What do you think?
Rate this book
Hap and Leonard Graphic Novels #1
Hap and Leonard: Savage Season
An all-new graphic novel adapting the original story which is the basis for the first season of the Sundance TV series. A rip-roaring, high-octane, Texas-sized thriller, featuring two friends, one vixen, a crew of washed-up radicals, loads of money, and bloody mayhem.
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn't be more different. Hap is an East Texas white boy with a weakness for all women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Together, they stir up more commotion than a firestorm. But that's just the way they like it. When Trudy, an ex-flame of Hap's returns promising a huge score, Hap lets Leonard in on the scam. That's when things get interesting.
Joe R. Lansdale's classic dark thriller has been adapted and vividly bought to life by Finnish illustrator Jussi Piironen. He stays faithful to the original novel and creates a visual treat for Hap and Leonard fans.
Chockful of action and laughs, Savage Season is the masterpiece of dark suspense that introduced Hap and Leonard to the thriller scene. The world of crime and suspense haven't been the same since.
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn't be more different. Hap is an East Texas white boy with a weakness for all women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Together, they stir up more commotion than a firestorm. But that's just the way they like it. When Trudy, an ex-flame of Hap's returns promising a huge score, Hap lets Leonard in on the scam. That's when things get interesting.
Joe R. Lansdale's classic dark thriller has been adapted and vividly bought to life by Finnish illustrator Jussi Piironen. He stays faithful to the original novel and creates a visual treat for Hap and Leonard fans.
Chockful of action and laughs, Savage Season is the masterpiece of dark suspense that introduced Hap and Leonard to the thriller scene. The world of crime and suspense haven't been the same since.
124 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2017
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Joe R. Lansdale
826 books3,915 followersChampion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 15, 2025
This is a graphic adaptation of Lansdale's first Hap and Leonard novel. The writing is not bad; it condenses the first part of the story with a bit more verbiage than one normally sees in such adaptations (but I'm okay with that) and then tells the final denouement with very little prose, attempting to let the art tell the story. The art itself may be all right, but the coloring is so dark that I was unable to tell what was going on much of the time. Even the parts that take place on a sunny summer Texas afternoon look like they're set in an underground crypt in a cavern at midnight. I thought maybe I had somehow gotten a defective copy until I glanced through some of the other reviews and noted many other readers had the same problem. I guess they were going for a noirish Gothic atmosphere, but it has some of the dullest and dimmest and darkest pages I've ever seen. It's all black and deep brown with dark grey and a little dull maroon with deep green and blue... I'm still not completely sure who did what to who.
January 24, 2019
SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Love the show, still need to read the prose books, unfortunately not impressed with the comic.
While the story is still interesting, there’s some humor and good action I don’t like how rushed this version of the story is, they don’t tell you as much about the characters and the colorist made it too dark to see anything going on.
I still plan on reading the prose book and would highly recommend the first 2 seasons of the show (haven’t seen season 3 yet) but don’t recommend this comic.
2/5
Love the show, still need to read the prose books, unfortunately not impressed with the comic.
While the story is still interesting, there’s some humor and good action I don’t like how rushed this version of the story is, they don’t tell you as much about the characters and the colorist made it too dark to see anything going on.
I still plan on reading the prose book and would highly recommend the first 2 seasons of the show (haven’t seen season 3 yet) but don’t recommend this comic.
2/5
November 13, 2017
Horrible fight scene at the end...I love a GN but I couldn’t tell wtf was happening.
November 28, 2017
This book was an interesting vehicle that allowed me to revisit a fun crime novel that I read almost ten years ago. In fact, I enjoyed both the television and graphic novel adaptations of Savage Season, although of course neither was as good as the source novel.
The tv show went for the quirky off-beat tone of the latter novels in the Hap and Leonard series, combined with a considerably slower pace. It did not always capture the essence of these two men in this first novel--aging, jaded, and quietly desperate to make something of their lives before it is too late.
On the other hand, the graphic novel keeps the same fast pace as the book. It also retains a lot of Lansdale's original prose and colorful dialogue.
Jussi Piironen's moody artwork and subdued colors seem to fit the overall feel of the story better than the television cinematography did. The panels set in the East Texas lowland forests were particularly effective. So were the minimalist underwater diving scenes. During the bloody and climactic extended fight scenes, Piironen chose to convey mortal bullet wounds as simply splotches of red, as if the blood had simply splashed onto the character's clothes rather than flowing from open gaping wounds. I thought this was an interesting choice.
I look forward to future adaptations of the Hap and Leonard series.
The tv show went for the quirky off-beat tone of the latter novels in the Hap and Leonard series, combined with a considerably slower pace. It did not always capture the essence of these two men in this first novel--aging, jaded, and quietly desperate to make something of their lives before it is too late.
On the other hand, the graphic novel keeps the same fast pace as the book. It also retains a lot of Lansdale's original prose and colorful dialogue.
Jussi Piironen's moody artwork and subdued colors seem to fit the overall feel of the story better than the television cinematography did. The panels set in the East Texas lowland forests were particularly effective. So were the minimalist underwater diving scenes. During the bloody and climactic extended fight scenes, Piironen chose to convey mortal bullet wounds as simply splotches of red, as if the blood had simply splashed onto the character's clothes rather than flowing from open gaping wounds. I thought this was an interesting choice.
I look forward to future adaptations of the Hap and Leonard series.
June 4, 2024
I enjoyed the novel (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...) and was curious to see if it would hold up in comic books form; and boy, did it ever! The artwork managed to keep this story fresh for me and is well worth the buy if you want to reread the story but still have some novelty to it.
November 20, 2017
What a huge disappointment!
I am a Hap and Leonard fan and so I was really excited to find that the first book in the series was to be published as a graphic novel (comic).
And then after months the book arrives and ta da! The colour work is non - existent! The entire book is in shades of brown apart from the speech bubbles! So the art work is brown, dark brown, light brown, sepia, tan, black and the occasional deep red.
I mean why even bother to produce the book in colour at all?
It would have been so much better in black and white.
Surely anything worth doing is worth doing well especially when it comes to Hap and Leonard. This is a five star series which has been marred by a 1 star graphic novel.
I always think that graphic novels, audiobooks and movies based on books should somehow enhance the reading experience and make the book come to life. Not so here.
Well now I know. Instead of buying this I should have bought the episodes on Amazon Prime. At least those will be in colour!
Meh!
I am a Hap and Leonard fan and so I was really excited to find that the first book in the series was to be published as a graphic novel (comic).
And then after months the book arrives and ta da! The colour work is non - existent! The entire book is in shades of brown apart from the speech bubbles! So the art work is brown, dark brown, light brown, sepia, tan, black and the occasional deep red.
I mean why even bother to produce the book in colour at all?
It would have been so much better in black and white.
Surely anything worth doing is worth doing well especially when it comes to Hap and Leonard. This is a five star series which has been marred by a 1 star graphic novel.
I always think that graphic novels, audiobooks and movies based on books should somehow enhance the reading experience and make the book come to life. Not so here.
Well now I know. Instead of buying this I should have bought the episodes on Amazon Prime. At least those will be in colour!
Meh!
January 29, 2018
The Story is a 4 star story. I just finished the novel and then read this Graphic Novel based on the same. The artwork is not really up to par in my opinion. I bought the graphic novel for about $40 in hardcover signed by Joe R Lansdale and the artist. I collect books. Parts of the story were a little hard to follow unless you read the novel first.
May 19, 2018
The later Hap and Leonard series additions show the increased skill of the author, especially with humorous dialogue. I may have enjoyed listening to this book more if I had not watched its TV presentation, which was quite true to the novel. So ho hum review from me. Read it before you watch it and know the later Hap and Leonard books are better.
November 8, 2023
“Hap and Leonard” Savage Season.
Years ago I read a short story by original author Joe Lansdale. This is a graphic adaption of one of his tales. Intense and smart. ****
“The bottoms are lowland .. They were beautiful, dark and dangerous. A wonder in one eye, a terror in the other.”
Years ago I read a short story by original author Joe Lansdale. This is a graphic adaption of one of his tales. Intense and smart. ****
“The bottoms are lowland .. They were beautiful, dark and dangerous. A wonder in one eye, a terror in the other.”
October 25, 2024
Love Joe R Lansdale. Love the Hap and Leonard books. The TV show was pretty good while it lasted too.
I didn't really get on with the artwork here though. Wasn't really my style and was mostly dark, which didn't really work for me.
I didn't really get on with the artwork here though. Wasn't really my style and was mostly dark, which didn't really work for me.
October 27, 2017
Story is great, translation to comic script is pretty good. The artwork was very dark and falls short to me.
April 14, 2019
The story wasn't bad, but the artwork was often dark and hard to see.
August 4, 2018
I like the story but it just wasn’t meant for this format.
July 11, 2020
Film noir-ish/ pulp fiction.
April 19, 2024
Interesting heist tale with the standard femme fatale and twists and turns. Easy and quick read. Art was a bit wonky but overall good.
October 8, 2025
Love these guys!
December 20, 2020
This is an excellent graphic novel adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale's first Hap And Leonard novel, Savage Season. The pacing is wonderful, and the panels do a great job of telling the story of the boys helping to find the missing money from a years-ago heist. Everyone looks great, and they're pretty much how I can picture them in my head even after reading the series several times and seeing the TV series.
My only complaint is that it gets dark. Like, physically dark. It gets difficult towards the end to decipher what exactly is happening in most of the book. I read it in my brightly lit house and still had trouble seeing the panels clearly.
Looking forward to possible adaptations of future Hap and Leonard works.
My only complaint is that it gets dark. Like, physically dark. It gets difficult towards the end to decipher what exactly is happening in most of the book. I read it in my brightly lit house and still had trouble seeing the panels clearly.
Looking forward to possible adaptations of future Hap and Leonard works.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews