Bumper Crop

Joe R. Lansdale

For the majority of its all-too-short time on this mudball, I was a devoted reader of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone magazine. I was lucky enough to stumble upon the first issue by chance on a newsstand, and after that I subscribed until the bitter end. Many of the authors I still revere today I first found in the pages of TZ, including Joyce Carol Oates (“The Rose Wall,” reprinted in her collection Raven's Wing, was the strongest story in that first issue) and Dan Simmons (whose first published story, “The River Styx Runs Upstream,” was the winner of TZ's first fiction contest). But through all those years, I didn't remember seeing Joe Lansdale's name a single time. So when I checked the pub credits page and saw TZ's name by a number of stories, I got to wondering. Then I read the preface, and Lansdale says these stories stick with you. I got to wondering more. Then I read “The Dump,”and the second I saw the name Otto, I bowed to Lansdale's superior firepower. Note, “The Dump” is a story I haven't read in Bumper Crop, the second (following High Cotton) volume in Lansdale's personally-selected “Best-Of” collections of his short fiction, is, in short, a whole lot of fun. The stories here, most of which are exceptionally short, run through the early part of his career like a vein of adamantite in a mountain of pure silver. It's all great stuff, but this is just that little bit more rare, more coveted, and harder. “Chompers,” “The Fat Man,” and, well, just about everything here will leave its mark on you. Two stories will be recognizable to those who have read The Nightrunners (Lansdale, during the seven years between the book's completion and its purchase, took pieces out of it and revised them into stories a number of times). One of them, “God of the Razor,” is one of the strongest pieces here, and very highly recommended. If the book has a weak point, it is “Master of Misery,” the last story. It sounds too much like... something. But I can't for the life of me remember what. But, jeez, don't let that stop you. This is great stuff.