Joe Richard Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as Batman: The Animated Series.
Frequent features of Lansdale's writing are usually deeply ironic, strange or absurd situations or characters, such as Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy in a nursing home (the plot of his Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella, Bubba Ho-Tep, which was made into a movie by Don Coscarelli). He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and nine Bram Stoker Awards. The World Horror Convention made him the recipient of the 2007 Grand Master Award for contributions to the field of Horror fiction.
He is perhaps best known for his Hap and Leonard series of novels which feature two friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who live in the fictional town of Laborde, in East Texas, and find themselves solving a variety of often unpleasant crimes. The characters themselves are an unlikely pairing; Hap is a white working class laborer in his mid forties who once protested against the war in Vietnam, and Leonard is a gay black Vietnam vet. Both of them are accomplished fighters, and the stories (told from Hap's narrative point of view) feature a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale paints a picture of East Texas which is essentially "good" but blighted by racism, ignorance, urban and rural deprivation and corruption in public officials. Some of the subject matter is extremely dark, and includes scenes of brutal violence. These novels are also characterized by sharp humor and "wisecracking" dialogue.
Frequent features of Lansdale's writing are usually deeply ironic, strange or absurd situations or characters, such as Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy in a nursing home (the plot of his Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella, Bubba Ho-Tep, which was made into a movie by Don Coscarelli). He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and nine Bram Stoker Awards. The World Horror Convention made him the recipient of the 2007 Grand Master Award for contributions to the field of Horror fiction.
He is perhaps best known for his Hap and Leonard series of novels which feature two friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who live in the fictional town of Laborde, in East Texas, and find themselves solving a variety of often unpleasant crimes. The characters themselves are an unlikely pairing; Hap is a white working class laborer in his mid forties who once protested against the war in Vietnam, and Leonard is a gay black Vietnam vet. Both of them are accomplished fighters, and the stories (told from Hap's narrative point of view) feature a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale paints a picture of East Texas which is essentially "good" but blighted by racism, ignorance, urban and rural deprivation and corruption in public officials. Some of the subject matter is extremely dark, and includes scenes of brutal violence. These novels are also characterized by sharp humor and "wisecracking" dialogue.
B.O.C.
YOU’RE KNOWN FOR
BLENDING GENRES. HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EDITOR SEND YOUR STORY BACK WITH WHAT THE
FUCK WRITTEN IN A NOTE?
JOE
I've had editors not
get it, but mostly early on. They sometimes said the tone was wrong for a
Western, or such. Or that you can't cross them up that way. Or it was too
literary. Or too pulp. But mostly, after a period of time, I don't get that.
Doesn't mean they might not be thinking it, though.
B.O.C.
YOUR HAP AND LEONARD
NOVELS PRETTY POPULAR. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE BOOKS?
JOE
Real life. A lot of
Hap's experiences are mine. I also wanted to write a book about my earlier life
without doing it directly. It's not my adventure, but a lot of the ideas,
thoughts, experiences are Hap's. I also wanted, at that time, to write about
the sixties folks I knew, and was among. Leonard just showed up in the story.
He's based on a number of people I know or have known.
B.O.C.
DO YOU SCAN THE NEWSPAPERS OR INTERNET SITES, OR EVEN TV FOR
IDEAS?
JOE
I don't do it
consciously, but now and again, from reading, or viewing, something will
stimulate an idea, and I'm off.
B.O.C.
WHAT WRITERS INSPIRED
YOU TO START WRITING?
JOE
So many. Poe. Twain. London. Kipling. Stevenson. But Edgar
Rice Burroughs in particular. Later so many more. Kuttner, Bradbury, Matheson,
Charles Beaumont, Chester Himes, Raymond Chandler, James Cain, Ernest
Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Flannery O'Conner. Too many to
name
B.O.C.
IF YOU HAD THE POWER,
WHAT DEAD CELEBRITY WOULD YOU BRING BACK TO LIFE AND WHAT USE WOULD YOU HAVE
FOR THEM?
JOE
Mark Twain. I'd just
like to hear him talk and have him write more books.
B.O.C.
WHAT ADVISE WOULD YOU GIVE WRITERS STARTING OUT?
JOE
Read. Lots. Then write. Lots
B.O.C.
OK, YOU’RE A TIME TRAVELER AND YOU END UP IN 1956, TWO
CONCERTS ARE HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME. LIBERACE AND ELVIS. WHICH ONE WOULD
YOU GO TO?
JOE
Elvis, hands down.
B.O.C.
TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THE NEW BOOKS YOU HAVE OUT.
JOE
EDGE OF DARK WATER in
paperback from Mulholland, and watch for the new one from them in hardback, THE
THICKET, later this year.
B.O.C.
WHAT HITCHCOCK FILM HAS HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOU
AND? IT’S OK TO TELL EVERYONE YOUR
GUILTY PLEASURE ANY ENTERTAINMENT.
JOE
9. Toss up. Psycho or Shadow of A Doubt. My guilty pleasure,
well, I don't feel all that guilty about any of it. I like ROADHOUSE and lots
of old fifties S.F. films that have not stood the test of time that well, but
they are fun for me.
B.O.C.
I HAVE TO ASK THIS:
BUBA HO TEP, MY FRIEND---WHAT THE FUCK? WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR THAT
GREAT STORY?
JOE
Elvis fan. Mother in a rest home for a while due to injury.
JFK was shot when I was young. My sister-in-law graduated high school with
Elvis. My brother tried to record at Sun. They are about seventeen years older
than me, but I was around when Elvis first became known. The first music I
remember was Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and Elvis Presley. And, I promised a
story.
ALSO CHECKOUT A NARRATION OF JOE'S STORY TINY STITCHES IN A DEAD MAN'S BACK ON DARK DREAMS PODCAST
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