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193-426: The following is a partial list of characters from Stephen King 's novel The Stand . The novel was published in 1978, with its narrative set during the 1980s; however, a second edition was released in 1990, is considerably longer than the first version (1,200 pages compared to 800 pages), and is set in the 1990s. The two versions are essentially the same, although some content was added in the second version, including

386-399: A Marine , a Klansman , and a Viet Cong member, and having a hand in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst . In Las Vegas Flagg attracts people drawn to destruction, power and tyranny, using crucifixion , torture and other punishments on those disloyal to him. His followers reorganize society, repairing and restarting services in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Flagg plans to attack and destroy

579-559: A demonic figure who wreaks havoc after a plague kills most of the world population. He makes his second appearance in the 1984 novel The Eyes of the Dragon as an evil wizard trying to plunge the fictional medieval city of Delain into chaos. Flagg is a primary antagonist in King's epic series, The Dark Tower , where he tries to keep protagonist Roland Deschain from reaching the Tower –

772-522: A "collection of masks". Flagg symbolizes "the inexplicable fear of the return of bygone powers—both technological and, as his last name intimates, sociopolitical ". Like other Gothic villains, Flagg's plans seem to fail at every turn as he seems to need to convince others of his importance. Winter asserts that Flagg is a Miltonic superman who receives his strength from a dark, mysterious source. He compares him to J. R. R. Tolkien 's Sauron in The Lord of

965-525: A Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk who noticed stylistic similarities between King and Bachman and located publisher's records at the Library of Congress that named King as the author of Rage . King announced Bachman's death from "cancer of the pseudonym". King reflected that "Richard Bachman began his career not as a delusion but as a sheltered place where I could publish a few early books which I felt readers might like. Then he began to grow and come alive, as

1158-476: A West Virginia women's prison. King and Richard Chizmar co-wrote Gwendy's Button Box (2017). A sequel, Gwendy's Magic Feather (2019), was a solo effort by Chizmar. In 2022, King and Chizmar rejoined forces for Gwendy's Final Task . King made his screenwriting debut with George A. Romero 's Creepshow (1982), a tribute to EC horror comics . In 1985, he wrote another horror anthology film, Cat's Eye . Rob Reiner , whose film Stand by Me (1986)

1351-417: A bomb Lauder has planted but is unable to prevent its detonation. Frances is moderately injured in the blast, but her unborn child remains safe. Frances is opposed to Redman traveling to Las Vegas, but comes to terms with the journey when she realizes Redman cannot be swayed. Frances later takes up residence with Lucy Swann and delivers a baby boy. After the initial joy wears off, Frances's child falls ill with

1544-472: A book of short fiction including " The Reach " and The Mist . He recalls: "I would be asked, 'What happened in your childhood that makes you want to write those terrible things?' I couldn't think of any real answer to that. And I thought to myself, 'Why don't you write a final exam on horror, and put in all the monsters that everyone was afraid of as a kid? Put in Frankenstein, the werewolf, the vampire,

1737-618: A broken nose and greasy hair. He's starting to bald, but he's always got a very white separation in the middle of it. He's just so greasy, he's great to draw. And he still has to be seductive at the same time, so you can't make him repulsive... He's such a great character." Marvel later released a comic book adaptation of The Stand , which began in September 2008 and ran for thirty issues. Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa described Flagg as "The man of nightmares. Or, put another way, our nightmares given human (more or less) form. The dark side of

1930-463: A cave, a mirror and a mirage—we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way. Even if the result is mere clarity instead of beauty, I think writer and reader are participating together in a kind of miracle. Maybe that's drawing it a little strong, but yeah—it's what I believe." When asked if fear was his main subject, King said "In every life you get to a point where you have to deal with something that's inexplicable to you, whether it's

2123-447: A close bond, despite the fact that Andros cannot speak and Cullen cannot read Andros' notes. When the two encounter Ralph Brentner, Cullen is finally able to learn Andros' name. Cullen's speech includes colloquialisms such as "My laws!" and "Laws, yes!" He frequently references himself in third person. Cullen also punctuates important points, believing them to be spelled "M-O-O-N" such as exclaiming, "M-O-O-N, that spells Nebraska!" When he

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2316-414: A collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie (1976), The Shining (1980), The Dead Zone (1983), Christine (1983), Stand by Me (1986), Misery (1990), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007) and It (2017). He has published under

2509-430: A college restaurant, the one-page poem was published in 1969, but the character never left King's mind. To the author, what made Flagg interesting was "the idea of the villain as somebody who was always on the outside looking in, and hated people who had good fellowship and good conversation and friends". When Stephen King created the character of Flagg, he based him around what he believed evil represented. To King, Flagg

2702-482: A computer relay system briefly fails and alerts do not sound in time for the base to enter lockdown before the Campions break out. He finally succumbs to the superflu at a gas station in the fictional town of Arnette, East Texas , spreading the virus and making him its patient zero . In the 1994 miniseries , Campion is portrayed by Ray McKinnon . In the 2020 miniseries , he is portrayed by Curtiss Cook Jr. As

2895-500: A cure from him. Redman escapes from the Stovington facility after a government employee attempts to execute him (it is implied the character "knows too much") and he kills his attacker in self-defense. After wandering New England for several days, Redman meets and befriends Glen Bateman and, shortly after, Frances Goldsmith and Harold Lauder. Redman becomes romantically involved with Goldsmith despite their large age gap, and enters

3088-615: A dark cloak, and most of his magic comes from spells, potions, and poisons. He is described as a "sickness" which seems to reappear in Delain when there is something worth destroying. In this novel, Flagg schemes to throw the kingdom of Delain into chaos by poisoning the king and framing Prince Peter, the legitimate heir to the throne, for the crime. Peter's naive, resentful younger brother Thomas becomes king instead; Flagg, whom he sees as his only friend, becomes his royal advisor. Due to his youth and inexperience, Thomas allows Flagg great power and

3281-405: A description of DeFreeze: "Donald DeFreeze is a dark man". He remembered that in photographs of the bank robbery in which Patty Hearst participated that DeFreeze was only partially visible, hidden under a large hat. What he looked like was based on guesses made by people who only saw a portion of him. This inspired King, who then wrote "A dark man with no face". After reading "Once in every generation

3474-419: A farmhouse near Hemingford Home, Nebraska . Born in 1882 to freed slaves from South Carolina , Abagail outlived three husbands and all her seven children. She is one of the 0.6% of the population that is immune to the superflu and initially appears to some of the plague survivors in their dreams, drawing them to her farmhouse, just as Randall Flagg (also known as the "Dark Man" and the "Walking Man") draws

3667-529: A final brilliant interval before true death. In dreams—his, at least—the bad guys, the scary guys, never have complex emotions. Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla Flagg's embodiment of evil is not the only characteristic seen by critics. Author Joseph Reino commented that the character's presence in The Stand was "Stephen King's version of a pestilential Big Brother ". Tony Magistrale revisits

3860-541: A flashback in the second installment of the Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three . Roland recalls seeing two men named Thomas and Dennis pursuing a man named Flagg, who was almost certainly a demon. These are implied to be the same characters from The Eyes of the Dragon . This is the first example of the Dark Tower series crossing over with one of King's other novels. Flagg makes his next full appearance in

4053-558: A haunted 1958 Plymouth Fury ." Later that year, he published Pet Sematary , which he had written in the late 1970s, when his family was living near a highway that "used up a lot of animals" as a neighbor put it. His daughter's cat was killed, and they buried it in a pet cemetery built by the local children. King imagined a burial ground beyond it that could raise the dead, albeit imperfectly. He initially found it too disturbing to publish, but resurrected it to fulfill his contract with Doubleday . In 1985, King published Skeleton Crew ,

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4246-479: A higher power to which Flagg "must appeal to his abilities" as there is with traditional evil. Flagg is more of a "humanesque evil", which works against him as much as it does for him. His supernatural knowledge is fallible, and the customary black-and-white depiction is replaced with an "acceptance of a shadowy gray area". Stickler says that although Flagg appears "terrifying and supernatural" as depicted by King, there are no absolutes. She concludes that Flagg represents

4439-512: A highway in Kansas; together they form the first party to find Mother Abagail. Despite a lack of formal education, Brentner possesses a great deal of common sense and is very skilled with tools and machines; he uses a powerful radio transmitter to contact other groups of survivors across the country. Brentner is elected to the first Free Zone Committee - a position he accepts with reluctance - and typically serves as Andros' "voice", reading his notes to

4632-457: A leader." Beginning in 2007, Marvel Comics released a series of comics which were a prequel to the Dark Tower novels. Randall Flagg, appearing as Marten Broadcloak and Walter o'Dim, plays a significant role in the series. In April 2009, Marvel released a single-issue comic written by Robin Furth and illustrated by Richard Isanove entitled The Dark Tower: Sorcerer , which focused on

4825-592: A liar, and a tempter". To Stringell, Flagg's disappearance at the end of The Stand shows that "evil ultimately leads nowhere". The author calls Flagg a "generic hybrid" of the archetypical "Dark Man and the Trickster". To her, the combination of these two characteristics found in different cultural realms forces people to face their "flawed humanity" with the " amorality " Flagg represents. Jenifer Paquette, author of Respecting The Stand: A Critical Analysis of Stephen King's Apocalyptic Novel , writes that "Flagg's horror

5018-450: A life of his own. In the author's note, King writes that "I am indebted to the late Richard Bachman ." In 1990, King published Four Past Midnight , a collection of four novellas with the common theme of time. In 1991, he published Needful Things , his first novel since achieving sobriety, billed as "The Last Castle Rock Story". In 1992, he published Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne , two novels about women loosely linked by

5211-681: A limited edition of 250 by the Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art . Alfred A. Knopf released it in a general trade edition. King co-wrote Throttle (2009) with his son Joe Hill . The novella is an homage to Richard Matheson 's "Duel". Their second collaboration, In the Tall Grass (2012), was published in two parts in Esquire . King and his son Owen co-wrote Sleeping Beauties (2018), set in

5404-476: A long discussion about Roland's destiny and the Tower which causes him to slip into delirium. He awakens to find a pile of bones in Walter's place. In the original edition, Walter and Marten are separate characters, with Walter dying at the end of the novel. When King published an expanded edition of the novel,and Walter and Marten are portrayed as identical, and Walter fakes his own death. Flagg appears briefly in

5597-449: A lot and write a lot." He emphasizes the importance of good description, which "begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary. I began learning my lessons in this regard by reading Chandler , Hammett , and Ross Macdonald ; I gained perhaps even more respect for the power of compact, descriptive language from reading T. S. Eliot (those ragged claws scuttling across

5790-541: A man walking the roads in cowboy boots, denim jeans and a jacket, a notion which "came out of nowhere" when he was in college. King first wrote the poem " The Dark Man " in college, about an unnamed man who rides the rails and confesses to murder and rape. The one-page poem was published in Ubris in 1969. According to King, the poem served as the genesis for Flagg. There was a dark hilarity in his face, and perhaps in his heart, too, you would think—and you would be right. It

5983-575: A marital relationship upon settling in Boulder. Frances serves on the original Free Zone Committee and acts as its moral compass. Although Lauder claims to have dealt with his jealousy toward Redman, Frances remains suspicious, which is later justified when she finds details of a plot to kill Redman in Lauder's diary. Frances saves the majority of the Committee when she intuitively senses the presence of

List of The Stand characters - Misplaced Pages Continue

6176-874: A marital relationship with her including accepting her unborn child; their involvement causes resentment with Lauder, who holds an unrequited love for Goldsmith. Redman rises to authority in the Boulder Free Zone, becoming the spokesperson for the Free Zone Committee and acting as the Zone's first marshal. Following an assassination attempt by Lauder, Mother Abagail tells Redman that he must travel west to confront Randall Flagg in Las Vegas. Redman, together with Larry Underwood, Bateman, and Ralph Brentner, travels towards Las Vegas, but breaks his leg in Utah and

6369-456: A member of the Free Zone Committee. Cross attempts to seduce Underwood but he rejects her, having committed to Swann. Underwood later breaks into Lauder's home with Frannie Goldsmith, after Joe instructs him to embark on an investigation before something horrible happens. They find Lauder's ledger, in which Lauder has documented his intention to kill Stuart Redman. However, Lauder's plan is already in motion at this stage and Redman narrowly escapes

6562-465: A modern context. He recalls that while writing 'Salem's Lot , "I decided I wanted to try to use the book partially as a form of literary homage (as Peter Straub had done in Ghost Story , working in the tradition of such 'classical' ghost story writers as Henry James , M. R. James , and Nathaniel Hawthorne ). So my novel bears an intentional similarity to Bram Stoker 's Dracula , and after

6755-428: A motorcyclist whose brakes were failing when Frances was young, and she was close to her elderly father, Peter. The superflu wipes out Goldsmith's community, with she and Harold Lauder being the only local survivors after a parking lot attendant, Gus Dinsmore, contracts the virus and dies on June 30. It is also believed that Jesse is dead. After burying her father in his garden, Frances decides to join Lauder and they leave

6948-488: A new civilization in the United States after a plague kills most of the population. Flagg is described as a "tall man of no age" in old blue jeans, denim jacket and old cowboy boots. He wears an old Boy Scout knapsack, and his jacket pockets are stuffed with pamphlets from dozens of fringe splinter groups. Flagg's background is vague, even to him; he says that at some point he just "became", although he remembers being

7141-550: A new ending. The book was also adapted into a television mini-series , starring Gary Sinise , Molly Ringwald , and Rob Lowe and was released by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network in 1994. In 2008, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation that was ended in 2012. Warner Bros. Pictures released an announcement in January 2011 that the company would be producing a movie remake of

7334-563: A novel. She told him: "You've got something here. I really think you do." Per The Guardian , Carrie "is the story of Carrie White, a high-school student with latent—and then, as the novel progresses, developing—telekinetic powers. It's brutal in places, affecting in others (Carrie's relationship with her almost hysterically religious mother being a particularly damaged one), and gory in even more." The review of Carrie in The New York Times noted that "King does more than tell

7527-555: A pandemic and its aftermath. King recalls that it was the novel that took him the longest to write, and that it was "also the one my longtime readers still seem to like the best". In 1977, the Kings, with the addition of Owen Philip , their third and youngest child, traveled briefly to England. They returned to Maine that fall, and King began teaching creative writing at the University of Maine . The courses he taught on horror provided

7720-530: A parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his audience, which holds him prisoner and dictates what he writes, on pain of death" while The Dark Half "is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his creative genius, the vampire within him, the part of him that only awakes to raise Cain when he writes." Introducing King at the National Book Awards , Walter Mosley said "Stephen King once said that daily life

7913-517: A public execution, one of Flagg's most loyal followers, the Trashcan Man, arrives with a nuclear warhead salvaged from a military base. As Trash is dying of radiation poisoning , the ball of fire Flagg had summoned to kill Whitney the cook descends as a supernatural hand, detonating the warhead and annihilating Flagg, his followers, and the prisoners. An expanded edition of The Stand was published in 1990, restoring text that had been cut from

List of The Stand characters - Misplaced Pages Continue

8106-590: A quasi- immortality . After centuries of wreaking havoc, Flagg attracts the attention of the Crimson King, who adopts him as his emissary. In 2012, King published a new story from The Dark Tower entitled The Wind Through the Keyhole . Here Flagg is depicted as the Covenant Man: central villain of the book's story within a story , "The Wind Through the Keyhole", a legend from Mid-World set years before

8299-417: A recently widowed novelist. Several reviewers said that it showed King's maturation as a writer; Charles de Lint wrote "He hasn't forsaken the spookiness and scares that have made him a brand name, but he uses them more judiciously now... The present-day King has far more insight into the human condition than did his younger self, and better yet, all the skills required to share it with us." Bag of Bones won

8492-545: A rival emerging civilization— Mother Abagail 's Free Zone in Boulder, Colorado —to become the dominant society in the former United States . After two of Flagg's followers fail to kill the leaders of the Free Zone, the Boulder community sends a group of men to Las Vegas to stop him. The three who reach the city are taken prisoner, and Flagg orders one of them executed for his defiance. As the other two are being prepared for

8685-399: A sequel to The Shining. During his Chancellor's Speaker Series talk at University of Massachusetts Lowell on December 7, 2012, King said that he was writing a crime novel about a retired policeman being taunted by a murderer, with the working title Mr. Mercedes . In an interview with Parade , he confirmed that the novel was "more or less" completed. It was published in 2014 and won

8878-616: A sexual relationship with the female personification of Maerlyn's Grapefruit, one of the spheres. This is described as incestuous , since the beings were given life by Maerlyn, Walter's biological father; Marten and the Grapefruit repeatedly call each other as brother and sister. The siblings also refer to the Crimson King as their "cousin", indicating that Maerlyn is related to him. In her afterword, Furth says that although she conceived these ideas, King approved them. According to

9071-458: A sociological curiosity as to how humanity will rebuild itself). Bateman becomes part of the reform committee in Boulder and is later one of the four men who Mother Abagail proclaims must meet Flagg in Las Vegas. When Redman is seriously injured on the journey, Bateman is saddened to leave him behind. Bateman, along with Larry Underwood and Ralph Brentner, travels to Las Vegas where he is detained by Flagg's forces. Flagg offers Bateman his freedom on

9264-462: A solar eclipse. The latter novel is narrated by the title character in an unbroken monologue; Mark Singer described it as "a morally riveting confession from the earthy mouth of a sixty-six-year-old Maine coastal-island native with a granite-hard life but not a grain of self-pity". King said he based the character of Claiborne on his mother. In 1994, King's story " The Man in the Black Suit "

9457-402: A story. He is a schoolteacher himself, and he gets into Carrie's mind as well as into the minds of her classmates." King was teaching Dracula to high school students and wondered what would happen if Old World vampires came to a small New England town. This was the germ of 'Salem's Lot , which King called " Peyton Place meets Dracula ". King's mother died from uterine cancer around

9650-400: A tendency to write in images because that was all I knew at the time." Regarding his interest horror, he says "my childhood was pretty ordinary, except from a very early age, I wanted to be scared. I just did." He recalls showing his mother a story he copied out of a comic book. She responded: "I bet you could do better. Write one of your own." He recalls "an immense feeling of possibility at

9843-418: A tin roof and rusty screen door: "No matter what time of day you looked out that screen door, it looked like sunset... When it rained, being inside the club was like being inside a Jamaican steel drum." King writes that "The use of simile and other figurative language is one of the chief delights of fiction—reading it and writing it, as well. [...] By comparing two seemingly unrelated objects—a restaurant bar and

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10036-415: A while it began to seem I was playing an interesting—to me, at least—game of literary racquet-ball: 'Salem's Lot itself was the ball and Dracula was the wall I kept hitting it against, watching to see how and where it could bounce, so I could hit it again. As a matter of fact, it took some pretty interesting bounces, and I ascribe this mostly to the fact that, while my ball existed in the twentieth century,

10229-440: Is "somebody who's very charismatic, laughs a lot, [is] tremendously attractive to men and women both, and [is] somebody who just appeals to the worst in all of us". This idea carries over into The Stand , in which Flagg first appears as the personification of evil opposing Mother Abagail , the personification of good. Character Tom Cullen ascribes to Flagg the ability to kill animals and inflict cancer at will, referring to him as

10422-412: Is a nod to Richard Stark, the pseudonym Donald E. Westlake used to publish his darker work. The Bachman books are grittier than King's usual fare; King called his alter-ego "Dark-toned, despairing...not a very nice guy." A Literary Guild member praised Thinner as "what Stephen King would write like if Stephen King could really write." Bachman was exposed as King's pseudonym in 1985 by Steve Brown,

10615-422: Is a separate person from Walter, who is also not known to be Flagg, but Marten and Walter are retconned into one character in the revised version. When Roland was young, Marten had an affair with Roland's mother, Gabrielle, using the affair to provoke Roland to take the gunslinger test early. He hoped Roland would fail so he would be exiled but Roland passed the test. Eventually, Roland catches Walter; they have

10808-722: Is about coming of age , a theme he has returned to several times, for example in Joyland . King often uses authors as characters, such as Ben Mears in 'Salem's Lot , Jack Torrance in The Shining , adult Bill Denbrough in It and Mike Noonan in Bag of Bones . He has extended this to breaking the fourth wall by including himself as a character in three novels of The Dark Tower . Among other things, this allows King to explore themes of authorship; George Stade writes that Misery "is

11001-445: Is an American author. Widely known for his horror novels , he has been crowned the "King of Horror". He has also explored other genres, among them suspense , crime , science-fiction , fantasy and mystery . Though known primarily for his novels, he has written approximately 200 short stories , most of which have been published in collections. His debut, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. Different Seasons (1982),

11194-421: Is an adaptation of King's novella The Body , named his production company Castle Rock Entertainment after King's fictional town. Castle Rock Entertainment would produce other King adaptations, including Reiner's Misery (1990) and Frank Darabont 's The Shawshank Redemption (1994). In 1986, King made his directorial debut with Maximum Overdrive , an adaptation of his story " Trucks ". He recalls: "I

11387-505: Is at his friend's gas station the night Charles Campion arrives. Redman is the first to show positive signs of immunity to the superflu and is taken by government authorities, first to the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), then to the fictitious Stovington, Vermont disease center. They inject him with a pure strain of the virus occasionally and his immune system keeps killing it, but they have failed to create

11580-410: Is based on his ability to replace peace with conflict and unity with destruction; although he seeks power, it is merely a resource to achieve a greater level of destruction. Author and journalist Heidi Stringell finds Flagg "an embodiment of pure evil", contending that King sees good and evil as "real forces"; Flagg's embodiment of evil is confirmed by the fact that "he is a killer, a maker of mischief,

11773-411: Is easily manipulated by the wizard. Flagg becomes the de facto ruler of Delain, plunging the kingdom into a Dark Age. Years later Thomas confronts Flagg about his father's murder, which he witnessed as a child but suppressed the memory out of fear. Thomas shoots Flagg in the eye with an arrow, and Flagg disappears from the kingdom. Peter is given his rightful throne; Thomas and his butler, Dennis, leave

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11966-546: Is forced to stay behind, along with Kojak the dog. Redman develops pneumonia , due to injury and hypothermia , but witnesses the destruction of Las Vegas. He is saved by Tom Cullen, who nurses him back to health. Redman and Cullen return to Boulder first by snowmobile and finally by foot, where Goldsmith has given birth to the first-known post-plague child. Redman and Goldsmith, who is pregnant again, this time by Redman, leave Boulder to raise their family in Ogunquit, Maine . In

12159-595: Is identified near the novel's end as leader of an activist group when he prevents Carol Gerber from retrieving an unexploded bomb on a college campus. King never identifies Fiegler as Flagg, but Christopher Golden and Hank Wagner suggest in The Complete Stephen King Universe that there is little doubt Fiegler is Flagg. Golden and Wagner cite evidence such as Fiegler's ability to make himself appear "dim", an ability shared by Flagg in Eyes of

12352-428: Is injured, Kojak stays behind, killing small animals to feed Redman and fetching sticks for fire-building. After being found by Tom Cullen, Kojak is taken back to Boulder. It is stated in the novel that he will live for sixteen years after his master's death, and that a female puppy is found near Boulder, indicating that the canine species will survive. Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947)

12545-506: Is just fabulous at that, and also I tried to write more colloquially." Straub said the only person who could correctly identify who wrote which passages was a fellow author, Neil Gaiman . King and the photographer f-stop Fitzgerald collaborated on the coffee table book Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques (1988). He produced an artist's book with designer Barbara Kruger , My Pretty Pony (1989), published in

12738-523: Is not mentioned. Furth wrote in the comic's afterword that the idea of Maerlyn being Walter's father came from King. The comic also reveals that Marten had poisoned Roland's infant brother. Furth introduced the idea that the Bends o' the Rainbow , 13 magic spheres created by Maerlyn in the distant past, are sentient beings able to project personifications which can interact with other characters. Marten has

12931-553: Is often haunted by for much of the story. Blakemoor eventually dies from a drug overdose that Underwood describes as "70% accident and 30% suicide." He feels guilty over his relief that he does not have to deal with her anymore, a confirmation of his mother's assessment of him. Haunted by his dreams of Randall Flagg and Blakemoor, Underwood falls into a semi- catatonic state of self-reflection for several days until he finally collapses from exhaustion in New Hampshire . This event

13124-463: Is quite a demonic figure, and as such he is one of the great anti-heroes of contemporary popular fiction" and that "journeying into Walter's mind is a pretty wild experience and at times a little frightening. You have to travel to very dark places." To find Walter's voice, Furth went to John Milton 's Paradise Lost , William Blake 's Proverbs of Hell , the Biblical Song of Solomon and

13317-503: Is required to make a logical connection, Cullen can slip into a form of self-hypnosis , wherein he is able to make connections that he cannot while "awake" — that is, conscious and focused on something superficial. Andros, Stu Redman, and Glen Bateman use this ability to place a post-hypnotic suggestion in Cullen that will help him act as the third Free Zone spy. During one session the group discovers that while hypnotized, Cullen possesses

13510-468: Is seen cycling through the Dallas throngs just before the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the final episode. In 2019, Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen was cast as Marten Broadcloak for the pilot of Amazon Prime Video 's television adaptation of The Dark Tower , but Amazon ultimately decided not to pursue the series. In the same year, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård was cast as Randall Flagg in

13703-472: Is slowly succumbing to the plague, attacks Andros a second time and nearly blinds him in one eye; panicking, Andros accidentally fires his service weapon before unholstering it and the bullet grazes his leg, causing the limb to become infected. Although Andros kills the weakened Booth, the injuries force him to wear an eye patch for most of the story. Andros eventually recovers from the infection to his leg and begins his journey to Hemingford Home, Nebraska. Along

13896-416: Is small, a seashell. Sometimes it's enormous, a Tyrannosaurus Rex with all those gigantic ribs and grinning teeth. Either way, short story or thousand-page whopper of a novel, the techniques of excavation remain basically the same. King often starts with a "what-if" scenario, asking what would happen if an alcoholic writer was stranded with his family in a haunted hotel ( The Shining ), or if one could see

14089-439: Is small-town American life, often set in fictitious Derry, Maine; tales of family life, marital life, the lives of children banded together by age, circumstance, and urgency, where parents prove oblivious or helpless. The human heart in conflict with itself—in the guise of the malevolent Other. The ' gothic ' imagination magnifies the vicissitudes of 'real life' in order to bring it into a sharper and clearer focus." King's The Body

14282-493: Is starting to achieve significant success with his debut single, "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?" He tallies a debt with a drug dealer while living in Los Angeles and travels to New York City to hide, on the pretext of visiting his loving, but deeply disapproving, mother. When pressed, his mother points out his greatest character flaw to him directly: "You're a taker...you came home to me because you knew that I have to give." As

14475-462: Is that he looks like an ordinary man, and his behavior is a mockery of humanity - a terrible insight into the human psyche. King suggests that the thing to fear the most is inside ourselves". Douglas Winter, author of Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King , believes that Flagg epitomizes the Gothic villain—an " atavistic embodiment of evil"—since his appearance is indistinct, malleable and

14668-556: Is that which becomes imbalanced and even prejudiced, the mitigating factor here is that Flagg is not an originator of evil - he is just caught up in its web as another wronged individual seeking justice". McAleer compares Flagg to Satan in Paradise Lost , suggesting that he may be another "fallen angel who has a valid case supporting his devilry". While agreeing that Flagg can be seen "relishing in evil deeds at almost every juncture", he contends that no judgement can be made without

14861-522: Is the beginning of a turning point in Larry's life. Recovering after a night's sleep, Underwood travels to Maine , where he plans to spend the summer; along the way he meets Nadine Cross and the young Leo Rockway (known then only as "Joe" and behaving like a feral creature). The three travel to Ogunquit, where they find Harold Lauder's painted sign and decide to follow the directions. Underwood leads Cross and Joe to Stovington, Vermont, meeting Lucy Swann along

15054-449: Is the frame that makes the picture. His commitment, as I see it, is to celebrate and empower the everyday man and woman as they buy aspirin and cope with cancer. He takes our daily lives and makes them into something heroic. He takes our world, validates our distrust of it and then helps us to see that there's a chance to transcend the muck. He tells us that even if we fail in our struggles, we are still worthy enough to pass on our energies in

15247-439: Is the same: "I know all the things that you want and I can give them to you and all you have to do is give me your soul ". Critics also note Flagg's penchant for evil. Tony Magistrale , author of Stephen King: The Second Decade, Danse Macabre to The Dark Half sees Flagg as a Shakespearean villain, comparing him to Iago , Edmund and Richard III , contending that Flagg is an antihero . Magistrale believes that Flagg's evil

15440-807: Is via a flashback revealing that Flagg bargained with the succubus Mia; this resulted in the birth of Mordred Deschain , son of both Roland and the Crimson King . In The Dark Tower , Flagg indicates that he is not John Farson, but served under him until the latter's downfall. Flagg reveals his plans to climb the Dark Tower, see the room at the top and become the god of all. Flagg believes that he can only achieve this by killing Mordred and taking his birthmark-stained foot. Although he tries to befriend Mordred and pledge allegiance to him, Mordred telepathically senses Flagg's true motives and eats him, forcing him to rip out his eyes and tongue first. The Dark Tower reveals more of Flagg's background, relating that he

15633-619: The American Dream ... King's 'Walkin' Dude' may not be the Devil, himself, as Mother Abagail says, but he comes pretty damn close..." Initially, artist Mike Perkins said he felt "Flagg needed to be designed less as a man—more as a force of nature. His hair will obscure his features, his face will be almost always in heavy shadow. This is the creature lurking under your bed, in your wardrobe, in your nightmares. Slightly familiar but wholly terrifying." Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa later commented on

15826-533: The Bram Stoker and August Derleth Awards. In 1999, he published The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon , about a girl who gets lost in the woods and finds solace in listening to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox games, and Hearts in Atlantis , a book of linked novellas and short stories about coming of age in the 1960s. Later that year, King was hospitalized after being hit by the driver of a van. Reflecting on

16019-551: The British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. King recalls "I got the best reviews in my life. And that was the first time that people thought, woah, this isn't really a horror thing." King struggled with addiction throughout the decade and often wrote under the influence of cocaine and alcohol; he says he "barely remembers writing" Cujo . In 1983, he published Christine , "A love triangle involving 17-year-old misfit Arnie Cunningham, his new girlfriend and

16212-588: The CBS All Access miniseries adaptation of The Stand . Showrunner Taylor Elmore described Skarsgård's Flagg with "[he] is so beautiful, he is absolutely a lion-like God figure. With perfect hair and... and also, there's a softness to Alex's performance that I think is fascinating. Alex just plays it where you feel not only sympathy for this character, but you hopefully understand why it's so easy for people to gravitate toward him. He's just magnetic, he's just absolutely fascinating to watch. He's galvanizing as

16405-543: The Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel . He returned to horror with Revival , which he called "a nasty, dark piece of work". King announced in June 2014 that Mr. Mercedes was part of a trilogy; the sequel, Finders Keepers , was published in 2015. The third book of the trilogy, End of Watch , was released in 2016. In 2018, he released The Outsider , which features the character Holly Gibney , and

16598-537: The Magical Negro stereotype, a black character with magic powers whose sole purpose is to help the white protagonists. Stu Redman is a quiet, intelligent widower and veteran from Arnette, Texas, with a tragic history; he has lost most of his family, leaving only his brother Bryce (who lived in Minnesota working as a system analyst for IBM ) as a sole surviving relative, prior to the apocalyptic pandemic . He

16791-486: The anti-war novel Sword in the Darkness , still unpublished. King recalls the origin of his debut novel , Carrie : "Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together." It began as a short story intended for Cavalier ; King tossed the first three pages in the trash but his wife, Tabitha , recovered them, saying she wanted to know what happened next. He followed her advice and expanded it into

16984-542: The 1994 miniseries, Andros was portrayed by Rob Lowe , and is from Ridley, Pennsylvania. In the 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by Henry Zaga . Tom Cullen is initially thought to be in his mid-twenties to mid-thirties, with a mild to moderate learning disability. Nick Andros encounters him while cycling through Oklahoma. Upon learning that Cullen remembers his father's return from the Korean War , Andros realizes he must be much older, perhaps in his forties. The two form

17177-424: The 1994 miniseries, Mother Abagail was portrayed by Ruby Dee , and is described as being 106 years old. In the 2020 miniseries, she was portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg , who had previously turned the role down in 1994. The 2020 miniseries also features a young girl portrayed by Kendall Joy Hall who is implied to be the spirit of Mother Abagail. Salon and Gizmodo criticized Mother Abagail for being an example of

17370-458: The 1994 miniseries, Stu was portrayed by Gary Sinise . In the 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by James Marsden . A college student from Ogunquit, Maine , Frances Goldsmith (often called Frannie ) is pregnant at the start of the book, a topic which resulted in a painful standoff with her mother Carla and the end of her relationship with the baby's birth father, Jesse Rider. Her older brother, Frederick, had died after being accidentally killed by

17563-534: The 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters , the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2014 National Medal of Arts . Joyce Carol Oates called King "a brilliantly rooted, psychologically 'realistic' writer for whom the American scene has been a continuous source of inspiration, and American popular culture a vast cornucopia of possibilities." King

17756-562: The 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by Jovan Adepo . An associate professor of sociology who went into retirement some years before the superflu hit, Glendon Pequod "Glen" Bateman met Stu Redman near his home in Woodsville, New Hampshire . A senior citizen with arthritis, Bateman often serves as a mentor figure to the younger Redman. Bateman also experiences dreams of Mother Abagail and joins Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, and Harold Lauder on their journey to meet Mother Abagail (and to satisfy

17949-975: The American Wild West as depicted by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone in their spaghetti Westerns . The first story, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger , was initially published in five installments in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction under the editorship of Edward L. Ferman , from 1977 to 1981. It grew into an eight-volume epic, The Dark Tower , published between 1978 and 2012. King co-wrote two novels with Peter Straub , The Talisman (1984) and Black House (2001). Straub recalls that "We tried to make it as difficult as possible for readers to identify who wrote what. Eventually, we were able to successfully imitate each other's style... Steve threw in more commas or clauses, and I kind of made things more simple in sentence structure. And I tried to make things as vivid as I could because Steve

18142-461: The Bullet , "the world's first mass e-book, with more than 500,000 downloads". Inspired by its success, he began publishing an epistolary horror novel, The Plant , in online installments using the pay what you want method. He suggested readers pay $ 1 per installment, and said he'd only continue publishing if 75% of readers paid. When The Plant folded, the public assumed that King had abandoned

18335-612: The Calla , Flagg makes a brief appearance as Walter o'Dim when Father Callahan arrives in Roland's world. Flagg gives Callahan Black Thirteen , a dangerous crystal ball, hoping it will kill Roland on his way to the tower. In this encounter, Flagg is described with "the face of a human weasel", and "the same welling red circle" on his forehead as the Can-toi . His appearance in Song of Susannah

18528-596: The Dark Tower Series: Art, Evil and Intertextuality in the Stephen King Novels , argues that Flagg's situation is the most sympathetic of all of King's characters, and his evil may be retribution: "[I]n suspending any disbelief in the possibility that reprisal is a reaction to rape, the life of Flagg becomes one that looks to strike a balance for the sexual crime committed against him. And although Flagg's possible search for justice and balance

18721-418: The Dark Tower. In flashbacks, the reader learns that Flagg as Walter o'Dim was an emissary for John Farson , one of those responsible for the destruction of Roland's home Gilead. The "Argument", a summary of the series thus far, beginning Wolves of the Calla —the fifth novel in the series—notes that Flagg is known as Broadcloak, Fannin and John Farson, depending on the world in which he lives. In Wolves of

18914-667: The Dragon , his manipulation of Carol Gerber and her activist friends and Flagg's frequent use of aliases, usually with the initials "R.F." Stephen King's novel Gwendy's Button Box , which he co-wrote with Richard Chizmar , features a mysterious man in black named Richard Farris. Farris gives a young girl, Gwendy Peterson, a "button box" which, depending on the buttons or levers that are used, can dispense magical treats or cause death and destruction. Farris reappeared in Gwendy's Magic Feather (written solely by Chizmar) and Gwendy's Final Task (co-written by both King and Chizmar). Chizmar

19107-590: The Flies . It proved formative: "It was, so far as I can remember, the first book with hands—strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it's life or death.'... To me, Lord of the Flies has always represented what novels are for, why they are indispensable." He attended Durham Elementary School and entered Lisbon High School in Lisbon Falls, Maine , in 1962. He contributed to Dave's Rag ,

19300-515: The Free Zone Committee from Harold Lauder's assassination attempt. On her deathbed, she shares one final vision: four men from the committee will travel to the West coast to confront Flagg. She makes no prediction as to what will occur, only that one will fall before arriving in Las Vegas , while the remainder will be brought before Flagg. Mother Abagail dies shortly after revealing this prophecy. In

19493-555: The Golden Nugget Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. Brentner is the first to notice the " Hand of God " as it descends from the sky to detonate the Trashcan Man's nuclear weapon , killing everyone present. In the 1994 miniseries, Brentner was portrayed by Peter Van Norden . A female version of the character, named Ray Brentner, was portrayed by Irene Bedard in the 2020 miniseries. Kojak is Glen Bateman's dog, an Irish Setter , whom he adopted after his original master died of

19686-483: The King novel. The project never came to fruition and the book was eventually adapted as a second miniseries for the streaming service CBS All Access where it is currently streaming. Charles Campion is an American soldier stationed in the California desert . While Campion is on night duty, a deadly superflu virus escapes the military complex he is monitoring. He manages to flee with his wife and baby daughter when

19879-577: The Rings : both collapse when directly confronted. Journalist Alissa Stickler describes Flagg as a "contemporary medievalist interpretation on the themes of evil, magic and the (d)evil figure". She likens Flagg to Merlin , whispering in the ear of Arthur . Stickler notes that Flagg is politically powerful in The Stand and The Eyes of the Dragon ; he uses his power differently in each novel, challenging depictions of evil and witchcraft common in medieval times. She explains that there does not appear to be

20072-605: The University of Maine, King earned a certificate to teach high school but was unable to find a teaching post immediately. He sold short stories to magazines like Cavalier . Many of these early stories were republished in Night Shift (1978). In 1971, King was hired as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine . He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels, including

20265-509: The West coast. He does not like or trust Harold Lauder and unilaterally nixes his initial placement on the FZC. Andros is killed by Lauder's bomb and it is later revealed that he was meant to lead the stand against Flagg. Andros later reappears as a spirit to Cullen and, finally able to speak, guides Cullen as he attempts to return from Vegas and shows him how to save the life of a very ill Redman. In

20458-528: The World of The Dark Tower was published in 2016 under the pseudonym Beryl Evans and illustrated by Ned Dameron . It is adapted from a fictional book central to the plot of King's The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands . In the late 1970s, King began a series about a lone gunslinger, Roland , who pursues the " Man in Black " in an alternate universe that is a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth and

20651-674: The assassination attempt the next day. Underwood leaves Boulder with Redman, Ralph Brentner, and Glen Bateman, after Mother Abagail instructs them to go to Las Vegas. Underwood leads the party after Redman breaks his leg during the journey to Las Vegas, where Underwood and Brentner eventually die in the nuclear explosion caused by the Trashcan Man. In the 1994 miniseries, Larry was portrayed by Adam Storke . He does not meet Rita Blakemoor in New York, instead meeting Nadine Cross there, alone. He travels with her, but she abandons him. He later meets Lucy Swann and Joe, and travels with them to Boulder. In

20844-472: The basis for his first nonfiction book, Danse Macabre . In 1979, he published The Dead Zone , about an ordinary man gifted with second sight . It was the first of his novels to take place in Castle Rock, Maine . King later reflected that with The Dead Zone , "I really hit my stride." In 1982, King published Different Seasons , a collection of four novellas with a more serious dramatic bent than

21037-410: The character a "grim intensity". He commented that Sheridan had "leading-man looks" with the hair of a "dissolute heavy metal star", making him "unsettling" even when not wearing makeup that makes him look like a devil . Douglas E. Winter of Fangoria magazine believed that Sheridan might have been a bit young and "zany" for the part, but gave a credible performance; he said that Sheridan attacked

21230-539: The character in a second book, this time comparing him to Norman Mailer . Here, Magistrale states that in The Stand Flagg gives the reader an "illustration of King's jaundiced perspective of modern America" as he presents the consequences of technology—worship and the sacrifice of "moral integrity to the quest for synthetic productivity". Flagg's background as a rape victim and its impact on his character have also been explored. Patrick McAleer, author of Inside

21423-492: The character of Marten Broadcloak-Walter o'Dim. Sorcerer provides an origin for the character that is different from the one King initially wrote, explaining that Walter was the son of the wizard Maerlyn and Selena, Goddess of the Black Moon. Walter was left at the home of a mill owner "to learn the ways of men". At age 13, Walter burns down his adoptive father's mill before running away to find his true father; Walter's rape

21616-486: The character over Superman . In 2010, DC Comics premiered American Vampire , a comic book series co-written by King and Scott Snyder and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque . King wrote the backstory of the first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five-issues story arc. In On Writing , King recalls: When, during the course of an interview for The New Yorker , I told the interviewer (Mark Singer) that I believed stories are found things, like fossils in

21809-467: The collection Just After Sunset . In 2009, it was announced he would serve as a writer for Fangoria . King's novel Under the Dome was published later that year, and debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List . Janet Maslin said of it, "Hard as this thing is to hoist, it's even harder to put down." In 2010, King published Full Dark, No Stars , a collection of four novellas with

22002-552: The comic, Marten's romantic feelings for Roland's mother trigger jealousy in the Grapefruit who influences Roland to unwittingly kill his mother; in Wizard and Glass , the witch known as Rhea of the Cöos orchestrates Roland's matricide as revenge for his killing of her pet snake. Enraged, Marten imprisons his "sister" in the Grapefruit and vows revenge on Roland for his involvement in his beloved's death. Addressing inconsistencies between

22195-414: The commanding officer of Project Blue, William Starkey is aware that, once loose, the superflu is almost impossible to control due to its constant mutations, meaning it will be impossible to create a vaccine. Though compassionate, he goes to extreme lengths to cover up the accidental outbreak and subsequent pandemic for as long as he can, which includes ordering the execution of journalists who try to reveal

22388-458: The common theme of retribution. In 2011, he published 11/22/63 , about a time portal leading to 1958, and an English teacher who travels through it to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination . Errol Morris called it "one of the best time travel stories since H. G. Wells ". In 2013, he published Joyland , his second book for Hard Case Crime. Later that year, he published Doctor Sleep ,

22581-458: The contrary, I want them to do things their way. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it's something I never expected." Joyce Carol Oates called King "both a storyteller and an inventor of startling images and metaphors, which linger long in the memory." An example of King's imagery is seen in The Body when the narrator recalls a childhood clubhouse with

22774-471: The creatures of a writer's imagination so frequently do... He took on his own reality, that's all, and when his cover was blown, he died." Originally, King planned Misery to be released under the pseudonym before his identity was discovered. When Desperation (1996) was released, the companion novel The Regulators was published as a "discovered manuscript" by Bachman. In 2006, King announced that he had discovered another Bachman novel, Blaze , which

22967-466: The demon Legion , while character Glen Bateman refers to him as the Lovecraftian entity Nyarlathotep , among other ancient names. King wanted Flagg to embody a "gigantic evil", although he intended the character to weaken by the end of The Stand . He said, "I think the Devil is probably a pretty funny guy. Flagg is like the archetype of everything that I know about real evil, going back all

23160-517: The doctor saying you have cancer or a prank phone call. So whether you talk about ghosts or vampires or Nazi war criminals living down the block, we're still talking about the same thing, which is an intrusion of the extraordinary into ordinary life and how we deal with it. What that shows about our character and our interactions with others and the society we live in interests me a lot more than monsters and vampires and ghouls and ghosts." Joyce Carol Oates said that "Stephen King's characteristic subject

23353-577: The end of World War II , living in a modest house in Scarborough. He is of Scots-Irish descent. When King was two, his father left the family. His mother raised him and his older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. They moved from Scarborough and depended on relatives in Chicago, Illinois ; Croton-on-Hudson; West De Pere, Wisconsin ; Fort Wayne, Indiana ; Malden, Massachusetts ; and Stratford, Connecticut . When King

23546-419: The evil survivors to his settlement in Las Vegas. She and her followers make their way towards Boulder, Colorado where they establish the "Boulder Free Zone" government. Abagail receives prophetic visions from God, which end when she believes she has sinned due to pride and goes into exile in the wilderness. She later regains her ability and returns to the Boulder Free Zone in time to inadvertently save most of

23739-419: The father. Redman asks her if people "ever learn anything", to which she reluctantly replies "I don't know". In the 1994 miniseries, Frannie was portrayed by Molly Ringwald . In the 2020 miniseries, she was portrayed by Odessa Young . A 22-year-old deaf-mute drifter, originally from Caslin, Nebraska, Nick Andros is beaten and robbed outside of (fictional) Shoyo, Arkansas by some local thugs, shortly after

23932-420: The first book: "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed". In this series, Flagg assumes the guise of several individuals. He first appears as Walter o'Dim, chased across the desert by Roland. In flashbacks Flagg assumes the identity of Marten Broadcloak, a wizard who conspires with the Crimson King to cause the fall of the Dark Tower. In the original edition of the first novel Marten

24125-399: The ground, he said that he didn't believe me. I replied that that was fine, as long as he believed that I believe it. And I do. Stories aren't souvenir tee-shirts or GameBoys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover

24318-451: The horror fiction for which he had become famous. Alan Cheuse wrote "Each of the first three novellas has its hypnotic moments, and the last one is a horrifying little gem." Three of the four novellas were adapted as films: The Body as Stand by Me (1986); Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption as The Shawshank Redemption (1994); and Apt Pupil as the film of the same name (1998). The fourth, The Breathing Method , won

24511-425: The idea, as if I had been ushered into a vast building filled with closed doors and had been given the key to open any I liked." King was a voracious reader in his youth: "I read everything from Nancy Drew to Psycho . My favorite was The Shrinking Man , by Richard Matheson —I was 8 when I found that." King asked a bookmobile driver, "Do you have any stories about how kids really are?" She gave him Lord of

24704-401: The incident, he said "it occurs to me that I have nearly been killed by a character out of one of my own novels. It's almost funny." He said his nurses were "told in no uncertain terms, don't make any Misery jokes". In 2000, King published On Writing , a mix of memoir and style manual which The Wall Street Journal called "a one-of-a-kind classic". Later that year he published Riding

24897-408: The kingdom in search of Flagg. The novel states that Thomas and Dennis find Flagg, but the nature of their encounter is never revealed and Flagg survives to engender chaos in later stories. Flagg makes several appearances in King's Dark Tower series (1982-2012), which follows gunslinger Roland Deschain as he travels in search of the Dark Tower. Flagg's presence is felt in the opening sentence of

25090-430: The ladies' hearts go pitty pat, that looked like the type of guy you would see on the cover of one of those sweet, savage love paperback romances". He eventually persuaded Garris to cast a lesser-known actor as Flagg; Garris ultimately chose Jamey Sheridan for the role. Sheridan's performance was generally well received. Entertainment Weekly ' s Ken Tucker wrote that the best acting came from Sheridan, who gave

25283-700: The linchpin of existence – so he can claim it for himself and become a god. The Dark Tower expanded on Flagg's background and motivation, linking his previous appearances. Flagg was portrayed by Jamey Sheridan in a 1994 television miniseries adaptation of The Stand , by Matthew McConaughey in a 2017 The Dark Tower film adaptation , and by Alexander Skarsgård in a 2020-21 television miniseries adaptation of The Stand . He has additionally appeared in adaptations of The Dark Tower and The Stand by Marvel Comics . King initially cited Donald DeFreeze , primary kidnapper of Patty Hearst , as his inspiration for Flagg. Later, he attributed Flagg to an image of

25476-478: The medieval monster both past and future, which challenges and yet supports the literary Middle Ages. Flagg's character has its detractors. In his essay "The Glass-Eyed Dragon", author L. Sprague de Camp criticizes Flagg in Eyes of the Dragon , saying that he is one of the least-believable characters in the book and too evil to be credible. According to de Camp, absolute evil is hard to envision; whereas Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin believed they were improving

25669-400: The miniseries Rose Red (2002); The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2001) was written by Ridley Pearson and published anonymously as a tie-in for the series. He also developed Kingdom Hospital (2004), based on Lars von Trier 's The Kingdom . King collaborated with Stan Winston and Mick Garris on the music video Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1996). He co-wrote

25862-499: The mummy, the giant creatures that ate up New York in the old B movies. Put 'em all in there." These influences coalesced into It , about a shapeshifting monster that takes the form of its victims' fears and haunts the town of Derry, Maine. He said he thought he was done writing about monsters, and wanted to "bring on all the monsters one last time…and call it It." It won the August Derleth Award in 1987. 1987

26055-480: The musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012) with T. Bone Burnett and John Mellencamp . A soundtrack album was released, featuring Taj Mahal , Elvis Costello and Rosanne Cash , among others. In 1985, King wrote a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men . He wrote the introduction to Batman No. 400, an anniversary issue where he expressed his preference for

26248-411: The newspaper his brother printed with a mimeograph machine , and later sold stories to his friends. His first independently published story was " I Was a Teenage Grave Robber ", serialized over four issues of the fanzine Comics Review in 1965. He was a sports reporter for Lisbon's Weekly Enterprise . In 1966, King entered the University of Maine at Orono on a scholarship. While there, he wrote for

26441-472: The novel was influenced by his experiences with addiction: "Annie was my drug problem, and she was my number-one fan. God, she never wanted to leave." He published The Tommyknockers , a science fiction novel filled, he says, with metaphors for addiction. After the book was published, King's wife staged an intervention, and he agreed to seek treatment for addiction. Two years later, he published The Dark Half , about an author whose literary alter-ego takes on

26634-467: The novella Elevation . In 2019, he released The Institute . In 2020, King released If It Bleeds , a collection of four novellas. In 2021, he published Later , his third book for Hard Case Crime. In 2022, King released the novel Fairy Tale . Holly , about Holly Gibney was released in September 2023. In November 2023, the short story collection You Like It Darker , featuring twelve stories (seven previously published and five unreleased)

26827-467: The novels and the comics, Furth stated that the comics exist on another level of the Tower: "a spinoff world, one which is very similar to, but not exactly the same as the one where [the Dark Tower novels] take place". On the character of Marten, Furth noted that "[he] is one of the scariest characters that Stephen King has ever created. He moves from book to book, bringing chaos and anarchy with him... He

27020-507: The ocean floor; those coffee spoons), and William Carlos Williams (white chickens, red wheelbarrow, the plums that were in the ice box, so sweet and so cold)." King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most". Other influences include Ray Bradbury , Joseph Payne Brennan , James M. Cain , Jack Finney , Graham Greene , Elmore Leonard , John D. MacDonald , Don Robertson and Thomas Williams . He often pays homage to classic horror stories by retelling them in

27213-465: The original edition. It includes an epilogue in which Flagg appears on a beach and finds a primitive tribe ready to fall under his influence. Flagg later appears in The Eyes of the Dragon , published in 1984 as an evil wizard wreaking havoc in the medieval country of Delain. He is described as a "thin and stern-faced man of about 50 [years of age]", despite being much older. He hides himself under

27406-556: The original idea of hiding Flagg's face: "...the further into the book and the adaptation you go, the less feasible that becomes. Stephen spends so much time describing [Flagg]'s features and smiles, you need to show those things." King initially named Donald DeFreeze , lead kidnapper in the Patty Hearst case, as his inspiration for Randall Flagg. According to King, he remembered the Patty Hearst case when he began to write

27599-473: The others during committee meetings. Brentner survives Lauder's assassination attempt, losing the third and fourth fingers on his left hand, and is chosen as one of the four people to stand against Flagg. Along with Stu Redman, Glen Bateman and Larry Underwood, Brentner travels to Las Vegas and is instrumental in convincing Underwood to leave Redman behind after he breaks his leg. The three are captured by Flagg, who plans an execution by dismemberment in front of

27792-425: The outcome of future events ( The Dead Zone ), or if one could travel in time to alter the course of history ( 11/22/63 ). He writes that "The situation comes first. The characters—always flat and unfeatured, to begin with—come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded a set of characters that they do things my way. On

27985-406: The part. Director Mick Garris and the studios wanted to give the role to an established star such as Christopher Walken , James Woods , Willem Dafoe or Jeff Goldblum . King himself had suggested Robert Duvall in his introduction to the novel. Miguel Ferrer , who played Flagg's henchman in the film, was interested in playing the villain. King's idea for the role was someone who "would make

28178-422: The people in it may be make believe but I need to ask myself over and over if I've told the truth about the way real people would behave in a similar situation... We understand that fiction is a lie to begin with. To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and one's own work in particular." In On Writing , King says "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: read

28371-554: The plague and anarchy destroy New York, Underwood attempts to care for his dying mother, but she eventually succumbs to the superflu. Shortly after, Underwood finds he is one of the few living people remaining in New York City. He meets a troubled middle-aged woman named Rita Blakemoor and the two decide to leave New York together. They experience a frightening trek through the Lincoln Tunnel , an incident that Underwood

28564-402: The plague will fall among them", King began writing The Stand and developing the character of Randall Flagg. In 2004, King said that Flagg had been a presence in his writing since the beginning of his career, with the idea coming to him in college. He first wrote a poem, " The Dark Man ", about a man who rides the rails and confesses to murder and rape ; written on the back of a placemat in

28757-482: The plague, along with the sheriff. Andros decides to let the third prisoner go, and tends to the sheriff's wife before she also dies. In the original 1978 publication of the novel, Andros falls from a bicycle and hits his head in the abandoned Shoyo, but scratches on his leg from the fall become infected and leave him sick for days. In the 1990 revised–expanded edition the injuries occur under different circumstances: Ray Booth, Andros' fourth attacker who escaped arrest but

28950-598: The project because sales were unsuccessful, but King later said he had simply run out of stories. The unfinished novel is still available from King's official site, now free. In 2002, King published From a Buick 8 , a return to the territory of Christine . In 2005, he published the mystery The Colorado Kid for the Hard Case Crime imprint. In 2006, he published Cell , in which a mysterious signal broadcast over cell phones turns users into mindless killers. That same year, he published Lisey's Story , about

29143-529: The provision that he "get down on [his] knees and beg for it." Bateman refuses, laughing at Flagg for being so transparent, leading Flagg to order Lloyd Henreid to execute Bateman. "It’s all right, Mr. Henreid", Bateman says as he dies, "you don’t know any better." In the 1994 miniseries, Bateman was portrayed by Ray Walston . In the 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by Greg Kinnear . Ralph Brentner, an amiable Midwest farmer and United States Army veteran, meets Nick Andros and Tom Cullen as their paths cross on

29336-657: The pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King . He has also written nonfiction, notably Danse Macabre (1981) and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000). Among other awards, King has won the O. Henry Award for " The Man in the Black Suit " (1994) and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller for 11/22/63 (2011). He has also won honors for his overall contributions to literature, including

29529-406: The pseudonym Richard Bachman. He explains: "I did that because back in the early days of my career there was a feeling in the publishing business that one book a year was all the public would accept...eventually the public got wise to this because you can change your name but you can't really disguise your style." Bachman's surname is derived from the band Bachman–Turner Overdrive and his first name

29722-410: The return trip to Boulder, avoiding the nuclear explosion that destroys the city. During his journey, Cullen has a prophetic dream that compels him to double back and find Redman, who has broken his leg and has contracted pneumonia . With help from Andros's spirit, who appears to Cullen in visions, Cullen is able to nurse a delirious and dying Redman back to health while they are snowed in for much of

29915-407: The role "with the swagger of Elvis , the sway of David Koresh and as much craziness as your heart desires (and network TV allows)". In February 2011, Warner Bros. announced plans to produce a new feature film adaptation of The Stand . King commented that he would like to see Dutch actor Rutger Hauer in the role of Flagg, but conceded that he was perhaps too old for the part. In August 2014, it

30108-462: The same type of foresight as Mother Abagail, concurrently referring to himself as the "Tom" Andros met in Oklahoma and "God's Tom". Cullen travels west, transmitting a hypnotically -imprinted cover story to gain entrance into Las Vegas, and is able to avoid detection by Randall Flagg. Cullen's anonymity seems to stem from his disability, as Flagg tells Dayna Jurgens that every time he tries to see

30301-663: The series' beginning. He is the Barony's "tax collector" from Gilead, attempting to collect taxes from residents of the small town of Tree. The Covenant Man sends the story's protagonist, a young boy named Tim, on a perilous quest through the Endless Forest to save his mother; unbeknownst to Tim, the Covenant Man is supplying him with false prophecies and misinformation as part of a cruel practical joke. However, Tim succeeds in his journey; he saves his mother after encountering

30494-453: The series' third installment, The Waste Lands . In the city of Lud , Flagg saves Tick-Tock Man Andrew Quick , an enemy of Roland's ka-tet left for dead in an earlier confrontation. Quick becomes Flagg's devoted servant, and Flagg assumes the name of Richard Fannin. The character returns in the fourth book, Wizard and Glass , as Marten Broadcloak. Also identifying himself as Flagg, he warns Roland and his ka-tet to abandon their quest for

30687-414: The start of the epidemic. Mildly injured in the assault and initially jailed, Andros is befriended by the local sheriff and his wife. Andros expresses a desire to press charges against his attackers, and the sheriff tracks down and arrests three of the four before falling ill with the superflu. Andros becomes the newest deputy, due to the absence of any other healthy people, and watches two of the thugs die of

30880-454: The student newspaper, The Maine Campus , and found mentors in the professors Edward Holmes and Burton Hatlen . King participated in a writing workshop organized by Hatlen, where he fell in love with Tabitha Spruce . King graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and his daughter Naomi Rachel was born that year. King and Spruce wed in 1971. King paid tribute to Hatlen: "Burt

31073-429: The superflu and she is devastated. However, she is rewarded by news of both Redman's return to the Free Zone and her baby's recovery, proving it possesses some immunity to the virus. Throughout the novel, Frances becomes more and more homesick for her native Maine, and at the end she, Redman, and the baby return to Ogunquit; the last chapter also confirms that Frances has become pregnant with her second child, with Redman as

31266-478: The superflu or the chaos that follows. This character is named Len Carsleigh in pre-1990 editions of The Stand. In the 1994 miniseries, Carsleigh is played by Robert Knott. The character does not appear in the 2020 miniseries. Abagail Freemantle , also known as Mother Abagail , leads the good survivors of the Captain Trips plague and claims to be a prophet of God . She is 108 years old and lives in

31459-512: The superflu. Formerly named Big Steve , Kojak is a rare survivor of the superflu, which affects dogs and horses as well as humans (the book notes that cats are immune). When Bateman leaves with Stu Redman, Kojak is initially left behind. However, he follows his owner and is later attacked by wolves after arriving at Mother Abagail's empty house. Though injured, Kojak manages to walk to the Free Zone. He joins Bateman, Redman, Ralph Brentner, and Larry Underwood on their journey to Las Vegas. When Redman

31652-452: The survival of humanity." In his acceptance speech for the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, King said: " Frank Norris , the author of McTeague , said something like this: 'What should I care if they, i.e., the critics, single me out for sneers and laughter? I never truckled, I never lied. I told the truth.' And that's always been the bottom line for me. The story and

31845-419: The third spy, all he sees is the moon; this confirms her sighting of Cullen earlier (while both were on Las Vegas work crews). It is Jurgens's desire to protect both Cullen and his status as a spy that compels her to commit suicide, rather than submit to further questioning from Flagg. The sight of the full moon rising over Las Vegas triggers Cullen to act on a post-hypnotic suggestion planted in his mind and begin

32038-532: The time ' Salem's Lot was published. After his mother's death, King and his family moved to Boulder, Colorado . He paid a visit to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park which provided the basis for The Shining , about an alcoholic writer and his family taking care of a hotel for the winter. King's family returned to Auburn, Maine in 1975, where he completed The Stand , an apocalyptic novel about

32231-521: The truth. In an attempt to maintain plausible deniability , he activates a contingency plan to have spies release the virus in the Eastern Bloc and China , ensuring these Communist nations are destroyed along with the United States. After being dismissed by the President of the United States due to his failure to contain the virus, Starkey commits suicide in the laboratory where the superflu

32424-455: The vacant town. At Lauder's suggestion, the two make their way to the Stovington facility of the CDC, encountering Stu Redman along the way. While Frances agrees to let Redman travel with them, Lauder is highly resistant, mainly due to his own feelings for Frances. Along with Glen Bateman, the group arrives at Stovington to confirm not only the deaths of everyone at the facility, but also that Redman

32617-522: The wall was very much a product of the nineteenth." Similarly, King's Revival is a modern riff on Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein . King dedicated it to "the people who built my house": Shelley, Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft , Clark Ashton Smith , Donald Wandrei , Fritz Leiber , August Derleth , Shirley Jackson , Robert Bloch , Straub and Arthur Machen , "whose short novel The Great God Pan has haunted me all my life". Randall Flagg Flagg first appeared in King's 1978 novel The Stand as

32810-432: The way he meets Tom Cullen, and later, Ralph Brentner, June Brinkmeyer, Gina McCone, Dick Ellis, and Olivia Walker; the group becomes a surrogate family to him. Andros leads the growing band of survivors to both Nebraska and Mother Abagail, who guides them on to Boulder. Andros serves on the Free Zone Committee, for which he is the leading thinker, and eventually recruits Cullen as a member of the spy contingent that travels to

33003-470: The way to Charles Starkweather in the '50s—he is somebody who is empty and who has to be filled with other people's hates, fears, resentments, laughs. Flagg, Koresh , Jim Jones , Hitler —they're all basically the same guy". Although Flagg does not explicitly represent Satan , this does not detract from what King sees as his ultimate goal. He notes that no matter who sees him or how he is seen as Flagg appears differently to different individuals, his message

33196-497: The way. In Stovington, they find Lauder's directions to Nebraska. Underwood, who gradually finds himself in the unexpected role of a trusted group leader, brings a growing party of people across the country to Nebraska, and finally to Boulder. Although Underwood is initially interested in Cross, she spurns his advances and he begins a relationship with Swann instead. Arriving in Boulder, Underwood settles down with Swann and Joe, becoming

33389-559: The widow of a novelist. He calls it his favorite of his novels, because "I've always felt that marriage creates its own secret world, and only in a long marriage can two people at least approach real knowledge about each other. I wanted to write about that, and felt that I actually got close to what I really wanted to say." In 2007, King served as guest editor for the annual anthology The Best American Short Stories . In 2008, King published Duma Key , his first novel set in Florida, and

33582-406: The winter, in motels in central Utah ( Green River ) and western Colorado ( Grand Junction ). Together, the pair returns to Boulder to report the destruction of Las Vegas. In the 1994 miniseries, Cullen was portrayed by Bill Fagerbakke . In the 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by Brad William Henke . Larry Underwood is a young, narcissistic singer-songwriter who, at the beginning of the novel,

33775-452: The wizard Maerlyn, who has been imprisoned in the form of a "tyger". While the Covenant Man is not explicitly identified as Flagg, with only the initials "RF/MB" in his signature as identification and at one point being referred to as 'the man in the black cloak', Stephen King confirmed in an interview with Bev Vincent for his book The Dark Tower Companion that the two are one and the same. In Hearts in Atlantis (1999), Raymond Fiegler

33968-404: The world, Flagg only enjoys causing destruction and chaos. De Camp notes that Flagg fails to see that there is no advantage to his actions. Walter's eyes widen, and for a moment he looks deeply hurt. This may be absurd, but Callahan is looking into the man's deep eyes and feels sure that the emotion is nonetheless genuine. And the surety robs him of any last hope that all this might be a dream, or

34161-492: The world. He sees it with a sort of delight, even though he is obviously on the wrong side of the light-and-dark spectrum. He's someone I've been having a lot of fun with." McConaughey described Walter as " the Devil having a good time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them". The 2016 miniseries 11.22.63 , based on King's 2011 novel 11/22/63 , incorporates numerous references to other King stories, including an appearance by Randall Flagg, who

34354-408: The writings of Aleister Crowley for inspiration. In his interview with Bev Vincent, Isanove opined that Walter was his favorite character to draw; " Jae [Lee, the original artist for the series] established him as almost androgynous. He's always got this bare chest, and he's very feminine in the way he moves, with his hands raised. He's always moving his hands around. He's got this weird face, with

34547-443: Was 11, his family moved to Durham, Maine , where his mother cared for her parents until their deaths. After that, she became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged. King says he started writing when he was "about six or seven, just copying panels out of comic books and then making up my own stories ... Film was also a major influence. I loved the movies from the start. So when I started to write, I had

34740-405: Was an unusually productive year for King. He published The Eyes of the Dragon , a high fantasy novel which he originally wrote for his daughter. He published Misery , about a popular writer who is injured in a car wreck and held captive by Annie Wilkes, his self-described "number-one fan". Misery shared the inaugural Bram Stoker Award with Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon . King says

34933-423: Was asked whether or not Richard Farris's initials signified that he was another manifestation of Randall Flagg; his response was "Maayyybee... He's definitely mysterious, and it's really obvious there's more to him than meets the eye." Chizmar later revealed during a Reddit AMA session that the initials were indeed indicative of Farris being Flagg. In 2022, King stated while the character started off as Flagg that

35126-647: Was born Walter Padick in Delain to Sam the Miller of Eastar'd Barony. At age 13, Walter set out for a life on the road, but was raped by a fellow wanderer; author Bev Vincent hypothesized in The Road to the Dark Tower that Flagg's later actions toward Delain in The Eyes of the Dragon may have been revenge for the abuse he suffered as a child. Resisting the temptation to crawl back home, Padick instead moves toward his destiny; he learns various forms of magic, achieving

35319-653: Was born in Portland, Maine , on September 21, 1947. His father, Donald Edwin King, a traveling vacuum salesman after returning from World War II , was born in Indiana with the surname Pollock, changing it to King as an adult. King's mother was Nellie Ruth King (née Pillsbury). His parents were married in Scarborough, Maine , on July 23, 1939. They lived with Donald's family in Chicago before moving to Croton-on-Hudson, New York . King's parents returned to Maine towards

35512-544: Was coked out of my mind all through its production, and really didn't know what I was doing." It was neither a critical nor a commercial success; King was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for Worst Director, but lost to Prince , for Under the Cherry Moon . In the 1990s, King wrote several miniseries: Golden Years (1991), The Stand (1994), The Shining (1997) and Storm of the Century (1999). He wrote

35705-517: Was created. In the 1994 miniseries, Starkey is portrayed by Ed Harris . In the 2020 miniseries, he is portrayed by J. K. Simmons . Creighton is General Starkey's friend and right-hand man; he periodically updates Starkey on the situation. He assumes command of the containment operation after Starkey's removal and subsequent suicide. The character is last heard speaking to an army officer via radio in Los Angeles ; it's unknown whether he survives

35898-523: Was nearly killed in his escape from there. The group then continues west towards Mother Abagail, during which time Frances falls deeply in love with Redman. The fact that he is significantly older is noted in her diary, along with many other aspects of the trip, and thus she is like her mother, who was significantly younger when she married her father. Lauder confesses his love to Frances, and she politely but firmly rejects him, before she and Redman reciprocate their feelings for each other. They eventually enter

36091-457: Was no longer the case: "I saw him as a force of evil when I first started to write about the box. By the time I realized he was a force of the White, it was too late to change the initials." King was influential in deciding who would play Flagg in the 1994 television adaptation of The Stand . He felt Flagg was the best villain he had ever created, and wanted the actor playing him to be right for

36284-482: Was published by Scribner in May 2024. The book debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times fiction best-seller list for the week ending May 25, 2024. King announced an upcoming novel named Never Flinch on November 18, 2024. The novel is set to release on May 27, 2025. King published five short novels— Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982) and Thinner (1984)—under

36477-600: Was published in the Halloween issue of The New Yorker . The story went on to win the 1996 O. Henry Award . In 1996, King published The Green Mile , the story of a death row inmate, as a serial novel in six parts. It had the distinction of holding the first, fourth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth positions on the New York Times paperback-best-seller list at the same time. In 1998, he published of Bag of Bones , his first book with Scribner , about

36670-538: Was published the following year. The original manuscript had been held at the University of Maine for many years and had been covered by numerous King experts. King rewrote the original 1973 manuscript for its publication. King has used other pseudonyms. In 1972, the short story " The Fifth Quarter " was published under the name John Swithen (a Carrie character) in Cavalier . Charlie the Choo-Choo: From

36863-438: Was reported that Warner Bros. wanted actor Matthew McConaughey for the role. McConaughey was confirmed to be playing Walter, Flagg's alter-ego, in the film adaptation of The Dark Tower in 2016. Nikolaj Arcel , the film's director and co-writer, said, "Matthew is an incredible actor who can do anything. That's how I feel about [Walter]. He could do anything." Arcel described Walter as having "a very interesting way of seeing

37056-573: Was the face of a hatefully happy man, a face that radiated a horrible handsome warmth, a face to make water glasses shatter in the hands of tired truck-stop waitresses, to make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees. It was a face guaranteed to make barroom arguments over batting averages turn bloody. — Stephen King, The Stand Randall Flagg makes his first named appearance in King's 1978 apocalyptic novel The Stand , where he tries to construct

37249-501: Was the greatest English teacher I ever had. It was he who first showed me the way to the pool, which he called 'the language pool, the myth-pool, where we all go down to drink.' That was in 1968. I have trod the path that leads there often in the years since, and I can think of no better place to spend one's days; the water is still sweet, and the fish still swim." King sold his first professional short story, " The Glass Floor ", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. After graduating from

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