Johnny Gruesome
Authors: Gregory Lamberson
“If you like your horror fast and nasty, then take a ride with JOHNNY GRUESOME. GRUESOME is a loving and intelligent tribute to the classic splatter films that set the pace for modern horror. With sharp writing and an eye for detail.
Lamberson masterfully brings a night mare to life
. Bold and trashy in all the right ways, JOHNNY GRUESOME is a book (and a villain) you won’t soon forget.”
—Lee Thomas, author of
PARISH DAMNED
and
THE DUST of WONDERLAND
“JOHNNY GRUESOME is a rarity: bright and clever descriptions, an elusive sense of humor, and high-level pacing. I wish I had written it.”
—Herschell Gordon Lewis
,
The Godfather of Gore: Blood Feast
and
2,000 Maniacs
“Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll are back, in the Death Mobile drivin’, leather jacket-clad corpse of JOHNNY GRUESOME, a man who lives up to his name in every sense of the word. The reader is advised to put some Alice Cooper on high volume, crack open a can of beer and dive right in. Be forewarned, however, this is one ride through the hell of high school and the wince-inducing gore of undead vengeance you may have to take more than once.
In JOHNNY GRUESOME, horror has a new hero.”
—
Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of
CURRENCY OF SOULS, THE TURTLE BOY, and THE HIDES.
“JOHNNY GRUESOME has a frightening sense of detail that makes it all the more horrific–
it’s a gruesome ride that you can’t stop reading.”
—
Gunnar Hansen, “Leatherface” in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre
“Any way you slice things, it just doesn’t get any more gruesome than this. Greg Lamberson’s JOHNNY GRUESOME is a rotting fetid romp of a novel that shows you a little of life post-mortem for your average teenage headbanger. A B-movie nightmare recreated with loving fan-boy zeal, I give it an “F” for fun, freaky and foul fucked-up funk.”
—
Steve Vernon Author of
HARD ROADS
“Greg Lamberson’s JOHNNY GRUESOME is edgy, violent, supernaturally cool and the new undead king of quick-and-dirty horror.
JOHNNY GRUESOME spins the zombie genre into a fresh and ballsy hardrock direction that just kills!”
—
Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of
GHOST ROAD BLUES and DEAD MAN’S SONG
“JOHNNY GRUESOME has the potential to become
an iconic horror character
in the mold of such genre heavyweights as Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees. With a cinematic eye (what else can you expect from the man who directed such films as
Slime City
and
Undying Love?)
, Gregory Lamberson gives us what could have been a great B-movie about revenge from beyond the grave, but which instead has been fleshed out and given richer life in the form of a novel. The result is a fun, compelling read with characters we care about.”
—L. L. Soares
, RIGHT HOUSE ON THE LEFT
“Gregory Lamberson’s JOHNNY GRUESOME isn’t just your old run of the mill zombie tale. It’s a smokin’ hot, sexy, rockin’ zombie adventure!”
—
Angeline Hawkes, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of
THE COMMANDMENTS
“This homage to the splatter films of the 1980s … is a wild ride through the darker recesses of the reader’s imagination…. Recommended to anyone who loves their horror hard, fast, and fun.”
—
Dave Simms, Hellnotes
“Horror fans who loved over-the-top novels and slasher films of the 1980s will see their youthful favorites released from an uneasy grave with JOHNNY GRUESOME. The killings are deliciously gory, the characters well developed and believable, and the pace is perfect.”
—
Steven E. Wedel, Horror World
“Here’s one for the history books. A novel that not only combines the best of more than a half-dozen tropes in horror literature (ghosts, zombies, serial killers, unkillable slashers, revenge fantasy, etc.), but does it well….
This is top-down one of the best, most gripping, and most gruesome horror novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading
. … I would recommend this novel to any horror fan, hands down…. There is no reason not to hold this book to your jaded, black, horror-soaked heart.”
—
Shawn Rutledge, SkullRing
“Johnny is the kind of villain you find yourself rooting for; he’s cool, nasty, and a smart-ass, and not in the way-too-many-bad-puns kind of way…. Does JOHNNY GRUESOME deliver? Yes, yes it does.
JOHNNY GRUESOME rocks
. … So if you’re in the mood to put on your favorite Iron Maiden T-shirt and rock out to your favorite Metallica album in book form, then JOHNNY GRUESOME is just your book.”
—
Wil Keiper, Horror YearBook
In memory of my mother, Jeanne T. Keefe, who raised me in the real
Red Hill and encouraged my love of monsters.
Published 2008 by Medallion Press, Inc.
The MEDALLION PRESS LOGO
is a registered tradmark of Medallion Press, Inc.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment from this “stripped book.”
Copyright © 2008 by Gregory Lamberson
Cover Illustration by Dan Plumley and Adam Mock
Book design by James Tampa
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN# 978-193475545-7
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
I created Johnny Gruesome in a screenplay I wrote twentythree years ago. During the evolution of that script into this novel, numerous people offered me invaluable assistance.
I wish to thank Ed Walloga, Robert Craig Sabin, and Joseph Fusco for their recommendations regarding the screenplay, which also applied to the novel.
Thanks also to Jeff Strand, Steve Wedel, Chris Hedges, Nick Cato, Richard Hipson, Lee Thomas, Jaime Le Chance, and L.L. Soares for their editorial comments and suggestions, and to Roy Robbins of Bad Moon Books for publishing the Limited Edition hardcover of this book.
The rock CD
Gruesome
was always intended to be a companion piece to this novel, yet the wonderful music and lyrics of Giasone and Marcy Italiano influenced me during the writing of the final draft. How many authors get to polish their work while listening to an original soundtrack for it?
Thank you to artist Dan Plumley for his ’80s tattoo-style cover for the book you now hold; he joins a roster of artists who have interpreted Johnny, including Eric Maché, Zach McCain, Kelly Forbes, and Martin Blanco.
Thank you to the folks at Medallion Press who made it their mission to bring “the headbanger from hell” to a wider readership: Helen A. Rosburg, Adam Mock, James Tampa, Christy Phillippe, Janet Bank, Horror Acquisitions Editor Ali Degray, and my primary contact, Kerry Estevez. You’re all gruesome in the best sense of the word!
Finally, with love, thanks to my wife, Tamar, for sharing my dream and providing me with brutally honest criticism during this endeavor. Patience and understanding are required during the nurturing of a novel, even one about an undead teenager who still digs rock ‘n’ roll.
Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread;
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Some heads are gonna roll …
—Judas Priest
E
ric Carter held on to the edge of the indoor swimming pool, teeth chattering as the water chilled his bones. His shriveled testicles clung to his inner thighs for warmth, like leeches hungry for blood. Shouts and laughter echoed around him, the shrill voices of boys indistinguishable from those of girls, the steady motion of the bodies in the water creating a rhythmic tide against his slender back.
Behind him the diving board sprang, its reverberation continuing through the deep splash that followed. He moved one hand over the other, his toes skimming the pool’s plaster bottom. Keeping his head above the water, he bobbed toward the pool’s midpoint like an astronaut on the surface of the moon. Shame burned his ears as underclassmen glided across the shallow end with the aid of kickboards. He had failed to swim the pool’s length at the start of the semester, and Coach Bell had assigned him to remedial lessons with the fourth graders, much to the delight of his fifth-grade classmates.