And, of course, Firesign Theater’s “Porgy Tirebiter.”
What’s with the “HIS works”? What’s wrong with Stephen King, did he run over your dog or something?
King’s work has also been influenced by Lovecraft a great deal – he’s a big fan.
When I found out the synopsis of Carrie, especially what Carrie did at the end of the story, I concluded that Stephen King was not my cup of tea; not a difficult conclusion for me to reach since novels in general don’t appeal to me.
Some years ago somebody suggested that I read King’s books.
I said I would rather be illiterate.
Uh, what, specifically, did you have a problem with? Seriously.
For those who haven’t read the book:
Carrie, is basically about
a girl telekinetic powers who’s been bullied at school and abused by her religious fanatic of a mother. To make a long story short, a girl convinces her boyfriend to ask Carrie to the prom out of pity, and then this one bitch at her school manages to rig things so Carrie is elected prom queen. She’s then humiliated when they dump pig’s blood on her and all those years of abuse cause her to snap and wreck havoc on the town.
Cheesy, but not like, OH MY GOD, THAT’S SO HORRID!!!
Seriously, tell us what do you find so offensive about it, especially when you haven’t even read the damned thing? Don’t like horror, fine, but Jesus, dougie, chill.
I have a close relative who read Carrie, and doesn’t have my hang-up about novels (and is therefore more objective). She read the book in its entirety, and told me that at the end, Carrie killed v everybody in the town. However this appeals to John Q. Reader, it goes over with me like a lead balloon. Carrie ’ s solution is pretty much swatting a fly with a Tommy-gun; and I decided not to be a masochist, meaning I avoided Stephen King’s work altogether.
It’s not often that you hear this, but I don’t think dougie is the one who needs to “chill” here. He doesn’t want to read books by a mediocre horror novelist. Who gives a shit? Get over it already.
Hey hey hey! Stephen King is a “more-or-less-fairly-competent” horror novelist! You take back your vile slurs!
Despite going to the comics store once a week for 20 years, I still never managed to figure that one out.
The one Archie comic I’ve ever owned was some giveaway comic where Archie and the gang are very overtly Christian and quoting Bible verses and stuff. Quite a far cry from what they’re apparently publishing now :eek:
Clarification:That’s the one comic I have starring Archie Andrews. I do have some TMNT comics that were published by Archie Comics.
I got one of those religious “Archie” comics at a used bookstore; not really impressive.
Well, I’ll admit to it.
Some years ago, I was doing some extensive, and heavy, legal research over a period of months. At the end of the day, after summarizing and organizing my findings, I was mentally exhausted. Forget about the daily paper, a crossword puzzle, or a mass-market paperback novel; I needed something much simpler.
One day, on a trip to the local corner store, I saw some Archie comics digests. A Mad magazine was there too. What the hell, I thought, this is simple entertainment. So I got the Archies and Mad. They were great, and just what I needed at night before another day of digging through dry, dusty research.
In fairness, though, I’ll add that I haven’t bought one since.
About 20 years ago I took a college course in reading and composition in which we were assigned to read The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It took me several days to read it from beginning to end; at that time I also read Archie comics (the Digests), Mad back issues and anthologies, other books I own, and the daily newspaper. I had no problem at all with Ellison ’ s book when the professor assigned us to write an essay on the novel, for the course final. 
In fairness, it was in research for an upcoming novel.
See Post #43, Supra.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to read it, it’s just his reaction to novels. Just seems a little over the top, that’s all.
Would you be kind enough to share what it is you find Archie comic books have that novels tend to lack?
I mean, besides a propensity for keeping character growth to a minimum?
Quite a far cry from what they were publishing then. Those weren’t published by Archie - though they were officially licensed by Spire, the company that did publish them, due to Al Hartley working at both companies.
They also approximately co-incided with Archie’s first attempt at horror comics since they became Archie Comics (they had been MLJ originally), Chilling Adventurers in Sorcery as Told By Sabrina (quickly renamed Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, then finally Red Circle Sorcery), an EC-style horror anthology. (Which wasn’t very good.)
Red Circle was their imprint for non-Archie titles at the time. (It was originally used in more or less the same period as Spire existed, coincidentally…)
I 'm not sure what you mean by “character growth”; but then again I never did any “in-depth” study of literature, including literary devices such as character growth.
A few years ago a post on the SDMB criticized Family Circus, and I made posts defending it; for some reason, none of the critics saw fit to say that the strip was not “edgy”–until near the end of the thread. I see a similarity here, that the Archie stories are not “edgy” while Stephen King novels certainly are. But that’s not what I look for in reading: I prefer something more leisurely, if you follow me.
I remember an issue of “Not Brand Ecch” in which, according to a cover blurb, “The bad guys all win!” (Magneato, Warlord Krank, Electrico). That, however, like Not Brand Ecch itself, was a joke. The bad guys, like everybody else in the stories, were ridiculous.
Yes, he rotted in jail until the cross marks on the sides of his head turned grey…