So Hap, in his own small, blue-collar way, is my Gatsby. At least he is in the first few novels. In time, that changes, as all our lives must change.
Leonard, he just wants to be left alone. He doesn’t care about anyone’s club. He’s gay, and he’s all right with that. He’s black, and if you don’t like it, you can ram a stick up your nose. He’s a lot less introspective than Hap. He’s one of those guys like my dad was. It is what it is. Wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one fills up first.
After Savage Season, I had no idea that I would ever write about Hap and Leonard again. I didn’t intend to, and it was three years before I did. I had moved from Bantam to Mysterious Press by that time, a kind of movement not uncommon to authors, especially in those days when we still had a number of publishers to choose from, and we didn’t have computer sales numbers following us around. My then-agent managed to get me a two-book contract at Mysterious, and my first book for it wasn’t going so well. I put it aside and very quickly wrote another. When I sat down to write it, Hap started speaking to me, and he took over. Even then, I thought, this is it, two and out. But the book really hit a nerve with the publisher and the readers, and a series was born. And boy, did I love Hap and Leonard.
Savage Season, the first, has its funny moments, but compared to the others in the series, it is a little more dour. It was followed by seven others, funnier on the whole, although still dark in places, and variable in tone and themes. The first was my caper book, or as close as I’ll get to that; the second was the mysterious murder that is tied to the heroes; the third was the Bad Town novel; and the fourth was . . . well, wacky. The fifth was a road novel, the sixth a fish-out-of-water novel. I left the series for eight years to write other things at yet another publisher, Knopf, and for one of its paperback lines, Vintage.
At that time, Mysterious Press had the original Hap and Leonard novels, and Knopf wasn’t interested in carrying the series forward because of that—hence the eight-year wait. Finally, the Hap and Leonard books went out of print, and Vintage picked them up. I wrote two new Hap and Leonard books back-to-back for it, one a kind of mysterious assassin novel, the other a dangerous cult book. The latest, Honky Tonk Samurai, forthcoming in 2016 from my current publisher, Mulholland, is what I call putting the crew together for one big event. It will be followed by Rusty Puppy. The definition of that one is yet to be decided. I never know until I’m finished, and frankly, even then I’m not absolutely certain. What remains in all the books are those guys, their close friendship, their personal histories, and the adventures.
I mention all of this to show how long Hap and Leonard have been with me. After the first six novels, I ceased aging them except when they were having books written about them. So the eight-year wait between number six, Captains Outrageous, and number seven, Vanilla Ride, is in my mind only a few months later, and so on. If I didn’t do that, my guys would be in wheelchairs right now, fighting it out in rest homes with villains who were trying to take their desserts and piss in their bedpans.
But between all that waiting, now and again, I wrote shorter pieces about them. After Vanilla Ride and Devil Red, numbers seven and eight in the series, I wrote a novella, Hyenas, about them, and a short story that is among my favorites, a dark piece titled “The Boy Who Became Invisible.” My comic-book script for an as yet unpublished comic that I produced for a German publisher is included in this book. I followed this with Dead Aim, another novella. Some years before these, however, my brother Andrew Vachss and I collaborated on a Hap and Leonard novella that to my taste is one of the oddest pieces I’ve been involved with, unique because Andrew is unique. He added a character to the Hap and Leonard mythology, Veil, and he appears in Veil’s Visit, also included here, and although it’s not exactly rare, it’s a story that, until now, has been hard to capture. Veil, like my brother Andrew, is smart and unpredictable. A man couldn’t ask for a better brother and friend than Andrew Vachss, whom I love and admire, as does my entire family. He thinks outside the box as a writer, as a lawyer, and as a protector of children. For my own children, he is Uncle Andrew, and they love him and think the world of him. Of course, they should.
Another related novella was Marvin Hanson’s first solo adventure since his introduction in my very first crime novel Act of Love (way back in 1981). A Bone-Dead Sadness is a bit different than much of my crime work, a kind of locked-room crime. Since Marvin is a recurring character throughout many of the Hap and Leonard stories, it’s included in this very collection.
What else is here?
I also had a promotional piece I had written to advertise Bad Chili, the fourth book in the series. It was “cleverly” called “Death by Chili.” It went out to reviewers and whoever received galleys of Bad Chili, part of a promotional package that included the story and a hot pepper glued to the page. I still have one or two of those promotional packets somewhere.
“Death by Chili” is the lightest of the Hap and Leonard pieces. Something to cleanse your palate. It’s a kind of locked-room mystery, and it’s Leonard’s story, for the most part.
This book also includes an interview I did with the guys, and, better yet, an intro by Michael Koryta and a memoir of Hap and Leonard and me by Bill Crider, who was there at the beginning. To have fine writers like Michael and Bill write about Hap and Leonard, and about me, is humbling indeed. I’m honored to have them here.
On top of all that are two new Hap and Leonard stories, one about their high school years and the other, more a vignette, about one of their favorite hangouts.
I am also grateful to have Rick Klaw, my editor on this book, as a friend. I have known him for many years now. He was nothing but an energetic kid with a lot of plans when I met him. Now he’s an energetic adult who has fulfilled many of those plans and is in the process of fulfilling others. Fortunately, I have been a part of those plans, and I owe him a lot for helping put this book together.
For Hap and Leonard fans who might have missed these stories when they first came out, I hope this will be a small treat. For those who have yet to discover Hap and Leonard, perhaps these short visits will encourage you to come on over and visit them in their truer habitat, the novel.
I would also like to thank Sundance TV; my friend and director, Jim Mickle; and my good buddy, actor/screenwriter Nick Damici, for all their hard work on developing these characters into a series. A special thanks has to go to Lowell Northrop, my friend and co-collaborator, for organizing and presenting this series to Jim and Nick, and for all his hard work and relentless pursuit of a series about Hap and Leonard. He knows the characters better than I do—I think they talk to him more than to me.
I should also mention, with great pride and respect, James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams, two fine actors and equally fine fellows who have brought Hap and Leonard to life on the small screen. Thanks, guys. It has been a treat.
And thanks to my pal Bill Sage, as well as the always game Jeff Pope, the wonderfully intense Neil Sandilands, the remarkable Christina Hendricks, and Jimmi Simpson and the sweetly tough-as-nails Pollyanna McIntosh. She’s what we in Texas call “a pistol.” You need her to climb through a window, she’ll do it. Wrestle a bear, she’s ready. Kick someone’s ass, where the hell are they?
Thanks to all the crew and actors and everyone involved in the television show for braving mosquitoes; all manner of huge, crawling bugs, including fire ants; alligators; snakes; tornadoes; windstorms; rainstorms; and blistering heat to make this series a reality.
Special thanks to my niece and assistant, the smart and lovely Pamela Lansdale, aka Pamela Dunklin. She kept me focused, provided granola bars when I looked as if I might be losing blood sugar, and made certain things went smoothly. And, of course, thanks to my lovely wife, Karen, for letting me go on a two-month long adventure into TV land. And to my children, Keith and Kasey, thanks for supporting your old man with kind words and humor.
Finally, thanks to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area, and all the nice p
eople there for letting us pretend it was East Texas. Why not? They look just alike, although I think your crawfish are better.
So here are the stories.
Read and enjoy.
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 Ride Again Page 14