He found our collective boogeymen in the shape of clowns, dogs, haunted hotels and cars. Author Stephen King, the best-selling master of horror who has terrified a generation with his nightmarish imagination, helps give voice to his own tale in a special edition of Bluewater Productions’ latest biography comic title “Orbit.”
According to Bluewater, King’s camp participated in recounting his incomparable career in a rare “behind-the scenes” glimpse into the author’s private world.
Co-author Michael Lent offers one such example: “One story we confirmed concerned a young King witnessing a friend’s accident involving a train (long thought to be a source of his macabre inspirations). Until now, the story was largely apocryphal and wasn’t mentioned in King’s autobiography. It’s a great feeling when you can resolve something once and for all.”
“Orbit: Stephen King,” ($3.99) follows King’s career from a struggling writer to prolific best-selling author. It includes insight on his legacy as a writer, his love of the Boston Red Sox, forays into film, drug and alcohol issues, and the accident that nearly cost him his life.
In writing about his near-death in 1999, the authors used King’s own account along with police reports that differed from accounts given by some of the media, according to Lent.
“What really enlightened us were the similarities we found between Stephen King and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Both came from dirt poor families. Both had talents that were shepherded by strong, supportive mothers. Both had absent fathers. Each practiced doggedly every day — their talents weren’t hobbies, but their salvation. It brought them fame and fortune, it sustained them during their darkest hours of drug addiction and it, literally, gave them both a road to recovery when their lives were nearly cut short in tragic accidents,” added co-author Brian McCarthy.
