Secret Dead Blog Recommends: Pigeons From Hell

Yesterday's event at Brave New Worlds was a blast; thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello pick up their free copies of Cable #1. And thanks to George, Joe, Brian and Doug for being supercool hosts. The only downside: I totally missed the Stormtroopers. (They were at the store in the morning, and drew an insane crowd, from what I hear, causing mass chaos along 2nd Street.)

Right after the signing I made a quick sweep of the racks and picked up this gem: Joe R. Lansdale's adaptation of Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons From Hell," just out from Dark Horse. (It's the first of four issues in a limited series, with art by Nathan Fox and colors by Dave Stewart.) Lansdale's one of my heroes, so I buy anything with his name on it. But even if you're a casual fan, you've gotta check this out. It's a modern retelling of Howard's classic pulp horror shocker that's full of whip-smart Lansdale-isms such as:

CLAIRE: Janet, do you remember what Grandma used to say about pigeons?

JANET: Was it... four of them and a potato make a good lunch?

Ah, so much damn fun. The back of issue #1 includes a short essay by Champion Joe about Howard's influence on his own career:

In the introduction, [Howard] talked about being a writer, how it was work of his choosing and he didn't have some son-of-a-bitch standing over him telling him what to do, and he had been able to make a living doing exactly what he wanted to do. Words to that effect. In this respect I understood Howard, and since I had already, at my young age, had jobs with some son-of-a-bitch standing over me telling me what to do while I had plans to be a writer, this was an exciting statement.

Right on, Joe.