First edition cover by N. C, Wyeth with Martin Thomas
In the 90s, I co-founded MOJO Press, first as a way to publish Weird Business (which I recounted in “The Secret History of Weird Business”) and ultimately as way to introduce the burgeoning graphic novel industry into mainstream bookstores.
Of MOJO’s 18 titles, I edited 15 of them including Joe R. Lansdale’s and Sam Glanzman’s Red Range. Shortly before the graphic novel’s publication, I left my post as managing editor with the press itself going away soon after.
Though the book received largely positive reviews, due largely to the press’s demise, Red Range became one of Lansdale’s rarer books.
Joe R. Lansdale’s certainly a modern legend himself, having been around for some time now. But comics artist Sam Glanzman’s got an even more legendary historical grounding, having been professionally drawing for six decades or so. These two worthies have collaborated on Lansdale’s graphic novel, RED RANGE. The first page of RED RANGE itself begins full tilt with graphic ultraviolence as Lansdale and Glanzman plunge us into a 19th century Klan lynching of a black Texas family. Abruptly in the midst of the atrocity, the Kluxers are interrupted by a mysterious rider who’s a deadly shot with both his pistols and long-range Sharps buffalo rifle. It’s the feared and hated (by the KKK, at least) Red Mask, a tough, lethal, black man who wisely keeps his identity concealed. Writer Lansdale’s unerring ear for exotic period and regional dialog remains constant. His penchant for grim humor appears throughout. His hardcore, hard-nosed sense of social conscience remains intact.
–Edward Bryant, Locus (1999)
Sam Glanzman cover to the new edition
Thankfully, Drew Ford’s It’s Alive is attempting to bring Red Range back into print through the auspices of Kickstarter. This new edition will be in full color (previous was in b&w), have an afterword by the legendary Stephen R. Bissette, and introduction by me. Yes, some 15 years after I finished working and promoting the book, I’m revisiting the striking work.
If you’d like to see Red Range back in print, and really what Lansdale fan wouldn’t, go support the Kickstarter. For a few shekles, you can score a beautiful, new edition of this “lost” Lansdale.