Stephen King’s “The Stand” – One More Comic To Buy

I laid down Saturday night after a day spent Geekscaping and picked up a copy of the new Marvel adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. Are any of you reading Marvel’s Stephen King books? The Gunslinger books, based on his Dark Tower series, are really good reads, especially when collected and read together. The third miniseries of the Gunslinger comics just started, and like the first two, I’m collecting all of the single issues before I crack them open. I find the density of the writing and the pseudo-English that the characters use make the book hard to read from month to month without losing track. And even though Jae Lee’s artwork is amazing, it is tough to remember what happened the month before. Taken in full collections, that series is awesome.

But I lied down to read The Stand. Stephen King’s books were the fuel of my middle school imagination. Remember when you’re younger and you have to give your father a birthday or holiday present but you’re not quite a full person yet and the relationship that you have with your father is less based on two people understanding each other and more based on one person leading and another one loosely imitating out of blind adoration? I don’t know what my dad may have said to me once, maybe it was him taking my brothers and I to a screening of the movie Graveyard Shift or letting us see Creep Show or Pet Sematary at young ages, but I had it in my mind that he LOVED Stephen King. So I got him a Stephen King book every year for a very long time. Did he read them? I don’t know. But I did.

So because I love comics and I loved the Marvel Gunslinger stuff, I picked up last week’s release of The Stand, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, illustrated by Mike Perkins, with colors by Laura Martin. First off, I’ve been a fan of Mike Perkins since the awesome and short lived CrossGen book Ruse (also colored by Laura Martin). His figure work is awesome as is his use of references. The dude can draw a MEAN street corner (but no one stops to notice because his cinematic action is so good).  If you’ve been following Geekscape, then you definitely know his work from Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run.

Let’s get down to brass tacks. The comic gave me freaky nightmares. If you somehow didn’t pick up this book or add it to your pull list last week, go back to the store today and get it. By new release Wednesday, you’ll be out of luck. This is such a faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s writing and tone that it will put you right back where you were when The Stand first scared the hell out of you. And if this is your first visit to the story about a government disease that wipes out the majority of the human race on its way to a biblical showdown between good and evil, reading the comic adaptation will not cheapen the experience.

Aguirre-Sacasa’s tone and pacing is spot on with what you would expect from a Stephen King story and Perkin’s and Martin’s art give the story a “horror next door” feeling that is missing (as it should be) from Jae Lee and Peter David Gunslinger book. This is a VERY familiar Stephen King that will engross you in the full experience, much like the novels that you remember. If you’re looking for something to shake up the spandex-clad visit to the comic book shop, you may have overlooked your most potent chance at freedom.  Marvel’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand put me in just the right place to have nightmares for a long, fitful night without sleep but with plenty of brief horrors.  Definitely read this book just before you turn out the light for the full desired effect.