Features six full color illustrations by artist Zach McCain and an introduction by Jeff Strand. The book is signed by Lamberson, McCain, and Strand.

 

 The novel is the creation of Gregory Lamberson, author of the 2004 novel Personal Demons and the filmmaker behind the cult classic midnight movie Slime City. Johnny Gruesome is the culmination of an ambitious multi-media marketing campaign conceived by Lamberson one year ago that includes a companion rock CD, a short film starring Erin Brown (aka "Misty Mundae"), a collectible mask, and on-line comic books, all of which are available at www.johnnygruesome.com. Samples of McCain's artwork for the novel are posted at http://slimeguy.com/gruesomeBook.htm.

 

"At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that people respond to the novel," says Lamberson, who describes his creation as "a valentine to fans of 1980s splatter films." He sees Johnny as "a creature in the mold of the classic Universal Studios monsters, with a lot of personality, in a contemporary horror environment."

 

Johnny Gruesome tells the story of John Grissom, a high school student and heavy metal music fan who is murdered by a drug dealer and returns from the grave as a vengeance crazed zombie. "He's actually a ghost who puppeteers his own corpse," Lamberson explains. "And because he's a teenager, he's a rather immature monster, driven by hormones and anger. He was angry at the world when he was alive, but he's even angrier as a zombie. I want people to have a lot of fun with this between the acts of gory mayhem."

 

"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.

 

"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