Introduction to author JR Helton
In the movie business, one is either above the line or below the line, the demarcation where the real money and power starts and stops.
John “J.R.” Helton has published books on movies, drugs, people, and dogs. J.R. currently lives and writes in San Antonio, Texas where he is a professor at UTSA. Having recently acquired the rights back to his now out of print movie memoir Below the Line, this is his first venture in publishing his writing, chapter by chapter, here on Substack.
J.R is the author of the memoirs Below the Line on the film business, Man and Beast on animal rescue, and the autobiographical novels Drugs and The Jugheads from Seven Stories Press/Random House. The artist R. Crumb has painted four covers for his books. J.R is also the author of the novel Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions published by Liveright/W.W. Norton.
Helton has published two books in French with 13th Note Editions in Paris, Au Texas Tu Serais Deja Mort and Voyage Au Bout De La Blanche. He has published short stories and poetry as well in Mineshaft Magazine, The Sun, and The Missouri Review for which he won a Pushcart Prize.
“J.R. Helton wrote the book Below the Line a few years ago that remains one of the best inside accounts of the film business. Helton worked as a set painter for film companies and sees a great disparity in them throwing away millions of dollars on poorly planned, corny movies while so many of our citizens can’t afford to eat regularly. His writing is compassionate, humorous and insightful.”
HARVEY PEKAR, author of American Splendor
“J.R. Helton is the Nietzsche of Narcotics, the James Dean of Dope, an extraordinary writer who will have you clawing your face, sweating through your underwear, and ripping off loved ones before you get to the end. Just when you think there is noting new to say about drugs, Drugs marches out whole new ways to fuck up your brain, your life, and basically anyone insane or unlucky enough to cross your path. This is a truly riveting, mind-altering read, not to be missed.”
JERRY STAHL, author of Permanent Midnight
“J.R. Helton really speaks to me---starkly honest, darkly funny, acutely observant, captures the tragic absurdity of life…He’s right up there with the best of them.”
ROBERT CRUMB
“I’ve been a fan of Helton’s since happening upon Below the Line 20 years ago and admiring the straightforward truthfulness of his writing. The Jugheads is an unflinching tale of Helton’s struggles growing up in Texas. Funny and harrowing, this guy Helton could be the next Bukowski!”
TERRY ZWIGOFF, director of Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa and Art School Confidential.
“Appearances can be deceiving---J.R. Helton’s wonderful book is not so much about “Drugs” as it is about growing up in America as viewed through the prism of our national pastime. Funny and poignant, Helton has delivered a book that would make Mark Twain proud---it’s hilarious, true, and subversive---a perfect piece of modern American writing.”
TONY O’NEILL, author of Down and Out on Murder Mile and Sick City.
“Somewhere between literary tinctures reminiscent of Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar, Helton conjures an intoxicating voice that mines mordant memories of abject and downtrodden moments to reveal hilarious, gob smacking, and often haunting epiphanies. When it doesn’t break your heart, this book might bust your gut from laughing.”
JOHN PHILLIP SANTOS, author of Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation
“J.R. Helton is my favorite contemporary American writer. He has a gift for writing well in plain language, and he can’t seem to help but write with total honesty. I eagerly devoured Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions, as I do all of his writing. Everything he puts down on paper ought to be printed and disseminated to the reading public.”
R. CRUMB
“I can’t help but fall for the way the rough and poetic combine…Helton’s language will eat you up. His characters are wonderful and they are awful. They are so human, just like the rest of us.”
ERIKA T. WURTH, author of Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend, Buckskin Cocaine, and White Horse.
“Both funny and sad, this book illuminates the hard work and unrelenting tenacity of people who scratch a living with manual labor. Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions stands proudly alongside the best of Miller, Bukowski, and Fante.”
JAN REID, Contributing Editor at Texas Monthly and author of Sins of the Younger Sons and Comanche Sundown.