My love-hate-love relationship with Stephen King

Stephen King was the first "name" author that I started reading. Before him I would just pick up books because I thought the premise was intriguing or I really loved the cover - or both.

During my teens I became obsessed with the horror genre. I was a regular reader of Fangoria magazine and I would watch as many horror movies as I could - good or bad - I was an easy to please viewer. When I started reading books, King was the obvious choice since I had already seen many of the film adaptations. But his books did not go down easy with the teenage me, they were WAY too long and I often either didn't finish them or gave up altogether. Such was the case with The Dead Zone, which I stopped reading three quarters of the way through and with It and The Stand where I skimmed the last part of the books since I was just tired of reading.

My frustration grew so much that I made a solemn vow - I will NEVER AGAIN read a book over 500 pages in length. I figured any author worth his salt could tell a story, even an "epic" one, in less than 500 pages.

And so it went for a few years, I swore off King's massive volumes and concentrated on shorter, more concise tales. But as I got older, I reconsidered, and decided to give the master of horror another shot. I read Insomnia, Salem's Lot and some of the short story collections like Skeleton Crew and my interest was rekindled. Now as an older reader, long novels didn't scare me off and I had the patience to see them through. I started to see where King was coming from as a writer and what he wanted to achieve with the reader. His are character driven stories (like From A Buick 8 pictured above) that take their time to sink in, but when they do the reader is richly rewarded. I still think his novels are too long but I'm willing to trust him in that he knows how long his novels need to be. I'm now tackling the massive Under the Dome (1000 plus pages!) and I'm in it for the long haul.

The 2011 Stephen King Challenge!

I just found out about this challenge from Book Chick City and though I've read a LOT of King over the years, I still have many books of his that I haven't read. Since I just finished The Shining (shame on me for putting it off for so long) and plan on reading Full Dark, No Stars as well as diving into The Dark Tower series, I though I'd participate.

Read so far (August 10), only one! - The Shining, and have started re-reading the short story collection Skeleton Crew.

On the to-read list:

1. The Stand comic book adaptation trade paperbacks, starting with Captain Trips which are issues 1-5 of the series. Have already ordered it online and am awaiting its arrival.
2. Under the Dome - Have heard many good things about this one.
3. Full Dark, No Stars now that its out in paperback.
4. The Dark Tower series - I read the first two books a long time ago and then just never got back to the series. I plan to buy the revised edition of The Gunslinger and see if I can at least finish the next three books in the series by the end of the year.
5. American Vampire - a comic book series only partially written by King, but I think its still counts.
6. 11/22/63 - The premise is so interesting that I'll buy the hardcover version instead of waiting for the paperback as I usually do.
7. Mile 81 - I plan to buy en e-reader this year and this will be my first ebook purchase.

Will I be able to finish this list? Probably not, in fact I know I won't, but I'll have a lot of fun trying!

The Watcher in the Woods

Even though I normally talk about art books in the sf-fantasy-horror genres I would like to take a time out and review a book from 1980 called The Watcher in the Woods which was the basis for the Disney film of the same name.
First, a little about the movie: The Watcher in the Woods was Disney's second PG rated film (the first being The Black Hole) and was made at a time when the studio was trying to branch out from strictly family fare into more mainstream films. One can see how the story starts out with a family feel and starts to grow from there. The film starts with a typical family, mom, dad and two daughters that are in the process of moving into an old mansion. The house is being sold by an old woman who has lived there for many years (Betty Davis). Shortly after they move in strange goings-on start to happen, usually involving mirrors, and the youngest daughter starts to enter trance like states and receive messages from beyond. From beyond where is the question the film answers.
This is one of those films that I did not see when it came out but remember clearly wanting to see it and being very intrigued by it's spooky atmosphere - which it has in spades.
The movie stays pretty close to the book of which I will now talk about. The entire book (200 plus pages) is a Young Adult novel written in the first person with the point of view of the eldest of the two daughters (played in the film by Lynn Holly Johnson of Ice Castles fame). The narrative is at times very evocative and full of atmosphere. The isolation of moving into a new home that is still heavy with the presence of a previous dweller is very much a part of the story, as is the feeling of being "watched" by something, of not belonging or intruding upon someone's life. As I said, it's a Young Adult novel, so it plays up the feelings of isolation very much.
The ending takes a turn into left field as it enters science fiction (this is more evident in the book than in the movie) leaving more than a few readers/viewers very puzzled, not by the narrative, which is spelled out quite clearly but by the tone of the story. I suppose most people, myself included, expected The Watcher in question to be a supernatural entity as we are led to believe by the book's cover.

Variations between the book and movie: SPOILERS AHEAD.
The story's main plot is the disappearance of a young girl, in the movie 30 years have passed, in the book 50 years have passed since she was last seen. This of course makes the girl's mother much older in the book than in the movie.
In the movie, an entire sub-plot is devoted to the missing girl's three friends who were present at the time of her sudden disappearance during an initiation ceremony where they would include her into their secret friendship circle. A storm toppled the edifice they were in during the ceremony, supposedly killing the girl, even though no body was ever found. They have lived with that guilt ever since. This sub-plot is entirely absent in the book.
In the book, the main protagonist sees the missing girl's image in a coffin, in the book it's in a hollowed out tree.
In the book, the girl convinces her entire family as well as the missing girl's mother about The Watcher's true nature and intentions. In the movie, she is believed only by her sister and boyfriend.
In the movie, the missing girl is returned to her mother. In the book the mother travels through space and time to her daughter in another dimension or planet (it's not made clear).

Dracula, A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares

I bought this book during my "vampire" phase when I was fascinated with all things vampiric. I remember being slightly dissappointed that the illustrations leaned towards the romantic instead of the bloody but over time I've come to appreciate the subtle artistry of these exquisite watercolors. The book published in 1992 is a softcover that loosely adapts the original Bram Stoker novel and presents on every page full color watercolor illustrations by John J. Muth. None of the interior illustrations reach the level of detail and realism as that of the cover but even so are very good. I usually feature more interior scans but I fear damaging the book if I lay it on the scanner so I will only post 2 which are on the back cover and first page. I imagine that the book is long out of print but my edition is in mint condition I'm proud to say. Click for larger versions.

Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos

I thought I'd write about this book which I purchased a few months ago and is one of my favorite art books, Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos. Basil Gogos is best known for being the cover artits for Famous Monsters of Filmland, a cult sf & horror magazine that existed from the late 50's to the early 80'.
What made Gogos' art stand out was his wild use of color. Up until then people only knew black and white versions of the classic movie monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein's creature, the Wolfman and others. His paintings use several colored light sources to illuminate his monster portraits giving them a very unique look to say the least. One of the main things about Gogos' is that he always manages to evoque an air of sympathy for the monsters he paints.
The book also includes a section with many astounding pencil drawings (or maybe charcoal) which really showcase a whole different side to his technique. My favorite is an incredible portrait of Elsa Lanchester as The Bride of Frankentsein that is as riveting as any of Gogos' color pieces.
Aside from the monster stuff we are treated to several examples of Gogos' illustrations for various men's adventure magazines with scenes of war and adventure in exotic locales. These are painted in a more traditional style without the crazy color schemes he would later use for Famous Monsters but they are nonetheless very good.
It's important to note that Gogos doesn't look down on his subject matter. He has great respect for the classic monsters and the actors that portrayed them, his portraits of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are prime examples of this.