Let’s face facts: No sane person would pass up an chance to drink in the presence of Joe Lansdale. On June 16 the king of East Texas Gothic will be screaming over from Nacogdoches to show the best of his hard-boiled, two-fisted and not-for-the-faint-of-heart excursions into the cinematic realm.

It’s all part of the next night of Feral Cinema at the United States Art Authority, as organized by our own Marc Savlov. Lansdale will be in town to promote his new book, the long-awaited collected volume of his complete The Drive-In trilogy at Austin Books and Comics the next day (June 17), so it seemed too perfect an opportunity to get the great tale-teller in front of an audience.

So on June 16 he’ll be presenting screenings of his two collaborations with Don Phantasm Coscarelli, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” from the Master of Horror series and the best Elvis Presley versus mummies movie imaginable, Bubba Ho-Tep. He’ll also be screening some of the episodes of the Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: the Animated Series he wrote (here’s hoping for Showdown, his great spin on DC’s Jonah Hex: After all, the Josh Brolin-starring big screen rendition of the uncanny cowboy makes it to the screen two days later.) The USAA has just acquired a new digital projector, so the belt buckle on the undead-fighting king of rock and roll will shine like the Vegas strip at night.

If you’ve never been in a room with Lansdale, this is a real bucket-list opportunity to kick back with a couple of beers and listen to the great man talk about his twenty-something novels, dozens of short stories, comics, scripts et al. After all, how many award-winning novelists have developed their own school of martial arts? Seriously, not only does this guy write a mean two-bit criminal or eldritch abomination, but he could also kick their asses. See, when the vampocalypse comes, we’re on Team Joe.

Feral Cinema presents an Evening With Joe Lansdale, June 16, United States Art Authority, 2906 Fruth: Doors 6pm, first film 7pm. Admission $5 on the door or free with purchase of a copy of The Complete Drive-In: Three Novels of Aliens, Anarchy, and the Popcorn King (available at the door.) Lansdale will also be signing copies of the book at Austin Books and Comics, June 17, 4pm to 6pm.

This article appears in June 4 • 2010.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.