The Best Of Joe R. Lansdale

Anyone who reads horror or any other literature of the fantastic knows who Joe Lansdale is, I assume. A colorful personality as well as a gifted writer, he has been at the forefront since his breakthrough in the 80s, with his novels reaching bestseller lists and his work being adapted into film (Bubba Ho-Tep). He has also conquered the medium of comic books, most notably with the controversial “weird western” Jonah Hex, and is much sought-after at conventions for reading his own work. (At Hypericon in 2008, I witnessed Mr. Lansdale reading his short story “Mr. Bear”, and his performance did much to elevate the piece. Lansdale is also the only writer I’ve ever been too nervous to speak to.)

Although he is more known in the public conscious due to his novels, die-hard fans believe it is in the short story format that he truly shines. There have been several collections of his work thus far, and now Tachyon Publications has come out with a career overview, suitably titled The Best of Joe R. Lansdale. This contains most of his best known works, including five which have won Stoker awards. I’m a persistent critic of the Stokers, but even I’m impressed by that.

Among the highlights of the collection:

“Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program”, in which everyone’s favorite giant lizard tries to reform his city-stomping ways, a good showcase for Lansdale’s trademark sense of humor.

“The Big Blow”, set in Galveston during the devastating hurricane at the beginning of the 20th Century.

“Incident On And Off A Mountain Road”, which was adapted for the Showtime series Masters of Horror (one of their better episodes, in my opinion).

“On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” which won the British Fantasy Award and has never been collected.

“The Night They Missed the Horror Show”, about two young rednecks in 1968 who decide not to attend a showing of Night of the Living Dead after they learn the male lead is a black man. This is a decision that has fateful consequences. I liked this well enough to list it as Number 4 on my list of The Best Horror Stories of All Time, and most who have commented feel it should be higher.

Lansdale fans will have quibbles with the selections (I was wondering where “Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man’s Back” was, myself), but no matter, this is a great collection. Whether you are a die hard Lansdale fan and want to get most of his best work in one volume, or you are a neophyte to the Cult of Lansdale looking for a good staring point, this is the book for you. The promotional material I received with the book says it will be released in March, although Amazon lists it being released on February 15th (and also confusingly says it is now in stock). Either way, order it, pilgrim.
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The Sick Stuff

When I heard Ronald Kelly was going to release a collection of his more “extreme” horror stories, I’ll admit I was a little skeptical. Kelly’s work has been more the atmospheric horror than the gross-out contest type, and despite the sometimes fractious nature of the horror community, you won’t ever hear anyone say an unkind word about him, and there is difficulty imaging a very nice person writing hardcore stomach-churning stuff. Maybe I should be more wary of nice people, because Thunderstorm Books’ edition of The Sick Stuff proves Kelly can more than hold his own against the Edward Lees, Skipp & Spectors and the like.

Back in the late eighties, a new trend emerged in horror called splatterpunk, in which authors pushed the boundaries of what had been acceptable, and their stories became steadily more extreme. In the long run, this was bad for the genre, as too many writers focused on topping one another at the expense of a well written story. The good writers in this trend, Skipp & Spector, David Schow, et al, ended up somewhat drowned out by a sea of exploitation writers. But for a brief time, this sort of story was what editors wanted, and it was against that backdrop that Kelly wrote most of what is contained here.

It’s always difficult to go into too much detail about short stories without giving too much away, but I’m going to hit the high points of them. My favorite is probably the lead story, “Diary”, in which a serial killer writes his life story prior to execution, including the observation that the babysitters had barbecued the wrong twin. One that will stick with a lot of people is “The Abduction”. It’s a story that will require you to pay attention and think a little at the end to get the thrust of the story, and then you’ll want to instantly re-read it. “Housewarming” should keep anyone with a phobia about spiders from sleeping with the lights off for a long time.

There are seven stories in all, presented in an affordable, smaller-than-usual paperback format. This is another side of Ronald Kelly than we are used to seeing, but he brings the same level of talent to these stories, all of which are keepers. The book includes an introduction by the talented young writer James Newman, artwork by Zach McCain, and an afterword by Kelly where he talks about the inspiration and the history of the stories, something I always find fascinating.

If you are a fan of Edward Lee or any of the other writers known for walking close to the edge with their fiction, you should check The Sick Stuff out, because you would like it. If you are not already a fan of Ronald Kelly, you should be, and this would be a good place to start. It is priced very affordably, so it won’t strain your budget, and there are only going to be 250 copies, so you should grab one soon. You can order the book through the website of Thunderstorm Books, and it is also available through The Horror Mall and Cemetery Dance. Mention my name, and they’ll sell it to you at the regular price. ;-)

Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors

Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors is horror author Ronald Kelly’s first collection of short stories, and it is a frustrating book. Frustrating because you are torn between wanting to save these stories to read one at a time and make them last, and wanting to read it all at one sitting. I read it fairly quickly, then regretted I didn’t draw them out to make them last a little longer.

Up front, let me tell you I have a strong affinity for Kelly’s work. Ron and I are of the same approximate generation, I guess. While he was growing up in rural Tennessee, I was doing so in rural west Alabama, in a similar Southern community of Scot-Irish Protestants. I imagine if we’d known each other as boys, we’d have traded copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland. I’m sure there are things we would disagree on, but Ron’s South is the same as my South, so the characters that inhabit his stories seem familiar and real to me. I also believe the Southern story-telling tradition is hard to beat.

I’ve already talked about the circumstances of Ron’s return to writing, so I won’t belabor that again, but I will say this represents the first of his return in 2009 to the field, and I think he will be making a big splash. This, as I said, is his first big collection, and Cemetery Dance has done a great job, from the Alex McVey cover art to Kathleen Freeman’s very pleasing interior design. For those who see page count as an indication of value, it clocks in at over 400 pages, and contains (unless I miscounted) 32 stories, originally published between 1988 and 1992. Each story is approximately 20 pages in length, so if you can refrain from reading the whole thing at once, it would be nice for lunch and other breaks.

The stories are of consistently high quality. Being an audience for well-spun tales goes way back into our makeup, and Ron has a gift for this. Most collections are tremendously uneven, for obvious reason, but there wasn’t a story here that I didn’t like, a rare thing for me, since I’ve been accused of hating everything by a devoted reader.

It’s hard to pick out a favorite, but here are some highlights: A traveler makes a mistake when he gets off at “Exit 85”…a swamp version of Creature From the Black Lagoon in “Beneath Black Bayou”…the Universal Monsters win out in “Thinning The Herd”…the O. Henryish “Breakfast Serial”…antebellum lycanthropy in “Oh, Sordid Shame!”…John Steinbeck does vampires in “The Boxcar”…and assorted other ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties, and monsters in human form. A number of them were familiar to me once I started them, having read them in their original published venue. This is definitely the book to beat for best collection of 2009.

Ron’s one of the nicest guys in the business, but he pulls no punches when he’s writing. These tales would chill your blood told around a campfire, and are long past due in being collected. Few people today are writing this kind of straight ahead old-school horror. There is also a good bit of wry humor, which has long been an integral part of horror fiction. Consider this a retrospective of the first part of Ronald Kelly’s career, and a teaser for what is to come. But for whatever reason, hie thee to Cemetery Dance and purchase this book now.

As a purely irrelevant, but nostalgic note: I’m the kind of person who reads the publishing history at the front of a book (and the liner notes on albums/CDs), and it is sobering how many of the publications that first hosted these stories no longer exist.
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