Customer Reviews (2)

A DARK NOVEL OF INTENSE VIOLENCE!!!
WALTZ OF SHADOWS by Joe R. Lansdale was first written back during the early nineties in a much longer version for Mysterious Press.Because the author felt he'd missed the mark in the writing of this mainstream novel, he had it pulled from publication and more or less let it sit in a trunk for the next several years.When Subterranean Press expressed an interest in doing a signed, limited edition of it, Mr. Lansdale took the book out of storage and trimmed over two hundred pages off of the manuscript.Though he felt better about the final result, there was still a lot of trepidation with regards to seeing the book published. Why?I have no idea. This is a terrific novel!When I read his introduction to it, I was expecting a clunker with maybe a few shining moments.Instead, I found myself hooked in the first twenty pages and then propelled forward like a human cannon ball being fired from one end of the circus tent to the other.WALTZ OF SHADOWS is the story of Hank Small-a pretty nice guy who owns a video store and has a great wife and two wonderful children-and what happens to him when his young nephew, Billy, calls him for help. It seems that Billy got involved in a yuppie gang of young people who enjoyed perverted sex and courting death for that sharp adrenaline rush.One night when the gang decides to do a home invasion in order to score a little cash, they encounter two men (Fat Boy and Snake) at their intended victim's home who are the personification of death itself.Billy manages to escape, but the rest of the gang is tortured and murdered.Billy knows that he's being hunted by the two psychos and wants his uncle Hank to help him out of this dilemma.Not knowing quite what to do, Hank turns to his half brother, Arnold, who he hasn't talked to in over ten years. Arnold is one tough hombre and has spent a bit of time in prison.Hank realizes that if anyone will know how to handle the two psychopaths, it'll be him.Before the two brothers can even get a game plan rolling, however, Fat Boy and Snake find Billy and do a little good-natured torturing to see who knows about them.From that point on, nobody in the Small family is safe.If Hank wants to keep his wife and children alive, both he and Arnold are going to have to prepare for a bloodbath.WALTZ OF SHADOWS is dark, violent, intense, and utterly suspenseful.Fat Boy and Snake are two of the vilest criminals I've ever read in fiction.They're ruthless and evil in every sense of the word, and totally believable.When they invade Hank's home, humiliating him and raping his wife, the reader is stunned and left speechless by the graphic violence and how realistically it's described.Mr. Lansdale doesn't pull any punches.He sets the ground rules for what's to follow so that the reader will understand Hank and Arnold's need for absolute revenge, and that it's going to be a fight to the death with no mercy shown by either side.All of the characters are avidly drawn, and the prose is pure Lansdale at its best.Except for Andrew Vachss, I don't know of any other author who could've written a novel of such darkness and violence, and still have the protagonists maintain their humanity.This novel is definitely a winner!I hope Mr. Lansdale will eventually allow it to be published in a mass-market paperback format so that thousands of other readers will get to experience this "dark time in the dark woods."HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

A Great One for Lansdale Collectors
I really enjoyed this novel, and I'm very happy to own the limited edition book.This is part of the "Lost Lansdale" series that Subterranean Press has been doing such an awesome job with.Waltz ofShadows, as Lansdale himself explains, was written in the early 90's, butJoe did not feel it was up to standards and decided not to publish it. Supposedly, this will be the only edition of this book for the forseeablefuture.

Waltz of Shadows is indeed flawed, and Lansdale was wise to keepit in the trunk.But for an avid Lansdale reader such as myself, the bookis very enjoyable anyway.When I say it is flawed, I don't mean in anykind of hopeless way.The writing is tight, and pure Lansdale.There are,however, a few clumsy linchpins in the plot, and a few of the charactersare struggling to be something they're not.But anything I noticed waseasily forgiven, and I charged right through the book very quickly.

Ifthis is still available, I'd say grab it for your Lansdale collection forsure.But if you're just a casual fan, I'd say stick with the many moremodestly priced Lansdale novels that are in print. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

a great idea made so much better....
I really enjoyed the short version from the excellent anthology REVELATIONS (1997) and loved how joe took
this and made a great novel. This would make a great movie
someday!

Classic, wonderful Lansdale
This novella has one of the best opening lines of all time, and classic Lansdale: "On an afternoon hotter than two rats (making love) in a wool sock, John McBride... arrived by ferry from mainland Texas to Galveston Island, a six-gun under his coat, and a razor in his shoe". The rat metaphor (he doesn't use the term I did--if I quoted him directly, this review would get tossed) did it for me.

Be advised that this is a novella. 153 pages, very large margins. Not saying it's not worth picking up, or reading, just warning you in case you were gonna take it to the beach expecting a long read. The story is set in 1900--it originally appeared in a shorter version in the uneven collection Revelations --and covers five days, broken down by times (4 PM, 10:21 AM, etc. ) rather than chapters. A young black man, Jack, has beaten a white man in a boxing match at the Sporting Club. The townspeople are none too thrilled about a white man losing to him and hire McBride, a vicious and successful fighter, to face off against him, offering more money if McBride will kill him. Meanwhile, the storm of the century is brewing, a dangerous tropical storm blowing in from Key West. Will they even make it to the match? Will the townspeople the book follows live through it?

This is classic, wonderful Lansdale. We spend a lot of time with McBride, who is entertaining but not a likable guy. In fact, most readers will probably want him dead for at least three different reasons by page 20. Jack, his opponent,is not a saint, but he's fighting for his dignity in a racist town. Yes, the characters are racist--the n-word gets thrown around quite a lot-- but it's the characters, not the author,using the term and it's not exactly out-of-place for the location and time period. Offensive, but sadly realistic. We also follow a young couple with a baby, who have to keep moving to higher and higher ground as the flooding worsens... soon they're up to the second floor of their house, with their valuables and their poor scared horse. If you have a phobia of deep water or drowning (I do) some of the scenes, such as the description oft he furniture below them thumping on the ceiling, grating against the floor on which they stand, will make your blood turn to icewater. Actually, they'd probably make anyone's blood chill, phobia or not, especially when Lansdale follows some very unlucky men stuck out at sea on a fishing boat (shades of The Perfect Storm, but remember this story was first published in 97, way before the movie). No matter how bad off you think you are, you'll be thanking God you're not in their shoes.

Lansdale is that most rare and enjoyable of authors to read in that he fits all my criteria for an author who I'd spend my last 20 bucks on to read his latest: a great writer AND a great storyteller, plus this man writes with style (see the fornicating rat description). There's no-one like him out there. This HC may be pricey for the word count, but it's so well written I felt that even though I finished it in one evening, it was worth every penny.

Another Great Lansdale Book
Joe Lansdale writes many different kinds of fiction - horror, westerns, mysteries and more "serious" novels like The Big Blow. He excels in all genres. There is a lot going on in this short novel. The two events central to the story are the great Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900 and a fictional, I presume, prize fight between the famous black boxer Jack Johnson and a white ringer from Chicago by the name of John McBride. These two events track each other to their own respective climaxes. The novel is packed with well-drawn secondary characters and story lines that all fit together very nicely. Lansdale could easily have expanded this book to at least twice its actual size. The fact that he didn't do that demonstrates remarkable self-restraint as well as good judgment. Regardless of the genre, Lansdales stories are always gritty, insightful and humorous. Racism, prejudice and other consequences of ignorance are underlying themes of most of his work. Most importantly, Lansdale is a master story teller. The Big Blow exhibits all of these qualities. I recommend setting aside a few hours in order to be able to read this book in one sitting. The book is hard to put down.

The Big Blow
Very interesting short novel written in Joe Lansdale's unique style. This story takes place in 1900 in Galveston Texas. Lots of characters for a short novel and the main character changes his name from Lil Arthur to Jack. It's boxing and a hurricane. Lots of excitement. ... Read more

Product Description
Fifteen brand new stories take the trendy formula of “literary classic/historic figure + supernatural element” and transform it in ways the mainstream could never imagine, or get away with. Notable characters include Huck Finn, Capt. Ahab, Sid Vicious, Billy the Kid, Emily Dickinson, Jim Morrison, Edgar Allan Poe, Loki, and Albert Einstein. This subversive take on “Monster Lit” phenomenon using previously unpublished material from real genre writers. Contributing writers include John Shirley, Nancy Collins, Mike Resnick, Kristine Rusch, Chris Ryall, Thomas Tessier, Marc Laidlaw, and Rio Youers. “Dread Island,” a masterful new novella by Joe R. Lansdale, anchors the collection. Mashed up authors include Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Stephanie Meyers, and more. Cultural icons include Edgar Allan Poe, Sid Vicious, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Jim Morrison, Huck Finn, Capt. Ahab, the gods of Asgard, and many more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Another amazing book by Craig Yoe!
As with all of Craig Yoe's books for IDW Publishing, "Felix the Cat: The Great Comic Book Tails" is beautifully done. The binding will last a lifetime, and the paper stock is perfect for re-creating the look and colors of actual comics - bright and white on paper that isn't too hard or shiny.

And the stories are the cream of the crop from Felix comics from the late 40s and early 50s. The vast majority of the work is by Otto Messmer - done in his gorgeous, balloon-animal style of bigfoot cartooning. Man, I wish comics were still this good. The stories within are perfect examples of how good those old Dell comics could be.

This books celebrates the kind of magnificent art and storytelling that existed before comics became too self-conscious and full of themselves - before they took themselves too seriously and demanded to be seen as "serious art." Back then, they simply were art without trying so hard.

Craig Yoe deserves much praise for preserving this material in a lasting, beautiful format which can be treasured for years. - Mykal Banta

Great book that would be better as the first in a series!
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RUFIR228EF7Q7 This is a great book for any Felix the Cat or Golden Age Comic Book collector. If you know someone named Felix, you should also buy this book! I pre-ordered this book months ago when very little information was available, armed only with the knowledge that the two other books to deal with Felix The Cat, both now out of print, far exceeded my expectations and got me into collecting Felix the Cat comic books and news strips (Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat by John Canemaker and Nine Lives to Live (collection of comic strips) edited by David Gerstein). This book resembles neither of those and complements them well, providing some neat memorabilia (some of which I'd not seen previously) and words from Joe Oriolo and Craig Yoe, with the majority of the book reprinting classic stories from the Dell and Toby comics (sorry in the video review I list Harvey, but on second check that's incorrect). With these three books you'll have a nice history of Felix the Cat, a very good sampling of the Sunday's and dailies from the first half of the century and some nice reprints from the comic books.

The book is very sturdy and the spine does not buckle when the book is fully open. The cover is slightly different than the one posted on Amazon, but Felix is very prominent in glossy black with the title and authors in glossy white (the remainder of the cover is a matte white). The re-printed stories appear color-accurate to their originals and not touched up (ie they appear to be high quality color scans from printed comic books) to their originals (as opposed to the Harvey Classic reprints from the 90s which were re-colored and cleaned) and are about 10-20% larger in size than the Golden Age originals. The pages themselves are off-white (maybe light peach?) of heavier, matte (non-shiny) paper stock, perfect for re-reading! For collectors, the Dedication Page (page with ISBN number) includes a break down of page art by Joe Oriolo and Otto Messmer... helpful, since I have yet to see a comprehensive list of Felix the Cat stories/strips along with their publication date/writer/artist listing.

I really didn't know what to expect from this book, but after reading it, it just makes me want more! I guess I'm a true fan. Hopefully IDW, Craig Yoe and Don Oriolo continue the Felix revival.

Here are some things I look forward (hoping) to seeing in the future (print or on-line).
1. The complete comic strips in chronological order!
2. A cross-reference of comic strips/comic stories (because the strips were syndicated in many different newspapers, then reprinted in some comics).
3. An "art of" book with production and pre-production art (like the ink w/blue line on the last page of this book).
4. More reprints of the comic books (in chronological order), maybe like the Gladstone Carl Barks Library or like the Hailton Felix Keeps On Walking publication.

Now hurry up and ADD THIS TO YOUR CART!

A Bag Full of Tricks
This book is a must have for the general reader and the serious collector of comic art. The excellent content is beautifully reproduced and the over all book design is superb. Craig Yoe just keeps topping himself!

A Wonderful, Wonderful Book
Felix the Cat has been around now for nearly a hundred years. You don't last that long without changing to fit the audience. The earliest Felix animated cartoons were shown in movie theaters and intended for adults. My generation remembers the Felix TV cartoons that were clearly aimed at kids. The Felix the Cat comic books, however, appear to have been created for people on LSD. Except, since LSD hadn't been developed yet, perhaps they were created for the kids who would later grow up and invent LSD. (I'll bet Timothy Leary read Felix comics. Can you prove that he didn't?)

No, I'm not condoning drug use. In fact, psychedelics are completely unnecessary when you read these stories. They are wild flights of fantasy that leap off the page and worm their way directly into the subconscious mind; they are dreams on paper. Flying carpets, walking fish, talking vegetables - anything can happen in these stories and always does. And Felix is right there in the thick of the action, enjoying the ride, whether it's a visit to Candy Land or the moon. "Fantastic" in the truest sense.

Editor Craig Yoe and Felix honcho Don Oriolo have collected these vintage comic books and presented them in a gorgeous volume that belongs on every coffee table and bookshelf. The comic pages are reproduced as is, not doctored, re-colored and "improved" like in so many inferior collections. This is as close as you can get to reading the original vintage comic books. As usual with Yoe Books, it's beautifully designed and printed, with full-color endpapers, sturdy binding (unlike the flimsy comic books) and a very cool cover. Reminiscent of the Beatles so-called "White Album," the cover is white with the title printed in a clear varnish. When you're as famous as Felix, you don't need a name to let people know who you are.

In addition to the comic books from the `40s and `50s, the book contains 30-some pages of introductory material and rare, vintage artwork, nicely rounding out the package.

Yoe has set the standard for books of this ilk. Anyone else attempting to collect and reprint comics has to match this quality just to get in the game. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"A First Blooding" by Max Brand
In 1987, an up-and-coming author named Joe R. Lansdale edited an anthology of Western short stories called The Best of the West, from which the Western Writers of America took all of that year's short-fiction Spur nominees. (If you're curious, Loren D. Estleman won for "The Bandit.")

A sequel was inevitable, and Lansdale served up The New Frontier two years later (dedicated to his "friend and favorite Western writer," T.V. Olsen). This follow-up had the same intention as its predecessor ("reaching for new horizons, new frontiers"), so it's interesting that it opens with a piece by Max Brand (née Frederick Faust), who died 45 years before its publication.

But "A First Blooding" is not a reprint; it's a 14-page excerpt pulled by Brand biographer William F. Nolan from Brand's unfinished Civil War novel, Wycherley (as yet still unpublished, since only 200 of its planned 600 pages were completed before the author's death). As one who has enjoyed all the Max Brand I've read to date, I leapt right into it.

"A First Blooding" consists of two connected vignettes wherein Yankee Lieutenant Allan Loring kills his first Rebel soldier then hears another executed. These two events are chronicled separately, and Brand seems to take two different approaches with them.

It doesn't feel much like a full story, but it is a very welcome look at the more serious writing Brand was doing before his death. In fact, the scene between Christopher Hodge and Major Acton was so effective the first time through that I went back immediately and read it again to see if I could discern how it was done.

This excerpt (only reprinted once to date, rather inappropriately in the Max Brand collection More Tales of the Wild West) certainly whets the appetite for more of Wycherley, and I, for one, would like to see it printed, however incomplete, as a testament to its author's continued ambition. (A master of the pulps, Faust deeply wanted to be taken seriously.) I'm as big a fan of his cowboy and Indian tales as anyone, but an author of Brand's stature should be appreciated for all facets of his career, and more writing like "A First Blooding" could help improve that. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Another Classic Lansdale Western
In trying to review any Lansdale classic not yet reviewed, I find it hard to believe this one is so little known.The Truman/Lansdale dream team that created the THREE Jonah Hex miniseries delivers a Lone Ranger/Tonto story that rivals them all.There is even a supernatural edge...You have to read it to get more, I refuse to spoil the surprises.I believe there were three issues combined into this graphic novel.It left me wanting to read more of the Lone Ranger, who I haven't otherwise given thought to since the black and white show... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Love Gone Bad
A nicely done crime-noir lover's revenge Lansdale story... reprinted in "By Bizarre Hands."Get it there for far less... and bring "By Bizarre Hands" back into print!!! ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of detective fiction by award winning authorsJoe R. Lansdale and Lewis Shiner. This book collects for the first timesome of Lansdale and Shiners earliest works including the first piece offiction Joe R. Lansdale ever sold.

The collection features: The Slater Stories which include: TheFull Count, Long Gone Forever and One Blonde, Well Dead by Joe R.Lansdale, The Sloane Stories which include: Deep Without Pity, The KillingSeason and Prodigal Son by Lewis Shiner and The Talbot

Stories which include Black As The Night and Man Drowning whichwere collaboratively written by Joe R. Lansdale and Lewis Shiner. Eachgroup of stories includes new introductions by the authors. The bookfeatures cover artwork by George Pratt, artist of DC Comics' Enemy Ace.Private Eye Action As You Like It is limited to 1000 copies and is signedby the authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A blast from their pasts
Here's a quiz for trivia fans.Identify the following:

Ray Slater.Dan Sloane.John Talbot.

Give up?Ardent Lansdale fans may recognize the Slater moniker, but I'd bet most of you are hard pressed to come up with anything on the other two.Here's the answer: each is a fictional private detective, created by Joe R. Lansdale, Lewis Shiner, or both. All starred in early attempts by the authors to write hard boiled mysteries, and all first appeared in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in the late seventies and early eighties.

Private Eye Action As You Like It (the title is based on an in-joke between Lansdale and Shiner) presents eight stories featuring these characters-three Slater tales by Lansdale, three Sloane adventures from Shiner, and two collaborative efforts starring Talbot.Typical of the men's action-adventure genre, they bear titles like "Long Gone, Forever," "One Blonde, Well Dead," "Deep Without Pity," "The Killing Season," and "Black as the Night".None of the stories are particularly stellar, but all are well written and entertaining, notable for the insight they provide into each writer's professional development and evolution of their particular voices.All the stories contain flashes of the author they become-Lansdale, in naming a character Eclipse, "on account of he's so big he blocks out the sun," and Shiner in his already polished prose.

From the tenor of their editorial remarks, I sensed both authors look back on these stories with a measure of disdain and affection.This is to be expected, but the disdain is probably not justified.Sometimes clumsy, sometimes amateurish, the stories represent the best work they could do at that stage in their careers, and as such are nothing to be ashamed about. So, in the final analysis, I'd have to say the collection is interesting primarily for its historical perspective, secondarily for the entertaining author's notes filled with insight and good natured ribbing between the two friends (Shiner's piece, "Can You Run With It?" is particularly funny).As such, the book is primarily for Lansdale and Shiner completists, not for casual readers.Even so, those unfamiliar with either author will find things to like. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Warm Up Shorts and Other Treats!
This collects a lot of stories Lansdale wrote in order to "warm up" when he was working on a novel or some such.Some are less than a page long, a few are quite lengthy.My only complaint is that the book was far too short... I love some Lansdale and I think the "rare and uncollected stories" well has pretty much dried up considering there are three or four larger collections out there of his early and rare works.Hopefully I'm wrong, because I cherish these books, and read every one as they come out.Hopefully the next one will be more than just a hundred pages...

This one has more hilarious commentary by Lansdale, more great shorts... A must!

Well...
This is chock full of mostly one page stories that are mildly entertaining and is advertised as such. Really, this is just for the Lansdale completist only. That being said, its better to have it than not. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Super Reader
A short novel, and given it is by Lansdale, there is no surprise it turns weird. Other than Batman, the protagonist is a sheriff in a small town outside Gotham, and he is an Indian from a tribe that is dying out.

Basically, this is just about a horror novel. Take Christine and The Howling, and combine then. Add Batman, and there you have it. Bound to be weird with this writer.

It's Batman versus The Car!
Joe R. Lansdale is the perfect choice for a novel like this one, his unique blend of black humor and pulp plotting fit perfectly in the Dark Knight's world.A strange black vehicle (that belts out fifties rock and roll tunes ala Christine) is flattening pedestrains in horrorific attacks in and around Gotham City.Also the car seems able to do things that should be impossible for a big, heavy vehicle.Who, or what, is driving this hellish roadster?

An excellent novel of the Batman
A very entertaining Batman adventure that mixes Indian mysticism and hotrod mayhem.Batman investigates several gruesome hit-and-runs.The clues don't add up and survivors tell tales too bizarre to believe.Allthis leads up to an unusual showdown between Batman and the evil behind themadness.Too few Batman novels have been written, so grab this one if youcan.(note: this is not a graphic novel) ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of 4 novellas, including a brand new horror tale from his ownself Joe R. Lansdale includes these three classics: "Bubba Ho-Tep", "On The Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks", "The Events Concerning A Nude Fold-Out Found In a Harlequin Romance". Plus an all new horror novella, "The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel". Plus an afterword from Joe himself explaining how the novellas came about. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Four Novellas
I review this so the readers will know what they are getting for their hard earned cash and so they can know where to find these for far less.This reprints four novellas:

1) Bubba Ho-Tep - Published on its own after the movie and also in "Writer of the Purple Rage."
2) On the Far Side of Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks - In "Electric Gumbo" and "By Bizarre Hands."Also recently adapted into a comic.
3) The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance - in "Bestsellers Guaranteed" which may also be hard to find.This is a hilarious read, though, one of his best short stories.
4) The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel - in "Mad-Dog Summer."

I loaned my copy to someone back when it only cost $45.It never came back to me."Steam Man" wasn't one of my favorites, but it was the draw to buy this as it was the only unpublished novella in it.The rest of them are some of the best writing I ever read.You can find them all for less elsewhere though. ... Read more