This collection contains several manuscripts and related material (such as story notes) from works by Joe Lansdale early in his career.

Works include the 1989 World Fantasy Award-nominated horror novel The Drive-In (1988); the short story Night They Missed The Horror Show (1988), which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction; On The Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks (1989), which won both the 1989 Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction and the 1989 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction; and two short stories involving Batman, "Subway Jack" (1989) and "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat" (1990).

1/1: The Drive-In, 1988
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits, cover page to page 64A.

1/2: The Drive-In, 1988
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits, pages 64B - 121.

1/3: The Drive-In, 1988
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits, pages 122 - 188.

1/4: Night They Missed The Horror Show, 1988
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits.

1/5: On The Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks, 1989
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits.

1/6: "Subway Jack", 1989
Original typescript with handwritten and whited-out edits.

1/7: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original typed outline sent to DC Comics for story approval, and handwritten story idea notes; with a note to Michael Sellard from Lansdale, December 13, 1989.

1/8: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original typescript pages for "false start" #1, with handwritten edits.

1/9: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original typescript pages for "false start" #2, with handwritten edits.

1/10: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original typescript of the partial first draft, dated mid-September - October 1989(?).

1/11: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original first draft typescript with handwritten edits.

1/12: "Belly Laugh, or The Joker's Trick or Treat", 1990
Original typescript pages of corrections to the first draft requested by DC Comics, with handwritten edits.