Marvel And Stephen King Announce Dark Tower: The Drawing Of The Three – House Of Cards #1

comicbook.com posted news that Marvel and Stephen King today announced the next installment of the Dark Tower comic book adaptation,  Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three – House of Cards. It is set for a March, 2015 release date.

From the press release:

The troubled streets of New York City pulse with the beat of desolation and crime. Among the dissidents of the city is Eddie Dean a troubled young man gifted with the ability to open doors to other worlds has smuggled narcotics from Nassau to New York City, but now Eddie has to escape a packed airplane guarded by armed Custom Agents! How will Eddie avoid prison and yet also fulfill his contract with the dangerous mobster Balazar? The answer lies in Mid-World, and with a dying gunslinger named Roland!

I love The Drawing of the Three, so this is exciting.

Comicbook.com notes:

“In the latest chapter of King’s epic tale there are some fascinating connections being made within the Dark Tower mythos, expanding on the histories of the characters and revealing their twisted ‘family tree,’ says series Editor Mark Paniccia, via the release. “Fans will get a real thrill as we discover what kind of role Eddie Dean plays in Roland Deschain's plans to bring the tower down.”

King and Carpenter: A Match Made in Hell?

King and Carpenter: A Match Made in Hell?
by Brandon Engel

The most compelling monsters are the ones who illicit our deepest sympathies. John Carpenter’s The Thing, however, elicits sympathy in a surprisingly pathetic way: he got his ass handed to him by E.T.! The fearsome shape-shifter of Carpenter’s misanthropic visions just couldn’t hold his own in the box-office against Hollywood’s favorite doe-eyed, feeble weakling (no, not Spielberg, but the alien).

And it’s really too bad that the film didn’t enjoy a more dignified theatrical run, because a.) it deserved to and b.) the rumor is that if Carpenter’s film hadn’t tanked, he was going to be brought into direct a big-budget film adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter. And it’s really too bad, in a way, because the Firestarter film that ultimately was released was an enormous let down.

It didn’t prevent Carpenter and King from teaming up, however. Not long after the release of The Thing, Carpenter was recruited to direct a feature length adaptation of King’s Christine (1983), which tells the story of a bloodthirsty 1957 Plymouth Fury. This was perhaps, the most appropriate King story for a collaboration between the two men, and I say this for a couple of reasons. For one, King’s stories can become so involved, with so many characters introduced, that, in many situations, it would be impractical and distracting to compress all of them into a single film. One of the things that distinguishes Carpenter’s work on the whole is that he’s capable of telling captivating stories with very few principal actors (think Halloween, Dark Star, Starman, The Thing). Christine is a story with relatively few characters, and with much of the narrative tension borne out of the intensity of a few key relationships. For another thing, Carpenter is versatile in that he has shown a facility for both visually driven narratives (The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape From New York) and narratives that downplay the importance of intense visuals and make economic use of what is not seen (Halloween especially). King has an extremely colorful imagination, and while there are certain images that he evokes successfully through his writing, attempts to translate these images directly to screen have in some instances, fallen short.

One of the things that becomes clear looking at the work of both men, is that Carpenter and King spoke the same language, and had many of the same cultural reference points. Both men drew liberally from the influences of EC Comics. Both men, in fact have spoken in interviews about the significance of those horror comics, and both men have paid tribute to them: King with Creepshow (1983) and Carpenter most directly with John Carpenter’s Body Bags (1993). Both men were also huge admirers of Ray Bradbury, who might have, in some way,s provided the seedling for the idea that would blossom into Christine. Ray Bradbury was a pre-eminent purveyor of cold-war era technophobia. Themes of rapidly evolving technology (amplified by the arms race between the states and the former U.S.S.R.) are prevalent in his work, and King and Carpenter have integrated elements of this into their work also.

While critical response to Christine was mixed up its initial release, the film has aged pretty well in many ways. After all, we live in an age of cars that can drive themselves, and wireless home security monitoring systems that control everything. One of the things that has perhaps kept it relevant to modern audiences is the fact that technology is still creepy. It’s creepier now than it’s ever been.

With Halloween season upon us here again, let’s toast to two masters of menace! And here’s to hoping that King will manage to pull Carpenter out of semi-retirement and provide him with a decent script to work off of (something that Carpenter, sadly, has been lacking for a few decades now)

................................

Brandon Engel is a Chicago-based blogger with a keen interest in all things horror. Among his favorite Stephen King novels are: Firestarter, Cujo, The Shining, Carrie, Hearts in Atlantis, and Misery. Follow him: @BrandonEngel2

Prisoner #1 Skottie Young Variant

Russ Burlingame comicbook.com posted an article "Stephen King Gets Adorable With The Dark Tower: Drawing of the Three - The Prisoner #1 Skottie Young Variant"

Marvel Comics have released the latest in their seemingly never-ending supply of adorable Skottie Young variants -- this time for Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - The Prisoner #1 from writers Peter David and Robin Furth with art by Piotr Kowalski.

The variant depicts the gunslinger Roland Deschain in Young's inimitable style.

“This is the ‘All-New Marvel NOW’ version of The Dark Tower. We’re now refocusing our spotlight to explore the events that led to the formation of the Ka-Tet that aided the gunslinger Roland Deschain on his quest,” said editor Bill Rosemann. “But instead of encountering Eddie Dean later in his life, as you do in the novel, we zoom back to 1964 and meet him as a toddler, so while we are adapting the second novel, we’re also weaving together events in a new way that will surprise everyone who has already read the book. We’re ‘assembling the Avengers’ of the Dark Tower universe, but Robin Furth, Peter David, and Piotr Kowalski are doing so in a way that you’ve never imagined.”

. . . The Avengers of the Dark Tower universe -- I  LIKE IT! 

Concept Art from Ron Howard's Cancelled Adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'

photo source: www.comicbookmovie.com

comicbookmovie.com has posted concept art from Ron Howard's stab at The Dark Tower.  It includes this note, "Conceptual illustrator, Gregory Hill ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2"), has updated his website with concept art that he created for Universal's cancelled film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, which Ron Howard ("Rush") was set to direct."

Movies.com Peter Hall remarks, "As much as we love to root for movies around here, we actually kind of hope that Howard and Goldsman's plans for a Dark Tower movie trilogy never do get off the ground. There's just too much material in the books to condense into even three movies. It really does deserve the Game of Thrones HBO treatment, but that will never happen so long as the movies are still in the works."

The current work on THE STAND movie should take note, as they are trying to squeeze  what could be an entire series into a feature movie.  (Yes, still sulking)

Hall explains the release of the concept art this way:

This week some concept art (and video; see above) created for the movie has been put online by illustrator Gregory Hill, and while it's not exciting material (it's basically just a tour through a few key locations from the books), it being published may be a sign that the movie has completely stalled. Universal was the last studio working with them on it, and this may be from the version that it nixed. Most movies don't let concept art out into the wild until after the movie has come out, so this could mean that whatever work Hill did would have never seen the light of day otherwise.

photo source: www.comicbookmovie.com

photo source: www.comicbookmovie.com

Larry Fire Shows His Love For Stephen King

Check out Comic Book Resources look at Larry Fire's office -- and in particular his love for Stephen King (and their common love for Batman.)

This is a nice collection!

Fire writes: "I have collected Stephen King books since 1983. He’s my favorite author and I’m also a fan of his son, Joe Hill. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting both authors on numerous occasions and they are wonderful talented friendly people."

EW posts drawings for upcoming Drawing Of The Three Comic

picture: popwatch.ew.com

Entertainment Weekly published a great update  on the development of the Dark Tower, The Drawing Of The Three today, writing, "this September, Marvel will release the first issue of a new series that will delve into a new corner of King’s Dark Tower saga.  The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three–The Prisoner is a five-issue miniseries focusing on Eddie Dean, a character first introduced in King’s second Dark Tower book. And as drawn by artist Piotr Kowalski (Marvel Knights: Hulk), it’s also a departure from the post-apocalyptic Western setting of the previous comic books."

This is exciting news to me.  One of my favorite books in the Dark Tower series was The Drawing Of The Three.  If it hadn't been for this novel, I would have given up on the series.

Check out the full article at: popwatch.ew.com

EC COMICS AND THE WORLD OF STEPHEN KING

This article is by Brandon Engel

We are all familiar with the fate of virtually any sort of art that stirs controversy upon its initial release. At first, it’s perceived as subversive, and is often largely resisted by the general public. As time passes, tastes change, society typically becomes more permissive, and the thing that was shocking twenty to thirty years ago is ever-present, aesthetically and thematically, in mainstream media.

Such is the case with EC Comics, which were a major source of inspiration for a young Stephen King. Under the leadership of publisher William Gaines - whom many of you may also know for his involvement with Mad Magazine - EC established themselves in the early 1950’s as the pre-eminent publisher of horror comics. They published such titles as Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, and Shock Suspenstories. The covers typically featured highly stylized, lurid imagery which owed something to the tradition of “weird menace” pulp magazine covers.

Gaines worked closely with editor and visual artist Al Feldstein to oversee the production of content that was, in many ways, light years ahead of its time. Visually, the comics stood head and shoulders above competitors’ comics thank to the contributions of artists like Jack Davis and Graham Ingels. In terms of the writing, one of the traits that made EC historically significant in the annals of horror is that the publication featured many original stories by well respected authors, such as Ray Bradbury (another major literary influence of King’s).

The stories commonly featured some version of an O. Henry twist, and were typically moral plays, wherein the bad guy (or the worst of the bad guys) would ultimately receive his comeuppance at the end of the story. The stories would be introduced by one of three horror hosts: “The Vault-keeper,” “The Crypt Keeper,” and “The Old Witch.” They would make awful puns and provide comic relief that tempered the ghastliness of the stories themselves. And the stories were ghastly, with instances of people being eaten alive by vultures, cannibalism and even vividly illustrated dismemberment. It was a no-holds-barred kind of publication.

The books were immensely popular among young readers (with such gruesome plots, how could they not be?), and at one point in time, horror comics accounted for about 25% of the comic book market. And then, along came psychiatrist Fredric Wertham...

In 1954, Wertham published a book entitled The Seduction of the Innocent, which asserted that comic books contributed to juvenile delinquency. He took issue with the EC horror titles in particular, for juxtaposing macabre images next to advertisements for toy guns and knives. Wertham also had a litany of issues with other popular titles, and even went so far as to suggest that Batman and Robin promoted homosexuality (he may or may not have been correct on that point). Regardless, his book led to hearings about whether or not comic books were indeed endorsing illicit behaviors for young Americans. Gaines was forced to testify before a congressional hearing, and shortly thereafter, the Comic Code Authority was constructed by the Comics Magazine Association of America. The CCA organized a self-imposed set of censorship rules that a publication would be required to meet in order to get the Comic Code seal of approval. Publications that weren’t approved were generally sent back to the publisher, since sellers didn’t want to carry them.

As expected, this effectively terminated EC’s horror comics. Fortunately, EC had other properties to fall back on, such as the aforementioned Mad Magazine. But the influence of those comics endured. John Carpenter and George Romero were two filmmakers who grew up in the fifties and drew heavily from the influence of EC - the latter of the two eventually teamed up with Stephen King to produce the EC derivative horror anthology Creepshow (1982). King wrote five short stories in the EC tradition, and Romero did his best to replicate the comic book aesthetics in the composition of the shots, and the use of comic book style borders. There are also animated segments that feature artwork from original EC layout artists. King even stars in one of the segments as an east-coast bumpkin whose life is turned upside down when a meteor crashes in his back-yard.

In some ways, you might say that the film helped demonstrate that the general public was ready for material this intense. It was only 6 years after the release of Creepshow that HBO began airing its Tales From the Crypt series, which used stories from all of the EC horror titles as the basis for teleplays. As a bonus, because the program was originally broadcast on HBO, producers didn’t have to make concessions with the gore and violence. And later, there was an animated TV program for kids entitled Tales From the Cryptkeeper.

To his credit, you might say that Stephen King and George Romero played a large role in legitimizing this genre of material and making it palatable to a wider audience. And it really does go to show you that what’s outlawed one decade could very well be fodder for Saturday morning children’s programming a few decades later.

. . . . . . . . . .
Brandon Engel is a blogger with satellitestarinternet.com who writes about a variety of topics - everything from vintage exploitation films to energy legislation. Brandon has a penchant for horror literature, and his favorite authors within the genre include: H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Clive Barker, and, of course, Stephen King.

SURVIVOR TYPE Graphic Novel

Stephen King once said that Survivor Type was a story that could not be filmed.  An no wonder!  It's. . . well, it's. . . HAVE YOU READ IT?  Okay, then you understand.

Max Miller at artagem.com agrees it might be too graphic for film, but it's ripe for a graphic novel treatment.  He's completed 65 pages of a Survivor Type graphic novel.  Miller told me:

A little over a year and a half ago I completed a 65 page graphic novella based off of Stephen King’s short story “Survivor Type,” about a surgeon named Richard Pine who winds up marooned on a little spit of an island with no food and is forced to begin eating his own body to stay alive. It’s a very grisly little piece and it really stood out to me when I first read it, back when I was sixteen.

This is reposted with permission from www.artagem.com

And that’s it! There’s an additional 55 extremely gory pages…but copyright being what it is, they’ll remain under lock and key for now.

www.artagem.com

Stephen King Crossovers

Stephen King has inspired a lot of crazy stuff.  The cultural references are. . . everywhere.  Here's a unique one: Afterlife with Archie is doing a crossover series that will take the characters "to the grave and back."

Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa says, “Afterlife with Archie combines two of my great passions: Archie comics and horror comics.  This series came out of conversations with Jon [Goldwater], asking questions like, ‘what if the Archie characters found themselves in a Stephen King novel like The Stand." (www.horrortalk.com)

Now, I've never read Archie.  Ever.  Didn't know he existed until he was mentioned in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.  The article got me thinking, what kinds of crossovers would be fun?

Crossover isn't meeting Stephen King -- it's entering the world of Mr. King, or drawing elements from King's work.  Carrie Underwood recently used Christine in a music video to take out an adulterous spouse.  We've seen The Simpsons take a trip through The Shining.

Just for fun, what would be some cool cross overs?  Tell me in the comments section.

• Sheldon from Big Bang Theory is put on the Graveyard shift to help clean out the rats in the sub-basement.
• Dwight from The Office goes on a blind date with Carrie's mom.
• A crazy clown terrorizes Middle Earth.
• The Smurf's adopt a dog. . . 
• Ghost Busters are called  to The Overlook Hotel (Thanks Chris)

Stephen King Mash Up!

I like the comicbookresources.com September 20, 2012 post titled, "Comic Book Characters Mashed Up With Stephen King Stories!"

Brian Cronin writes: "it’s Stephen King Week! Team-up/mash-up comic book characters with Stephen King novels or stories. Like, as an example, Squirrel Girl as Carrie. Now that I’ve given that example, no one else has to actually suggest it."

I would suggest Under The Dome and The Simpsons. . . but that might be rubbing salt in a wound.  But it would be cool!

My favorites:

by Phillip Sevy

by John Trumbull

by Bill Walko

by Daniel Cox

Batman #400: BATMAN or SUPERMAN

REPOST: IN HONOR OF BATMAN, DARK KNIGHT RISING COMING OUT TODAY

Batman #400 was issued October, 1986.  It features a special introduction by Stephen King.  King's topic of choice. . . Batman or Superman.

This special introduction its on inside front and inside back covers.  

QUESTIONS THAT MATTER:

King writes: "When I was a kid there were certain questions which came up and had to be answered. . . or at least aired, if finding a conclusive answer proved impossible.

He then offers us a quick list of questions that had to be answered:

• Whether or not Don Larsen's World series no-hitter was skill, fate, or just dumb luck.
• What was at the center of golf balls.  
• Why all the Disney characters wore gloves.
• Was there such a thing as a complete set of green Davy Crockett trading cards.  King writes, "The red ones were easy, but the green ones were weirdly scarce."
• Here's one I've given some time to: Would you come out in China upside down i it was really possible to dig all the way through the earth to the other side.  (And, may I add. . . at what point are you upside down?)

"These were questions asked and answered after you were too tired to swim out to the raft anymore and had to crash out on the beach, or when you were walking home from the baseball field in summer's sweet dusk with your feet burning inside your sneakers, or before you fell asleep on camp-outs."

Of course, this is exactly what we are treated to in the movie Stand By Me.  Questions kids ponder.  And. . . if Mickey is a mouse, Pluto is a dog. . . what's Goofy? 

And then there was this question: Who do you like better, Superman or Batman?

Before I tell you King's preference -- I took an unofficial poll.  I discovered a little generation gap.  Teens and adults pretty quickly choose Batman.  Children were divided, but Superman was still pretty popular with the kiddos.  We, it turns out, are a house divided!  The nine year old was offended anyone would think Batman was better than Superman.  She had not considered that anyone might hold a varying opinion.

King's vote: Batman.  (Come on, no surprise there, right?  He's writing the intro in the Batman comic.  I guess he would have had to do some more soul searching if D.C. had asked him to write an introduction!)

He assures us that he still "digs" Superman, because he's the "good" guy.  However, King explains that Superman is a little removed from the rest of us.  He can't be beat!  There's Kryptonite, even red and yellow Kryptonite, but "Batman was just a guy.  A rich guy, yes.  A strong guy, granted.  a smart guy, you bet.  But. . . he couldn't fly.  I think that formed my preference more than anything else."

FLIGHT: 

King discusses the first Superman movie, and the tagline, "You'll Believe A Man can Fly."  He didn't!  He didn't believe it in the movie or the comic books.  "Ironically, the closest I ever came to believing it was in the TV series."  Interesting!  I love that old TV series.  And so do my kids.  We've watched them all, over and over.  "DON'T CALL ME CHIEF!"

King says the Batman TV show was "unpleasantly campy."  I must agree!  I saw it recently, and it pained me.  But, the actors were awesome.  They were trying to make it feel like a comic book; but in that vein, the Dick Tracy movie leads the pack, I think. 

"But when Batman swung down into the Joker's hideout on a rope or stopped The Penguin from dropping Robin into a bucket of boiling hog-fat with a well-thrown Batarang, I believed.  These were not likely things, I freely grand you that, but they were possible things.  I could believe in a Caped Crusader who swung on ropes, threw boomerangs with deadly accuracy, and drove like Richard Petty getting a pregnant woman to the hospital." 

(He also says he had trouble believing in Super-breath.)

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Batman, King explains, really was a detective.  

"He had to be a detective.  He couldn't rely on super-breath to return Gotham city to its proper place after the crime had happened; he had to catch The Riddler or whomever the villain might be before he could jump start those nuclear jets.  Like Sherlock Holmes, Batman looked at the tracks the crooks left; he took finger prints; he picked up hairs from the scene of the crime and took testimony.  He kept files -- also a la Homes -- on the modus operandi of various criminals. He searched for patterns, knowing -- as all the great detectives have -- that if a pattern can be found, you can be there waiting for the criminal at his next stop."

THE DARK SIDE

So what's really up, Mr. King?  What's the bottom line?  

"Maybe the real reason that Batman appealed to me more than the other guy: There was something sinister about him.  That's right.  you heard me.  Sinister."

And this is where the article gets real sweet, my friends.  Because, remember, I love old radio, right?  And King now compares Batman to The Shadow.  I loved the shadow! 

Batman, King says, is like a vampire -- because he is a creature of the night.  All the more a comparison, as we now know that Superman gets his power from our sun.  Thus, making Superman all the more a day creature, and Batman a night creature!

"Oh, yeah, you saw him fighting crime in the day once in a while, but mostly he was a shape in the shadows or a grim-faced man-thing crashing through a window at some small hour of the morning, his cape floating around him like a great shadow.  In those Batman-busts-in-panels, you almost always saw a horrid species of fear on the faces of the hoods he was about to flush down the toilet, and I always flet a strong sense of identity with those expressions.  yeah, I thought (and still do think), sitting under a tree in our backyard, or maybe in the tub, or on the john (or, as a kid, under the covers with a flashlight).  Yeah, that's right, they should look scared, I'd sure be scared if something like that busted in one me.  I'd be scared even if I wasn't doing something wrong."

As if to give great credibility to this line of argument, the last page of the comic -- the page facing this exposition of Batman, is a series of night scenes,w tih Batman's cape wavering around him.  The Bat signal flashes in the sky. . .

"The night was his time; the shadows were his place; like the bat from which he took his name, he saw with his hands and feet and ears.  as Bruce Wayne, he was cheerful poshy, full of savoir faire and bonhomie, a fellow easily imagined in front of the fire in his book-line library with a balloon glass of brandy and a bowl of Cheez Doodles near at hand.  But when the Bat-Signal floated against one of Gotham's skyscrapers (or perhaps the underside of a handy passing cloud) a grim and unsmiling creature emerged from the Bat-Cave.  You could shoot him and he would bleed. . . you could crank him a good one on the head and he would fold up (at least for a while ). . . but you could never, never stop him."

STEPHEN KING CONGRATULATES BATMAN

King closes by noting that Batman was on the rise (1986) and he writes:

"I'd like to congratulate the Caped Crusader on his long and valiant history, thank him for the hours of pleasure he has given me, and wish him many more years of heroic crime-busting. 

Go get'em, Big Guy.  May your Bat-Signal never fall, your Batmobile never run out of the nuclear pellets it runs on your utility belt never come up fatally under-stocked at the wrong moment. 

And please, never come busting through my skylight int he middle of the night.  You'd probably scare me into a brain hemorrhage. . . and besides, Big Guy, i'm on your side.
I always was.
--Stephen King"

That's nice, it's really really nice.  Even sweet.  

I'll weigh in on my opinion -- Batman or Superman -- in the comments section, and invite you to do the same.

Question is: WHO DO YOU PREFER, BATMAN OR SUPERMAN?

Walter Discusses Classic Batman Comics

I enjoyed Lauren Walter's short article "Classic Batman Comics."  (HERE) She highlights several great  moments in the classic batman series.  She says it is in honor the the upcoming Dark Knight Rising movie -- but really, do you need an excuse? Batman is just cool!

About the Stephen King Batman comic, she writes:

In celebration of "Batman Issue #400," author Stephen King wrote an introduction to the twelve-chapter storyline that has Gotham City villains kidnapping five people close to Batman, including Commissioner Gordon and Alfred.

Check out my article about Batman #400 HERE.

The Stand Omnibus due in June

Marvel's The Stand has posted the following at their facebook page:

Due out in June: 

STAND OMNIBUS HC SLIPCASE $150 

(W) Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (A) Mike Perkins (CA) TBD 

The Stand is a classic tale of good vs. evil, loss weighed against redemption and despair pitted against hope. It is an apocalyptic vision of man’s battle to save life against a worldwide plague of death. When the viral strain dubbed “Captain Trips” works its way across the face of the country, the painfully few survivors are launched into a nightmare that’s only just begun – but for the Dark Man, Randall Flagg, it’s a dream come true. Based on the masterpiece of apocalyptic horror by celebrated author Stephen King, this lavish adaptation is packed with extras in a two-volume slipcased set! 

Collecting

• THE STAND: CAPTAIN TRIPS #1-5, 
• THE STAND: AMERICAN NIGHTMARES #1-5, 
• THE STAND: SOUL SURVIVORS #1-5, 
• THE STAND: HARDCASES #1-5, 
• THE STAND: NO MAN’S LAND #1-5, 
• THE STAND: THE NIGHT HAS COME #1-5 
• THE STAND SKETCHBOOK.

Quigley: Review Of ‘Road Rage'

Check out Kevin Quigley's Fearnet review of issue #1 of Road Rage: Throttle (HERE)

He notes the scope of the project, and says, "The story is terrific, utilizing stylistic and thematic choices from both King's and Hill's earlier work (there's more than a little Christine and Heart-Shaped Box in "Throttle")."  Now that is AWESOME!

Quigley gives us this cool tid-bit: "We also get a few clever gags for fans of King's and Hill's: the diner The Tribe stops in early on is called Owen's Café – Owen being Stephen King's other son, also a writer; Baby John, one of the bikers, bears an eerie resemblance to Joe Hill … and a young Stephen King."  Cool!

Okay, go read the full review. 

CHARNEL HOUSE new comic section

I really like the new quick-list Comics section at Charnel House.  Who better to ut this together than Kevin Quigley?!  Check it out at charnelhousesk.com.

Marvel's The Stand Facebook

There are some great updates at Marvel's The Stand facebook page. 

Facebook THE STAND

Stephen King's Comic Biography

My copy of Stephen King's comic biography came a couple of weeks ago.  I got my copy as part of a Stephen King grab bag from Cemetery Dance.  I've read it through several times -- and enjoyed it a lot.

The text was written by Michael Lent and Brian McCarthy.  Kent Hulburt did the penciling and colors.  Bernie Lee did the letters.

The narrative moves along familiar lines, starting with the car accident.  There's lots of blood here!  The story also shows King's father walking out, and King's comment "We were latchkey kids before there were latchkey kids.  And she was a female wage earner when, basically, women did scut work and cleaned up other peoples messes." 

Most interesting is the inclusion of a story from King's boyhood not previously mentioned.  a friend wanted to crush a penny -- and so he placed it on the train track.  The worst thing imaginable happened, and the text notes that even as an adult King cannot recall the details of the event.

There is not a lot of new information here, except confirmation of a story from King's boyhood  But the new format held my interest.  I don't think I'm a good comic book reader.  There are scene shifts on the same page that don't make sense to me.  For instance, we are told that King had an uncle who could find water underground using a stick.  Scene below that shows king finding a box of his dads.  I don't understand the connection to King's uncle. 

It is neat to see the story from King's point of view.  When the doctor puts a needle in his ear, doc first just looks like any other doctor.  As the pain increases, the doctor looks like a demon, horns popping from his head and back.

the comic sells for $3.99 and is from Bluewater Comics.  One ad also stood out; Cinema St.Lous is having a Vincentennial -- "The Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration." 

http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/stephen-kings-comic-book-biography-orbit-stephen-king-hits-shelves-this-week

THE BATTLE OF TULL!

Robin Furth is back, crafting a new Dark Tower comic book arc -- this time the action will take place at "The Battle of Tull." Teamed with writer Peter David and new Michael Lark, who is new to the project.
.
Lark is quoted as saying: "I have nothing but respect and admiration for Stephen King and the chance to work on The Dark Tower is a wonderful privilege. I only hope that I can come close to conveying his vision - a daunting task, but a challenge that I'm enjoying tremendously. "It has allowed me to explore the darker aspects of my art and really start pushing some of the boundaries of my own style. And who doesn't love drawing cowboys and horses?"
.
The Battle Of Tullwill be a five issue arc. Sounds interesting!
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http://www.digitalspy.com/comics/news/a308955/michael-lark-joins-dark-tower.html

Could King pave way for Potter

ign.com has a very interesting article discussing what a Harry Potter comic series would look like. Of course, there are a lot of references to how the King novels were adapted to a workable format in comic books. The Jesse Schedeen writes, "Several other popular series of fantasy novels are finding great success in the realm of comics, such as The Wizard of Oz and The Dark Tower. Why can't Harry Potter join them?"
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The article goes on to examine how the comics are constructed; cutting to the core of how a story is told in visual format.
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http://comics.ign.com/articles/113/1135338p1.html

Next Dark Tower Comic Series

This is from digitalspy.com,
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Marvel Comics has announced its latest miniseries set in Stephen King's Dark Tower continuity.
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The Little Sisters of Eluria will be based on the short story of the same name, which sees the last gunslinger Roland Deschain doing battle with an order of vampiric nuns.
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The series will be penned by regular Dark Tower scribes Peter David and Robin Furth with art by Luke Ross.
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Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Little Sisters of Eluria will debut in December.
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http://www.digitalspy.com/comics/news/a277939/marvel-unveils-new-dark-tower-series.html