Category Archives: stephen king
Biff Bam Pop Exclusive Interview: Andy Burns Talks Stephen King’s The Dark Tower With Robin Furth, Part One
The scariest Stephen King story I’ve ever read – The Boogeyman from Night Shift. I was 10 years old, home with the chicken pox. The illness was bad, but the nightmares made it worse.
My favourite film based on a Stephen King story – The Shining, hands down. You can read why here. I recently sat at a table with the great author Chris Claremont and debated the films merits. We agreed to disagree.
However, when it comes to my favourite Stephen King story of them all, there really is no competition. It’s The Dark Tower, the epic seven book series that tells the tale of Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger in Mid-World as he endeavours to find the tower at the centre of all reality. I read all seven books back in the winter of 2010, every week day as I commuted to my then day job, 1.5 hours each way. Truthfully, it was the best way to immerse myself in the series. The hard part was when characters I grew attached to started dying towards the end of the series. Nobody likes getting their tears in their eyes in public.
As Stephen King’s assistant and author of the essential The Dark Tower: A Concordance, few know The Dark Tower better than Robin Furth. Her unparalleled familiarity with Mid-World made her the perfect choice to help guide The Dark Tower when Marvel Comics began publishing its King-approved series in 2007, the first 30 issues of which are now compiled in the massive Dark Tower Omnibus (which also includes a separate Companion book full of lots of Furth-penned pieces).
I was able to chat via email with Ms. Furth about all things related to her work on the brilliant comic book series, along with how she first entered Mid-World (and Stephen King’s world) a decade ago. For a huge fan of the Dark Tower series, I’m pretty sure you can imagine how excited for the opportunity. I hope you enjoy it as much I did.
Stephen King Week: J.W. Ward on Stephen King’s 5 best & 5 worst adaptations to film & TV
Horror author Stephen King is, without a doubt, one of the most prolific authors of the last 50 years.
He’s released forty-nine novels, nine collections of short stories, five non-fiction books and sold over 350 million copies, if Wikipedia is to be believed.
On the silver screen and on television, King’s success is equally notable. With over forty movies and numerous TV miniseries, Stephen King has become one of the biggest names in not just horror, but entertainment.
Like any creator, some of the work is great.
Other work, not so much.
As we at Biff Bam Pop! continue to celebrate the legacy of Stephen King this week, here’s a list of the five best and worst film and TV adaptations. Read the rest of this entry
Stephen King Week: Mat Langford on how Stephen King scared the heck out of 10-year old me
The book. Read it.
I was introduced to Stephen King at 10 years old, by way of an old dusty copy of Salem’s Lot that I had found in my grandfather’s basement. Having been purchased nearly 20 years prior, it was in fairly bad shape but readable none the less, albeit a little yellowed and wrinkled. I took it upstairs and asked my mom where it came from, and she had told me that someone had bought it for her but she hadn’t been able to finish it. She was never a fan of anything scary; even to this day she closes her eyes at scary movie previews. She told me to see what I thought. That night I started reading, in the dark with a little light on overhead, and what followed was one of the most frightening reading experiences I’ve ever had.
Like this:
Stephen King Week: Man, Ghosts: We already know who’s more terrifying
Death is the terrfying reality of life, as it is its only guarantee. At some stage in our lives, we become aware of its presence, whether this be in some abstract way or through the horrifying reality of losing friends, family, pets, or some other loved one. Tears are shed; bodies shake; admissions are made; grudges fizzle or exacerbate. There’s nothing quite like death to focus our attention on the feelings we have towards ourselves and towards others.
Like this:
Stephen King Week: Ian Rogers on the scariest pronoun in horror literature: “IT”
When it comes to writing about an influential work of Stephen King, I think most people would probably end up choosing The Stand. As one of his most popular works, it’s the obvious choice. But for me, when it comes to the Stephen King book that entertained me the most as a reader, and influenced the most as a writer, I’d have to go with IT.
