NEPCA Fantastic

Welcome to NEPCA Fantastic, the official blog of the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA), a regional affiliate of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association. Founded in 2009 and online since 2010, we seek to provide both a resource to potential presenters and a gateway to furthering the study of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic in all their varied forms.

The 2013 meeting of NEPCA will convene at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont, from 25-26 October 2013, and, in conjunction with NEPCA, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area is pleased to announce that the call for papers for our fifth-anniversary sessions is now available. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the theme of "Genre Crossings: Exploiting the Generic Fluidity of the Fantastic" but will also consider proposals outside that topic. Scholars of all levels are invited to submit individual proposals of proposals for complete sessions; be advised that submissions will be accepted until 10 June 2013. Further details are available in the posted call for papers.

Archive lists of past sessions can be accessed via the following links: 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Be on the lookout in fall 2013 for our call for papers for the 2014 convocation of NEPCA at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Programming Nightmares

Well they've done it again. In their infinite wisdom, the programs at FOX, CW, and NBC have all scheduled genre programming against each other on Friday nights at 9 PM EST. FOX airs the fourth season of Fringe (preempted tonight because of baseball), CW the seventh season of Supernatural, and NBC freshman series Grimm (following a lead-in from the fifth and final season of Chuck). Hopefully, NBC won't cancel Grimm too soon.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Retro TV on DVD--The Mighty Hercules and Drak Pack

For animation junkies and fans of retro TV, two recent releases might be of interest. A single-disc version of the classic 1960s series The Mighty Hercules has been released by Classic Media, while Visual Entertaining Inc. has issued a three-disc set of Drak Pack, a 1980s mash-up of the Universal monsters and The Super Friends. Trailers to both shows are appended below. The DVDs are available for purchase online and at your local retailers.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Remember Jem and the Holograms?

I came across an interesting post on io9.com interviewing Samantha Newark, the actress who voiced series protagonist Jerrica Benton and her alter ego Jem, on the 1980s's animated series Jem (1985-88), which included significant sf elements and is now available on DVD.

For those unfamiliar with the series, here is the opening sequence:

I, Vampire Reborn

DC Comics is re-envisioning vampire Andrew Bennett in the new series I, Vampire as part of the New 52 re-launching of the DC Universe into Andrew Stanton, a radically younger version of the established character. There is an insightful interview with the writer, Joshua Fialkov, at Newsarama.