, which went defunct earlier this year. Luckily, I saved an MP3 of the episode, I just need to find a venue to host it. Maybe in the meantime I should re-watch it for a Peplum Ponderings article.
Anywho, I have the Eclipse (Criterion Collection) boxset of some of the movies adapted from Shaw’s plays, and a copy of the Caesar and Cleopatra play in book form, so check all those goodies out in the slideshow above.
News from FriendsCool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan EpisodesBernie and Pete have lots of new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online. Since it has been a month+ since my last news round up, there is a lot of epodes to get caught up on!
First they have an episode on the classic 1990 film Tremors (which will always rule):
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd then another episode on the Tremors franchise proper:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd an episode on the cult vanity project film, GetEven:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssThen this episode on Jaws knock offs and other sharksploitation fare:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssFollowed by an episode devoted to the UK Video Nasties of the early 80s:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssThe duo also spend two episodes interviewing Jim Carl, the Senior Director of Programming at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC. First part:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd part two:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssNext Pete and Bernie take a dive into the 2023 comedy-horror film Totally Killer:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssFollowed by another comedy-horror, You Might Be the Killer:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd then kick off October, the month of horror films, they talk about 1980’s Hospital Massacre:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssFollowed by the found footage film Frogman:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssThen Mr. Crockett:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd finally, bringing us current, the Italian horror film, Night Killer:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssOlder episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
Michele Appearance on Mount Olympus VidcastHercules Invictus, who hosts our Scholars from the Edge of Time vidcast, does tons of other programming. He recently did a panel vidcast on mythical creatures – winged humanoids. Michele was a guest on the episode, talking about the first Mimic film. Give it a watch on YouTube.
A side note, Michele has been recording new episodes of Ride the Stream with her co-host Travis Lakata, so expect to see new episodes soon!
August 18, 2025
News Roundup 2025-08-17
Brand new interview is online at the website!
I had the honour to talk to editor/writer of fiction and comics, Jeffrey Mariotte. Mariotte is also the guest of honour at the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering (see below).
Jeffrey Mariotte author photo (provided courtesy by Mariotte).The interview with Mariotte can be read here – check it out for sure!
On the subject of the upcoming ECOF, check out this sweet new artwork for the event done by Gilead:
ECOF Poster art done by Gilead.Death Nell Issue TwoBack in February 2023 I reviewed the first issue of Death Nell (check it out here). I meant to review the issues as they came out, but got distracted with other projects. With the physical edition of Vanya #8 still a bit from being released, and the fifth and final issue of Death Nell about to come out, now is the perfect time to pivot and get caught up on the reviews for this series.
Standard cover of Death Nell #2 by Cammry Lapka. Image from the Bad Bug website.So here we are, two and a half years late, my review for Death Nell #2 is finally online and can be read right here.
ECOF 2025In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025. Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chief and Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Here is the registration from:
Registration Form for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ (v9)Download2025-08-17 Addendum: Special Event Bags and Contents are Available for the First 50 Registrants.
Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing RecapBelow is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
Panthans Journal #338“She’s Got the Killer Instinct: Vanya Issue 01” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #338.
National Capital Panthans #339.“Hunter – Lover – Killer: Vanya 02” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #339.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous TidbitsSome fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the ArchiveHere are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Gorky ParkHere is an old school thriller from the 80s: Gorky Park. I’ll be honest, I watched this movie back in the late 2000s and do not remember too much of it, except it took place in Russia and the big plot reveal was about smuggling special Russian foxes outside the country. In hindsight, maybe it has some porto-Jack Reacher vibes (in the “im gonna investigate this big brew-ha-ha thing”).
Personal copy of the DVD of Gorky Park, signed by Joanna Pacula.Anywho, my copy of the DVD is autographed by Joanna Pacula! Michele and I met her at a Hollywood Collector’s show. I believe, in an effort to be budget friendly, I asked what would she rather sign, Gorky Park or Dinocroc.
She went with Gorky Park.
Khazaddum’s Plagues Upon ArdaI am not metal expert, but I loves me some adventure metal, power metal, and female-fronted symphonic metal. Whenever I got out used music shopping, I do like to keep an eye out for metal releases that have sword and sandal or sword and sorcery elements.
The last time I was at Zia Records and combing through the metal section I came across Plagues Upon Arda by Khazaddum. I have never heard of them before, but all the Tolkien elements were there so I decided to take the gamble and pluck it up. Turns out the band is a defunct death metal band from Wisconsin. I enjoyed the album and decided to reach out to the band’s lead person, Alex Rausa, and ask if I could send him the album’s booklet to be autographed.
Khazaddum’s “Plagues Upon Arda” CD album.
Khazaddum CD booklet autographed by Alex Rausa.He said absolutely, so I sent off my booklet (make sure you include a SASE when doing stuff like this folks, it is good etiquette) and he returned it back with his signature on one of the pages. Very cool! Khazaddum may be defunct, but they do have their music available on Bandcamp. Rausa is now part of a band called Ancient Entities, so check them out at their Bandcamp page.
New Sword and Sandal AcquisitionsThe ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
Deathstalker I and II 4KDeathstalker and its sequels, some of the most infamous sword and sorcery films to come out during the post-Conan cycle in the 80s. Sporting amazing poster art that the films could in no way live up to, these movies found other ways to be transgressive, exploitative, and challenging, and sometimes, even fun.
Shout Factory just released Deathstalker (1983) and Deathstalker II (1987) on 4K and Blu-ray, and it is a must have for sword and sorcery aficionados. Since I did a pre-order, I got a sweet double sided poster.
Personal copy of the Deathstalker / Deathstalker 2 4K/Blu-ray + Poster.Was excited for the upgrade because my prior copy of the first two Deathstalker films was from the 4-movie Roger Corman sword and sorcery collection that Shout Factory released many years ago.
Personal DVD copy of the Roger Corman Sword and Sorcery collection.Of note, of the four movies in this DVD release, only Barbarian Queen remains unreleased in HD. I hope that movie, along with Deathstalkers 3 and 4 also get some new releases! With the upcoming remake of Deathstalker looming on the horizon, now is a good time to do so.
Shameless self plug: back in 2022 I had the honour to appear on the Fan2Fan podcast to talk about Deathstalker 2 along with some other sword and sorcery films of the early 80s. Definitely check that episode out, it can be found here or at the embedded player below.
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssSlaves of Babylon Lobby CardWhen I think of William Castle I think of House on Haunted Hill (1959) (which is a great film!) and his association with theater gimmick like walking skeletons and buzzing seats. I never thought about his career doing other genres, let alone the sword and sandal genre!
Slaves of Babylon Lobby Card.While out and about at our local antique mall, I happened upon this lobby card for Slaves of Babylon (1953) which looks a little beat up, but still rad! I had never specifically heard of this peplum, but it is an early 1950s American one, and done by William Castle! So, of course, I had to pluck it up. The movie looks like it only has a bargin-bin style DVD release, but I put an order in for it. I’m curious to see what it will be like.
But you know who has seen it? Matt Page of Bible Films Blog! He did a write up of the film back in 2016. Check it out!
News from FriendsCool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan EpisodesBernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
First there is a part one episode of Pete and Bernie interviewing Daniel Richardson about Slasher Trash:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rsshttps://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssOlder episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
August 13, 2025
Saved by the Nell: Death Nell 02
The Story So Far
Nell is a twenty-two year old student enrolled at Deus Mortem, a university for necromancy, who has been having a hard time staying awake in class. She has been overcome with sexual urges, which can barely be satiated by her own hand. Her best friend, a half troll named April, urges Nell to visit the school’s nurse, Madame Flowers who uncovers the root cause of the situation: Nell is a half-succubus who needs to feed on sexual energy. The solution: Nell needs to have a few romantic rendezvous. At the urging of April, the duo make their way to happening party where maybe Nell can find a paramour.
Standard cover of Death Nell #2 by Cammry Lapka. Image from the Bad Bug website.Issue 02 Plot
Nell and April arrive at the party and it is boogying down: werewolves dancing with skeletons, DJ UND3ADD spinning some oontz oontz oontzes, and the arrival of a mysterious cloaked stranger whose only visible trait is the gleam of their glasses. Nell is immediately smitten and falls into a drooling stuper of sexual fantasies. To calm down her nerves, Nell tries to picture all the partygoers naked, but invertedly casts a succubus spell that makes herself naked, garnering the attention of everyone. However, the DJ rolls with it, and everyone casts away their clothes and continues to dance, but the mysterious cloaked person disappears into the crowd.
Nell casts a spell.Since April cannot be around Nell 24/7 to keep her in check, she suggests the idea of summoning an imp to accompany Nell. The duo sneak into the office of Madame Flowers and find a spell book, but it all goes awry: April misreads the spell and summons a simp instead, and the trio are caught by Flowers and Professor Reinhart.
Nell is now bound to the simp until he feels his duties are fulfilled, which he takes to heart and bombards Nell with attention and adoration. Meanwhile April intercepts a mysterious letter left at their dorm door.
Commentary
Picking up right were issue one left off, Death Nell issue two continues the humorous and sexy hijinks of the titular character as she works to control her innate succubus powers so she can succeed in her necromancy classes.
Nell is not a parody of the “big-tiddy-goth-girlfriend” archetype per se, but she is definitely an alternative take on it. Much of the comedy in Death Nell is visual, coming from the expressions, faces, and body language of Nell which borrows heavily from anime (with Nell’s two buns, her hair is reminiscent of Sailor Moon’s odango style) but also of classic mime. Nell drools when her imagination takes over and her mind turns to sexual fantasies. She furrows her brows, clenches her teeth, dilates or contracts her pupils, has hearts/sparkles/stars float about her, and so on. It is all exaggerated, but 1) gets the point across of what Nell is feeling (which varies panel to panel as she struggles with her Succubus nature) and 2) is humorous at how cartoonish it is depicted.
A drooling Nell has a fantasy. With all of this in mind, Nell, (and other characters in Death Nell), is extremely emote-able, and this is a credit to artist Cammry Lapka. The colours of Death Nell are vibrant, with a thick line art style. Though the characters are cartoony, Lapka also makes them sexy and attractive while also leaning into body positivity. Nell is curvy and she exudes a point on the scale of cuteness to sexiness as she sees fit. Sometimes she is in bondage/gothic-ish/fetish attire, other times she is in playful yellow pajama shirt and shorts that have skulls and bats on them, and other times she looks like a sexualized student from Monster High. This casual flip-flopping goes with the playing of expectations of the big-tiddy-goth-girlfriend archype.
The excess sexiness of Nell in a university setting does draw some issues that Death Nell is so far bypassing in order to focus on its 80s/late 90s teen sexy comedy attitude. Simply put, Nell is a vulnerable character with a big, personal issue. Stated in issue one, Nell really wants one thing: to be successful in school. Her burgeoning succubus nature is challenging that, and Nell does need support to help her, and simply put she is not getting it. As attractive Madame Flowers is, and (cloven hooves aside) a dream woman for readers, she is not a good support person, despite being in a position of power to be so. Her solution to Nell’s situation (from issue one) is to tell Nell to get laid. In issue two, in an exchange with April, it is brought up to ask Flowers again for help, but Nell quickly retracts the comment, makes a face, and says “Something tells me she’d like me to beg for her…”. Being afraid to approach an adult that is supposed to be there to help students because one is afraid that something sexual will come of it? That is neither a good nor safe sign at all. Combine that with the groundskeeper/gravedigger from issue one, asleep on a couch and mumbling his dream about Nell bending over while she digs a grave. Initially funny, but second glance, that is pretty creepy.
And that becomes the juggling issue for Death Nell: how does one create a sex comedy that is set in a school where the students are not taken advantage of? One answer is to make sure the protagonists are given their own control and agency, but that is the big “what is at stake” in Death Nell: Nell does not have control and is trying to get it, and the structures that should be in place to help her do not seem to be working. The other answer is to just go with it and take the sex and comedy at the level being asked without a deeper reading. Are folks doing deep reads into “help me big stepbrother, I appear to be stuck in the washing machine, again”? Maybe? Maybe not?
Covers and Swag Impressions
Issue two of Death Nell was Kickstarted in February 2023 and fulfilled August through October. The comic has eleven artists doing different covers, both in nice and naughty variants. The Dhaxina Dee alternative cover comes in additional metal editions for its nice/naughty variants while the Zheanhmeart cover comes with a holo cover format for its nice/naughty variants. This brings the total number of possible covers of Death Nell #2 to twenty six.
Personal copy of the Joel Souza nude variant cover.Of all these combinations, the standout cover goes to Joel Souza’s cover which depicts Nell and April having a pillow fight. Souza’s style is an excellent take on the cartoonish/pinup style that Lapka brings to the comic. It is silly, funny, but also sexy. It vibes perfectly with what Death Nell is about, but it also adds more fun to Nell and April’s friendship (though April’s orcish features are non-existent on this depiction of her).
As with many Kickstarters, Death Nell #2’s campaign had stretch goals it met resulting in some cool swag.
Bobby Jo x Death Nell crossover art print.Firstly, there is an art print by Bruno Sousa that depicts Nell from Death Nell and Bobby Jo, the titular character from another Bad Bug series, Bobby Jo. The characters take the idea of a crossover literally as their clothing is swapped: Nell is wearing daisy dukes and a short t-shirt that is befitting to Bobby Jo while Bobby Jo is wearing purple striped stockings and matching colour body suit, that pairs with Nell. It is a fun piece that also demonstrates the dynamicness of all the different Bag Bug series out there.
Skeleton Karma Sutra cards and a Death Nell Tarot Card.Next there are trading cards and a tarot card. The trading cards tie into the sex positiveness vibes that Death Nell shoots for, portraying skeletons in different sexual poses with punny titles, such as cowgirl style atop a casket is called “Rock the Casket” and a vertical 69 is called “The Rib Job”.
As stated in other reviews of Bad Bug comics, the publisher including Tarot Cards with their comics is brilliant. It is a unique take on the collector cards that (along with bookmarks, stickers, and magnets) are featured heavily in Kickstarter stretch goals. The Tarot Card for Death Nell #2 is of The Fool and shows Nell about to walk off a cliff while she is distracted. By her side is a zombie dog who also looks distracted. The Death Nell Fool Tarot Card is a perfect parody of the Rider-Waite version of the card, which too shows a distracted person with a puppy at their side about to walk off a cliff. The Death Nell version is an inversion of it all: Rider-Waite is during the day, Death Nell at night. Rider-Waite has an alive white dog, Death Nell an undead one. Rider-Waite has the person holding a bag on a staff in one hand and a flower in the other, Death Nell has Nell holding her school backpack in one hand and her striped knickers in the other. It is brilliant!
Conclusion
With its quirky, vibrant art style and great emotive expressions, Death Nell continues to allure in issue two. Nell and April are extremely likable characters, get along fabulously, and it is fun to see them both interact and play off each other. Nell needs the support of April (and possibly her new simp companion) as she tries to navigate her identity crisis (coming to terms being part succubus and the associated sexual urges that come with it) and unfortunately not receiving the proper or serious support from the faculty of her school. Despite these roadblocks, Nell is determined and will certainly overcome her nature while solving the mystery hinted by the contents of the envelope left at her dorm room door.
For more information on Death Nell and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
Bad Bug Media’s Death Nell 02 Product PageDeath Nell 02 Kickstarter PageAllen Dunford (Writer)Cammry Lapka (Artist)Bruna Costa (Colorist)Mike Tener (Creator/EIC of Bad Bug)Joel Souza (Cover Artist)Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:
Death Nell Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 02 ReviewVanya Issue 03 ReviewVanya Issue 04 ReviewVanya Issue 05 ReviewVanya Issue 06 ReviewVanya Issue 07 ReviewAugust 6, 2025
Thunder in God’s Country: Interview with Jeffrey Mariotte
With a writing and editing career that spans decades, Jeffrey J. Mariotte has done everything. From working in the comics industry (at major publishers IDW, DC, and Wildstorm), penning novels and comic books of popular IPs (such as CSI, 30 Days of Night, Buffy/Angel, Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek, and many others), to his own fiction work that encompasses a variety of genres (especially the western), Mariotte’s canon is impressive and prolific.
By his own admission, one thing Mariotte has not yet done is be a guest of honour at a pop culture convention. That career milestone is about to be crossed off his list as Mariotte will be the guest of honour at the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering that will be held in Willcox, AZ the 25th to the 28th of September. Mariotte, who wrote the Tarzan novel Tarzan and the Forest of Stone, is the perfect guest for this event being held in the town that is central to the mythology of the American west as it is the birthplace of Rex Allen and the burial spot of the youngest of the Earp brothers, Warren Earp.
Jeffrey Mariotte author photo (provided courtesy by Mariotte).In anticipation for this upcoming event, Mariotte has graciously allowed me to interview him about his writing, westerns, working with IPs, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Tarzan.
As scholar of sword and sandal films, my obligatory first question has to be peplum related. Growing up, did you watch any old school sword and sandal films? Was it a genre you liked or had interest in?
I definitely did. The animated skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts both fascinated me and scared the crap out of me. Around the same time, I found Ben-Hur and Spartacus riveting (except I found the leper colony scenes in Ben-Hur disturbing, but the chariot race more than made up for it). My parents also took me to see Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in the theater in 1962, I don’t think they were intentionally trying to mold a horror writer, but it didn’t hurt.
From those roots, I graduated to swashbucklers on film and TV. I loved Disney’s Zorro, Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, and their ilk. Also, Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan, it should go without saying, and later the Ron Ely TV version. I spent four years, from the ages of 5 to 9, in France, where my father worked for the US Department of Defense and where old buildings, bridges, etc. were really old. Every antique store had swords and other forms of ancient weaponry galore, and I was enthralled by all that. I also fell in love with comic books there, which will become important later in this interview. In the summer between junior high and high school, I went back to France on a student trip, and I came home with a WWI-era Austrian light cavalry saber (in 1969, you could strap that to your suitcase and still get onto an ocean liner). In high school I took up fencing and archery, and I continued fencing in college.
Sword and sandal, of course, leads to sword and sorcery. You worked on a few Conan novels in the Age of Conan line: Ghost of the Wall (2006), Winds of the Wild Sea (2006), and Dawn of the Ice Bear (2006). How did you get involved with writing Conan, and was Robert E. Howard an author who had an influence on you?
My discovery of Conan came with the Lancer paperback series, particularly Conan the Barbarian, with Frank Frazetta’s Conan wrestling a huge ape with a red cape. Once I read one – and they tied directly in with my fencing interests and growing sword collection – I had to read them all. And the comics. And then Leiber and Moorcock and everybody else. The early 1970s were the golden age for sword and sorcery fans.
Lancer paperback of Conan photo provided courtesy of Oliver Brackenbury of New Edge Sword and Sorcery. When the Age of Conan MMORPG came out, I had a friend who worked for Ed Pressman, who was somehow involved with the Conan rights and an executive producer on the first two movies (uncredited on Destroyer). That friend was dealing with Ace books on the tie-in novels, and he came to me and asked if I wanted to write them. The remit was to write books set in Conan’s Hyborian Age, but without Conan as a main character, fleshing out the rest of the world. I mostly did that, but I did slip in a Conan cameo appearance, and they let me keep it, so I became the first writer in the 21stcentury to write Conan into a novel.
I don’t know that Howard was an influence on me stylistically, but in terms of inspiration, he absolutely was. I admire his work tremendously and his imagination even more. As an adult, I was lucky enough to meet Mike Moorcock and Fritz Leiber and L. Sprague de Camp and many of the other writers who toiled in those fields during my early days of discovery. Later I also met Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway and Barry Windsor-Smith and Neal Adams, and a bunch of the folks who made the early Marvel run so great.
The Age of Conan is still going, albeit far from as popular as its heyday, but it is one of those few post-World of Warcraft MMORPGs that still survives. Did you ever play the game perchance? Or perhaps dive into any other MMOs out there?
I have the game box with its cool physical elements, but I gave my free code to play to a friend, because I don’t play MMOs at all. I was actually involved with two – I also wrote and edited a comic book that tied into the 2009 MMORPG Freaky Creatures, which apparently never really caught on with its target audience.
What was your introduction to the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB)?
I wish that I could remember the exact progression of that process. It started with Johnny Weissmuller’s movies, as mentioned earlier. They were seemingly on TV every week in my childhood and watching them created a fascination with jungle adventure movies that has never waned. At some point, I became aware that there were books behind them. I was also aware of the book All in Color for a Dime, by Richard A. Lupoff and Dick Thompson, because of my growing comics hobby. I read some of Lupoff’s novels, and I ran across his Burroughs book Master of Adventure. That was my entrée into the world of Burroughs scholarship. While I was attending San Jose State University, I met Dick, who just lived up the bay in Berkeley with his wife Pat, and that started a friendship that lasted the rest of his life.
Somewhere in between those things, I think after my discovery of Conan, but it might have been before, and getting to know the Lupoffs, I had read at least a few of the Tarzan books, some John Carters, some David Inneses, some Carson Napiers, and maybe a few others. Sadly, I didn’t keep reading journals or have the encyclopedic memory that a lot of Burroughs fans and scholars seem to.
Burroughs had written a handful of Westerns: The Bandit of Hell’s Bend (1924), The War Chief (1927), Apache Devil (1933), and The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940). Have you read some of his Westerns and if so, any impressions you have about them?
I love ERB’s westerns, especially the two Shoz-dijiji books. After thirty-one years living in California, I moved to a 40-acre chunk of land in southeastern Arizona’s Cochise County. I was near the south end of the Sulfur Springs Valley, just north of Douglas. When he was at Fort Grant, ERB was at the north end of the same valley. So those books, which take place in my old stomping grounds and involve Apache people and customs that I’ve also studied and written about, were wonderful discoveries. Of course, John Carter spent time there as well. I’d still love to do something fictional based around Ed’s period at Fort Grant.
What are some of your books that showcase your scholarship and writing about Apache peoples and their traditions that you’d like to spotlight?
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “scholarship,” but Apache characters and culture have played roles in many of my books, including the Desperadoes comics series, Deadlands: Thunder Moon Rising, and my Cody Cavanaugh traditional Western novel series (currently out of print but due to be reissued sometime soonish).
Regarding Western literature, what would you say have been the biggest changes and shifts in the genre between Burroughs’ time to now?
The most substantive change, I think, is that today’s Westerns can be more realistic. Note that I didn’t say they “are,” because some definitely are not. But the option exists, in today’s Western fiction, to explore the rampant racism and sexism of the era, and on the flip side, to acknowledge that minorities and women were integral to the “settling” of the American West. In Burroughs’s day, if a character in a Western lived in poverty, it was probably a humorous minor character who was made fun of because he was poor. The truth is that a lot of people spent everything they had to go west, in search of their fortunes, but those fortunes never materialized. Diseases were romanticized, and generally easily cured through the accumulation of wealth, the wisdom of a kindly old doctor, or the love of a good woman. And of course, the single most significant fact of westward expansion was the genocidal effect on the Indigenous population—which, in some ways, continues today. Now, Western writers are able to address all of these situations in a more genuine fashion, pointing out the difficulties and terrors of the westward movement without relying on the stereotypes.
Going back to your adoration of Jason and the Argonauts, one cannot help but think of Harryhausen’s Weird Western The Valley of Gwangi (1969). Do you have any affinity to other Western subgenres, such as the Weird Western, Acid Westerns, neo-Westerns, etc.? Are these subgenres ones you like to write in?
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen The Valley of Gwangi, though of course I’m aware of it. I should really track it down one of these days. I love Weird Westerns and actually began my career in Western literature with those, specifically with my 1997 comic book series, Desperadoes, which was very definitely Western horror. I tried to use real places and some real people and situations in the book, but all overlaid with supernatural horror. The series ran from 1977 to 2007, and I’ve recently written a short story involving those characters (in my collection Byrd’s Luck & Other Western Stories). I have an artist ready to go on what will be the last Desperadoes story, bringing the adventures of those characters to some kind of satisfactory conclusion. What we don’t have yet is a publisher willing to take it on.
I’ve also written several Weird Western shorts – the short-fiction collection mentioned above is split, with half of the stories being traditional Westerns and half Weird Westerns. And I wrote one of three novels based on the Deadlands RPG for Tor Books. Finally, I’m the unofficial “official” reviewer of Weird Western books for both True West and Roundup magazines (Roundup being the official magazine of the Western Writers of America, of which I’m a proud member).
As one last example, most of my original novels are set in the west and sometimes include aspects commonly seen in traditional Westerns. In my horror novel Missing White Girl, for example, the sheriff’s deputy who is the primary protagonist also owns a ranch and holds some ideals more closely related to the Old West than to the new one.
Hardcover of Tarzan and the Forest of StoneYour contribution to the Burroughs canon is with your novel Tarzan and the Forest of Stone (2022). What was the genesis of this project? How did it come about?
Speaking of the Sulfur Springs Valley, in 2019 my friend Bob Boze Bell of True West Magazine fame was the guest of honor at the Dum-Dum that Frank Puncer put on in Willcox. I accompanied Bob, and we had a grand old time getting to meet Burroughs fans and listening to scholarly talks and so on. Some of the folks from ERB, Inc., including Jim Sullos and Christopher Paul Carey, were also there. I got talking to them, and by the end of the event, Chris and I had pretty much agreed to do something together. Then he pitched me on writing a Tarzan novella, and I jumped at the opportunity. It was a true gift.
Bookplate for Tarzan and the Forest of Stone.What obstacles did you encounter combining Tarzan with the Western? What was something neat you learned in the process of doing so?
I don’t remember any particular obstacles. I was putting Tarzan in a setting that was largely unfamiliar to him, the desert landscape of northern Arizona is as different from the deserts of northern Africa as the moon is to the Earth, but with the understanding that Tarzan is at home in nature, and not a guy who needs a lot of time to get acclimated to new things. I had a lot of fun with the opening section, involving Tarzan’s visit with a writer we all know and love, and I tried to get that part right, which meant learning about the house and grounds, the views from there. I also learned a lot about the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe’s The Chief, which at the time was the fastest way to travel from coast to coast. I love trains, so really enjoyed discovering the details of that journey (and finding out that its real schedule fit my story just right).
You have a tremendous history of dealing with other IPs and media tie ins, be it from the publishing side such as working for IDW, DC, and WildStorm, to also an author of numerous novels set in the Buffyverse, Star Trek, CSI, and so on. Working with the Tarzan IP, when compared to other IPs, what was that like? What was similar and what was different?
I’ve written a ton of licensed fiction, as you say. Tarzan was different in several ways. First, as a character, he’s one of the very few who’s known to almost everybody around the world. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, maybe Superman and Spider-Man, and that’s about it. So, I knew there would be a lot of fans, some of them hardcore Burroughs enthusiasts who don’t want other people messing with their guy, some of them fans of the existing stories and willing, even anxious, to read new ones. He’s also appeared in virtually every form of mass media, from the books to movies and TV, radio, newspaper strips, comics, and more. Basically, nobody was going to pick up the book not knowing who Tarzan is and a bit about his background. That’s part of why he’s fun to write, but also part of why it’s scary, everyone’s already got an opinion, got their version of him in their head. I wanted to try to stay true to how I see him while not negating how somebody else sees him.
Scifi IPs that Mariotte has worked on. Most of the other IPs I’ve written are well-known, but not that well-known. I’ve written Superman, Spider-Man, and Zorro, and those probably come closest. But Buffy and Angel, CSI, NCIS, etc., are considerably more modern. There are at most a few decades of stories in existence about them, and most people’s impressions of them were formed from the same source: television. Other novels exist, but I was writing mine at the same time that those novels were coming out, so there’s a basic continuity that everyone sort of agrees on. And in some of those cases, if I have a question, as a writer I can basically go to the source for an answer. I knew people in the CSI production office when I was writing CSI. I’d spent time with Joss Whedon and Anthony Zuiker, so when I wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, CSI, The Shield, and Las Vegas, I’d actually spoken with Whedon and Zuiker and Shawn Ryan and Gary Scott Thompson, the creators of those properties. That doesn’t mean I can’t make mistakes in continuity, but it means they’re less likely to happen. I’d have to have H.G. Wells build me a time machine to talk to Edgar Rice Burroughs, and sadly, I don’t think that’s likely to happen.
Having written across a variety of mediums (books, comics, etc.), your own work and other IPs, what project have you been a part of that was unique to you and put you out of your comfort zone or was incredibly off beat? Perhaps the most unexpected outlier in your bibliography?
I’d have to say that’s my one solo nonfiction book. I cowrote behind-the-scenes episode guides for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but those were not entirely my work, and they involved properties that I’d also written novels about. The one I wrote by myself is Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers & Other Deviants (which was not my title, because I would at least have used the Oxford comma). It’s not too far out of my zone because it’s true crime, but “true” isn’t typically used in connection with my book output. This one was licensed nonfiction that described all the criminals mentioned by name in the first five seasons of the Criminal Minds TV series, along with crimes that inspired episodes but weren’t specifically mentioned.
That obviously required tons of research. The ones named on the show were no problem, but many episodes use elements of real crimes and criminals, and I had to be familiar enough with both the show and the real-life counterpart to identify them. I did most of the writing during the months of November and December, so while other people were watching Thanksgiving Parades and Christmas specials, I was digging deep into the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Edmund Kemper, and the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The research phase was a real immersion into the darkest depths of human behavior, and very unpleasant. But it also led to the writing of my crime novel Empty Rooms, which I believe is one of my best books.
You are the Guest of Honour for the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering that is being held in Willcox, AZ, at the end of September. Congratulations! While the programming is certainly still being finalized, is there anything you can share that you’re doing at the event?
Thank you! I’m very much looking forward to it. My professional connection to the Edgar Rice Burroughs community came about entirely as a result of having attended the Apache Devils Dum-Dum in 2019. Frank Puncer, who put on that Dum-Dum, is also the driving force behind this one, and I’m looking forward to seeing him and everyone else. And I’m now an official member of the Apache Devils chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles.
As for my duties at the ECOF, I know I’m supposed to give a keynote speech, which I should probably start working on one of these days. I’ll have a table where some of my books will be available for sale. And I will, of course, be available to talk ERB with anyone who is so inclined.
A final question, aside from the ECOF appearance, what else do folks have to look forward to coming from you? Any new publications or projects you’d like to mention that readers can keep an eye out for?
Funny you should mention that, because this past Saturday, as I’m writing this [7/26], Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. announced my next project at the San Diego Comic-Con (an event I attended every year from 1983–2013 but haven’t been back to since). I’m in the midst of writing Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn, an authorized sequel to ERB’s short novel Beyond Thirty, which was originally published in a 1916 issue of All-Around Magazine. In it, naval officer Jefferson Turck and Victory return to Grabritin, and…stuff happens. I don’t know what else I’m allowed to say about it now, so I’ll leave it there.
ERB SDCC announcement graphic for Beyond Thirty: A World Reborn.I’ve also become a publisher of Western fiction, as a partner in Silverado Press. So far, we have four books out, two books in the Galloway’s Gamble series by my partner Howard Weinstein, Byrd’s Luck & Other Western Stories by me, and Silverado Press Presents: Western Stories by Today’s Top Writers, which I edited. We have a new Silverado Classics line launching when I can get around to it, republishing influential classics of Western literature with scholarly essays describing their place in the world of Western fiction.
Sincere appreciation for Jeffrey Mariotte’s time for doing this interview. For more information about Mariotte, news, and his works, check out his website and social medias:
Official WebsiteSubstackBlueSkyFacebookAmazon Author PageFor more information about the 2025 ECOF event, see the below press release and registration form:
Press Release for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering and Monument Dedication in Willcox, AZ (v11)DownloadRegistration Form for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ (v9)DownloadAugust 4, 2025
News Roundup 2025-08-03
New comic book review up at my website!
Alas, I could not keep the momentum going so I missed a week, but this is still pretty prolific for me getting these reviews written and published.
Vanya #7 cover done by Sean Joyce. Image from the Bad Bug website.My review of issue seven of the neo-jungle girl series Vanya is now online and can be read here. Technically, I am now all caught up on this series! I do have a PDF of issue eight, but not the physical copy and associated Kickstarter swag, and since I like to cover that sort of stuff, a review of issue eight will have to wait until it arrives (which should be in the near future).
Upcoming: Interview with Jeff MariotteWant to give a heads up to my readers to come back this Wednesday. I conducted an interview with Jeffrey Mariotte and it is going online on the 6th! You don’t want to miss it!
Uncovering Stranger Things – Italian EditionUncovering Stranger Things, edited by Kevin Wetmore and published by McFarland in 2018 (see their product page here) now has an Italian edition!
Publisher Cue Press has published a translated version of this collection (it looks like back in 2023?) and here is the cover art:
Italian edition of Uncovering Stranger Things published by Cue Press.I segreti di Stranger Things can be purchased at Cue Press at this link here. If you want to read my essay about Stranger Things and synthwave music in Italian, it is called “Notti perse e giorni pericolosi: Il disfacimento delle relazioni fra Stranger Things e synthwave” in this publication. Check it out for sure!
Aside from a brief snippet of my Castle of Blood/Danza Macabra masters thesis being translated into French (see below!), this is the first time something I’ve written has appeared in another language (in its entirety). Career milestone unlocked!
Panthans Journal #339The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my review of issue two of the adult/neo-jungle girl series Vanya: The Lost Warrior. Of course my write up can also be read at my website here.
National Capital Panthans #339.Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos, and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.
Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.
ECOF 2025In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025. Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chiefand Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Here is the registration from:
Registration Form for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ (v9)DownloadMichele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing RecapBelow is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
Panthans Journal #338“She’s Got the Killer Instinct: Vanya Issue 01” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #338.
National Capital Panthans #339.“Hunter – Lover – Killer: Vanya 02” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #339.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Calls for Papers/ProposalsHere are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path or I am sharing on behalf of my colleagues. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark TwainThis session is sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America.
American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1935-1910) achieved lasting fame as Mark Twain, an identity that served as both his pen name and the persona he cultivated for the public. Twain’s writings and his distinctive character have dispersed across time and space, and the resulting Twainian tradition incorporates these elements in many ways.
Importantly, his works and iconography have long been the focus of adaptation. This process begins with the illustrations commissioned for the initial publication of his texts, Twain’s own attempts to rework and expand his stories, and contemporary caricatures of his person, and it continues with retellings of Twain’s stories, linked texts (such as prequels, midquels, and sequels) connected to his work, recastings and restagings of his tales, and new adventures for Twain himself. These adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of Twain appear in diverse forms and formats including anime series, artworks, cartoons, comics, films, games, historical fiction texts, home video releases, graphic novels, illustrations, memorials, musical theater productions, mysteries, performances, plays, radio broadcasts, science fiction works, sculptures, song lyrics, stamps, television programming, theme park attractions, and tourist sites.
Each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy. They also highlight both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired. A resource guide for the session can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/TwainianRegenerationRG.
We seek proposals that engage with these texts in the belief that each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy and highlighting both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired.
Link to submit abstract: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21918
2025 Harry Potter Academic Conference (HPAC)Friday and Saturday, October 17–18, 2025 (Eastern Time)
Virtual conference (digiHPAC)
Deadline for proposals (academics & community members): September 1, 2025
ABOUT: The Harry Potter Academic Conference returns for its 14th annual gathering, which will be a fully online format known as digiHPAC. We are a non-profit, interdisciplinary conference that provides a forum for scholarly inquiry surrounding the Harry Potter literature and related cultural phenomenon. Open to scholars of any experience level, from established academic researchers to community members and students, this is a space curated to be inclusive and welcoming to all. The conference is held in person at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in even-numbered years and online in odd-numbered years.
PRESENTATIONS: digiHPAC presentations are presented over Zoom, live or pre-recorded, in 30-minute windows (20 minutes for presentations and 10 minutes for Q&A). Panel discussions, teaching sessions, or other alternative proposals may request a longer presentation time. Topics can include, but are not limited to, close textual criticism, diversity and inclusion, psychology, philosophy, political science, and film, music, religious, and fandom studies. Past presentations have been accepted on the Harry Potter book and film series, the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the Potterverse in dialogue with other works. More information about HPAC can be found at harrypotterconference.com.
PROPOSALS: Please submit abstracts of 150–250 words describing your proposal at harrypotterconference.com/submit. Multiple abstracts may be submitted but will be evaluated individually. Submission deadline is September 1, 2025, and acceptance notifications will be sent by mid-September 2025.
Any questions? Please email Patrick McCauley (mccauleyp@chc.edu) and copy harrypotterconference@gmail.com.
Please see our website for HPAC’s statement on our commitment to maintaining an LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive space in the fandom.
Cinema’s First Epics in Focus: Silent Epic Film from Literary Adaptation to Contemporary Epic NarrativesThough epic cinema is most commonly associated with the mid-century triumphs of Hollywood, its origins extend far deeper into the history of the medium, reaching back to the earliest days of film, long before the advent of sound. The first documented uses of the term “epic” in relation to film stem from the nascent Italian industry, where monumental productions like L’Odissea (1911, dir. Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan) not only astonished audiences with unprecedented scale but employed vast promotional efforts to assert a distinctly national— and as Maria Wyke and Pantelis Michelakis have noted, overtly nationalistic—cinematic identity. This movement towards epic during the silent era, often drawing inspiration from classical epic poetry and Christian narrative, has been understood to be important in the broader context of the nationalist fervor that swept through Europe in the years leading up to and following the First World War, yet has been curiously overlooked by film scholars, due in large part to the fragility of early film materials and inconsistent archival practices which have led to the loss of many key works. This neglect is particularly regrettable when we consider that the silent epic was central to the major artistic and ideological shifts that defined the early cinematic project, deeply enmeshed in the ontological debates over cinema’s status as a visual and rhythmic art—debates that were especially vibrant in early French and German cinema—and later in the drive toward naturalism that would come to dominate Hollywood, championed by figures such as André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. The continued presence of the epic, from the silent era through to the sound era, underscores its fundamental role in cinema’s dialogue with other arts as well as its longitudinal development, and in recognizing the centrality of early epics to the history of film, this edited volume seeks to reassert their study, not only as historical artifacts but as key contributions to an ever-evolving art of cinema.
Building on the conversations initiated during the Cinema’s First Epics in Focus conference (May 2025), we aim to build a comprehensive edited volume which gathers a selection of expanded papers from the event, complemented by new scholarly contributions that critically engage with the silent epic and its reverberations across film history, media theory, and related fields. We hope to move beyond the framework of film philology completely, opening up the field to more interdisciplinary approaches that consider aesthetics, temporality, material culture, and the shifting meanings of “epic” across media in interconnected relation. We believe this collection would fill a significant gap in the scholarship and could serve as a foundational reference for future work on both epic and early cinema as, to our knowledge, no existing volume addresses the silent epic across such a broad yet coherent set of methodologies and global perspectives. We are particularly interested in contributions that interrogate the intersections between epic form and silent cinema through innovative and open methodologies—whether from film and media studies, classical reception, visual culture, performance studies, or archival research. By foregrounding these diverse perspectives, the volume seeks to move beyond narrowly textual or genealogical approaches, and instead open up a wider discursive field through which the silent epic can be understood as a transmedial and transhistorical phenomenon.
While the volume retains the conference’s original focus on adaptation, national identity, cinematic scale, and the episteme of early film, the discussions brought forth by participants have revealed key thematic axes that we now wish to foreground:
Genre:
The volume seeks to examine the epic as a contested and evolving genre. Contributions may explore the tensions between prescriptive and descriptive models of genre, the shifting boundaries between epic and tragedy across media, and the historical and theoretical slippages in the definition of “epic” across literature, cinema, and other arts. We welcome work that revisits classical, romantic, and modern theories of genre in light of early cinematic practice.
Time and Temporality:
Essays may address the intersections between epic time and cinematic time, considering how film reconfigures notions of epic duration, rhythm, and repetition. We are particularly interested in studies that employ film theoretical methodologies—such as montage theory—to reframe literary epic, and vice versa.
Material Culture and Reception:
We encourage research on the material and institutional contexts of silent epic film: distribution networks, live musical accompaniment, promotional ephemera, newspaper reception, and archival challenges. To what extent do these material elements participate in constructing the epic as a form? How might production and reception conditions shape our understanding of the epic mode in film? How important was this surrounding context for the epic’s formation as a cinematic mode in the silent era?
The Silent Era:
What makes the silent period uniquely generative for the epic form? We invite proposals that attend to the technological, stylistic, social, economic and industrial specificities of the silent era, and their formative impact on the emergence of cinematic epic traditions.
Adaptation and Intermediality:
How are epic modes rearticulated through the visual and narrative strategies of early film? What happens to epic’s narrative authority, scale, or temporality when it migrates across media? How does medial transposition function for the epic—what is gained, lost, or transformed in the process of adaptation? We welcome contributions that consider the semiotic logics at work in each medium and how these shape the reception and reinterpretation of epic structures, characters, and themes.
Identity:
We welcome analyses of the epic as a cultural and political form, examining how epic narratives serve as mediators of national, social, or class identity. How does the epic negotiate questions of inclusion, exclusion, and transformation within diverse sociopolitical contexts, both in its production and reception?
In addition to these central themes, the volume remains open to broader considerations of silent epic film, including (but not limited to):
Representations of mythological, biblical, or historical themes;National cinemas and epic aesthetics;Theatricality, realism, and expressionism in silent epic form;Gender, class, ethnicity, colonialism, and spectatorship in early epic cinema;Archival recovery and the status of lost or restored epic films;Scale and mise-en-scène in silent epic film;Modern cinema and silent epic film;Comparative studies of silent epic film, particularly on marginal or non-angloeuropean film.We are currently preparing a formal book proposal to be submitted to a major academic press, with Blackwell and Routledge among our intended publishers.
Submission Details:
Please submit your complete text (maximum of 8000 words), along with a short biographical note (max. 150 words), to the editors by September 15th, 2025. Contributions may be written in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, but accepted papers must be submitted with an English version for publication.
Contact:
Vítor Alves Silva (University of Porto) – up202204445@up.pt
João Paulo Guimarães (University of Porto, ILCML) – guimaraesjpc@gmail.com
Larson Powell (University of Missouri Kansas City, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Film – Emeritus) – powelllar@umkc.edu
We look forward to receiving your proposals and continuing the vibrant conversations sparked by the conference.
Miscellaneous TidbitsSome fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the ArchiveHere are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Lord of the Rings (Bakshi Version)Decades before Peter Jackson amazed audiences with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi put out the rotoscoped masterpiece of The Lord of the Rings. I’m a huge Bakshi fan (Cool World FTW!), and I remember watching this movie when I was young and, frankly, being kind of terrified by it.
Personal copy of the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings film, signed by Peter S. Beagle and Steven E. Gordon.Anywho, I met Bakshi once, at SDCC back in 2006, where he signed some of my other movies, but at the time I didn’t have a copy of LOTR. However, in the years since I’ve procured a copy and had it signed by two folks.
The first is Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, but who also did the screenplay of the Bakshi LOTR. He was a guest at a Glendale Vintage Paperback Show where he signed my DVD.
Next animator/cartoonist Steven E. Gordon sign my DVD. Gordon worked with Bakshi on a couple of projects (like Fire and Ice). He is a staple of the different comic book conventions in the LA area. He did a pinup girl commission for me one time – I’ll have to share that!
New Sword and Sandal AcquisitionsThe ever growing peplum research library grows with these recent sword and sandal films acquisitions.
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-raysHercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959) have two brand new HD/Blu-ray releases from Artus films! Check these bad boys out:
Hercules and Hercules Unchained Blu-rays from Artus Films.If Artus Films sounds familiar, it is because they are the ones that put out that ornate Castle of Blood (1964) release (see my post about that here) that cites my Castle of Blood masters thesis in French!
As far as I can tell (looking at dvdcompare.net) there has not been an English/state-side Blu-ray release of either Hercules or Hercules Unchained yet (which is rather strange since they are iconic, important films in the peplum genre). So if you want a Blu-ray of these films, Artus seems to be the only release currently (but there is no English audio or subtitled on either). PeplumTV.com has a few musings about the possible print source of these releases, which can be read here.
News from FriendsCool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan EpisodesBernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
Here is their part two of discussing the documentary American Scary:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssHere is their part one discussion of filming locations:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd here is their part two discussion of filming locations:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssOlder episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
Cyanide Constellations and Other StoriesPoet and dark fiction author extraordinaire Sara Tantlinger has a new collection coming out this autumn! It is titled Cyanide Constellations and Other Stories and featured wicked bad ass artwork by Devin Forst.
Cyanide Constellations and Other Stories (Photo provided by Sara Tantlinger)Sara’s new book can be pre-ordered from Dark Matter Ink – here is the book’s product page. The release date is October 21st, just in time for Halloween!
July 30, 2025
The Prehistoric Purge: Vanya 07
The Story So Far
Vanya, Serah, Niya, and Guy are four soldiers from the future trapped in the prehistoric past, surviving against dinosaurs, savage humanoids, and the Torridians, a race of warrior aliens hellbent on conquering humanity. Their adventures have taken them across the jungle primeval, and they are eventually captured by the Bone Tribe, a cult of barbarians that Niya was a part of, who engage in sexual rituals in order to hatch a Torridian Dragon. The Bone Tribe outfit Serah and Guy with cranial implants that link them to a network shared by the cybernetic dinosaurs unleashed by the Torridians. The four eventually make their escape from the Bone Tribe and part different ways: Vanya and Serah trek to one of humanity’s outposts while Niya and Guy attempt to hide the Torridian Dragon Eggs they absconded with.
Vanya #7 cover done by Sean Joyce. Image from the Bad Bug website.Issue 07 Plot
Looks can the deceiving as it turns out the war being raged by the Torridians is not going well. There is a plague that has decimated the Torridian numbers, pushing General Tora into making a hasty decision to press on the attack, bolstered by their cybernetically outfitted dinosaurs.
At Terran Base Alpha, Serah, still receiving visions from her implant due to it being connected to a network of dinosaurs and savages, recovers in an infirmary. The alien Relo Quarr, a combat strategist, informs Vanya about the Torridian plague and the Torridian Dragons.
The Witch of the Bone Tribe.Niya and Guy are apprehended by Elah and the Astral Guard who also have an interest in the Torridian Dragon eggs. Their efforts to retrieve the eggs that Niya had hidden are thwarted by the Witch of the Bone Tribe, who seeks to fulfill a prophecy that will allow her to ascend to becoming a powerful queen while an intergalactic war rages about.
Commentary
The transition from issue six to issue seven of Vanya is jarring to say the least as there are multiple jump cuts in the plot.
The first huge leap is the Torridian plague that has, as one of General Tora’s subordinates states, reduced their attacking force to a third of its size. All the prior issues of Vanya have shown the Torridians decimating the humans, and out of the blue, one page into issue seven, it turns out the Torridians are actually the ones being wiped out. It is a War of the Worlds type situation going on. It is not unwelcomed in the narrative at all, it just so suddenly pops up into the narrative.
The second leap involves Vanya and Serah who are at a titanic military base called Terran Base Alpha. In the prior issue, the last panel that featured Vanya and Serah show them walking through the jungle, passing by a giant alligator snapping the neck of a dinosaur, as they make their way to Outpost Nine. Issue seven fast forwards to Serah in an infirmary, with Vanya chatting with the newly introduced Quarr. It feels like there is a bit of retconning going on (Outpost Nine to Terran Base Alpha) and that a chunk of story is missing. Even if the rest of Vanya and Serah’s journey to the outpost was uneventful, there is a transition that feels missing.
Once readers can get their bearings straight on both of those narrative threads, issue seven begins to make the bigger picture of the Vanya comic as a whole much more cohesive. Motivations are made more overt on why characters are doing what they are doing, but also in the process, using the prophecy of the Witch from the Bone Tribe sets it up so that all the major players of the comic (Vanya and company, the Astral Guard, the Torridians, the Bone Tribe members, and so on) can begin to converge. The Vanya series started with a fun, albeit shotgun approach of tossing all these genre ingredients (time travel, space travel, dinosaurs, jungle women, robots, lots of sexploitation, etc.) into the story cauldron. Issue seven is doing the heavy lifting at glueing everything together.
As predicted in issue six, the Astral Guard are just bluster. Elah tries to project an aura of superiority over the captured Niya and Guy, but in her over confidence she is easily fooled. She and her Astral Guard (which are supposed to be the best of the best of the best, the very same elite school of soldiers Vanya was training to be) are led right into an exploding trap while looking for the Torridian Dragon eggs. The explosive trap that Niya placed in the prior issue going off does raise an eyebrow as Niya is also hurt in the process. Did she forget about the trap? Did she try to lead the Astral Guard to the trap so she and Guy could escape, and she underestimated its blast radius? Did the Bone Tribe Witch move the explosive, which is why everyone got hurt by it? Regardless, the high-tech Astral Guard, who are escorting two prisoners who they deem as deserters and probably untrustworthy, who *should* be hyperaware of everything around them in the hostile, primitive world, are easily dispatched by Niya’s (the Witch’s) trap. If it was not for the aforementioned plague, the Torridans could have laid waste to humanity as the Astral Guard have been lackluster at responding to their force.
The Bone Tribe Witch coming back as a major antagonist is a delight. She appears much more formidable, scheming, and that she has it together – composed. She has a trio of sabretooth tigers with her that are under her control, which does introduce an interesting alternative perspective to prior events in the story. Back in issue two there is a sabretooth tiger stalking Vanya and company, who reappears with companions in issue five and attacks the Bone Tribe, providing a deus ex machina for Vanya to escape. This initial take away may not actually have been the case. Instead, it could have been the Bone Tribe Witch from the beginning, using her network of sabretooth tigers to monitor the world (and thus end up keeping tabs on Vanya), and it was not a stalking cat that chose to attack the Bone Tribe in its pursuit of Vanya, but that it was actually at the bidding of the Bone Tribe Witch to usurp the Bone King. If this turns out to be the case, that is a major bravo reveal. And if not, well, The Bone Tribe Witch is still a commanding character, much more so than Elah or General Tora.
Relo Quarr and Vanya.Finally, issue seven does introduce a new character, the alien Relo Quarr. Previously the interstellar conflict seemed to be humans vs. the Torridians, but Quarr mentions the Galactic Alliance, which places the Vanya series more in a Star Trek Federation vs. Klingons type setup. Quarr himself looks like a combination of a Lord of the Rings elf and a Turian from the Mass Effect series of games. In other words, he looks pretty cool. But not nearly as cool as the final panel of the issue that finally reveals a Torridian Dragon that looks straight up like a sinister Balrog from LOTR.
Covers and Swag Impressions
The Kickstarter for issue seven of Vanya was concluded in April of 2024, with physical orders shipping in October later that year. Cover-wise, there are eleven different covers, some only obtainable as an add on. The covers all have a mix-mash of non-nude covers, topless-only, all nude, holofoil, and metal variants. All told there are thirty different cover incarnations.
Sean Joyce returns from issue six to do the standard cover for issue seven, bringing his sword and sorcery style with him. There is a gothic quality to Joyce’s cover, as Vanya stands, spear in hand, against the night sky, with a full moon and silhouettes of pterodactyls fly about. Replace the volcano with a castle and the flying reptiles with bats, and this cover oozes gothic sentiments.
Personal copy of Vanya #7 cover done by Aleriia V.The best cover of issue seven goes to Aleriia V who depicts the most vibrant Vanya yet. V’s Vanya goes all in on the jungle girl cheesecake style but executes them in a way that gives the cover art an oil painting-like quality. The cover shows Vanya bathing in a waterfall and makes it a great companion piece to the Bruno Sousa / Tommy Shelton cover for issue three which also shows a bathing Vanya.
Cosplay prints of Alaina Rose Lee as Vanya.Vanya issue seven is the first time the series has branched out and done cosplay covers, with pinup model Alaina Rose Lee gracing a set of four covers available as an add-on set [NOTE: Alaina Rose Lee was featured in the inaugural issue of Bachelor Pad’s “Nylon Nightcap” series. My write up about that issue can be read here]. Other pictures from the Alaina/Vanya photoshoot became prints as part of the issue’s Kickstarter swag.
Vanya Tarot Card and Xenogeist advert.The final bit of swag for issue seven (unless one contributed over $50 in which they also received a sticker set) is an advert for Bad Bug’s Xenogeist series and a Vanya tarot card. These tarot cards have been neat to receive, and hopefully Bad Bug makes an actual tarot deck available in the future. The tarot card for this issue is for The Hanged Man. It shows Vanya swinging on a vine, with a blue-scaled tyrannosaur behind here, and an exploding volcano in the distance. The art on this card does match the name of the card, with Vanya hanging from a vine (the Rider-Waite shows a man hanging upside down from a tree).
Conclusion
Despite having to orient oneself with some jarring jump cuts between issue six and this one, issue seven is a quintessential issue in the Vanya story. The introduction of the Torridian plague, the reveal of the Torridian Dragon, and the arrival of a competent villain (the Bone Tribe Witch) and beefer human allies (Quarr), it looks that the Vanya series is trying to rebalance itself. This is going to become critical because future issues are going to have to juggle a huge conflict with lots of moving pieces if the Witch’s prophecy comes to fruition. It is going to be exciting.
For more information on Vanya and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
Bad Bug Media Vanya 07 Product PageVanya 07 Kickstarter PageZoran Jovicic (Illustrator)Mike Tener (Writer / EIC Bad Bug)John Macleod (Editor)Sean Joyce (Standard Issue Cover Artist)Aleriia V (Cover Artist)Bryan Magnaye (Colorist)Alaina Rose Lee (Cosplayer)Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:
Death Nell Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 02 ReviewVanya Issue 03 ReviewVanya Issue 04 ReviewVanya Issue 05 ReviewVanya Issue 06 ReviewJuly 14, 2025
News Roundup 2025-07-13
Three articles completed and published in three consecutive weeks at my website? I might be on a roll and getting out of the writing/editing rut!
Riding on my review of Vanya #04, since my last News Roundup I’ve penned two more reviews of the Vanya series.
Standard cover for issue five of Vanya done by Zoran Jovicic and Antonio Wong. Image from the Bad Bug website.First there is my review of issue five which can be read right here.
Standard cover of Vanya #6 by Sean Joyce. Image from Bad Bug website.And next is my review of Vanya issue six which can be read here. I’m two issues away from being caught up on the currently published issue of Vanya (which is issue eight of the twelve issue series).
Double excited (along with this outburst of getting writing done) that my reviews of Vanya are starting to be reprinted! See next section.
Panthans Journal #338The newest issue of the The National Panthans Journal has been published. This issue contains a re-print of my review of issue one of the adult/neo-jungle girl series Vanya: The Lost Warrior. Of course my review can also be read at my website here.
Panthans Journal #338Paraphrased from the zine: The National Capital Panthans Journal is a monthly publication issued as a .PDF file on the Saturday before the first Sunday of each month. Contribution of articles, artwork, photos, and letters are welcome. Send submissions to the editor: Laurence G. Dunn at laurencegdunn AT gmail.com in a Word document for consideration.
Sincere appreciation to Laurence for the opportunity to have my work published in the journal.
ECOF 2025In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025. Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chiefand Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Here is the registration from:
Registration Form for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ (v9)DownloadMichele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing RecapBelow is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
Panthans Journal #338“She’s Got the Killer Instinct: Vanya Issue 01” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #338.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Calls for Papers/ProposalsHere are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path or I am sharing on behalf of my colleagues. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Peter Straub: New Critical PerspectivesIn his introduction to John C. Tibbetts’s The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub (2016)—the only academic, book-length study of Straub’s fiction currently in print—Gary K. Wolfe argues that “[p]erhaps more than any author of his generation—Stephen King included—Straub extended the literary possibilities of horror fiction.” Despite Peter Straub’s legacy as a leading figure in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century horror fiction, and his influence on dark fiction writers ranging from Caitlín R. Kiernan to Stephen Graham Jones, there is currently a scarcity of scholarship on his oeuvre. Since his passing in September 2022, Straub’s work has seen increased attention. Penguin Random House is rereleasing most of his books in 2025 and Subterranean Press is scheduled to publish his unfinished final novel, Wreckage, later this year. Stephen King, who co-authored The Talisman (1984) and Black House (2001) with Straub, recently announced that he has completed the final instalment in their collaborative trilogy, and in 2022, Emma Straub published This Time Tomorrow, a celebrated novel about her father.
Mike Thorn is collaborating with the University Press of Mississippi to publish Peter Straub: New Critical Perspectives, which will offer the first multiple-authored academic anthology on Peter Straub. This volume will provide an array of critical perspectives on Straub’s robust body of work, addressing the author’s place in the Gothic and Weird traditions and examining his thematic fixations, including national and individual traumas; abusive mentors and authority figures; supernatural manifestations of material misdeeds; America’s mythologizing of serial killers; the fraught distinctions between “literary” and “commercial” fiction; the vexing instability of assumed “truths” and “realities”; and the infinitely complex nature of narrative as such—its formal malleability, its capacity for phenomenological and ontological rupture, its social functions, and its potentials and dangers. The collection will address Straub’s previously understudied pre-Gothic poetry and novels, Marriages and Under Venus, as well as his popularly celebrated and award-winning novels (including Ghost Story,Floating Dragon, and Koko), his collaborations with Stephen King (The Talisman and Black House) and his short stories and critical essays. The book will be geared towards a broad readership—from undergraduate and graduate university students, to interested general readers, to scholars and researchers seeking original insights into Straub, the American Gothic, and horror fiction writ large.
Mike Thorn seeks proposals of 200-250 words for essays (5000-7000 words) on or related to the topics listed below. He is especially interested in essays addressing multiple Straub-authored novels and stories, and in analyses of under-studied works, such as Straub’s poetry collections; Marriages; Under Venus; If You Could See Me Now; Mr. X; and In the Night Room. He might consider close readings of individual novels or stories in some cases, but he will give preference to proposals referencing multiple texts. Submit abstract submissions and queries to mikethorn@live.com.
Chapter Topics
Pre-Gothic Straub: On the Poetry and Early Literary Novels: Proposals should address Marriages and Under Venus; they might also draw on Straub’s poetry collections.
The Early American Gothic Sequence: Proposals should address Julia, If You Could See Me Now, and Ghost Story.
Narrative Unreliability and Genre-Slipperiness: On Straub’s “Blue Rose” Novels: Proposals should address Koko, Mystery, and The Throat; they might also consider The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories.
Straub Gets Weird: On Straub’s Engagements with H. P. Lovecraft and the Weird Tradition: Proposals should address the novels Mr. X and Floating Dragon. They might also consider A Dark Matter, The Talisman, or other novels or stories deemed Weird or Weird-adjacent.
American Serial Killer Mythologies: Proposals should address The Hellfire Club and A Special Place. They might also consider other novels or short stories depicting serial killers, including the “Blue Rose” novels (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat), Black House, Mr. X, “A Short Guide to the City” and “Bunny is Good Bread.”
The Metafictional Straub: Intertextuality and Narrative Self-Reflection: Proposals should address lost boy lost girl and In the Night Room. They might also address the preceding Timothy Underhill “Blue Rose” novels (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat) and other metafictional works, such as The Buffalo Hunter and The Hellfire Club.
Straub’s Short Fiction: Proposals should address at least one story or novella from each of the following collections: Houses Without Doors; Magic Terror; Interior Darkness.
Writers and Writing in Straub’s Fiction: Proposals should address The Hellfire Club and at least one of the Timothy Underhill novels (Koko, Mystery, The Throat, lost boy lost girl, and In the Night Room). They might also consider Ghost Story or other novels and stories representing writers and writing, including “The Juniper Tree” and “The Geezers.”
Gothic Trauma: Proposals should explore depictions of individual and collective trauma in Peter Straub’s fiction. They might address personal traumas in stories and novels like “The Juniper Tree”, “Bunny is Good Bread”, Julia, If You Could See Me Now, Ghost Story, Under Venus, The Hellfire Club,and A Dark Matter, and/or representations of PTSD and the Vietnam war in Koko, The Throat, and “The Ghost Village.”
Nonfictional Straub: Critical Commentary and Curations: Proposals should consider some of the author’s essays and introductions compiled in Sides, Conjunctions, Poe’s Children, “Beyond the Veil of Vision: Peter Straub and Anthony Discenza”, and American Fantastic Tales.
Straub’s Literary Legacy and Influence: Proposals should place Straub’s work in conversation with his literary ancestors. Proposals should examine one or more of Straub’s novels or stories in tandem with one or more works by Kelly Link, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Hand, Stephen Graham Jones, Brian Evenson, or another high-profile fiction writer who has publicly cited Straub’s influence.
Preliminary Publication timeline
Deadline for proposals: November 30, 2025
Deadline for papers: January 1, 2027
Editor feedback: March 1, 2027
Deadline for final, revised papers: July 1, 2027
Manuscript submitted to University Press of Mississippi: September 1, 2027
Tentatively scheduled publication date: September 2028
Editor Biography
Mike Thorn, PhD, is the author of Shelter for the Damned, Darkest Hours, and Peel Back and See. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in American Gothic Studies, The Oxford Handbook of Shirley Jackson, The Weird: A Companion, American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper, Thinking Horror: A Journal of Horror Philosophy, and elsewhere. He co-hosts the writing-themed Craftwork podcast with Miriam Richer.
Miscellaneous TidbitsSome fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the ArchiveHere are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Venus Die-TrapThis is a hot off the press movie release. Venus Die-Trap (great name, and great movie art) was crowdfunded via Indiegogo last year I believe.
Personal copy of Venus Die-Trap signed by Bobby Canipe Jr.I put some monies toward the campaign because the film is partially scored by Philippe Gerber, the mastermind of John 3:16 and also the composer of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Theme (which can be found at Bandcamp). Congrats to Philippe for being part of the score, that it awesome!
Venue Die-Trap was published by SRS Media, but they don’t seem to have a product page for it yet. Here is the link to the Indiegogo campaign, which may allow purchases of copies. Check it out!
The Return of the Living DeadJuly 3rd, 1984, 5:30 pm EST – the opening time stamp of The Return of the Living Dead, one of the most famous and influential zombie films out there. So, of course, when July 3rd rolls around, social media is aflutter with screen caps to celebrate the movie.
Personal copy of the glow in the dark collector’s edition of The Return of the Living Dead autographed by Clu Gulager.But, I want to do one better. Here is my DVD version of The Return of the Living Dead, that has a Glow in the Dark paper slipcase (check out that Best Buy sticker still on it after all these years), and autographed by cult film actor icon Clu Gulagar, who I got to meet as a Monsterpalooza event way back in 2021. Punk as fuck
And, as a reminder, do check out my autographed copy of The Return of the Living Dead Part 2 which I shared back in April.
Armageddon Dildos Autograph CollectionBack in the late 2000s one of my favorite bands, Armageddon Dildos, did a small tour in America with other industrial act Inertia. Their show was in Seattle, in the middle of the week, and it was fairly empty. I was kinda saddened to see that, but still super grateful a handful of other fans showed up to rock out.
Personal copy of Armageddon Dildos – Homicidal Dolls album.
Homicidal Dolls booklet signed by Uwe Kanka and Ulf Häusgen.
CD promo single for Armageddon Dildos’ Too Far to Suicide.
CD tray back insert signed by Armageddon Dildos.
Armageddon Dildos’ “Come Armageddon” single.
Armageddon Dildo’s EP “Fear”
Booklet/Insert for “Fear” signed by the Band.
Armageddon Dildos’ album “Lost” with cover signed by the band.
Armageddon Dildos’ “Morgengrauen” album.
Booklet of “Morgengrauen” signed by the band.
Armageddon Dildos’ album “Speed” – promo edition.I brought a stack of inserts and CD booklets for the bands to sign, and they did! There was a pinball machine in the venue they used as a table and Uwe Kanka and Ulf Häusgen signed all my stuff. I was so excited! During the show, Kanka jumped off the stage to mingle with the audience and I got a big hug.
I’ve been sharing my autographed treasures on Reddit and BluSky this past week, but see above gallery, click through it to see all the autographed music I got from that concert.
News from FriendsCool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Fan2Fan EpisodesBernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
First up is the second part of their interview with horror host Dr. Gangrene:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssAnd then their is their part one talking about horror movies hosts in general:
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssOlder episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
July 9, 2025
All E.T.’s Aren’t Nice: Vanya 06
The Story So Far
Vanya and Serah are two Time Guards trapped in the prehistoric past, surviving against dinosaurs, savage humanoids, and the Torridians, a race of warrior aliens hellbent on conquering humanity. While on a mission to retrieve a supply cache, the duo, along with a soldier named Guy, are captured by Niya, another Time Guard and a member of the Bone Tribe. They are made to partake in a ritual to summon a Torridian Dragon. Elsewhere the Torridians begin their bombardment of human outposts in the jungle primeval.
Standard cover of Vanya #6 by Sean Joyce. Image from Bad Bug website.Issue 06 Plot
Having escaped both the Bone Tribe and the family of saber-tooth tigers, Vanya, Serah, and Guy find themselves in an uneasy truce with Niya. Serah begins to have visions of the Torridian Dragon calling out to her. Serah, Guy, and Niya share a brain-connection due to the implanted chips in their temples (Vanya was not outfitted with one during their encounter with the Bone Tribe). The group decide to split up: Guy and Niya to hide the Torridian Dragon eggs they absconded with while Serah and Vanya follow a river to Outpost Nine that is purported to be heavily fortified.
Niya and Vanya.Meanwhile Geneal Tora of the Torridians decide to free the captive humans, which include Captain Jax and Lucas, who are made to leave Base T and cross a field. However, their freedom is a ruse for all the humans are dispatched by a pack of raptors outfitted with saw blade arms, spiked grappling hooks, flamethrowers, and razor-sharp spider-esque legs.
The ill-fated soldiers are not the only ones to encounter cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs as Vanya and Serah are attacked by a Plesiosaur that has a blaster mounted on its tail. While Vanya and Serah are dealing with their unexpected encounter, Niya and Guy cross paths with a new faction making their presence known.
Commentary
Two words: Robo Dinosaurs. Briefly introduced in issue five (when the Bone King throws a robotic raptor head at Vanya’s feet, and the final panel showing General Tora looking at a cybernetic T-Rex), issue six of Vanya is all about capitalizing on the robotic dinosaurs and how they truly ruthless they are. Reed’s death in issue three when he was chomped in half by a T-rex has nothing on a raptor with buzzsaw arms decapitating human soldiers. The scene the modified raptors appear in is an homage to/recreation of the raptor/tall grass scene from The Lost World: Jurassic Park(1997). It is as if Vanya asked the question “how can we top that scene from the second Jurassic Park movie?” and they went all in for it.
Robo Raptors in the tall grass in Vanya #6.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park tall grass/raptor scene.The robot-dinosaur extravaganza continues when Vanya and Serah encounter a Plesiosaur while they are fishing. Vanya charges at the dinosaur, slicing its gun-tail off, before being dragged underwater due to her embedding her knife in its hide. Vanya does not do the killing blow on the Plesiosaur as a non-robotic Spinosaurus shows up and chomps its head off, showing a trail of blood but also mechanical components. It is an interesting scene in that a natural dinosaur is able to dispatch the cybernetically enhanced dinosaur, and rather easily at that. One of the core themes of Vanya has been the traditional fight of man vs. nature (and now trickling in some man vs. machine), but here is a sequence of nature vs. machine. Giving a long enough time, nature will always win.
The mysterious Astral Guard mark their formal appearance on the final page, possibility catching Guy and Niya in the act of hiding the Torridian Dragon eggs. Emerging from a purple portal, a squadron of armored soldiers pour through, wielding rifles, demanding Niya and Guy’s surrender. It is just bluster? The Astral Guard are supposed to be the best of the best, it is what the Time Guards eventually ascend to after completing their training in the prehistoric past. They are the ones, per the opening crawl back in issue one, who are supposed to lead and safeguard humanity. However, the Torridians dominating the war front against the humans, sending them in a retreat to the past, and Elah’s ineffectual response to the alien threat in issue five convey that the Astral Guard may not be as powerful as they project themselves to be. There’s plenty of Robo Dinosaurs waiting for them to prove their mettle against.
The Astral Guard are not the only ones with a public image crisis to overcome, but General Tora herself is already showing cracks in how she operates. Extremely cruel (as demonstrated by freeing the humans into the raptor field), Tora is also coming across as arrogant but also prideful as she is dismissive of keeping her emperor abreast of her invasion. She’s akin to Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars and her attitude will probably lead to her to underestimate Vanya and the other humans (when they finally cross paths).
Covers and Swag Impressions
From the Kickstarter campaign page for Vanya #06, which concluded August 2023, there looks to be a total of nine different covers for the issue, which each cover being available in non-nude and nude versions, with each of those breaking down in normal, holofoil, and metal editions, for a grand total of fifty-four different covers.
Personal copy of Vanya #6 with nude cover by Alex Monik.The best cover of the issue six bunch goes to Alex Monik. This is a fantastic cover that depicts and incredible Vanya and an equally incredible jungle scene. The tree branches that Vanya walks across are covered in grass and flowers, with vines hanging underneath. It is this great detail that really sells the fantastique nature of the jungle adventure genre. Vanya proper still looks attractive, but she is covered in tiny scars and smudges of dirt. This iteration of Vanya moves away from the cheesecake approach (but still retains aspects of it) and goes into a more realistic interpretation of a warrior woman who has had to survive in the primeval for months. Her giant, blooded stone-tipped spear brings forth the spear and fang genre trappings. Overall, this cover has a store to tell in one image, and it does it well.
Recognition needs to go to Sean Joyce, the artist behind the standard cover of Vanya #06 (see top of article). Joyce is an old guard artist whose done artwork for classic genre icons such as Conan the Barbarian. Joyce’s cover, with its mutated, painted style, recalls the old days of TTRPG cover art, the poster art for One Million Years B.C. (1966), and even a little of the trading cards/comic series of Dinosaurs Attack!. Joyce is a master of classic fantasy art and their cover art for this issue of Vanya demonstrates this.
Four Robosaur trading cards by Vascio Giaochini and a Tarot Card by Gus Mauk.As far as swag, issue six of Vanya has a set of four Robosaur trading cards and a new Tarot card. The Robosaur art is done by Vasco Gioachini and each card dhows a different dinosaur outfitted with robotic attachments. These dinos would make great enemies in a Turok game. The Tarot card is for Major Arcana Temperance card and is illustrated by Gus Mauk. The card depicts Vanya playing with a dagger atop a dino skull. Theme and action-wise, the art on the Vanya Temperance card is not in the same realm as a traditional Temperance card (a woman pouring liquid from one container into another), so its derived meaning is going to be open to some interesting interpretations.
Conclusion
With issue six, Vanya looks to finally have placed all its playing pieces on the game board: Vanya and company, the Torridians, the Astral Guard, and of course, the Robo Dinosaurs. The comic also seems to have found a better balance of sex scenes, action sequences, and exposition panels. The comic needs to be able to juggle these three pillars, especially as it is trying to tell the story of time travelling jungle women fighting aliens and robot dinosaurs. It is high concept, and perhaps a little over the top, but Vanya has found its footing to sell its setup. Come for the premise, but stay for the actual intrigue as Vanya navigates both intergalactic and temporal adversaries, which just so happens to include kick ass raptors with buzzsaw arms.
For more information on Vanya and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
Bad Bug Media Vanya 06 Product PageVanya 06 Kickstarter PageZoran Jovicic (Artist)Mike Tener (Writer / EIC Bad Bug)Sean Joyce (Cover Artist)Alex Monik (Cover Artist)Gus Mauk (Tarot Card Artist)Bryan Magnaye (Colorist)Vasco Gioachini (Trading Card Artist)Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:
Death Nell Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 02 ReviewVanya Issue 03 ReviewVanya Issue 04 ReviewVanya Issue 05 ReviewJuly 2, 2025
(Saber-tooth) Cat Class and (Saber-tooth) Cat Style: Vanya 05
The Story So Far
Vanya and Serah are two Time Guards trapped in the prehistoric past, surviving against dinosaurs, savage humanoids, giant snakes, and the looming threat that at any moment will come an attack from the Torridians, an alien race who have declared war on the humans. Rescued by an outpost of other human soldiers, Vanya and company accept a new mission to procure hidden supply caches in an effort to boost defenses against the Torridians. However, she is captured by Niya, another Time Guard aligned with the Bone Tribe.
Standard cover for issue five of Vanya done by Zoran Jovicic and Antonio Wong. Image from the Bad Bug website.Issue 05 Plot
Vanya, Serah, and Guy are brought by Niya to the cavernous lair of the Bone Tribe and introduced to the Bone King, who reveals he, too, was a Time Guard, originally named Vitor 2991. The Bone King tosses a severed raptor head and Vanya and Serah, showing that underneath its scales are cybernetic/robotic parts, “Torridian Tech.”
Niya leads Vanya away to a vantage point where she watches the Bone King slip a chip into Serah’s temple which will “bring out her innermost desires.” A woman of the Bone Tribe, who has black “crying” eye shadows akin to Joseph Michael Linsner’s Dawn character, inserts a chip into her own temple before receiving cunnilingus from Serah.
Elsewhere, two different fronts of invasions from two different species begin to happen concurrently. A pack of saber-tooth tigers, which had been stalking Vanya and company, attack a Bone Tribe campsite. Meanwhile at the human outpost, a Torridian fleet of UFOs begins their bombardment.
Back at the Bone Tribe’s cavern, a ritual orgy to awaken a Torridian Dragon takes place, with Guy and Niya as the center show. With everyone occupied with the ritual, the saber-tooth tigers make their presence known.
Commentary
Building on the momentum from issue four, issue five of Vanya goes all out and spares no expense upping the threat level while at the same time cashing in on some of the setups put forth in prior issues.
General Tora, a Torridian.The big setup/payoff is the reveal of the Torridians. Only referred to in dialogue in prior issues, the Torridians look fierce. Imagine a Mewtwo, only purple-ier, more menacing, with golden tattoos, and outfits akin to sword and sandal attire, but dark green. They are an interesting mix of sword and sorcery and alien in appearance and look like boss characters from a game like Baldur’s Gate. They look formidable and should give Vanya a run for her money when she eventually encounters one.
Another setup that sees a payoff are the saber-toothed tigers. Originally shown on the last page of issue two, stalking Vanya, Serah, and Reed (a character that would eventually become eaten by a T-rex in issue three), the tiger initially seemed to have been forgotten, or cast aside, or just made a one-time appearance to underscore the hostile environmental threat Vanya is operating in. Instead, the tiger turned out to be quite tenacious, following Vanya in secret through issues three and four, before jumping right into the fray of issue five, becoming a deus ex machina of sorts.
And finally, there is the re-reveal of the Torridian Dragon egg. The green egg made its first appearance during the ritual in issue three. The egg was not overtly named; it was simply referred to as “the blessed fruit” and placed on an altar where Niya and another member of the Bone Tribe had intercourse. However, the ritual in issue three was interrupted when Niya was called away from her place of honour by the Bone King to instead go kill a flock of Phorusrhacids. In issue five, it appears that the interrupted ritual is being re-attempted, with Niya back at her place of honour on the egg altar, though this time engaged in sexual acts with Guy which causes the green egg to burst open and beams of white light to shine out of Guy’s eyes like Sascha Schneider’s painting “Hypnosis.” The hatched dragon is not actually revealed.
Of cause and effect note, if the Bone King had not undermined Niya in issue three, and instead sent other warriors to deal with the Phorusrhacids, then the ritual would have taken place then, allowing the egg to hatch, giving the Bone Tribe “a weapon under their control.” Since the tribe would not be pre-occupied with the ritual in current time, they would have been more alert to fend off against the prowling saber-tooth tigers, effectively halting the deus ex machina.
Another character that seems either ill-equipped or overestimating their own abilities like the Bone King is the Astral Guard character Elah. Another cashing in on a setup, in the universe of Vanya, the Astral Guard are the biggest, most skilled, most important warriors, what the Time Guard become after their years training in the prehistoric past. These are the leaders and the guardians of humanity as humans make their way through space and time. Elah comes off as ineffectual. At this point in the story, the Torridians have effectively obliterated humanity by bombarding Earth and sending humans fleeing to different timelines. Elah sends a call to the Torridian general Tora, chastising them for breaking the law, and giving them one day to release their captives and leave the timeline or they will come at them with the full force of the Astral Guard. The question is – should they not have already done this when the Torridians attacked humanity months ago? Elah’s threat sounds too little coming way too late. If Elah represents the best of the best that humanity has got for protection, no wonder the Torridians have been able to steamroll over everyone.
Swag Impressions
Issue five of Vanya is loaded with some fantastic variant covers, but the cover art done by Renato Camilo and Martina Rossi is the winner of the bunch.
Personal copy of the Renato Camilo and Martina Rossi nude variant cover of Vanya issue five.The Camilo covers continue to knock it out the park, basically becoming the canonical representation of the titular character. The Camilo representation of Vanya is the right balance of cheesecake and Jungle Girl, highlighting her dreadlocks that are not really underscored in the interior pages.
Per usual, with stretch goals met during the original crowdfunding campaign to fund issue five, there is a lot of complimentary swag that supplements the reading experience.
Robosaur Trading Cards.Firstly there is a set of six Robosaur trading cards done by series artist Zoran Jovicic. These all depict cybernetic dinosaurs, such as a T-Rex with a red Terminator-style eye, a pterodactyl with cannons on its back, a triceratops with robot front legs and bladed head scales. These are the twisted images conjured by a childlike imagination and they are awesome. Reminiscent of the likes of Dino-Riders and Dinosaucers, cartoons from the late 80s that combined dinosaurs with tech.
Stickers and Tarot card that got with Vanya issue five.Next there is a variety of swag: a holofoil trading card by Zach Raw depicting Vanya under water, a holofoil sicker that depicts a nude version of the Vanya #5 cover done by Bruno Freitas and Antonio Wong, a tiny sticker showing Vanya lunging at a raptor through a azure blue sky, and a tarot card of “The Sun” that shows Vanya riding a pterodactyl, with her blade held high in the air a ’la the iconic poster for the Heavy Metal (1981) movie.
The tarot card is a brilliant swag item, outside the norm of trading cards, magnets, and stickers, and it looks like Bad Bug is deploying the concept with their other titles. This is a neat concept, and it helps tie the different Bad Bug series together intertextually (via the cards), but for folks who perform/read Tarot, collecting the cards will yield a different style deck outside the traditional Rider–Waite style, which is quite exciting.
Conclusion
Issue five of Vanya is epic in scope and action, capitalizing on the momentum of issue four. Concepts and ideas either foreshadowed or hinted at in prior issues are finally realized. Since all these setups are having payoffs in this issue, it creates this f strong sense of urgency, giving the comic a heightened tone of bigger stakes. The multi-genre smorgasbord of time and space travel, dinosaurs, robot dinosaurs, cavemen, aliens, futuristic vs. primitive weapons, and so on that was promised in earlier issues is finally starting to congeal, and rather seamlessly at that. Vanya is looking to become the comic is set out to be.
For more information on Vanya and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
Bad Bug Media Vanya 05 Product PageVanya 05 Kickstarter PageZoran Jovicic (Artist)Mike Tener (Writer / EIC Bad Bug)Renato Camilo (Cover Artist)Bryan Magnaye (Colorist)Zach Raw (Trading Cards)Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:
Death Nell Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 01 ReviewVanya Issue 02 ReviewVanya Issue 03 ReviewVanya Issue 04 ReviewJune 30, 2025
News Roundup 2025-06-29
A new comic book review is up at my website! My deep dive into the Neo-Jungle girl series Vanya continues with issue four.
Standard non-nude cover of Vanya issue 4 by Zoran Jovicic. Image from the Bad Buy website.My review for this issue can be read right here. The PDF version of issue eight was released on the 11th, so I am halfway there to catching up!
Scholars from the Edge of Time – Clash of the Titans (1981)The June episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is now online!
Personal copy of the Clash of the Titans ’81, Clash of the Titan 2010, and Wrath of the Titans 3 Movie Blu-ray set.Just in time for Ray Harryhausen’s birthday, on this episode Michele and I talk about the original 1981 Clash of the Titans, the last film Harryhausen did before he retired. The vidcast can be watched on Youtube. For July we will be talking about the 2010 remake and in August we will be discussing Wrath of the Titans. So, stay tuned!
ECOF 2025In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing there with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is the flyer for the 2025 event:
Flyer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ 2025. Here is the press release:
RENOWNED AUTHOR EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ CAVALRY SERVICE TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WILLCOX, AZ
“Tarzan” Creator and Pop Culture’s Influential “Grandfather of Science Fiction and Fantasy” Commemorated for His 150th Birthday.
WILLCOX, AZ – The renowned “Master of Adventure” Edgar Rice Burroughs started his adult life as a cavalryman at Arizona’s Fort Grant in May of 1896. This September, as part of the late author’s 150th birthday celebration, his cavalry service will be memorialized with a monument at the restored Southern Pacific train depot in Willcox, where he arrived on his way to Fort Grant (35 miles north).
The influential creator of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter of Mars, and The Land That Time Forgot series of stories wrote in his “Autobiography” that he specifically requested “to be sent to the worst post in the United States” and was then promptly assigned to Fort Grant in Arizona Territory, where his troop would spend some time hunting after the Apache Kid and other outlaws.
Many believe that Burroughs’ initial stay in Arizona influenced his first Martian story, Under the Moons of Mars, which begins with the first chapter titled “On the Arizona Hills.” The John Carter Martian stories would go on to influence generations of science fiction and fantasy books and movies, and would inspire many young people to become scientists, engineers, and astronauts. He would later author the books The War Chiefand Apache Devil, both set in Arizona during the Apache Wars of the 1860s – 1880s.
This Willcox Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering will take place from September 25 to 28, 2025, with the 7th Cavalry Historical Monument formal dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 27th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon near the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
The monument dedication at the Willcox train depot will include guest speakers and participation of local Buffalo Soldier reenactors. All other convention events will take place at the Elks Lodge #2131 in Willcox, and will include discussion panels, a “huckster” (vendor) room, Guest of Honor and speaker Jeffrey J. Mariotte (author of Tarzan and the Forest of Stone), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. speakers, a Saturday night banquet/ dinner, a Tarzan movie screening, and other surprises.
These events are sponsored by the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society and the Apache Devils chapter of The Burroughs Bibliophiles. The celebration is open to the public for free (except for the dinner and movie), but full attendees can register for a fee that covers a goodie bag, a huckster table, and the Saturday dinner.
This is a must-attend event for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs and pop-culture historians alike. If you’d like to visit the place where it all began, don’t miss this very special celebration. (Note that some convention activities will require full event registration – the registration form is provided separately.)
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Willcox is offering a special daily room rate of $119 plus taxes for the nights of 25 to 27 September for attendees. The group name is “ECOF.” You can make reservations at this rate by calling the hotel at (520) 384-3333; rooms are limited. The address is 1251 N. Virginia Ave, Willcox, AZ 85643.
If you would like more information about the 2025 ECOF event, please call Frank Puncer at 520.281.1818, or email him at fwpuncer at gmail dot com.
Here is the registration from:
Registration Form for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) Gathering in Willcox, AZ (v9)DownloadMichele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well. I’ll be doing a presentation on Tarzan as a Maciste-like peplum character in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Hope to see yall there!
Publishing RecapBelow is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Panthans Journal #332Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Panthans Journal #333Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
Panthans Journal #335“Tarzan Cocktail: Deconstructed – Reconstructed” reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #335.
Merry Creepsmas – The Red Book“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
Burroughs Bulletin #109“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Miscellaneous TidbitsSome fun things I shared online from these past few weeks. Highlighting things from my personal collection of pop culture artifacts. Or artifacts I’m digging out of the archive. Just, general cool or unique things to show off.
Autographs from the ArchiveHere are some autographed treasures I’ve shared on social media recently.
Get Your War OnI saw some discourse on BlueSky about the post 9/11 comic strip Get Your War On and how relevant it is to the ongoing situation between the US bombing Iran.
A perfect time (and extremely relevant time) to dig out my copy of Get Your War On.
Personal copy of Get Your War On.I bought mine way back in the 2000s. I must have ordered it directly from the author David Rees because my edition is autographed.
Get Your War On signed by David Rees.I also have a copy of his My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable, and if I can find that, I’ll give that a share.
The GYWO comic is long out of print, but good news: you don’t need to own a copy to read it, it’s all online, archived at Rees’ website. Check it out here and then consider doing a compare and contrast of our (geo)political climate then and now. War mongers gonna war monger.
New Sword and Sandal AcquisitionsThe ever growing peplum research libraries grows with these recent sword and sandal films having been acquired.
Alexander 4K/Blu-rayAlexander (2004) is an early entry in the neo-peplum revival that began with Gladiator. Apparently there’s a zillion different cuts of this film as Oliver Stone went all Ridley Scott a’la Blade Runner style on his movie.
Personal copy of Alexander on 4K. Upside down poster tube to the left.I had not actually seen Alexander so when Shout Factory announced a nice 4K version of it I hopped right on the pre-order bandwagon. This release just came out in early June, and since I pre-ordered it I got a schnazzy poster too. Excited to watch!
RisenRisen is a 2016 biblical peplum directed by Kevin Reynolds (who is responsible for some of the finest works of Kevin Costner). Another film I had not seen, but I saw it on Amazon for super cheap, so decided to pick it up. I remember Joseph Fiennes from The Rock version of Hercules, so it will be nice to see him in another sword and sandal flick.
Personal 4K copy of Risen.While I have not seen this film, biblical film scholar Matt Page has! He covered this film at his Bible Films Blog back in the day, so check out his write up here.
Talos StatueThis isn’t a new acquisition as I’ve had it in my collection since the 2000s, but with Ray Harryhausen’s birthday happening on 6/29, I’ve gotta share it: my giant Talos statue.
Talos Statue.I got this from Scarecrow Video way back in the day and it is just epically cool.
Jason and the Argonauts LaserdiscNow this is a recent acquisition. Going movie and music shopping at Zia Records during my birthday weekend, I happened across the Criterion Collection laserdisc edition of Jason and the Argonauts for a whole 99 cents. I had to have it!
Personal copy of the Criterion Collection Laserdisc edition of Jason and the Argonauts.The essay on the back of the Laserdisc by Bruce Eder can be read on the Criterion Collection website. It is nice the company makes their old essays available!
News from FriendsCool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
New Ride the Stream EpisodesMichele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.
Here is their discussion of episode 25:
New episodes drop every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.
New Fan2Fan EpisodesBernie and Pete have some new episodes of their Fan2Fan podcast online.
First up is an interview with Joshua Pruett who talks about writing the movie Witch Hunter (2024).
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssNext they have a part one of an interview with Nashville horror host Dr. Gangrene.
https://feeds.libsyn.com/80728/rssOlder episodes of Fan2Fan can be found at its Libsyn page or via your podcast app of preference.
Reverberate: A Magazine of Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs expert and scholar Scott Tracy Griffin has started a new publication called Reverberate: A Magazine of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The magazine is hot off the presses, having debuted at the Northwest Coast Mangani Gathering VII at the end of May/Beginning of June. One hundred copies of the magazine were numbered and signed by authors Griffin and Gary A. Buckingham. I, of course, ordered a copy:
Personal copy of RevERBerate issue 01.
Signature page of RevERBerate #01. It has Gary A. Buckingham and Scott Tracy Griffin.Here is the press release for the magazine’s launch with information on how to procure a copy:
Hal C. F. Astell Webstore
A new magazine spotlighting the work of The Master of Adventure has entered the print arena: Reverberate: A Magazine of Edgar Rice Burroughs is a 48-page magazine printed on high-quality, glossy pages, perfect-bound with cardstock covers.
“We want to explore Edgar Rice Burroughs’ work, life, and legacy, and its impact in media including art, comics, film, television, stage, radio, periodicals, and, of course, his original novels,” explains Reverberate editor Scott Tracy Griffin. “The Burroughs community isn’t wholly served in the periodicals medium and we believe the time ideal to deliver a new outlook.”
Reverberate enjoyed a successful launch at the May 2025 NCM VII Gathering of literary devotees and fans in Roseville, California. The debut issue showcases acclaimed artist Benito Gallego, whose lush portfolio boasts the comic-strip adventures of Tarzan and The Outlaw of Torn; profiles fireman-turned-silent-film-actor Gene Pollar, who starred as the iconic ape man in The Revenge of Tarzan (1920); and investigates the early African explorers whose feats influenced Burroughs’ writing.
The magazine also delves into the books of author Gary A. Buckingham, who helmed three Tarzan projects, with his fourth in development. Notes Buckingham, “Burroughs created worlds of wonder, in which I’ve been fortunate to immerse my tales of his savage ape man.”
The first 100 issues are numbered and signed by both writers, and feature interior illustrations by artist Dan Parsons.
Says Griffin, already well-known to Burroughs’ enthusiasts as the author of Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration (2012) and Tarzan on Film (2016), “We’re offering Reverberate on an introductory basis at $10, plus $5 domestic postage. Priority mail is $14. Foreign customers, please contact us with your address and we will get a postage quote. The U.S. does not offer ground shipping beyond its borders, so all foreign postage, even Canadian, is via airmail.”
To learn more and to purchase copies, please contact Scott Tracy Griffin at scotttracygriffin@gmail.com, or Gary A. Buckingham at gbucking3@gmail.com.
Author, editor, con-runner (he’s behind CoKoCon), and all around jack of all trades guy Hal C. F. Astell has opened up a web store for all of his and Apocalypse Later books. Check it out and consider plucking up a book or two.
