Today is Joe R. Lansdale’s birthday. In celebration of this momentous occasion, I’m presenting for the very first time my previously unpublished analysis of Lansdale’s works. Originally commissioned for inclusion in the Subterranean Press limited edition of the 2004 short story collection Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories, “Breaking the Box” failed to make into the final volume for reasons that I can’t recall. Though we disagreed on a point or two, Joe was very pleased with the results.

I’m breaking the essay into two parts for easier reading, exactly as written in 2004. Who wouldn’t want Lansdale for two days instead of one?

Happy Birthday, Joe!

Breaking the Box:
An Analysis of the Writings of Joe R. Lansdale

Part I

by Rick Klaw

Joe R. Lansdale is a lot like Barbie. Well, minus the blonde hair and impossible measurements. Physically, he differs as far from the toy diva as possible It’s the way they both portray differing roles yet remain uniquely themselves that draws them together. Whether a princess, a doctor, a veterinarian, a tour guide, or just some blonde bimbo, Barbie is Barbie. Lansdale is like that. No matter what style or genre he writes in, you can always see the Lansdale. It doesn’t matter if he is wearing a polka dot bikini, or brandishing a large knife, once you’ve been introduced, there is no mistaking his work.

JRL’s “best of” collection High Cotton (2000) offers the finest examples. Most of the tales in the book span from 1986-1995, arguably Lansdale’s most productive and best short story period. The diverse stories in this book fail to fit neatly into preconceived categories. All the stories save one have appeared in other Lansdale collections.

One of Lansdale’s most significant stories, “Tight Little Stitches In a Dead Man’s Back” (1986) relates, through the journal entries of weapons maker Paul Marder, the story of one father’s guilt over his role in the death of his little girl and most everyone else. Marder helped to design the weapons of mass destruction that destroyed civilization one fateful day. He and his wife managed to escape and hide in a bunker with several other scientists. While in the bunker, Marder’s wife, who blamed him for their daughter’s death, began to painfully tattoo an image of their daughter on Marder’s back. After twenty years, the scientists emerged to a radically different world. Oceans dried up, debris scattered about, grey-green clouds floated lazily overhead, inedible whales lived on land, and mutated roses eat flesh. After most of the group are quickly killed by the mutant roses, Marder and his wife hide in an old, abandoned lighthouse. Theorizing that the roses might have trouble getting them in the still standing structure, Marder attempts to keep watch, but suddenly his wife died The roses outsmarted him. In typical science fiction fashion, Lansdale leaves us wondering about the fate of Marder.

Integral to many of Lansdale’s works, the punishment of child abusers and/or killers plays a significant role in Mucho Mojo, The Bottoms, A Fine Dark Line, and several other stories. If a child is hurt in Lansdale’s stories, there will be retribution. The father of two children, JRL loves them above everything else. Although uncommon in Lansdale’s novels and short stories, he does employ storytelling through journaling in most of his comic book work and in his Batman novel Captured By The Engines.

The first JRL’s story to garner serious critical notice, “Tight Little Stitches” proves that good science is not necessary for a quality science fiction story. This story marked a turning point in Lansdale’s career: where he evolved from writer to author.

Illustration by Fernando Ramirez for "Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program"

Again, science means little in “Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program” (1994), the humorous tale of a repentant Godzilla as he tries to work through the Twelve Steps to break his addiction to mayhem and to become a better being and a more productive member of society. Lansdale often divides his work into what he calls thinking and non-thinking pieces. Some stories are meant to just entertain while others are to entertain and educate. It’s not to say his non-thinkers don’t receive the same care and quality of writing as the thinkers, but that the purpose is different. “Tight Little Stitches”, a serious thinker, questions the morality of world destroying weapons and the responsibility of the creators of such weapons, while “Godzilla” relies more on fun with more serious elements (such as the relative effectiveness of twelve step programs and the merits of staying true to ones nature) interwoven within the funny bits. If “Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program” doesn’t make you chuckle, then Lansdale failed to do his job.

One of his more subtle stories, “Trains Not Taken” (1987), an alternate history of the Old West, presents a Japanese colonized American west coast. The entire story takes place on a train as Bill Hickock, clerk, and William Cody, diplomat, discuss how their lives might differ had they taken slightly different paths. “Trains Not Taken,” the first Lansdale story published in a literary ‘zine (RE:AL, Spring 1987). is an odd story since Lansdale rarely addresses regrets. Once the bed is made, it is made. There is no going back. Lansdale loves playing with “what ifs”, but mostly in a philosophical, historical context.

Another alternate western, “Letter from the South, Two Moons West Of Nacogdoches”(1986) is similar to “Trains Not Taken”, in that Lansdale uses a subtle approach. Through the voice of the character, he slowly reveals a world similar to, but indeed different from our own. In this reality, the Native Americans have defeated the Europeans. “Letter From the South” touches on Lansdale’s most pervasive topic: racism. Rare is the work that doesn’t discuss or at least mention this hot button issue. It is an integral part to every one of his novels and most of his short stories. This short, powerful tale has one of Lansdale’s most bittersweet and tragic endings.

Then there’s Bob. “Bob The Dinosaur Goes To Disneyland” (1989) is one of Lansdale’s most popular and oft reprinted stories. It’s the very odd tale of a blow up plastic dinosaur (literally) that wants to go to Disneyland. It covers another fairly common theme of Lansdale’s work: be careful what you wish for. The fate of Bob is nowhere near ominous, but the thread is there.

Splash illustration by Doug Potter from the "Bob The Dinosaur" comic adaptation

If Lansdale is thought to have a “typical” story, “The Pit” (1987) which opens High Cotton would fall squarely into it. Harry made the mistake of getting lost and allowing his car to break down in Morganstown. If only he hadn’t attempted that shortcut or at least checked his radiator. Now, six months later, he enters the pit to fight to the death with Big George. This yarn is full of things that would show up in later JRL stories. (The influence of the old Gold Medals is palpable here.) “The Pit” doesn’t flinch. Lansdale refuses to let the reader miss the ugly parts. He won’t let you cover your eyes. In this story, he manages to elicit reader sympathy for these two men that are forced to literally kick the crap out of each other. From the moment that Harry and Big George enter the pit, you know that one of them is going to die. Thankfully for the reader, Lansdale knows that as well. To have them both survive would be a cheat. He got the idea for this story from an article on dog fighting and a story that a friend told him about a black man in the fifties who was captured by the people of a small town and forced to pull a wagon around the town square. He was force fed axle grease on crackers. Lansdale heard that he finally escaped. I’m not sure whether this story is true, but I do know that the use of urban legend and modern folklore is a common source for Lansdale’s stories. Books like The Bottoms, The Nightrunners, and Captured By The Engines all draw from post-industrial legends. One of Lansdale’s most creative applications of urban legend is in Bad Chili when Leonard escapes from some racists by telling him that he is a scientist sent to stop the dreaded “Christmas Ants.” Giant flesh eating ants scare the bigots so much, that they allow “Dr. Pine” to leave and finish his research.

Lansdale would again be inspired by killer dogs in one of his most savage stories “Steel Valentine” (1989). Morley not only wants to kill Dennis for sleeping with his wife, but Morley wants revenge and more. Full of diabolical torture and even nastier things, “Steel Valentine” is an Alfred Hitchcock Presents story on steroids.

Perhaps Lansdale’s most famous use of a dog is in his classic horror tale, “Night They Missed the Horror Show.” (1988) If “Tight Little Stitches” marked the arrival of Lansdale the author, “Horror Show” introduced the world to the singular literary force that is Joe R. Lansdale. No one else could have written this story. This is the jackpot. It has all the Lansdale trademarks: racism, violence, humor, East Texas, good old boys, and fantastic storytelling. This taut, harrowing story has nary a wasted word or throwaway scene. It flows and jars all at once.

Storytelling is Lansdale’s greatest strength. His best stories have that feeling of JRL himself throwing his arm around your shoulders and saying, “Son, let me tell ya a story…” This skill is emphasized when Lansdale reads his own work. He speaks with a heavy East Texas accent, exactly the voice in which his stories are written. Once you have heard Lansdale read aloud, forevermore will you hear that voice in your head when you read his stories. This unique attribute endears Lansdale to many people. Lansdale fans (AKA the Cult of Joe) always refer to him as Joe. Never Mr. Lansdale. His natural writing talents invite the reader into his living room to pull up a chair and sit a spell. To the Cult, Lansdale is not just a writer, but a (twisted) member of the family.

I probably should take a moment here and discuss Lansdale’s use of the word “nigger”. The word is littered throughout most of his works. Sadly, East Texas happens to be one of the most racist places on the planet. Lansdale believes in a realistic, accurate representation, hence the use of the word “nigger.” It is only used by bigots (or the just plain stupid) and is meant to portray that racial ignorance.

“Night” is the tale of two bored high school football players, who skip the horror show at the local drive-in because the white woman in the movie sleeps with a “nigger.” The boys decide to tie a dead dog to their car and ride down some country roads with it. Along the way, they pick up the black quarterback (“He may be a nigger, but he’s our nigger.”) They encounter some rednecks in a trailer watching stag films. Then the shit hits the fan. This is a truly scary and suspenseful tale. It’s taught at many universities as the best horror short story from the 1980’s.

Illustration by Fernando Ramirez for "The Night They Missed the Horror Show"

Not surprisingly, boys getting into trouble is a plot device that Lansdale returns to time and again. It is central to many short stories and the novels The Nightrunners, A Fine Dark Line, and The Boar. What are the Hap & Leonard novels but two boys getting into trouble? While not as powerful as “Horror Show”, “Steppin’ Out Summer, ‘68" (1991) is still a quality story in its own right. Buddy and Jake sneak out to visit the woman whom they believe to be the town whore only to find all kinds of trouble, including an encounter with an alligator. Lansdale has recorded an entertaining audio version of the story.

“Dog, Cat, Baby” (1987) is a non-thinker and at two pages, a short one. This unusual story of the war between dogs, cats, and babies is charming and spooky all at the same moment. The dog plots to get rid of the new baby. As the dog makes his move, he is attacked and killed by the cat, who then turns his attention towards the baby. JRL conceived of this story soon after his son Keith was born, when he wondered what his pets thought of the new baby.

To be concluded…

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Cardinal’s Blades
by Pierre Pevel

Promo copy:

Welcome to seventeenth-century Paris, where intrigue, duels, and spies are rife and Cardinal Richelieu’s agents may be prevailed upon to risk life and limb in the name of France at a moment’s notice. And with war on the horizon, the defense of the nation has never been more pressing.
Danger is rising from the south–an insidious plot that could end with a huge dragon-shaped shadow falling over France, a shadow cast by dragons quite unlike the pet dragonets that roam the cities like stray cats, or the tame wyverns men ride like horses, high over the Parisian rooftops. These dragons and their descendants are ancient, terrible, and powerful … and their plans contain little room for the lives or freedom of puny humans.

Cardinal Richelieu has nowhere else to turn; Captain La Fargue and his elite group of agents, the Cardinal’s Blades, must turn the tide. They must hold the deadly Black Claw cult at bay, root out traitors to the crown, rescue prisoners, and fulfill their mission for the Cardinal, for their country, but above all for themselves.

It’s death or victory. And the victory has never been less certain.

Dreamfever: The Fever Series
by Karen Marie Moning

Promo copy:

They may have stolen my past, but I’ll never let them take my future.

When the walls between Man and Fae come crashing down, freeing the insatiable, immortal Unseelie from their icy prison, MacKayla Lane is caught in a deadly trap. Captured by the Fae Lord Master, she is left with no memory of who or what she is: the only sidhe-seer alive who can track the Sinsar Dubh, a book of arcane black magic that holds the key to controlling both worlds.

Clawing her way back from oblivion is only the first step Mac must take down a perilous path, from the battle-filled streets of Dublin to the treacherous politics of an ancient, secret sect, through the tangled lies of men who claim to be her allies into the illusory world of the Fae themselves, where nothing is as it seems—and Mac is forced to face a soul-shattering truth.

Who do you trust when you can’t even trust yourself?

Tracato (Trial of Blood & Steel, Book III)
by Joel Shepherd

Promo copy:

For two hundred years Tracato has been the center of enlightenment, as the serrin have occupied human lands and sought to remake humanity anew. But the serrin have not destroyed Rhodaan’s feudal families entirely, and as Tracato faces the greatest threat to its survival in two centuries, old rivalries are stirring. Sasha must assist her mentor Kessligh to strengthen the Tracato Nasi-Keth, yet with one royal sister siding with the feudalists and another soon to be married to Tracato’s most powerful foe, her loyalties are agonizingly divided.
Worse still, from Sasha’s homeland the Army of Lenayin are marching to make war upon Tracato. Can she fight her own people? Or must she join them, and fight not only her lover Errollyn, but to extinguish the brightest light of hope in all the land–serrin civilization itself?

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Victorian Undead
Written by Ian Edginton
Art by Davide Fabbri with Tom Mandrake

Promo copy:

In 1854, a meteor streaked across London’s skies, bringing with it a zombie plague. For twenty years, Her Majesty’s Secret Service has kept the threat under control. But now dastardly fiend Moriarty is using the zombies in an attempt to overthrow the Victorian government. It’s up to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to face off against their greatest foe and his zombie minions!

Abattoir #1
Created by Darren Lynn Bousman
Concept by Michael Peterson
Written by Rob Levin & Troy Peteri
Illustrated by Bing Casino

Promo copy:

After a brutal massacre takes place in a gorgeous house, real estate agent and family man Richard Ashwalt is assigned the impossible task of picking up the pieces and selling the property. As Richard inspects the blood-soaked grounds, a twisted old man hourneys to the house with a sinister and terrifying purpose. Richard is about to be drawn into a web of shadows, murders and massacres that will shatter him to his very core!

Hot Wire: Deep Cut #2
Created by Steve Pugh & Warren Ellis
Written and Illustrated by Steve Pugh

Promo copy:

For detective exorcist Alice Hotwire, waking in a jail cell is an unwelcome flashback to her youth. With Bertus Rantz and his team of private contractor ghost-hunters out to win a permanent city contract by any means necessary, Alice must first escape to keep the job she hates, then compete with Rantz to capture a blue-light possessed robot and rescue the injured woman he has taken hostage. Can Alice outwit Rantz, who has little intention of bringing them in "alive", save the hostage and return safely home to her boyfriend from hell?

North 40
Written by Aaron Williams
Art by Fiona Staples

Promo copy:

The residents of an isolated rural area discover superhuman and supernatural power in their midst. But the power stops at the county line. Inside the afflicted area, something ancient and malevolent stirs and new monsters arise… The series concentrates on young Wyatt, an unlikely hero from the wrong side of the tracks as well as Sheriff Morgan (and his odd past) and town outcast Amanda. They’ll have to combine their efforts to keep the county from imploding…or being eaten by mighty Cthulhu.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Midnight Riot
by Ben Aaronovitch

Promo copy:

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

The Remembering: Book Three of The Meq
by Steve Cash

The Human Blend
by Alan Dean Foster

Promo copy:

Alan Dean Foster’s brilliant new novel is a near-future thriller that has all the dark humor and edgy morality of an Elmore Leonard mystery, in addition to the masterly world-building and quirky but believable characters readers expect from Foster. This gripping adventure reveals a place where criminals are punished through genetic engineering and bodily manipulation—which poses profound questions about what it means to be human.

Given his name because radical surgery and implants have reduced him to preternatural thinness, Whispr is a thug. His partner in crime, Jiminy Cricket, has also been physically altered with nanocarbonic prosthetic legs and high-strength fast-twitch muscle fibers that give him great jumping abilities. In a dark alley in Savannah, Whispr and Jiminy murder what they take to be a random tourist in order to amputate and then fence his sophisticated artificial hand. But the hapless victim also happens to be carrying an unusual silver thread that appears to be some kind of storage medium. Ever quick to scent potential profit, Whispr and Jiminy grab the thread as well.

Chance later deposits a wounded Whispr at the clinic of Dr. Ingrid Seastrom. Things have not gone smoothly for Whispr since he acquired the mysterious thread. Powerful forces are searching for him, and Jiminy has vanished. All Whispr wants to do is sell the thread as quickly as he can. When he offers to split the profits with Ingrid in exchange for her medical services, she makes an astonishing discovery.

So begins a unique partnership. Unlike Whispr, Ingrid is a natural, with no genetic or bodily alteration. She is also a Harvard-educated physician, while Whispr’s smarts are strictly of the street variety. Yet together they make a formidable team—as long as they can elude the enhanced assassins that are tracking them.

In 2003, I interviewed legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon for the now defunct  Science Fiction Weekly from Scifi/SyFy.com. The piece, originally edited due to length concerns, is no longer available online. 

As a Halloween treat, I’m reprinting the complete 6,000 word conversation in three easily-digestible blog entries. 

One of my more enjoyable assignments, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did chatting with the affable Gordon. 

Stuart Gordon Interview Part 3

With Rick Klaw

Are there any books that you would like to do that you haven’t done?

GORDON: Oh yeah, there’s a lot of them, actually.

You sound like a big literature fan.

Yeah, I like to read, and there’s some sort of dream projects I would like to do. I’ve been talking to Ray Bradbury about doing The Martian Chronicles. That would be great.

Considering the TV version they did, you couldn’t do any worse than that.

Yeah, I mean that would be fun. I know they’re working on a movie version of that, so that would be great. And for a while there, I was connected with the project Iron Man, the Marvel Comics character, and that would be really great.

Are you a comic book fan?

I am, pretty much so. I’ve got a lot of friends who make comic books. Now seeing all these comic book movies coming out, it’s be fun to do one.

Jack Kirby

This isn’t surprising since several of your earlier horror films especially Re-Animator and From Beyond are very much like comic books in tone, the shooting of them and everything.

Yeah, that’s true.

Are there other books?

GORDON: Now they’re doing all of these Alexander the Great things, and there’s a book by Mary Renault called The King Must Die that would be a fantastic movie. But I’ve got to get into Peter Jackson-land to get the bucks for that.

What do you think about Peter Jackson? I read somewhere Peter Jackson was influenced by you.

Yeah. We got to be friends, which was really great. We met at a film festival when he did Brain Dead. He’s terrific. He’s really fun and very down-to-earth; that’s the thing I like about him. And I’m sure he’s still the same way. I haven’t seen him in a few years, but he’s very open and approachable.

I don’t like Lord of the Rings; I never liked Tolkien, and the only reason I wanted to see the movies is because I’d loved all of Jackson’s older movies. All these people wanted to see it because it was Lord of the Rings, and I had these visions of people deciding to see all of his other films. I’m not to sure that would be a good idea.

(laughing) Well, I don’t know, I think they should.

I think they’re very good movies, but I think a lot of people…

Well, they’ll be shocked by some of them.

It’s like someone enjoying The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and deciding to watch some of your horror films.

(laughing) But I also think there’s something interesting. You’ve got Sam Raimi doing Spider-Man, and I think there is something to be said here about people that come out of the horror genre and very small movies. It’s kind of great way to make your bones. And rather than getting these guys who just do commercials and MTV videos to direct these movies, going back to people who’ve got a background in what’s considered B-movie fare to do a big budget movie seems to be working.

What do you think about the current crop of horror films?

28 Days Later I thought was great. I was really impressed with it. It was extremely well done and very well written and acted and directed and that’s what makes me happy. So many horror movies you get the feeling that the people think that they’re slumming. That they’re not really into it, they don’t really have belief in the genre, they’re kind of winking at you all the time, and those I really don’t care for. But the ones where they really are trying to knock your socks off. There’s something very scary about realizing the director is very, very bright and talented and willing to do things that other directors aren’t, and he’s not going to play by the rules. That becomes a very scary proposition. I love movies like The Audition by Takashi Miike, the Japanese film. Or there’s a movie called Irreversible, which is a French director Gaspar Noé which is just mind-boggling. These movies will like…you will not be…able to think about anything else.

Most American horror films are utterly forgettable. I remember when Jeepers Creepers came out and everybody was going nuts for it. I saw it and was very under whelmed and bored.

Yeah. I thought the first half of that movie was good, and then it just…What happened was they started explaining it to you, and one of Lovecraft’s basic rules is Never Explain Anything. I liked The Ring, the American version of it, and then I went and saw the Japanese version, Ringu, which I liked even more because it doesn’t explain anything. You know, in the American version there’s all of this…they feel this need to explain everything, and…

I sometimes fell they think we’re idiots.

I don’t know. I think it’s there’s too many executives. I always run into this when I’m working at a studio where they go, “Well, what are the rules?” It’s like they want everything spelled out, and what’s scary is when you don’t know what the rules are, and anything’s possible.

Michael Moorcock talks about making an Elric movie and the problem he’s had in the past is they don’t put geeks in a position of power. And so you get, “Why is he an albino?” Where a geek would just say, “He’s an albino,” and that would be the end of the conversation.

It’s true. I mean, someone was telling me the other day about studio executives, and he said, “If they were making Lawrence of Arabia, they’d want to know what kind of shoes he was wearing.” It’s like, “Do we have to put him in the desert?”

I’ve heard about that kind of stuff. Joe Lansdale talks about that. When they were going to make Cold in July, they were like, “Do we have to set it in Houston?” It’s a crime novel set in Houston, a very violent crime novel set in Houston. He wondered why? They told him: “Well, we want to set it in Amarillo.” Have you ever been to Amarillo, Texas?

No.

There’s nothing there. It’s flat. Amarillo’s like, when you think of the Hollywood version of Texas, it’s Amarillo. Tumbleweeds. “’Cause it looks more like Texas.”

Yeah, and it’s so funny. There was a book I really wanted to do. It’s called A Wrinkle in Time.

The Madeleine L’Engle?

Madeleine L’Engle, yeah. It’s a great book. When I was at Disney I was trying to talk them into doing it, because they have the rights, and they had done all of these terrible screenplays. They were unreadable. And I finally went in and they, “Well, what’s your take on the material?” And I said, “Do the book.” And they go, “That’s it?” like they were expecting that you’re going to have some brilliant idea to turn the project inside out and upside down and it’s like, no, this is a brilliant book; just do it. When they were doing Wizard of Oz, they did Wizard of Oz.

Like Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings.

Exactly. But they’re into this whole thing where everything has to be this high-concept, that you have to be clever, clever, clever, and reinvent something that doesn’t need to be reinvented.

What exactly were you doing at Disney? Were you under contract to them?

After I did Honey, I Shrunk The Kids they gave me an office there, and I was at Disney for about 10 years. I was there to direct…to develop family films.

I’m sorry. What?

I know, it’s pretty bizarre. And I think that’s what Disney finally realized after awhile, that I was like this freak in there… I was the Castle Freak down in the cellar, and it’s like, “What’s he doing here?” Actually, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was the very last project that I did at Disney, so it was kind of like a chance to work with Roy Disney, which was great. I’m really sad that he’s left Disney, because he really was the heart and soul of that place. So now it’s like soulless; totally soulless.

Did you want to do animated films when you were at Disney? Were you interested in that?

I was, and as a matter of fact, we talked about doing The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit as an animated film, and they even did some conceptual drawings that were fantastic of the characters. But then they finally decided that…everyone kept saying the same thing about that story. “The story is too small. It’s too simple.” And I said, “You know, small and simple is good for a movie.”

You just keep mentioning Disney, and I just keep going…

“What is all this Disney stuff?” Well, I mean, I loved Disney when I was a kid, and the idea of being able to work for that company was like a dream for me. Just walking on the lot every day was great. I used to go to the archives and go through all the stuff from the other movies. When Walt Disney was alive, he had a stenographer at every meeting taking notes, so you can read these sessions that they had. It’s sort of like reading a play.

Did you ever read Harlan Ellison’s essay about his time at Disney?

No.

They hired Harlan Ellison to come write for them. He’s got his own parking space, his own secretary, and his own desk. He’s thinking this is great. He does his morning work and then goes to lunch. At lunch he suggests a porn flick starring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Ellison then proceeded to act out the parts while imitating the voices of several animated Disney characters. And all of the other writers are looking at him with their eyes wide, and they’re all like, “Uhhhhhh.” Sitting at a nearby table are Roy Disney and other studio heads who have heard the whole thing. Ellison goes back to his office, the secretary is gone, his typewriter is gone, and he’s looking out in the parking lot and they’re painting over his space.

(laughing) Well, I’ll tell you sort of the flip side of that, which is when I did Dagon, I showed it to Roy Disney, and afterwards I said, “Well, this is my version of The Little Mermaid.” And he laughed. It’s funny, I think he was the only guy at Disney that kind of got me… what I was doing.

Somebody must have gotten you.

‘Cause they hired me, yeah. And it was kind of great to be on the same wavelength with him. He’s the man…if it weren’t for Roy Disney, they would…first of all, they would have changed the name of the company to Touchstone, this is true, they would have stopped making animated films entirely, and it would have been the end of Disney Studios as we know it.

I did not know that.

Yeah. He’s the guy who brought in Michael Eisner, actually, which is why it’s so ironic that now it’s Eisner that’s forcing him out.

That’s sad, but it happens. And now you make your own movies, so you can be the guy forcing people out, since you’re the producer now.

(laughing)

What are you working on now?

GORDON: I’m working on a couple of projects. I’ve talked about the Mamet project, based on Edmund, a play of his, which William H. Macy wants to play the leading role with Julia Stiles, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve also got a project that I’m working on with Jack Ketchum, which is called Ladies’ Night, and it was based on one of his novels which is about a toxic spill that only affects women and turns them into…first they become very sexually aggressive and then they become killing machines, and of course their main target: men. It takes place in Manhattan, so you get the feeling that the entire city is going crazy. It’s kind of like 28 Days Later, except it’s not 28 days later, it’s today.

That does sound like a Stuart Gordon film.

Yeah. That would be really fun.

What kind of legacy do you want Stuart Gordon to leave behind? When people look at your work in a hundred years, what do you want them to say about you?

I’ll be happy if people are looking at my work in a hundred years. I’ll be happy if people are looking at my work in ten years. But you know, I think if people enjoy them, that’s the best thing. Hopefully I try to make movies that go places that people haven’t gone before, and so, if that continues to be true, then I’ll be happy.

Read the interview from the beginning.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Killing Machine

Promo copy:

If you thought he was hardcore in THE EXPENDABLES, he’s now totally unstoppable as the KILLING MACHINE: Action icon Dolph Lundgren (ROCKY IV, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER) stars as Edward Genn, a divorced Vancouver father and investment broker who also happens to be the infamous KGB-trained assassin known as Icarus . But when his two worlds collide in a storm of bullets, bloodshed and betrayal by the Russian Mob, Icarus reloads for the most personal and punishing contract of his entire career. When revenge is not enough, how far will a one-man death squad go to get even? Stefanie Von Pfetten, Samantha Ferris (SUPERNATURAL) and Bo Svenson (INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, WALKING TALL) co-star in this bone-snapping, skull-blasting, badass throwback to extreme ’80s action movies, directed by Lundgren himself!

The Super Hero Squad Show: Quest For The Infinity Sword Vol. 2

Promo copy:

The greatest heroes in the world return to face its craziest villains in the second action and laugh-packed volume of the The Super Hero Squad Show! Watch as Iron Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Thor, the Falcon and their friends faithfully, and hysterically, protect Super Hero City from the wild, weird and even wacky villainy of VillainVilles most infamous baddies, led by the sinister Dr. Doom!

Featuring the guest voices of Kevin Michael Richardson (Family Guy), Greg Grunberg (Heroes), Wayne Knight (Seinfeld), Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone), and Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)!

Hunt To Kill

Promo copy:

When Jim’s (STEVE AUSTIN) teenage daughter is kidnapped, he’s forced to lead a band of ruthless killers into the wilderness to retrieve their share of a missing heist score. In order to rescue his daughter, Jim must use his unique brand of survival skills to outsmart the kidnappers before it’s too late. HUNT TO KILL is an action packed adrenaline rush about a man operating on his most primal instincts to save the one thing he’s willing to die for – his daughter.

In 2003, I interviewed legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon for the now defunct Science Fiction Weekly from Scifi/SyFy.com. The piece, originally edited due to length concerns, is no longer available online. 

As a Halloween treat, I’m reprinting the complete 6,000 word conversation in three easily-digestible blog entries. 

One of my more enjoyable assignments, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did chatting with the affable Gordon. 

Stuart Gordon Interview Part 2

With Rick Klaw

Have you had anything to do with the Re-Animator sequels?

GORDON: No, I haven’t. Although I am trying to convince Brian Yunza [director of the two sequels] to do another one, which is called House of Re-Animator, and it’s about the White House.

(laughing)

(laughing) When I saw Donald Rumsfeld, when he showed up, it was sort of like, “Wait a minute, I thought this guy was dead. How did he get reanimated?” Where did these people…James Baker? All of a sudden all these people are crawling back out of their holes in the ground.

Jeffrey Combs and the head of David Gale in Re-Animator

Jeffrey Coombs is getting old enough to play the president now. You could do it.

Well, I think Jeffrey Coombs would be reanimating the uh…in our idea he’s reanimating the Vice President.

In your early career, Jeffrey Coombs was involved in a lot of your movies. He hasn’t been in your more recent features. Was there a conscious decision to kind of distance yourself, or was he busy, or..?

No, I think it just had to do with the movies themselves. There wasn’t really the right role for Jeffrey. I would love to work with him again. It’s just finding the right part.

He’s kind of like your Bruce Campbell.

Yeah, he is.

At the moment, I keep thinking of Bruce Campell as Elvis.

Oh, he was great in Bubba Ho-Tep.

In movies like Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Castle Freak, umm…you have women engage in…interesting acts, to say the least.

(laughing)

Have you had any actresses balk at doing these scenes, saying, “Okay look, this is too far. I’m not doing this?”

I’ll tell you something: Barbara Crampton was not the first actress that was cast to play that part in Re-Animator. The original actress did balk at it and said, “No, I can’t do it” even after she had read the script and we had gone through all these callbacks and so forth. When she finally got cast like a couple days later, she dropped out.
So, yeah, that has happened. And Barbara…it’s so funny, I cannot even remember the name of this first actress, you know, because Barbara was so amazing. She just kind of wiped it out of my mind.

She was great. It’s just that when you watch the movie, that’s one of the things you think of, you know: Did you have any trouble getting her to do some of this stuff?

No. Barbara’s a really brave actress, and she’s a risk-taker. That’s the kind of actress that I really love and need. The people who are willing to look foolish or do something that seems completely degenerate or something, realize that… to me, the acting is the best special effect there is. You’ve really got to have actors that will make the audience believe things are true and really happening to them. 

Barbara Crampton in one of her tamer scenes in From Beyond

In science fiction circles there are discussions about how that’s the difference between what Peter Jackson has done with his special effects and what Lucas has done with the recent Star Wars movies. The acting and the directing is so much better with Peter Jackson, the Tolkien stuff, even though they’re doing the exact same kind of digital effects, one’s so much better than the other.

You know what? You don’t need to have such great effects if the acting is good. The actors kind of do it for you, and you’ll accept something that isn’t perfect because you’ll fill in the gaps yourself. The greatest special effects in the world will not save a bad movie. 

You were influenced heavily by the Weird Tales writers, not just Lovecraft. Are there any other of those writers’ works you’d like to adapt?

I don’t know. We were talking about Robert Howard and Conan [in a pre-interview discussion], and I would love to do a Conan movie, that would be really great. That’d be fun. As a matter of fact, I came close on a project once and I’m sort of sorry that I ended up being not able to do it. So yeah, that’d be great. 

Talk about action. 

Yeah, and just sort of giving it kind of a new approach. 

What other things have influenced you?

I read…I was reading… It’s so funny, I think now that movies kind of got me reading. And I wonder if that still happens, that people see a movie and… I’m sure that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings has gotten people to read the books. 

I read some where that Tolkien sales are up over 500%.

That’s great. That’s what happened to me. When I saw l the Roger Corman movies, I started reading Poe. And when I saw Time Machine, I started reading H.G. Wells. You see something and you go, “Who came up with this?” And I read Dracula as a kid, and it scared the shit out of me. 

It’s a great book.

Yeah, the book is really great. I don’t think any movie’s really captured Dracula as he’s written. I was so scared, I remember I was reading in a room in Chicago and just reading it in the middle of the summer, and it was swelteringly hot and we didn’t have air conditioning, but I was closing and locking my windows every night. I didn’t want any bats flying in. 

Yeah, I can definitely see that. It’s funny, because when I saw the name of the movie, King of the Ants, my first thought was, he filmed H. G. Wells’ Empire of the Ants, and I was like, “All right!”

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Everybody’s so disappointed. They’re saying, “Where are the giant ants?” But I already did giant ants, you know, I did Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

Well yeah, but I think this would have been a little different. They would have had blue eyes.

(laughing) Yeah, that’s right. 

We were talking a little bit about the 50s and horror, and the 50s, of course was a big boom, and the 30s was a big boom with Weird Tales, the 20s and 30s. There’s a popular theory going around that horror is very popular during Republican administrations, when the president is much more conservative.

That’s interesting. I think it’s true, actually, there is something about repression and horror, and the more repressed the society you live in, the more need there is for horror movies, I think that is true. 

‘Cause we’re certainly going through it now, again.

Yeah, that’s right. 

And when you first came on the scene in the 80s we were going through it.

Yeah, that’s right, it was Reagan and now we’ve got Bush and it’s like Bush, Jr., it doesn’t get much more repressive than now. 

At the premiere you really confused me. Somebody asked you, “What are you working on now?” and you said a circus.

(laughing)

A circus?

Yeah. Well, I’m actually helping out a friend of mine, his name is Norm Langill, and he has a show running in Seattle and also in San Francisco called Teatro Zinzanni. What it is… it’s kinda hard to describe, but it’s…you’re served a five course meal by clowns, acrobats, jugglers, and magicians. It’s been a huge hit. It’s been running for almost five years in both those cities. He knows what a big fan I am of circus. We had met when I was doing theater many years ago. So he invited me to come and help him. They have a cast change going on, so I’m bringing the new cast into one of the shows. Every time the cast changes, there’s got to be a whole new story that’s created around them.

Interesting. How does that compare to doing film or even your other theater experiences, because those are a lot different?

It is, it’s very different, because you’re dealing with European performers, and most of them speak some English they come from all different countries… Russia, Vietnam, and Switzerland… it’s really kind of like the Tower of Babel trying to work with them all. Plus they’re all extremely, very highly trained. I found out that clowns get as much training, you know, in Europe, as doctors do here. You know, they go to school for years and years to become a clown.

Doctorate in Clownology?

(laughing) I know, I know. It’s really something. The clowns are actually the most highly-trained performers in a circus, and one of them told me that you really cannot be a great clown until you’re about 50 years old. I said, “Why is that?” and he said, “Because you have to live.” To really be able to, you know, sort of experience life to be able to portray it as a clown.

That sounds fascinating. So they like, serve the food and…

They do. When they start out, you think they’re waiters and stuff, and then it turns out they start doing these amazing things at your table. The first time I saw it, the guy came over and he started pointing at the silverware on the table and the silverware started moving all by itself.

Wow.

Yeah, it makes you jump. It’s a very intense show, but very much fun. It’s kind of like being in a Fellini movie, or something. It’s great.

It’s a whole new meaning to dinner theater.

It is. That’s right. He’s reinvented it.

You’ve done film, you’ve done theater, and you’ve done, well, circus now, and you’ve done TV. Is there one that you prefer over the other?

I like them all for different reasons. Theater is still the most powerful art form. Even more powerful than film, because it’s all happening there: it’s really happening in front of you, and the audience, becomes part of the creation of the artwork. With a film, it doesn’t matter if there’s people watching it or not; it will always be the same. But theater changes every night based on who’s there in the audience. It’s a real sort of two-way communication. But there’s things that you can do in movies that cannot do in theater, so I like doing all of them.

Is there something artistic that you haven’t done that you would like to do?

Yeah, I’d like to direct an opera. That would be kind of fun. That’s something I’ve never done.

Stuart Gordon during the 2007 WGA strike.

(pause) Sorry. I was just imagining your version of Phantom of the Opera.

(laughing) I love musicals, and it was funny, I was trying to get… I contacted Stephen Sondheim. I was trying to get the rights to Sweeney Todd, which I think could be really fun as a movie. For awhile there nobody was making musicals but…

Now they’re big again.

Yeah, so, it’d be fun to do one of those.

You’ve recently started producing films besides your own. How is that?

I did it a couple of years ago, and I’m going to be doing some more of it. Producing work by first time directors or, writer/directors is great. The thing that’s difficult as a producer is that you sometimes feel like you want to just get in there and do it yourself. It’s holding yourself back and not doing that that’s sort of difficult. To be in there to help the director get his vision without intruding. That’s really the key to producing.

On the other end of the spectrum, you’ve also done some screenwriting and not directed it As a director who’s often directed his own work and who has definitely put his own vision on everything, how has experience been for you?

I’ve been lucky in that it’s usually been a good experience. Although the thing about writing is that it’s very rare that you get your work done exactly as you wrote it. There’s usually somebody brought in to do a revision, or this or that, so there are changes that are made, and sometimes you like the changes, and sometimes you don’t. It can be frustrating.

I’m sure you’ve dealt with that on the other end as a director, changing what the writer has written, ‘cause you’ve directed other people’s screenplays.

Yeah, yeah. Although, I usually will not change the words without conferring with the screenwriter and getting his okay on it.

Do you find a big difference in how you work when it’s somebody else’s screenplay or your own?

Even if it’s not my own screenplay I usually work so closely with the screenwriter that I feel really close to the material. That’s really key. I think the director’s job is to bring to the screen what’s on the page. So you really have to understand why everything is there, what he’s trying to achieve with everything he writes. So when you write, when you’re involved with the writing yourself, it’s easier, in a way, because you know. But, the hardest thing is doing something from somebody like Shakespeare and you can’t just call him up and say, “Now what did you mean by this?”

(laughing) “I don’t understand this, Bill.”

(laughing) “Yeah, what’s this ‘to be or not to be’ stuff?”

Continued…

And more in Part 1.

In 2003, I interviewed legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon for the now defunct Science Fiction Weekly from Scifi/SyFy.com. The piece, originally edited due to length concerns, is no longer available online.

As a Halloween treat, I’m reprinting the complete 6,000 word conversation in three easily-digestible blog entries.

One of my more enjoyable assignments, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did chatting with the affable Gordon.

Stuart Gordon Interview

With Rick Klaw

Know for his creative uses of graphic violence, disturbing situations, and a diversity of subject material, Stuart Gordon is a legend in the low budget horror film industry. His movies Re-Animator and From Beyond influenced an entire generation of filmmakers including Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. While with Disney he created the popular Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and adapted Ray Bradbury’s play The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, which he first brought to the stage as part of the groundbreaking Organic Theater Company. Science Fiction Weekly was lucky enough to catch up with Stuart Gordon at the Alamo Drafthouse for the Austin, TX premiere of his latest film, King of the Ants, to discuss Lovecraft, the state of horror, Disney, perversity, and other interesting topics.

To prepare for this interview, I watched the only two Stuart Gordon films that I hadn’t seen. They were Castle Freak and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, which I viewed back to back.

GORDON: (laughing)

I’ve got to tell you, I was a little confused. How do you go from being the guy who did things like Re-Animator, From Beyond and Castle Freak to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit? Most people don’t do those kinds of things.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a horror movie about a mad scientist whose experiment gets out of control with disastrous results. Everyone always goes, “Well, how can you do From Beyond and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” and I say, “It’s really the same movie.” The story is the same.

Yeah. You take the gore out, and it’s pretty much the same story.

We had some pretty horrific…I mean, it was funny. Disney was very worried about it when we were working on it, they kept saying “We want this to be more like The Absent-Minded Professor and less like The Fly.”

(laughing)

(laughing) They didn’t go for The Fly?

I had a big argument with them about what the ants should look like in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. They said to me, “What is this ant gonna look like?” and I said, “Well, it’s gonna look like an ant.” They said, “Isn’t that gonna scare the kids?” I said, “What do you think it should look like?” They said, “Well, we think it should have blue eyes, like, look sort of like E.T.”

Little eyelashes, maybe?

I said, “Well, E.T. scared more kids than an ant does.” Finally, it came down to, I had to take the executives to the shop that was building this giant ant puppet, and I said, “In a way, it’s good that they think it’s scary when they first see it, then it turns out that it’s not scary, it’s nice.” And when I said that, the ant, the guy that was puppeting it, had the ant come up and he put its antennae over my shoulders and sort of nuzzled me, like a horse would nuzzle somebody. Then all of a sudden it was okay. The Disney guys got it. They were very concerned about that movie.

Yeah I can see that. And with your reputation, of course, preceding you.

Yeah. And The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit I had originally directed as a play at The Organic Theater Company in 1973.

Really?

Yeah, with Joe Mantegna playing the same role that he plays in the movie. So it was kind of a return to my roots.

Right. You might be directing a David Mamet film? That’s kind of the same “going back to your roots” thing?

Yeah. Although the Mamet thing is a little more like the other movies I’ve done in that it’s a very disturbing piece. But, you know, Ray Bradbury became a good friend after we did the play, and we stayed in touch. He came up to me one day, we ran into each other on the street, and said, “What about doing The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit?” I brought him over to Disney to meet the executive who was the head of features, and Ray Bradbury wore a white suit. I thought, “We can’t lose!” We walked in and he said to the executive, “Boy, I’m so excited. The last time I was here, I had lunch with Walt.” And the executive said, “Walt’s dead.”

(laughing) Wow!

Yeah, yeah, so Ray and I are like, “What’s going on here?” Then Ray says, he’s trying to kind of smooth things over, he goes, “I want to congratulate you on the success of the animated features.” The guy goes, “You don’t have to lie to me. The only person you have to lie to is your mother.” Then Bradbury says, “Well, sometimes, you just feel like you’re in a room full of mothers.” That was the beginning and the end of the meeting right there. The guy passed on the project, and I called Ray to tell him, and he said, “Gosh, it’s really surprising, because I know that Roy Disney really likes this story and play. He’d seen the play many times.” I called Roy and I told him what had happened with the executive, and he said, “Well, come on to my office.” We go to his office and there’s the executive sitting there, and Roy says, “I think we should make this movie, don’t you?” That’s how it got made.

Soon after you returned to horror with Dagon. Do you see your career going in that direction, or are you looking to do lighter fare again or does it really matter that much to you?

I kind of like to mix it up a little bit, because I think if you do the same thing too often, you get kind of tired of it. King of the Ants is a kind of different thing for me, too.

It is a different kind of film for you. I know you’ve talked about this elsewhere before, but the people reading this interview may have never heard this story, how did King of the Ants come about?

It was really George Wendt who brought the book to me, and he said, “If you like this, I’ll option it.” I read it, and it was… I was completely shocked by this book, ‘cause, it’s the story about a guy who murders an innocent man about a third of the way through the story. I couldn’t believe that they were going to have this very likable protagonist commit murder. But he does. And somehow, you’re still with him, and that was the thing that really drew me to the story. I couldn’t figure out how the author had accomplished that.

So you hired him to do the screenplay?

Yeah. And he worked on it… I would say he worked on the screenplay for almost two years. He really did a lot of departures from the book. First of all, the book is set in London, and Charlie Higson, the writer is English, Americanized it and moved it to L.A. He really did a lot of changes, particularly in the second half, from the novel. It was a big departure. In the novel, the main character does not end up going back to the wife of the man that he murders. That was all new, specifically created for the film.

It’s interesting; because it reminded me of…have you ever read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks? Are you familiar with that book?

No.

It’s about a little boy who has this wasp factory. He keeps this factory and he grows wasps in it. He goes out every day to predict things, and the wasps tell him that his brother, who’s a serial killer, has escaped from the insane asylum and is coming home. The whole story is him doing these depraved things to welcome his brother home. These horrible, horrendous acts. It reminded me a lot of that, and it’s interesting, because the whole tone is very similar. I don’t want to tell you more, because the end of the book is a big shock ending. It’s one of those ending where you go, “Whoa.”

It turns out he is the brother.

No, no, his brother shows up. It’s much more shocking than that. It’s one of those things where you see the end, you read it, and when you re-read it again, you see the ending coming, but you don’t catch the clues the first time.

That’s great. I’ll look for it. That sounds good.

The ending of King of the Ants definitely left it open for a sequel. Are there plans for a sequel? Did Higson write more stories?

Well, he’s written more. He’s written three other novels, but they’re not about this character. They’re all great. All of them would make great movies. But, I have talked to him about a sequel, because it would be kind of fun. We’re talking about some ideas for it. There’s still a few people left alive. Including the little girl, the daughter, which could be pretty horrifying sequence. We were even thinking on the idea that Susan could still be alive, that she’s not dead but she’s had some, brain damage so that she doesn’t remember him.

Do you want to direct more crime films?

To me, it’s all about the story. The thing I loved about this was that I never knew what was going to happen next, so if it’s a story that’s a good story, I’ll do it. It doesn’t really matter if it’s Lovecraft or, horror, or what it is, as long as it’s something that I think is going to keep people guessing and wondering and sort of on the edge of their seat.

Early in your career you were closely associated with Lovecraft. Nobody else has ever made as good or successful Lovecraft films as you. There have been many Lovecraft movies made, but you seem to be the only one who was able to pull it off.

Oh, thank you.

They’re not exactly like the original tales. You have added your own vision to them. Lovecraft fans, even though they’re such a rabid lot, almost universally love your movies. Why are you able to make good Lovecraft films when nobody else can seem to do it?

You can’t literally take something from the page and just shoot it, because, Lovecraft wrote great stories, but you have to make a movie. It’s a different medium. One time I was working on a play adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut book called The Sirens of Titan. Kurt Vonnegut came to see it when it was in previews, and he had the best comment. He looked at me and said, “I think you have to pretend I’ve been dead for ten years.”

(laughing) No problem there with Lovecraft.

Well, yeah. What Vonnegut was saying was that we were too literal, too literally following the book, and that we have to…you have to make changes. You have to combine characters and you have to make it more visual or more action-oriented, or whatever. You have to be able to take some liberties with it to make a good adaptation. And I think that’s true with Lovecraft, too. I think you have to go for the essence of what he’s trying to do, but you can’t slavishly follow the stories. I think it’s a question of choosing the right stories, too, because some of his stories are very internal, and those would be very difficult to adapt. But the ones that I’ve picked have been more action-packed. Re-Animator is like wall-to-wall action. The short stories are just…they’re amazing. And the same is true of “The Shadow over Insmouth”, which is the basis for Dagon. It’s a chase. There’s a lot of action in it. I think that’s kind of the secret. I’ve been lucky that I’ve had Dennis Paoli to work with, and he really understands Lovecraft.

What drew you to Lovecraft and what made you interested in doing this stuff?

I always found his stories to be the creepiest stories when I was a kid. I would read him when I was a teenager, and he just…suggests so much. The idea of all of these hidden worlds, and that, I think, is really tantalizing. He has this comment where he says: “Man lives on an island of ignorance, sort of surrounded by forces that are beyond his control.” I think that’s something we all can relate to. We all feel that way a lot especially these days. So in a way, Lovecraft has become more timely as time passes and his fans are now legion. And he’s just building power.

Continued…

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Agatha H. and the Airship City
by Phil and Kaja Foglio

Promo copy:

Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!

The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been eighteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over–and terrorizing–the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Hetrodynes’ return.

At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach–and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.

From Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of the Hugo, Eagle, and Eisner Award-nominated webcomic Girl Genius, comes Agatha H and the Airship City, a gaslamp fantasy filled to bursting with Adventure! Romance! and Mad Science!

While the Tom Kidd cover is nice, it strikes me as odd that they decided to not go with a Phil Foglio cover or at the very least with a similar iconic cover design.

When Wicked Craves
by J. K. Beck

Promo copy:

Petra Lang is cursed never to love. One touch of her skin unleashes the vilest demons. Sentenced to death by the Shadow authorities, who fear she’ll turn her curse against them, Petra is rescued by vampire advocate Nicholas Montegue. As their bodies merge and transform into mist, Petra feels an erotic longing.

Nicholas risked his own life to save Petra, yet he knows he can never give in to the explosive attraction he feels for her. But the deep yearning they share tempts them. Together, they must find a way to lift the curse. For only a love this strong has the power to overcome such monstrous evil.

The Habitation of the Blessed
by Catherynne M. Valente

Promo copy:

This is the story of a place that never was: the kingdom of Prester John, the utopia described by an anonymous, twelfth-century document which captured the imagination of the medieval world and drove hundreds of lost souls to seek out its secrets, inspiring explorers, missionaries, and kings for centuries. But what if it were all true? What if there was such a place, and a poor, broken priest once stumbled past its borders, discovering, not a Christian paradise, but a country where everything is possible, immortality is easily had, and the Western world is nothing but a dim and distant dream?

Brother Hiob of Luzerne, on missionary work in the Himalayan wilderness on the eve of the eighteenth century, discovers a village guarding a miraculous tree whose branches sprout books instead of fruit. These strange books chronicle the history of the kingdom of Prester John, and Hiob becomes obsessed with the tales they tell. The Habitation of the Blessed recounts the fragmented narratives found within these living volumes, revealing the life of a priest named John, and his rise to power in this country of impossible richness. John’s tale weaves together with the confessions of his wife Hagia, a blemmye–a headless creature who carried her face on her chest–as well as the tender, jeweled nursery stories of Imtithal, nanny to the royal family. Hugo and World Fantasy award nominee Catherynne M. Valente reimagines the legends of Prester John in this stunning tour de force.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Catacombs: A Tale of the Barque Cats
by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Promo copy:

In Catalyst, award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough introduced readers to the beguiling Barque Cats: spacefaring felines who serve aboard starships as full-fledged members of the crew. Highly evolved, the cats share an almost telepathic bond with their minders, or Cat Persons—until, suddenly, there is no “almost” about it, and a particular Barque Cat, Chester, learns to exchange thoughts with his human friend, Jubal. Other cats soon gain the same ability.

Behind the seeming miracle is a mysterious cat named Pshaw-Ra, who possesses knowledge and technology far beyond anything the Barque Cats—or their humans—have ever seen. When fear of a virulent plague leads the government first to quarantine and then to kill all animals suspected of infection, Pshaw-Ra—with the help of Chester, Jubal, and the crew of the starship Ranzo—activates a “mousehole” in space that carries the refugees to a place of safety: Pshaw-Ra’s home planet of Mau, where godlike cats are worshiped by human slaves.

But Pshaw-Ra’s actions are less noble than they appear. The scheming cat plans to mate the Barque Cats with his own feline stock, creating a hybrid race of superior cats—a race destined to conquer the universe. Yet right from the start, his plans go awry.

For one thing, there’s a new queen on Mau: Pshaw-Ra’s daughter Nefure, a spoiled brat—er, cat—with a temper as short as her attention span. Pshaw-Ra’s other daughter, the rightful queen Renpet, is exiled, running for her life in the only direction available to her—down into the vast catacombs beneath the Mauan desert. Far from receiving the hero’s welcome he expected, Pshaw-Ra must use every bit of his considerable cleverness just to survive.

Meanwhile, as usual, Chester and Jubal stumble right into the middle of things, in the process uncovering the lost secrets of the Mauan civilization. But that’s not all they uncover. In the forgotten catacombs deep below the Mauan capital, something has awakened. Something as old as the universe. Something that hungers to devour all light and life—and that bears an undying hatred for cats.

Shotgun Sorceress
by Lucy A. Snyder

Promo copy:

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

For Jessie Shimmer, everything changed when she went to hell and back to save her lover, Cooper Marron. After tangling with supernatural forces and killing an untouchable spirit lord, Jessie finds herself gifted—or perhaps cursed—with dark powers. And when she and Cooper make love, her pleasure throes light the whole house on fire. What is a sorceress to do?

Jessie is about to find out. The circumstances of her birth, the mystery of a father she never knew, and the help of a cuddly ferret turned fearsome monster have made Jessie not just an outlaw from mundane society, but an accidental revolutionary in the magic realm. Encountering portals stitched into thin air and a fiercely sexy soul harvester, Jessie rushes headlong among enemies, horrors, wonders, and lovers into a place of self-discovery—or destruction.

Star Wars: Death Troopers
by Joe Schreiber

Promo copy:

When the Imperial prison barge Purge—temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves—breaks down in a distant part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back—bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.

And death is only the beginning.

The Purge’s half-dozen survivors will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.

Star Wars and zombies?!?!