Joe R. Lansdale
Joe Lansdale was born on October 28, 1951 (age 58)
Sometimes he uses the pen names of Ray Slater, Brad Simmons and Jack Buchanan
He is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as Batman: The Animated Series.
His writing are usually deeply ironic, characterised by sharp humour and “wisecracking” dialogue.. The situations he describes are strange and the characters appear absurd situations. An example is Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking Ancient Egyptian mummy in a nursing home in the novella “Bubba Ho-Tep,” then made into a movie by Don Coscarelli (2002)
He won many awards such the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and seven Bram Stoker Awards.
His best known works features as protagonists “Hap and Leonard”, two friends and expert fighters, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who live in the town of Laborde, Texas and find themselves solving a variety of often unpleasant crimes. Hap is a white working class labourer in his mid forties, and Leonard is a gay black man. The stories are told from Hap’s narrative point of view. They describe a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale’s portrait of East Texas is a country where racism, ignorance corruption and brutality ruin a native goodness of soul.
The detectives have to deal with the dark side of human beings such as pedophilia and anti-gay violence.
Lansdale now lives in Nacogdoches and is the writer in residence at Stephen F. Austin State University
He also teaches at his own Shen Chuan martial arts school and is a member of the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
Among his most famous works are
- Batman: the Animated Series,
- The Drive-In Saga
- Savage Season series
- Hap Collins and Leonard Pine” mysteries (Bad Chili ,1997; Rumble Tumble ,1998; Devil Red,2011)
- The “Ned the Seal” trilogy
- Stone: M.I.A. Hunter series