I love these guys. They have been with me a long time. I have had a lot of time to visit with them, and lately more than usual. New books, new novellas, a TV show, and now these stories. Some of them are brand new, some of them are rare, and only a couple have had much life outside of small presentations. “The Boy Who Became Invisible” appeared in a previous collection from the same publisher, but somehow it would have left too big a gap in this series of events had we restricted its presence merely because it appeared before. Here it becomes a valuable part of this mosaic construction. Same with “Not Our Kind,” though it has only appeared in the aforementioned book, which by the way is titled Hap and Leonard.
I am proud of these stories. I am proud of Hap and Leonard. They may even have broken a bit of new ground in their day. I won’t go into all of that, as I have written about their odd couple differences before.
I am also proud of Hap and Leonard’s influence on other writers, and I am happy to have those writers write and tell me how much the books meant to them, and how much they helped them create their own characters. And all you readers, Hap and Leonard fans, thank you.
As a side note, these stories may in fact violate some of the material in the novels, but not by much. These are the true stories, the true past. In the novels Hap dropped a step now and then, not revealing things, hinting at things, and in a couple of small cases they were just wrong. The TV show, soon to go into its second season, has borrowed some of the ideas in some of these stories, some true events from my life, and they have given Hap and Leonard a slightly different past than the one here, but as they say in the movie business, it is “in the spirit of,” which generally means bend over, no time to grease up, here it comes. But in my case I have been treated very well by the series, and so have my characters. I appreciate that. Thanks Sundance for not screwing it up. Still, there are differences in the TV version and my version. The record is set straight here. This is the official version.
Enjoy your visit with Hap and Leonard in the early days. I certainly enjoyed finding out about them myself. Hap has not always been as open with me about his past as I would have liked.
Lansdale
Nacogdoches, Texas
2016
About the Author
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than forty novels and four hundred shorter works, including stories, essays, introductions, and articles. He has written screenplays and teleplays, including for Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. He wrote the script for the animated film The Son of Batman. His works have been translated into numerous languages, and several novels and short stories of his have been filmed, among them Bubba Ho-Tep; Cold in July; Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, for Showtime’s Masters of Horror; and Christmas with the Dead, which he produced with a screenplay by his son, Keith.
Lansdale is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, among them the Edgar Award and ten Bram Stoker Awards, one of which is for Lifetime Achievement. He has received the Grandmaster of Horror Award; the British Fantasy Award; the Inkpot Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Herodotus Award for historical/crime fiction; the Golden Lion Award for his contribution to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs; the Grinzane Prize; and others.
Lansdale is also a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the Texas Institute of Letters, and he is Writer in Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is the founder of Shen Chuan Martial Science and has been recognized by the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame as well as the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
Joe Lansdale lives with his wife, Karen, in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade Page 17