Joe R. Lansdale's Lords of the Razor

Joe R. Lansdale's Lords of the Razor

Illustration By Timothy Truman

Dustjacket by Timothy Truman

Interior illustrations by Glenn Chadborne

He is a tall, dark, top-hatted figure with stickpin teeth and skulls for shoes. He is the King of Shadows, the Lord of All Things Sharp, and he has an insatiable appetite for pain, terror, death, and despair. He is the God of the Razor, one of the most memorable and nightmarish creations of Joe R. Lansdale's distinguished career.

Lords of the Razor is a stunning new anthology in which ten gifted writers (among them Chet Williamson, Thomas Tessier, Bradley Denton, Christopher Golden, and the late, great Hugh B. Cave) offer their own eclectic visions of this dark icon of modern horror. Bookended by a pair of chilling Lansdale stories (the 1985 tale in which the God makes his first appearance and a superb new novella written expressly for this volume), Lords of the Razor is both a lovingly wrought act of homage and an enthralling collection filled with horrific encounters, sharply etched characters, and moments of surprising, sometimes demented, humor.

The stories (each accompanied by a striking black and white illustration by award winning artist Glenn Chadborne) range in setting from Boston to Vietnam, from Texas to the American Midwest, from the poverty stricken rural South to the stately homes of England. Throughout, these vastly entertaining stories manage, somehow, to remain true both to their original source of inspiration and to the individual sensibilities that produced them. The result is a unique collaborative effort, a feast of pure storytelling, and a fitting tribute to the imaginative genius of Joe R. Lansdale, (hisownself).

Authors (so far):

  • Joe R. Lansdale -- "The God of the Razor" -- the classic tale
  • Chet Williamson -- "Jeaves and the Deteriorating Relations"
  • Stephen Gallagher -- "The Butterfly Garden"
  • Gary A. Braunbeck -- "Old Schick"
  • Elizabeth Massie -- "Fence Line"
  • Christopher Golden -- "The Art of the Deal"
  • Ardath Mayhar -- "The Edge"
  • Hugh B. Cave -- "Brief Stay in a Small Town"
  • P.D. Cacek -- "The Monster"
  • Thomas Tessier -- "Back In my Arms I Want You"
  • Bradley Denton -- "Blackburn and the Blade" (a 30,000 word novella)
  • Joe R. Lansdale -- "King of Shadows" (original novella)

Available in two unique editions:

Limited: 500 autographed and numbered copies bound in full cloth, with a full-color dustjacket: $100
Lettered: 26 autographed copies bound in leather, housed in a handcrafted traycase: $300

From The Rocky Mountain News:
"Their stories, each illustrated with a frightening drawing by award-winning artist Glenn Chadborne, feature the razor god in settings as diverse as Vietnam, a stately British manor and various American locales. Some are perversely humorous, but all are genuinely frightening and guaranteed to make you opt for shaving with an electric razor."

From Locus:
"Lords of the Razor is another, rather more expensive, Lansdale-related anthology project, and it also revels in larger-than-life pulp territory... This limited edition invites several talented writers to use Lansdale's character as they see fit, with some impressively bloody results."

artists_list:
Timothy Truman
authors_list:
Joe Hill
book_case:
None
book_length:
281 pages
book_type:
Anthology
country_of_manufacturer:
United States
isbn:
978-1-931081-34-4
is_subpress:
Yes
print_status:
Out of Print
year:
2006