The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem by Stephen King and Glenn Chadbourne

 

This 1969 poem was inspiration to what would become in author Stephen King’s opinion “His greatest villain.” Written while in college, The Dark Man sets the tone for the character Randall Flagg from King’s The Stand. I’ve never read The Stand, but my wife has and she says Flagg is “evil”.

 

In this poem, we see the Dark Man walking the railroads of America bringing death, dread, and destruction with him. The narrator claims he’s camped with hobos, enjoy cold beverages on hot summer’s days, and even deflowered a pretty girl in a meadow. But, it’s thanks to the artwork of Glenn Chadbourne that we see that these acts aren’t so innocent.

 

The Dark Man features some of the creepiest artwork this side of that classic kid’s anthology “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an inspiration to Chadbourne. Perhaps the most unsettling thing about the artwork are all of the dead bodies hidden in the background of the drawings. I doubt each page has a corpse hidden in between the lines but once you see a couple of them, your brain starts to see them everywhere.

 

Truly a terrifying read. I would not recommend reading this is the dark or during Halloween. My not knowing who Flagg was might’ve made the main character of this poem more frightening than it really was. But it’s a creepy read.

 

This book is a must for any fan of Stephen King and their collections. The poem is only about 300 words- if that, and only 70 pages. About 10 pages don’t even contain words. This is not the type of book I’d buy. At $25.00 the price is pretty steep. Thankfully, I found this at my local library and as long as I turn it in on time, won’t have paid a dime.

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.