The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale - Softcover

Lansdale, Joe R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616964464 ISBN 13: 9781616964467

Publisher: Tachyon Publications, 2025

Synopsis

In this career horror retrospective, World Horror Grandmaster Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-tep; Hap and Leonard) tackles racism and human cruelty as deftly as he conjures demon nuns and Elder Gods. Featuring an original introduction from Joe Hill, this much-anticipated volume showcases the best of Lansdale's terrifying short stories--menacing, astute, and wildly inappropriate.

"This book is flat-out incredible." --John Skipp, New York Times bestselling author-turned-filmmaker of This Is Splatterpunk

Bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale is known for his gritty mysteries and his eccentric horror. As an eleven-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Joe Lansdale cooks up an inimitable recipe of Southern Gothic and Southern fried chicken that continues to delight his many fans and influence generations of horror legends.

Lansdale mashes up crime, Gothic, mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction, filtered through a raw, violent world of dark humor and unique characters. Lansdale is one of the early American horror writers to portray racism not as abstract but as realistic, intimate, and impossible to ignore.

In Lansdale's nightmarish visions, you'll discover psychotic demon nuns, a psychopathic preacher, cannibals, 80-year-old Elvis, undead strippers, flying ghost fish, Elder Gods, possessed cars, and the worst evil of all: mankind.

Table of contents
Introduction by Joe Hill
"The Folding Man"
"Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train"
"God of the Razor"
"My Dead Dog Bobby"
"Tight Little Stitches in a Deadman's Back"
"By Bizarre Hands"
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk
"Love Doll: A Fable"
"Mister Weed-Eater"
"The Bleeding Shadow"
"Not From Detroit"
"The Hungry Snow"
"Dog, Cat, and Baby"
Bubba Ho-tep
"Fish Night"
"Night They Missed the Horror Show"

About this title

About the Author

World Horror Grandmaster Joe R. Lansdale has received eleven Bram Stoker Awards as well as, the Edgar, Raymond Chandler, British Fantasy, Spur, Golden Lion, and Inkpot Awards. Lansdale has written more than forty novels and four hundred shorter works. His novels include the fourteen novel Hap & Leonard series, Dead in the West, The Nightrunners, The Drive-In, Cold in July, The Bottoms, The Thicket, Moon Lake, and The Donut Legion. His short story collections include four volumes in the Hap & Leonard series, Terror Is Our Business (with Kasey Lansdale), Things Get Ugly, and The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team. He has edited fifteen anthologies, including Weird Business (with Richard Klaw) and Crucified Dreams. Lansdale's works that have been adapted for film treatments include Bubba Ho-Tep, the Hap and Leonard TV series (starring James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams), and Cold in July; "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" for Masters of Horror; as well as stories for Love, Death + Robots and Creepshow. He has also written graphic novels for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and others.

Joe R. Lansdale lives with his wife, Karen, in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from “The Night They Missed the Horror Show”

The river bottoms were steamy and hot from the closeness of the trees and the under- and overgrowth. As Leonard wound the Impala down the narrow, red clay roads amidst the dense foliage, he felt as if his car were a crab crawling about in a pubic thatch. He could feel from the way the steering wheel handled that the dog and the chain were catching brush and limbs here and there. He had forgotten all about the dog and now being reminded of it worried him. What if the dog got tangled and he had to stop? He didn’t think Pork would take kindly to stopping, not with the dead burrhead on the floorboards and him wanting to get rid of the body.

Finally they came to where the woods cleared out a spell and they drove along the edge of the Sabine River. Leonard hated water and always had. In the moonlight the river looked like poisoned coffee flowing there. Leonard knew there were alligators and gars big as little alligators and water moccasins by the thousands swimming underneath the water, and just the thought of all those slick, darting bodies made him queasy.

They came to what was known as Broken Bridge. It was an old worn-out bridge that had fallen apart in the middle and it was connected to the land on this side only. People sometimes fished off of it. There was no one fishing tonight.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tachyon Publications
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616964464
• ISBN 13: 9781616964467
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332