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
"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."
ReplyDeleteNo, no, David, you've got it backwards. You're not a bad comic book; this is just a bad comic book (in my opinion, at least). That clunky transition between scenes is one of many things in it that just do not work at all.
As for the scene with the childhood friend putting the penny on the tracks, I believe that is supposed to represent the event that inspired "The Body." But what's with the tentacles that seem to be following young Steve in the next panel?!? That's just weird; the only sense I can glean from it is that it's suggesting that event was a determining factor in turning King toward expressing himself via tales of horror (such as "The Mist," which features tentacled creatures) ... but if so, it's a clunky, failed suggestion.
Ultimately, I thought the comic was just kinda amateurish, and felt like I'd allowed my passion for King's work to lead me to spend $4 I really ought to have used in some other fashion.
I could have bought another issue of "American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest" #1 and just given it away to a stranger!
Oops ... that was supposed to read "you're not a bad comic-book reader." Where'd you go, missing words?
ReplyDeleteI'm actually a little relieved, Bryant! I thought that's how comics were -- since I don't read comic books. I didn't understand the tenticals following him, either. The ride is a bit. . . bumpy.
ReplyDeletedavid
I just don't know who the target audience for the comic was. Big-time King fans know most of the info contained within it already; it offers us very little to grasp onto, and the info is arranged in such a slapdash manner that there is no dramatic satisfaction in it.
ReplyDeleteAnd for people unfamiliar with King, well, I suppose some of them MIGHT be entertained and informed. However, the presentation of the info seems to assume a lot of previous knowledge, so it really doesn't work well for newcomers to King's story. For example: the oft-recounted (and great) story of Tabitha King fishing the first few pages of "Carrie" out of the trashcan and urging her husband to keep working on it gets told. However, the way the scene is drawn, you'd basically have to already know the details of that incident in order to understand what's going on.