Ike's Chili on the Guna Slopes

Upon my first reading of the R. A. Lafferty story “Old Halloweens on the Guna Slopes” I missed this; a reference to Ike's Chili Parlour. Ike's Chili has been a Tulsa staple since just about forever. It's the oldest restaurant in Tulsa and it has long held legendary status in my family. This September they celebrate 110 years of business.

It was the custom of my grandfather to take the family to Ike's Chili, gorge themselves, and follow the meal with a spoonful of vinegar taken from a glass bottle off the table. The vinegar, grandfather argued, broke down the grease and helped cleanse the palate. Of course, it's no coincidence that only the men in the family engaged in this sour tradition. And what men they were.

Gray Ghost - A Reminiscence

I rolled a three. Dead man Captain John said that he had a seven. I put a dollar bill in his bony hand when it came up. I shivered when I touched its bones. I was never meant to play games with a dead man.
--  R. A. Lafferty, “Gray Ghost: A Reminiscence”

A personal note about the first part of the story:

Growing up in Tulsa, I lived close enough to the Arkansas river that I was regularly warned from playing on the islands of sand that formed when the water ran low. The river ran low often because it was choked by the Keystone Dam. The islands that appeared were full of air pockets and loose sand and were wholly unstable. The street runs close to the river in several spots and you'd occasionally see someone doing something foolish out there in the middle of the water. I had never heard of anyone digging into the sand as they do in the story, but the threat of the environment was very real as a part of my childhood.

The Rod and The Ring

In truth, it is the game that destroys the world every time it is played correctly, and thus it may be played correctly a maximum of one time.
   --R. A. Lafferty, “The Rod and the Ring”

Over the last few years there have been no small number of achievements made by the Lafferty fans who organize and make up the Ktistec Press. One of the most notable of these being the negotiating for and inclusion of the previously unpublished R.A. Lafferty story The Rod and The Ring.

Feast of Laughter 4 (featuring The Rod & The Ring)

The Rod and The Ring was the first new Lafferty story to be published in nearly 15 years. [Those interested can download a free pdf of the book from the Ktistec website or purchase a physical copy print-on-demand via Amazon.] As a member of the Ktistec team, I had access to the story prior to publication. What kind of fool would I have been to pass up the opportunity to be the first person to illustrate a new Lafferty?

Over the crust of the story is draped clear references to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. I drew upon this heavily, combining designs from the D&D board games and the iconic red cover from the 1983 starter kit players manual. I'll admit that I took far too much pleasure in replacing the TSR logo with my own signature. For a good 15 minutes I actually thought I was a genius. Not so much after. But I'm still very happy with the idea.

If I had known at the time that our friend Lissanne Lake, a professional artist and longtime Lafferty associate who frequently illustrates his worlds, had been a regular illustrator for Dragon Magazine and other fantasy periodicals and books, I would have begged her for an illustration to accompany this publication. I'm sure it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, I wouldn't discover this until years later.