Fastitocalon. Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern (VIII, 1 & 2)

The eighth volume of Fastitocalon takes a look at a selection of the early fantasy films and television series, most of which date back to the late 1970s or early 1980s. The thematic range of the articles published here does not touch upon such conventional fantasy-related issues as the worldbuilding techniques, the use of the supernatural, the complexity of character formation and interaction as well as the unrelenting conflict between good and evil etc. Instead, the authors deal with the topics of a less obvious kind: the possible anti-communist undertones in Lech Majewski's The Knight, the socio-political background of Conan the Barbarian, the conventional orientalist constructions found in John Milius's landmark tale of the courageous Cimmerian, the adaptational dilemmas encountered by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass in the development of their animated versions of Tolkien's works and the mythological parallels and reminiscences in Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess. Notwithstanding by this wide-ranging and, in many a case, multidisciplinary approach to fantasy films in the second half of the twentieth century the present issue of Fastitocalon provides a valuable addition to the study of speculative fiction on the screen prior to the enormous worldwide success of Peter Jackson's trilogies and HBO's Game of Thrones. The contributors for this volume are: Franz Klug ("There and back again": Worldbuilding in Rankin and Bass's Animated Hobbit Tales), Lukasz Neubauer (In the Realm of the Maimed King: Some Plausible Arthurian Inspirations and Political Undertones in Lech Majewski's The Knight), Przemyslaw Grabowski-Górniak (Conan the Cinematic: The Socio-Political Background of John Milius' Conan the Barbarian), Mat Hardy (Conan the Constructor: Building Eastern Worlds in Fantasy Film) and Martin J. Auernheimer (The Hercules & Xena Universe: Myth or Fantasy?).