Can't Wait for... The Complete Drive-In

I'm pretty sure I first read about Joe R. Lansdale's The Drive-In in Fangoria magazine back in 1988. The review made The Drive-In sound like the greatest and weirdest horror novel ever, so of course I raced to my local bookshop (the much-missed Marlo Books, in the Roosevelt Mall) to snag a copy. Only, Marlo didn't have it in stock. So for the first time ever, I placed a special order for a book. This was pre-Internet, pre 1-Click ordering, pre-everything easy. This was the mean old days, when you had to actually wait for something you wanted. So I waited. And waited. The anticipation was unreal. I started to build this novel up in my mind as the greatest and weirdest horror story I would ever read. Finally, at long last, I received a call from Marlo: The Drive-In was in! For $3.50, this slender Bantam paperback would be mine! And when I finally got it home and read it, I was stunned to discover that...

Yeah. It pretty much was the greatest and weirdest horror novel I'd ever read.

How could it not, with a subtitle like A B-Movie With Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas? The follow-up (The Drive-In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels) was just as fantastic, and made me a Lansdale man for life. Inventive, grisly, funny, fast-paced... this double-barrel assault of Texas-style grindhouse pulp set an impossible standard in my mind. You want a crack at the title of "greatest and weirdest"? Here are the books to beat. (If you ask me, Champion Joe still holds the title.)

And now, Underland Press is bringing out not just the first two Drive-In novels... but the hard-to-find third installment as well, in one sweet omnibus edition. Along with an intro by Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho Tep) and art from a never-made film adaptation of The Drive-In. No special ordering, no waiting for the guy from Marlo Books (hi, Curt!) to finally call you. You, too, can enjoy the twisted majesty of The Drive-In...

... on May 1st.

(Hey, trust me. The anticipation is half the fun.)