Book News
Comic-book King.
Acclaimed horror novelist Stephen King is hardly a stranger to comic books, thanks to Marvel’s adaptations of “The Dark Tower” and “The Stand,” and Del Rey’s upcoming adaptation of “The Talisman,” but the writer is looking to branch out into uncharted territory with entirely original comic-book content.
According to The New York Times, King will co-write a new series titled “American Vampire.” The title’s first five issues will feature two 16-page stories, one written by King and the other by Scott Snyder. Rafael Albuquerque will illustrate.
Snyder’s story features a vampire named Parl seeking fame during the jazz age, while King tells the tale of “Skinner Sweet, the first American vampire who does not fear the sun.”
King got involved with the comic book essentially through a fan letter, as co-writer Snyder sent King a pitch on “American Vampire” in the hopes of securing a blurb from the famed author.
“He wrote back saying he really liked it and would do a couple of issues if anyone let him,” Snyder said.
First Lines
Last Night on Twisted River, by John Irving
The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long. For a frozen moment, his feet had stopped moving on the floating logs in the basin above the river bend; he’d slipped entirely underwater before anyone could grab his outstretched hand. One of the loggers had reached for the youth’s long hair — the older man’s fingers groped around in the frigid water, which was thick, almost soupy, with sloughed-off slabs of bark. Then two logs collided hard on the would-be rescuer’s arm, breaking his wrist. The carpet of moving logs had completely closed over the young Canadian, who never surfaced; not even a hand or one of his boots broke out of the brown water.
Out on a logjam, once the key log was pried loose, the river drivers had to move quickly and continually; if they paused for even a second or two, they would be pitched into the torrent. In a river drive, death among moving logs could occur from a crushing injury, before you had a chance drown — but drowning was more common.
Paperback
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5. Born of Night, by Sherrilyn Kenyon
6. The Renegade Hunter, by Lynsay Sands
7. True Detectives, by Jonathan Kellerman
8. Just After Sunset, by Stephen King
9. From Dead to Worse, by Charlaine Harris
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Publishers Weekly
