BOOKVOICE PUBLISHING – @mybookvoice
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
AUTHOR: Joe R. Lansdale – @joelansdale
ISBN: 978-1-949381-09-2; paperback (February 12, 2019)
259pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.
Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is a novel written by author Joe R. Lansdale. It was originally published in 2017 by Subterranean Press in two limited editions – a “signed limited edition” and a “signed lettered edition.” This past February (2019), BookVoice Publishing released a “mass market” paperback version of the novel.
Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is a prequel to Lansdale's 1994 novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep,” an “alternate history” story that was first published in the Elvis Presley-themed anthology, The King is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem. The story pits an aged Elvis Presley and an old African-American man named “Jack” (who claims to be the real President John F. Kennedy) against a senior citizen-killing mummy that Elvis names “Bubba Ho-Tep.” Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is set decades before the novella and focuses on a (1970s-era) Elvis who is part of a monster-fighting unit.
Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers opens with an unfortunate drunk who believes that he has made a delightful discovery – a place to call home in a seemingly abandoned junkyard. What he finds instead is a life-death as a living ball of food for vampire-like creatures from another dimension.
Enter Elvis Presley. The King of Rock 'n' Roll turns out to moonlight as a hunter of monsters, (also known as “the Weirdlings”). Presley is an agent of the “Hidden Agenda,” which deals with supernatural threats to Earth and which is apparently controlled by the President of the United States. At the time of this story, the commander-in-chief is Richard M. Nixon. Presley's immediate superior is his “The Colonel” (based on the real-world Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker), who holds something over Presley to keep him serving the Hidden Agenda.
Presley is part of a team of eccentrics. Their is the clairvoyant, the “Blind Man,” who is a white-haired albino. Jack, of Asian extraction, is the “master planner.” John Henry is the hammer-swinging Black dude of the outfit, and he has an edgy humorous attitude. Jenny Jo Dallas is the newest member, and she is an up-and-coming singer and recording star known to the public as “Raven.” Oh, there is Johnny Smack, Elvis' right-hand man, sidekick, and bodyguard (who narrates portions of this story). Elvis and this strange band are back together, but they don't know that they are about to face their most difficult opponent in “Big Mama” and her cosmic bloodsuckers. They are about to get woke.
It may be true that there are no more original ideas. However, author Joe R. Lansdale is such an original voice in American fiction that he must be from another dimension, one where there are still original ideas. Perhaps, his writer's voice is the secret. Lansdale can turn a phrase and pound out prose that is evocative. He can get a laugh, and in his readers' imaginations, he can evoke a fear of monsters and things that go bump – supernatural and otherwise.
There is an excellent comic book adaptation of Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers that is entitled Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers (IDW Publishing). This five-issue comic book miniseries is written by Joshua Jabcuga; drawn by Tadd Galusha and Horacio Domingues; colored by Ryan Hill; and lettered by Tom B. Long.
One element that the novel emphasizes that the comic book series only touches upon is a sense of melancholy and loneliness that hangs over the Elvis and company. The characters seem to be striving for connections, if not outright relationships, but they do not seem to be sure of what exactly they want. It is as if they want another life, but fear of the unknown hampers moving on. After all, they don't know what their new lives might be like, but the lives they know well, as monster hunters, is one they really don't want to live.
This internal conflict, a kind of existential crises, is what makes Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers something more than a straight-forward horror novel. Yes, this is an excellent horror novel, and yes, it is told in a gleefully vulgar voice. But these characters seem larger than one story, and their yearnings and desires extend beyond each Weirdlings fight. I guess that they are just the kind of people who can fight Cosmic Bloodsuckers.
So I heartily recommend Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers. As for the title, I assume that “Bubba” and “Bubba Ho-Tep” are used to denote Joe R. Lansdale's version of Elvis Presley, who first came to readers in the novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep.” As Elvis or as Bubba, this king is still cool, and this novel is indeed cosmic.
8.5 out of 10
[This edition of Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers includes a reprint of the original novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep.]
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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