By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The B-movie maven’s reviews of horror and exploitation classics are coming back to print.
Dark Horse Books has announced a new art-book-sized hardcover edition of JOE BOB GOES TO THE DRIVE-IN, the long-out-of-print collection of Joe Bob Briggs’ columns for The Dallas Times Herald. These early-’80s writings, which first introduced Joe Bob to Texas readers ahead of his worldwide fame, include his thoughts on THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, THE EVIL DEAD, BASKET CASE and many other fright favorites, as well fan letters and his replies and his adventures at various outdoor theaters. The updated and expanded book has a new cover by Wallace McBride and interior artwork illustrated by Mike Norton (HELLBOY AND THE B.P.R.D.: 1957– FROM BELOW) and colored by Bill Crabtree (SUBGENRE), plus an introduction by Stephen King. It will be available in comic shops and bookstores October 15, and can currently be pre-ordered at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Things from Another World and other on-line shops.
“I’m thrilled that someone still cares about these little pieces dashed off for a daily newspaper four decades ago and was amazed that they were reprinted in book form the first time,” says Briggs. “To have them now memorialized and illustrated by a prestige outfit like Dark Horse is mind-boggling. They come from a time when the mainstream media hated what I was doing and many organizations actively tried to cancel me, but today they seem so tame that nobody will believe that. I hope all the genre experts of the current day will regard them as the primitive pre-history of pop-culture film criticism.”
“It’s a real honor to be able to participate in a Joe Bob Briggs book,” adds Senior Editor Daniel Chabon. “I grew up with MONSTERVISION. when it was on TNT, have been an avid fan of THE LAST DRIVE-IN since it debuted on Shudder, and went to see Joe Bob’s ‘How Rednecks Saved Hollywood’ when he was on tour. This long out-of-print book is truly something special and essential for all Mutant Fam and more! This editor says, ‘Check it out!’”
