by David Byron
Zeppelins West (2001)
Flaming London (2006)
The Sky Done Ripped (release date unknown)
Other novels
Act of Love (1980)
Texas Night Riders (1983) (originally published under the pseudonym Ray Slater)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
Dead in the West (1986) (written in 1980)
Magic Wagon (1986)
The Nightrunners (1987) (written in 1982 as Night of the Goblins) Cold in July (1989)
Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (1995) (with Edgar Rice Burroughs) The Boar (1998) (initially a limited edition, later republished)
Freezer Burn (1999)
Waltz of Shadows (1999) (written in 1991) (limited edition “Lost Lansdale” vol 1)
Something Lumber This Way Comes (1999) (Children"s book) (lim. ed. “Lost Lansdale” vol 2)
The Big Blow (2000) (limited edition)
Blood Dance (2000) (written in the early „80"s) (limited edition “Lost Lansdale” vol 3)
The Bottoms (2000)
A Fine Dark Line (2002)
Sunset and Sawdust (2004)
Lost Echoes (2007)
Leather Maiden (2008)
Pseudonymous novels
Molly"s Sexual Follies (as Brad Simmons) Pseudonymous porn novel written with Brad W. Foster
Mark Stone: MIA Hunter series
These are a few novels Lansdale wrote under the pseudonym “Jack Buchanan”. These novels were probably co-written with Stephen Mertz. Some people erroneously report that Lansdale is responsible for the entire series, which is definitely not true.
Hanoi Deathgrip (Stone: MIA Hunter #3)
Mountain Massacre (Stone: MIA Hunter #4)
Saigon Slaughter (Stone: MIA Hunter #7)
Short stories
Collections
By Bizarre Hands (1989)
Stories by Mama Lansdale"s Youngest Boy (1991) aka Author"s Choice Monthly #18
Bestsellers Guaranteed (1993)
Electric Gumbo: A Lansdale Reader (1994) (Quality Paperback Book Club exclusive)
Writer of the Purple Rage (1994)
A Fistfull of Stories (and Articles) (1996)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
The Good, The Bad, and the Indifferent (1997) (limited edition) Private Eye Action, As You Like It (1998) (with Lewis Shiner) (limited edition)
Triple Feature (1999) (limited edition)
The Long Ones: Nuthin" But Novellas (2000)
High Cotton (2000)
For a Few Stories More (2002) (limited edition “Lost Lansdale” vol 4; the “ultra-limited” edition of this book included a previously unpublished Young Adult vampire novel called Shadow Time which has not appeared anywhere else)
A Little Green Book of Monster Stories (2003) (limited edition) Bumper Crop (2004)
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories (2004) (initially a limited edition, reissued in paperback)
The King: and other stories (2005) (limited edition)
The Shadows, Kith and Kin (2007)
Chapbooks
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks (1991) (limited edition)
The Steel Valentine (1991) (Pulphouse Short Story Hardback #7) Steppin" Out, Summer „68 (1992) (limited edition)
Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man"s Back (1992) (limited edition) My Dead Dog Bobby (1995) (limited edition)
Bubba Ho-Tep (2003) (novella) (published standalone as a movie tie-in) Duck Footed (2005) (novella) (limited edition)
Uncollected Short Stories
党Castle of Shadows” (written with Ardath Mayhar) from Weirdbook #21 (1985)
―Boo Yourself!” from Whispers VI, ed. Stuart David Schiff (1987) republished in 100 Tiny Tales of Terror, ed. Martin H. Greenberg ―Dead in the West: Screenplay” from Screamplays (1997)
―Disaster Club” from Cemetery Dance #32 (1999)
Comic book-related writings
Novels and stories with Batman
Batman: Captured by the Engines (1991) (novel)
Batman: Terror on the High Skies (1992) (junior novel) (illustrated by Edward Hannigan & Dick Giordano)
―Belly Laugh, or The Joker"s Trick or Treat”, short story in The Further Adventures of The Joker, ed. Martin H. Greenberg (1989)
reprinted in Adventures of the Batman, ed. Greenberg (1995)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
― Subway Jack”, short story in The Further Adventures of Batman, ed. Greenberg (1989) (features Lansdale"s character The God of the Razor) reprinted in Tales of the Batman, ed. Greenberg (1994)
Graphic novels and comic books
Lone Ranger & Tonto (1993, 4 issues - Art by Tim Truman and Rick Magyar, also tpb, Topps Comics)
Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo (1993, 5 issues- Art by Tim Truman, also tpb, DC Comics)
Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such (1995, 5 issues - Art by Tim Truman, DC)
Blood and Shadows (1996) (4 issues. Art by Mark A. Nelson - DC/Vertigo)
The Spirit: The New Adventures #8 (1998) (art by John Lucas, Kitchen Sink Comics)
Red Range (1999) (graphic novel - Art by Sam Glanzman. Mojo Press) Jonah Hex: Shadows West (1999, 3 issues - Art by Tim Truman. DC/Vertigo)
Conan and the Songs of the Dead (2006) (art by Tim Truman) (5 issues) also tpb (Dark Horse Comics)
Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #32 (January 2008) (art by Ronan Cliquet) Marvel Comics)
Pigeons from Hell (2008 adaptation of the Robert E. Howard short story Art by Nathan Fox. 4 issue mini-series ongoing from Dark Horse Comics)[1] [2]
Short stories
党Drive-By” (1993, adapted from a story by Andrew Vachss- Art by Gary Gianni); originally published in Andrew Vachss: Hard Looks #5; reprinted in Andrew Vachss: Hard Looks TPB; subsequently reprinted in a limited edition eponymous trade paperback containing Vachss" original story, Lansdale"s comic script, and the as-published illustrated story
―Grease Trap” in Creature Features (1994) (art by Ted Naifeh, Mojo Press) ―Shootout at Ice Flats” in Supergirl Annual #1 (1996) (co-wr: Neal Barrett Jr.) (art by Robert Branishi and Stan Woch, DC)
―The Elopement” in Weird War Tales #2 (of 4) (July 1997) (art by Sam Glanzman, DC)
―The Initiation” in Gangland #4 (of 4) (Sept 1998) (co-wr: Rick Klaw) (art by Tony Salmons) (DC/Vertigo)
―Betrothed” in Flinch #5 (Oct 1999) (art by Rick Burchett, DC/Vertigo) ―The Split” in Strange Adventures #3 (of 4) (Jan 2000 - Art by Richard Corben. DC/Vertigo)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
― Red Romance” in Flinch #11 (May 2000) (DC/Vertigo)
―Brer Hoodoo” in Flinch #13 (July 2000) (art by Tim Truman, DC/Vertigo)
―Devil"s Sombrero” in Weird Western Tales #2 (of 4) (May 2001, DC/Vertigo)
―Steam Rider: The Steam-Powered Heart” in Amazing Fantasy #20 (June 2006, Marvel Comics)
―Mice and Money” in Marvel Romance Redux #5 (subtitle “Love is a Four Letter Word”) (June 2006, Marvel Comics)
reprinted in Mighty Marvel Romance trade paperback
―Gunhawk: Midnight Gun” in Strange Westerns starring the Black Rider (Aug 2006) (art by Rafa Garres, Marvel)
reprinted in Mighty Marvel Westerns hardcover
―The War At Home” parts 1-3 in Zombie Tales #1-3 (July - September, 2008), Boom Studios
full story collected in Zombie Tales trade, published December 2008 ―A Ripping Good Time” in Tales From the Crypt #6 (July 2008)) (co-wr: John L. Lansdale) (art by James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook), Papercutz
―Moonlight Sonata” in Tales From the Crypt #7 (Aug 2008) (art by Chris Noeth), Papercutz
both stories collected in Tales From the Crypt Graphic Novel #4. ―Virtual Hoodoo” in Tales From the Crypt #8 (Oct 2008) (co-wr: John L. Lansdale) (art by James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook), Papercutz
Adaptations of previously published stories, by Lansdale unless noted
Dead in the West (1993) (2 issues) (adapted by Neal Barrett Jr. -
Art by Jack Jackson) (covers by Tim Truman) (Dark Horse)
By Bizarre Hands (1994) (3 issues) (adaptations by Neal Barrett Jr. and Jerry Prosser) (art by Phil Hester and Dean Rohrer) (Dark Horse) Atomic Chili: The Illustrated Joe Lansdale (1996 - tpb) (Mojo Press) ―Dog, Cat, and Baby”, in Murder by Crowquill #1 (1999 - tpb), (with Keith Lansdale, art by Tim Truman) (Amazing Montage Press) ―Bob The Dinosaur Goes To Disneyland” (adapted by Rick Klaw) (art by Doug Potter) First publication at RevolutionSF (2001 in color) First book publication in Geek Confidential: Echoes From the 21st Century (by Rick Klaw, Monkeybrain, Inc., 2003 in black and white)
Lansdale & Truman"s Dead Folks (2003) (from the story On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks) (3 issues) (also tpb - Art by Tim Truman) (Avatar Press)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
The Drive-In (2003) (4 issues) (also tpb) (adapted by Chris Golden) (art by Andres Guinaldo) (Avatar)
By Bizarre Hands (2004) (6 issues, adaptations by Neal Barrett, Jr., Keith Lansdale, and Rick Klaw - Art by Dheeraj Verma, Armando Rossi, and Andres Guinaldo) (Avatar)
The Drive-In 2 (2006) (4 issues, adapted by Neal Barrett, Jr. - Art by Andres Guinaldo) (Avatar)
―Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” in Masters of Horror #1-2 (2006
- Adapted by Chris Ryall)
Anthologies edited
The Best of the West (1989)
New Frontier (1989)
Razored Saddles (1989, with Pat Lobrutto)
Dark at Heart (1991, with Karen Lansdale)
Weird Business: a horror comics anthology (1995, with Richard Klaw) West That Was (1994) (co-ed: Thomas Knowles)
Wild West Show (1994) (co-ed: Thomas Knowles)
The Horror Hall of Fame: The Stoker Winners (2004)
Retro-Pulp Tales (2006) (limited edition)
Lords of the Razor (2006) (limited edition)
Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard (with Scott A. Cupp, 2006
Slashers & Splatterpunks
Jack Ketchum
Slashers & Splatterpunks
"Who's the scariest guy in America? Probably Jack Ketchum."
- Stephen King
*** Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for a former actor, singer, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk -- a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, Off Season, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He personally disagrees but is perfectly happy to let you decide for yourself. His short story The Box won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA, his story Gone won again in 2000 -- and in 2003 he won Stokers for both best collection for Peaceable Kingdom and best long fiction for Closing Time. He has written eleven novels, arguably twelve, four of which have been filmed -The Lost, The Girl Next Door, Red, and Offspring. His stories are collected in The Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard, Broken on the Wheel of Sex, Peaceable Kingdom, Sleep Disorder (with Edward Lee), and Closing Time and Other Stories. His novella The Crossings was cited by Stephen King in his speech at the 2003 National Book Awards.
***
Iron Dave Interview With
Jack Ketchum Greetings and salutations, Jack. You don"t mind if I call you by your first name, do you? I normally tend to conduct my interviews in a friendly, jocular fashion.
You can call me anything you want, so long as it isn‘t ―dude.‖
Fair enough! I"ve heard you have been referred to as „" the scariest guy in the country."" Who was it that bestowed that particular honor upon you? That would be Stephen King, in Entertainment Weekly a couple of years back. I told him thank you but that I thought he was wrong, that the scariest guy in America lived across the Potomac River.
Slashers & Splatterpunks
I tend to agree. Now, not to be nosy, but, is it true you were once an actor, singer, lumber salesman, and flower child before you became a writer? Sort of a jack-of-all-trades and master of all?
Well, I wasn‘t a master lumber salesman but I was energetic. I was probably a master Flower Child because it took no energy at all.
How many rejection slips did you get before you sold your first story? After just a quick glancing over your book, Off Season, it"s hard to imagine your having received any at all.
I started writing prose and poetry as a teenager, so I got pretty damn used to rejection slips. Luckily stamps were cheap in those days. But then, by the time I was thirty and quit my job as a literary agent I knew quite a lot of editors personally and what their magazines were looking for, so there were a whole lot fewer. You‘re right about my first novel, OFF SEASON, though. JudyLyn del Rey at Ballantine snapped it right up, first submission.
I can see why. What first got you interested in writing horror fiction? Or do you actually refer to your work as „"horror""? There are so many subgenres these days…
Movies. All the great old Universal Dracula, Frankenstien, Wolfman pictures. The Giant Bug movies -- I hid under the seat during a scene in TARANTULA. The Hammer films. Then books
- DRACULA, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, and the great thirty-five cent paperback collections from Ace and the like, which featured stories by Bloch, Bradbury, Leiber, Lovecraft, Sturgeon. I don‘t mind being called a horror writer. Just don‘t call me ―dude.‖ Pretty much all my stuff has some horror elements, even the comedies, but I‘m really all over the place. OFF SEASON"s certainly a horror novel in that its prime purpose is to scare the shit out of you. And SHE WAKES is a traditional horror novel -- the only one of mine with a supernatural underpinning. But I don‘t think you can call RED or COVER horror novels, though there are horrific scenes in each. My novella CLOSING TIME won a Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association and it‘s not really horror at all, while PEACEABLE KINGDOM, which won the same year for best collection and in which the novella appears, is overall. Go figure. Douglas E. Winter‘s comment that horror is an emotion, not a genre, has become a kind of mantra to all of us
Slashers & Splatterpunks
who hoe these rows by now. And rightly so. Stephen King once stated that „"We create our OWN horrors in order to deal with the REAL ones."" Do you find that to be true? Ever incorporate any of your childhood fears or traumas into your writing?
Sure it‘s true, and Steve should know. And sure I have
-- but fewer childhood fears and traumas than adult ones, I think. One of my readers told me once that the common thread in my stuff seemed to be a sense of loss. It hadn‘t really occurred to me before but on reflection, seems to me it‘s largely true. And unless you‘ve lost a parent, close friend, pet or sibling at a very early age, most of us learn the full weight of loss in our later years. It accrues over time, from maybe the loss of a first love in our teens or twenties to the loss of mom or dad as an adult. And then, if you look at my subject matter, it generally starts with the violence adults perpetrate in the world. To essay that with any assurance you have to be one.
What"s on the horizon for Jack right now? Leisure are doing a mass-market edition of COVER this summer, its first since Warner"s dumped it on the market in a teeny little edition back in 1988. So it will be good to see that out there again. Right now I‘m contracted for an original, scary screenplay which I expect to finish this summer. I‘m finding that movie people are as secretive as George W. Bush‘s administration so more than that I cannot say.
Any last words of wisdom before you leave us?
―If you can still see how you could once have loved a
person, you are still in love; an extinct love is always wholly
incredible.‖
-- Michael Chabon
And this one for the writers among you.
―‘Take your time,‘ he would say to himself, ‗if the cat‘s in a hurry
she has peculiar kittens.‘‖
-- Louis de Bernieres
Thanks for being here, Jack, and take care.
***
Slashers &
Splatterpunks
Chronology:
Series
Off Season
1. Off Season (1980)
2. Offspring (1991)
Off Season: The Unexpurgated Edition (1999)
Novels
Hide and Seek (1984)
Cover (1987)
She Wakes (1989)
The Girl Next Door (1989)
Joyride (1994)
aka Road Kill Stranglehold (1995)
aka Only Child
Red (1995)
Ladies" Night (1997)
The Lost (2001)
The Crossings (2004)
Old Flames (2008)
Collections
The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard (1998)
Right to Life: And 2 New Stories (1999)
Peaceable Kingdom (2002)Winner best collection
Sleep Disorder (2003) (with Edward Lee)
Broken on the Wheel of Sex (2006)
Father and Son and Forever: Dark Voices 3 (2006)
Closing Time and Other Stories (2007)
Triage (2008) (with Richard Laymon and Edward Lee)
Book of Souls (2008)
Chapbooks
Father and Son (1999)
Novellas
Station Two (2001)
Weed Species (2006)
Anthologies containing stories by Jack Ketchum
Bizarre Sex and Other Crimes of Passion (1994)
Deadly After Dark (1994)
Fear Itself (1994)
Night Screams (1995)
Slashers & Splatterpunks
Vampire Detectives (1995)
The Year"s Best Fantasy and Horror Eighth Annual Collection (1995) Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium (1996)
Fear the Fever (1996)
The UFO Files (1997)
Graven Images (2000)
Short stories
To Suit the Crime (1992)
The Box (1994) Bram Stoker
I"d Give Anything for You (1994) (with Edward Lee)
The Rose (1994)
Redemption (1995)
Snakes (1995)