Growing up, digging for all those VHS tapes… I remember combing mom and pop shops for Icy Breasts and Joe D’Amato’s Buried Alive in the big box… With film people there’s this real tradition of going out into the wilderness and watching stuff and looking for really obscure gems to bring back and be like “Oh my god, have you seen this?”. So I really just started buying unconsciously because also… I’m a film guy first. Bestsellers come and go and it’s kind of sobering when you realize you can sell a ton of books and can be completely forgotten except maybe as some half-remembered “Oh that guy”. I haven’t heard of most of these authors or haven’t at the time. There’s no way to know, when you’re confronted with these giant paperback swap shop shelves, what’s trash and what’s treasure. I just saw how cheap they were and started fumbling around buying stuff mostly based on Will’s recommendations on his blog. I didn’t have any plan when I started buying these books. Well, I guess I regained consciousness to write this book. Considering how much material you’ve read and researched, have you ever truly regained consciousness? JL: When you were doing research for the book and you discovered Will Errickson’s amazing blog, Too Much Horror Fiction, you mentioned you “blacked out”. Like, what the hell happened to them? That was as interesting a story as what they were. Those books were everywhere when I was growing up then they just disappeared. The pitch for Paperbacks, the logline, is basically a history of the paperback horror boom of the ‘70s and ‘80s. That’s what I really want but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Grady Hendrix: The one I would want would say, “This is the best book in the world!” – Stephen King.

Jonathan Lees: If you could give yourself a nice cover blurb for Paperbacks From Hell, what would it be? I had the pleasure of speaking with Grady about this unique project. A lovingly created and fully illustrated tome dedicated to the rise and fall of the infamous paperback horror boom in the 1970s and ‘80s. Paperbacks From Hell is a whirlwind history of devilish children, panicked suburbanites, angry animals, insidious doctors, uncontrollable contagions, and, sometimes, teddy bears with axes. With a significant amount of seriousness, satire, and his signature carnival barker delivery, Grady Hendrix has delivered one of those rare books that will be a permanent fixture on your shelves.

Grady hendrix paperbacks from hell