Andy Burns - This Dark Chest of Wonders: 40 Years of Stephen Kings The Stand

It was that cough that got me.

Weve all been theresitting in a crowded movie theater and mildly freaked out by all the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and otherwise expectorating masses who sit around us in that darkened room.

We worry about what germs are being expelled into the air, what parts of the surely tainted air were drawing into our own bodies, and what effect this stuff will have on us.

Its a common-if-irrational concern, and its the moment in Stephen Kings The Stand where the book fully lodged in my headspace the same way Captain Trips took root in the novel itself.

Which is surely one reason why The Stand continues to resonate four decades after its arrival at the tail end of the paranoid 1970s. None of us can know what its like to try to eke out survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the forces of good and evil amass and face off against one another. But that initial fear of being in a crowded place and having our lives changed by factors of which we have no control? Oh, yeahthat threat is real.

The Stand was the longest book I ever tackled as a younger reader. It was an investment. I first read it when the unabridged version was released, all 1,400 pages of it. (Its also the only 1,400-page book Ive re-read four times. I pick it up every so often and it never feels less than relevant, no matter the year. Urgent, even.)

I dont remember too many specifics about my first time reading the book. But I never think of the book as too long. I never skip pages to jump ahead to the final battle against The Walking Dude. I not only savor the text but I also read it almost as an instruction manual. What would I do to survive if a lethal bug leaks out of the CDC? How would I behave if I had to traverse a blacked-out Lincoln Tunnel with god-knows-what waiting for me inside? The Stand does more than tell an epic story. It tells you what to expect When the Shit Goes Down.

Like any great story, no matter the page count, it left me wanting more. I found more at times, tooit was the only book I can recall at the time that was the subject of two songs from bands I admire: Anthraxs Among the Living (the title track from the album of the same name) and The Alarms The Stand from their mid-80s classic, Declaration.

The Stand was also made into a 4-part television event miniseries. Now, even at eight hours long, a prime-time network production was never going to be able to capture the visceral terrors contained in the novel in a way thatd please fans of the book. To say nothing of the limits placed on its visual aesthetic by early-1990s special effects. And while Ive never re-watched it because Im afraid of how it might have aged, I remember it with affection for both the cast and, well, the attempt. It was all we had then, so I liked it just for existing.

Fifteen years later, in my ongoing quest to consume more Stand-related material, I dove greedily into Marvel Comics lengthy graphic-novel adaptation of the novel, produced by writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artists Mike Perkins and Laura Martin. As a guy who has produced many novel-to-comic adaptations himself, I greatly admired the work they did in bringing the full story to visual life. The Stand comic is a high-water mark for book-to-comic adaptations, and unlike the TV miniseries, it features nearly every scene in the book brought to visual life.

Of course, that was almost a decade ago. In the intervening years, there has been ample talk of a filmed revival of The Stand. Certainly the recent success of Stephen Kings It as blockbuster film has given new life to the idea, which has been batted back and forth as either a couple of films or a new television series. But as of yet, nothing is looming, so my need for more Stand-related material turns me once again to the printed page.

Which brings me at last to this book by Andy Burns. Andy was smart enough to know that fans like me, who possess a seemingly bottomless appetite for material related to The Stand are, like Randall Flagg himself, legion. Andy perceptively identified the need scores of us Constant Readers have for another deep dive into this world. Especially one presented so comprehensively and compellingly as This Dark Chest of Wonders.

What Andy has done here is so much more than a revisit, too. Hes dug new trenches around this ravaged landscape and unearthed wondrous trinkets, interesting trivia, and lovely details that enhance the entire reading experience. Hes placed the book in its proper historical context, spoken to the people in and around the book, the creators of the miniseries, the comic, and other King scholars about the novel and its greater impact.

Andy has made me reconsider the ways I think about the novel; hes made me happy once again to have let it infect me as it did many years ago; and the best effect of all for a book like this, hes got me excited to pluck Kings weighty tome off the bookshelf and take up residence in Stu Redmans Boulder, Colorado, enclave and watch the battle against the Dark Mans forces unfold in front of me yet again.

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Chris Ryall is an award-losing writer and editor of comic books and graphic novels and occasionally books without pictures, too. He is currently Editor-in-Chief at Skybound Entertainment and the co-founder and Editorial Director of Syzygy Publishing.