The Stand. L'Ombra dello Scorpione /1

by Stephen King

Gli addetti ai lavori lo chiamano Progetto Azzurro, un agente biochimico sviluppato dall’esercito e sfuggito di mano ai suoi arroganti custodi. Charlie Campion e i suoi cari lo chiameranno ben presto morte. Per la gente comune tra la quale Campion diffonde il contagio, il nome del virus sarà Captain Trips, infernale sinonimo di una condanna a morte inflitta al 99 per cento di coloro che saranno affetti dal morbo. Per pochi eletti, invece, è una figura senza volto e senza forma in un sogno delirante, uno spettro minaccioso che si staglia su scuri e oppressivi campi di granturco, che osserva e insegue... Chi sono questi fortunati – se di fortuna si può parlare – apparentemente immuni alla morsa letale di Captain Trips? Uno è Stu Redman, che, rinchiuso in laboratori segreti prima ad Atlanta e poi nel New England, si aggrappa alla caparbietà, alla diffidenza per le istituzioni e alla voglia di futuro dell’uomo della strada. Un’altra è Frannie Goldsmith, giovane donna che porta in grembo una vita mentre attorno a lei il mondo crolla letteralmente a pezzi. E che dire di Larry Underwood? Un suo brano sta scalando le classifiche, la fama è vicina, eppure, mentre l’ombra sinistra di Captain Trips si allunga sul paese, Larry sa di dover affrontare il lato oscuro della propria anima. Adattato da Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, autore teatrale, cinematografico e televisivo di successo, e illustrato da Mike Perkins e Laura Martin, questo primo volume del graphic novel di The Stand. L’Ombra dello Scorpione apre le porte al mondo di orrore creato da Stephen King, i cui protagonisti, che si sono imbattuti nel morbo e ne hanno respirato l’aria nefasta, devono adesso passare alla riscossa. Dio ci aiuti tutti.

450 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2021

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.