Bubba And The Cosmic Blood-Suckers!

The movie Bubba Ho-Tep by director Don Coscarelli starring Bruce Campbell and the late Ossie Davis is among my favorite movies. As a bit of a probable joke it ends with the announcement of a possible sequel Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires. There was some hubbub about a sequel but it came for naught and that's likely a good thing. Bubba Ho-Tep is a gem and to add to its universe is a problematic activity as the novel  Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers by Joe Lansdale demonstrates. Lansdale wrote the remarkable long short story (novella?) which inspired the movie and was encouraged to give the world more of his remarkable interpretation of Elvis Presley. 

Alas while I found the novel diverting and full of the typical Lansdale hijinks full of piss, vinegar and pungent death and sex, I found the whole far less satisfying than the sum of its many many parts. And it's those myriad parts which overwhelm this story for me. We get multiple perspectives in the story -- Elvis himself in his relative prime before his identity switch with imitator Sebastian Haff, one of his roadies named Johnny who carries much of the story as well as other asides and references. The story of course has the advertised "cosmic blood-suckers" which in a Lovecraftian way are hard to visualize. They seem more mood than menace sometimes, even when they are engaged with the small cadre of spook fighters employed by Colonel Tom Parker. It's a Parker who leads a secret operation which protects the world from ghosties and ghoulies and other assorted supernatural threats. He does so from his paddle-wheeler manned by zombies and assisted by blind psychics, sexy house ghosts, hammer-wielding tall tales, and others with a special "charisma" to battle evil. That's Elvis and he is the "Hellboy" of this particular version of the "BPRD". Much of the book is take up with the battle against the vampires and it's paced in a breakneck way. 

This ain't a bad book at all, but when compared to the yarn that inspired it, it falls far short in terms of import and theme. Bubba Ho-Tep is a magnificent reflection on mortality and plays with reality itself to drive home its points in a particular effective way. Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers is a rockem' sockem' misadventure which has more fury than feeling and while its diverting it ain't compellng, not even a bit. I'm not sorry I read it, but I don't think I needed it either. 

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A Savage Series!

It was the merest happenchance that I  stumbled across the listing for a show called Hap and Leonard on the Sundance Channel. I don't watch that station very much, but there was something about the description of this show which intrigued me. I set it up to record and was exceedingly surprised and exceedingly pleased by what I discovered.

Hap (James Purefoy) and Leonard (Michael Kenneth Willams)

Turns out this six-episode series is an adaptation of the work of Joe Lansdale, an author I first became aware of many years ago now when he finished the last original Edgar Rice Burroughs manuscript for Tarzan: The Lost Adventure.

Later still I became an unabashed fan of the movie Bubba Ho-Tep which is an adaptation of Lansdale's novella of the same title. I've not read very deeply in the Lansdale canon, a few stories here and there, but I know he's prolific.

The duo of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine debuted in Lansdale's award-winning Savage Season and he's written many stories starring the duo since. In this tale which adapts the debut novel, we are introduced to the pair who work in the Rose fields of Texas and who are suddenly without work. Hap is an aging bachelor who once upon a time refused to go to Vietnam and spent some time in jail as a result. Leonard is a black gay man who is a Vietnam vet and who is filled with rage. Both have an absolute trust for one another, though Leonard has no regard for Trudy, the love of Hap's life who drives up and offers the two a chance for big money because they might be able to find a bundle of stolen cash which has been at the bottom of a river for a few decades. They accept the offer but it's more than they realize when we meet Trudy's new beau Howard and his amigos Chub and  Paco. They are leftist radicals who want to use the money to fund their revolution, though Hap and Leonard have no interest in that. Also circling around are a couple of ruthless murderers name Soldier and Angel who end up becoming key to the affair.

Trudy (Christina Hendricks)

The story is filled with truly vivid characters, salty language and an exotic yet down-to-earth vibe that gives the whole affair a sublime weirdness. Hap and Leonard are true anti-heroes, men of character if not nobility who seek what most folks want, happiness in this world, but they realize to their chagrin that it's a difficult search. But it is their unbreakable loyalty to one another which makes them admirable and which sets them apart in a series which is fundamentally about how human beings can come to trust one another, if they take the chance.

James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Willaims who play Hap and Leonard respectively do remarkable jobs in a story which demands a lot of acting both with words and without. There's a profound patina of regret and sadness, a stark statement about the fundamental nature of life itself that grounds this story and both actors as well as Christina Hendricks as Trudy tap into that with a gusto which makes the narrative shine as the unpredictable story unfolds.

With the high-profile of his new TV series, which I hope gets picked up for more episodes as it ends on an intriguing mystery; I suspect we've not seen the last of these oddly charming anti-heroes.

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Elvis Has Left The Tomb!

I was prowling around the local Dollar Store the other day, getting a few household items, when I stumbled across a bin of DVD's. I can't pass these up, you never know when you'll find a gem.

For just a few dollars I landed a copy of Bubba Ho-Tep - The Limited Edition, which comes encased in a delightful and exceedingly weird little mock up of a vintage Elvis super suit. It's unusual and highly distinctive. Glad to have it.

This find comes on the heels of my having found (for very cheap) the above volume which offers up not only the screenplay itself by Don Coscarelli (a hoot to read) but also the evocative story by Joe Lansdale which launched this joyride into pop culture and horror.

There's no doubt whatsoever that Bubba Ho-Tep is the best Elvis-JFK-Mummy movie of all time. I'll stake my reputation on that one.

TCB Baby!

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Tarzan - The Lost Adventure!

Raymond Verdaguer

The way I understand it, the story behind Tarzan - The Lost Adventure is that they discovered an unfinished Tarzan manuscript by ERB himself tucked away in a vault. After decades of wrangling it was decided to finish this untold Tarzan tale and make it part of the official canon. At the time Dark Horse had the Tarzan license and so they got the privilege of bringing forth this "new" Tarzan. Not everyone was happy with it, but then that was never in the cards.

Dean Williams

Joe R. Lansdale, a writer mostly famous for his quirky horror stories, including the tale which inspired the movie Bubba Ho-tep (go here for more on this seriously awesome flick), was tagged to finish the saga which ERB had begun so many decades before. Admittedly I find Lansdale an odd choice, but not necessarily an unworthy one. Anyone given this task would have found it a thankless one. 

Before being published in both hardback and paperback, the story was serialized (a nice traditional way to originally present the story) in four parts. The covers for each of these four installments was done by Arthur Suydam and the interior illustrations were done partially by Tom Yeates, the same artist who had made his Tarzan mark on the earlier "The Beckoning" from Malibu. Gary Gianni, Charles Vess, and Mike Kaluta also contributed.

As I recollect these four books, which I have tumbling around here somewhere, featured not only the "new" Tarzan story, but also showcased some vintage John Carter of Mars newspaper comic strips by ERB's son John Coleman Burroughs.

I later bought the distinctive Del Rey paperback, which sported an oddly attractive woodcut-like cover. It's been many years since read this one. It might be time to dig it out again.

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The Rocketeer Adventures Review!

Just finished reading through all four issues of IDW's Rocketeer Adventures. The contents of the four issues include eleven comic short stories, one prose adaptation, and seven poster shots featuring either Cliff Secord the Rocketeer, his best gal Betty or both.


The talent assembled for this project is impressive. Mike Kaluta, Mike Allred, Darwyn Cooke, Chris Weston, Geoff Darrow, Ryan Sook, Bruce Timm, Scott Hampton, Mike Mignola, and John Cassaday are just some of the artists who take a crack at the characters. Writers include Dave Gibbons, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Joe Lansdale among others. All four issues feature robust Alex Ross covers, though alternate covers by Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens are available for all issues by adapting artwork created for ads and other things.

I love the Rocketeer, and I think that Stevens created one of the great comics of all time when he slowly but surely over the years assembled this saga which evoked the best of the pulps and serials and other details of vintage pop culture.


But alas I have to say that ultimately as finely crafted as these stories are, they lack that certain magic that makes the original stories buzz. This is no slight against the talents assembled, and I'm not saying these stories are bad by any means, but they don't give me the same excitement I had that the original did and still does.

And it all adds up to the fact that none of these talents can really change the status quo of the series, so most of the stories seem to amount to homages to the characters. They give us glimpses of the times and the people, but don't really engage us. Most of the tales have Betty getting hit on, Cliff getting sore, and the Rocketeer often as not bumbling into action and somehow saving the day. There are some clever twists in these stories, but they rarely rise above "clever".


An exception is the story by Joe Lansdale, a prose tale illustrated by Bruce Timm which seems to have enough difference to keep bad comparisons at bay. This points the way to perhaps some successful additions to the canon later by way of prose as opposed to comics.

Darwyn Cooke's spin on the character pretending him to be a serial hero and giving us just one neat chapter was pretty nice too, with some good spins on the characters.

Also above average was Kurt Busiek's and Mike Kaluta's WWII take on the character which pushed the story into their future seeing the end of the war and the result. This is the kind of change needed to really make the series succeed. We need commitment that these characters will grow, and this story as opposed to many of the others hints at that growth.

I want to love this series as much as I love the original, but that's not going to happen. I like it for what it is, but its limitations keep me from truly falling for these well-crafted but often cold versions. I remember this was a problem too many years ago when Kitchen Sink tapped new talents to try their hands at Eisner's The Spirit.


I don't want to see Rocketeer continue with any more new stories, that is unless they commit to seeing the story really progress. I doubt that will happen, but there is a bit of hope in a few of these tales. I can see that more tales having to do with plans for other versions of the rocket pack getting into the wrong hands might trigger new stories. But I'd have to see the talent put together to do this first.

I recommend this limited to one and all, though I don't think the armada of alternate covers is really necessary though the straight image Stevens covers are sweet to look at. (I have only the Alex Ross ones myself and eventually I might add the Stevens covers too.) But don't imagine this is the Rocketeer you remember, it's merely a shadow.


But sometimes even shadows can be quite fetching still.

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Bubba Ho-Tep -- The Best Of Joe Lansdale!

I finally got a copy of Joe Lansdale's story "Bubba Ho-Tep". I was knocked out by the movie, which I reviewed in an earlier post. Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis are dynamite as the "King of Rock 'n Roll" and the "King of Camelot" taking on an ancient soul-sucking Egyptian mummy. It's a pure blast, and a surprisingly moving and potent character study of what it can mean to reclaim one's dignity.


The original story is no less impressive. I found in The Best of Joe Lansdale. It's an unabashedly crude tale which doesn't for a moment demure from speaking of the many aspects of human existence which demand our daily attention. The human animal is presented at his most basic, a creature subject to the demands of nature, but who can with will rise above the limits of the body and the expectations of society to achieve heroic things, things that need doing.


It's a wonderfully frank story of two crazy old men who find they and they alone can save their peers from a danger too strange and peculiar to even be noticed by the powers that be. Two old men, perhaps heroes of our age, perhaps two cracked-up old farts, or possibly both, work together because neither is enough unto himself to defeat an ancient evil that savages the very identity of what it means to be a man.

Joe Lansdale has found the perfect essence of great horror, placing the threat just at the edge of civilized knowledge in a remote corner where we don't think to look. Horror is with us always, but we avert our eyes or are too stupid to take note. It preys upon us because we don't want to know. In this story two men see and strike back. They fight for us all.

Congratulations Mr.Lansdale on a truly magnificent tale.


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