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Stephen King's N.

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There is something unearthly and mysterious deep in Ackerman's Field in rural Maine. There is a Stonehenge-like arrangement of seven stones with a horrifying EYE in the center. And whatever dwells there in that strange, windswept setting may have brought about the suicide of one man...and harbor death for the OCD afflicted "N.", whose visits to the field have passed beyond compulsion into the realm of obsession. Based on the chilling short story from the recent Stephen King collection, JUST AFTER SUNSET, this adaptation will provide nightmares aplenty. Just keep counting the stones...keep counting...counting... COLLECTING: Stephen King's N. #1-4

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

181 people are currently reading
23657 people want to read

About the author

Marc Guggenheim

930 books175 followers
Marc Guggenheim grew up on Long Island, New York, and earned his law degree from Boston University. After over four years in practice, he left law to pursue a career in television.

Today, Guggenheim is an Emmy Award–winning writer who writes for multiple mediums including television, film, video games, comic books, and new media. His work includes projects for such popular franchises as Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Call of Duty, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes.

His next book, In Any Lifetime, coming from Lake Union Publishing on August 1st.

Guggenheim currently lives in Encino, California, with his wife, two daughters, and a handful of pets.

Keep up to date on his latest projects with LegalDispatch, a weekly newsletter where he shares news and notes about writing, comics, and the entertainment industry.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 433 reviews
Profile Image for BookHunter M  ُH  َM  َD.
1,694 reviews4,642 followers
July 19, 2025

هناك مثل صينى يقول
انك لا تستطيع أن تمنع طيور الأسى من أن تحلق حول رأسك و لكنك تستطيع منعها من أن تعشش فوقه
هنا فى هذه القصة القصيرة التى تقارب صفحاتها العدد سبعين نستطيع أن نتجاوز هذا المثل الصينى بمراحل بل و علينا أن نحاول استدعاء حكمة الصين بالكامل للحفاظ على هذا العالم ما استطعنا الى ذلك سبيلا. فالطيور هنا لا تحلق فوق رأسك أو تسعى للتعشيش فيه و إنما تنهش من لحمك فى نقرات منتظمة روتينية و أنت تمارس حياتك العادية مضافا اليها مسئوليات جديدة تنوء بها الجبال.

ماذا ان كان عليك عبء الحفاظ على العالم من كائنات ظلامية حبيسة تسعى للقضاء على الأخضر و اليابس أو على الأقل تسعى لسلبنا خضارنا و تحويله إلى يابس و نورنا إلى ظلام.
هى قوى لا تنتمى لهذا العالم و لا ترجو له الخير و مطلوب منك وحدك الحيلولة دون قيام ذلك.
السيد ن منهك تماما و من منا ليس كذلك. مئات المهام اليومية التى تتضمن العد و اللمس و الترتيب لمئات الأشياء التى يجب أن تكون حريصا على أن تظل أرقامها زوجية حتى إذا قسمناها على اثنين و أن يظل مجموع الأعداد فى أبسط صورها زوجيا أيضا.

من خلال السيد ن المريض بالهوس القهرى و طبيبه يصنع السيد كينج لنا عالما من الخيال المثير الغامض و المخيف أيضا. لا تملك الا أن تحبس أنفاسك و تتابع الأحداث فى صمت و ربما تورطت فى عد الكلمات أو الصفحات و لمس الأشياء حولك أما إذا وصلت لمرحلة الترتيب للأشياء بنظام قطرى أو خطى معين فقد أصابتك العدوى و انضممت رغما عنك لهذا العالم المثير... فما عليك الا انتظار الرساله و حتما ستصل.

أعتقد هنا أن القصة تتحدث عن ضغوط الحياة التى تجعل كل الرغبات مهما كانت بسيطة مؤجلة. سأفرح غدا سأستريح بعد انهاء العمل سألهو كثيرا و أجوب العالم و لكن بعد التقاعد. سأخبر من أحب و أسعى لوصال الأصدقاء و لكن فى ظروف أفضل.
تتراكم ضغوطنا النفسيه حتى لا نجد مخرجا لها و حينها لا نردد الا جملة واحدة
أنا منهك جدا

ربما تهون بعدها الحياة و ربما تبدأ الحياه فعلا عند هذه النقطة

يجعلك كينج تواجه أسوأ كوابيس هؤلاء و تفكر كيف وصلوا الى ذلك و هل ستبتلعنا قوى الظلام كما ابتلعتهم أم سيستمر نهر الحياه
Profile Image for Peter.
4,072 reviews799 followers
April 25, 2020
Stephen King meets Machen and Lovecraft! Fantastic story that turns into a real creeper. N gets treatment by a shrink. He is an accountant and has an obsessive compulsion for figures. When he takes some pictures in the countryside he comes across some mysterious stones that remind him on Stonehenge. At first he sees seven stones, the viewer of the camera sees eight. Then dark shadows begin to appear... what is the stone circle about? A Gate into another world? A very well composed and extremely uncanny story. It can also be found in King's anthology Just After Sunset. If you're looking for a mystic creeper this is the novella to turn to! Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Mario.
Author 1 book224 followers
May 21, 2015
This is by far the creepiest and scariest graphic novel that I've read. But it's Stephen King, what else did I expect?

I should also say that I loved every second of reading it. I loved art style, how the story was told, jumping from person to person and I loved the ending. It really gave me the chills.

If you're a fan of King's work (or just horror in general) I would definitely recommend.
Profile Image for Carol.
1,370 reviews2,352 followers
July 26, 2018
4.5 Stars

Holy Crap! I do so enjoy reading a few graphic novels every year, and this one....check out the amazing cover....is just that....amazing!

My first thought....Oh No! Standing stones....a circle of 8 standing stones....or are there only 7? Did I count the stones each time they appeared in a panel? Yep!

We all know what happened at the stones in Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER....(if you've read the novel)....and Oh Boy, they sure do look familiar....but we're not in Scotland and there's no hunky red-headed highlander here....only an evil force.

"BURN THIS!".....DO IT!

N. is a psychiatric patient who delivers an unsettling story.....a contagious story of horror and compulsive behavior....with a dark history....and "Ackerman's Field is a truly frightening place, a place where time appears to freeze and sound disappears to the point where you have to strain to hear even the rustle of leaves and strain even more to hear the quiet singing of birds." DO NOT GO THERE!

And Yikes!....beware the horrific disturbing end....not for everyone, but great for avid Stephen King fans!

Wonderfully creepy artwork, enticing introduction....and the chilling story by the master of chilling stories is based on KING'S original short Just After Sunset....that is now a must read for me!

Profile Image for Becky.
1,644 reviews1,948 followers
May 11, 2015
OK, so when I saw the cover to this graphic novel and was reminded of the Predator, I knew I had to own this.



Your dreams will thank me. :D

I loved the story that this graphic novel was adapted from. It was so creepy and ominous, it's a thing of beauty. And reading this GN back to back with Dark Tower: Last Shots shows just how much Lovecraft has influenced King over the years. I love it, how he takes the homage torch and runs with it. It's fantastic. The only thing that would make it better was if I could love Lovecraft's work itself more. *sigh* (We have issues, Lovecraft and I. Mainly that I find his writing boring and overly wordy. Sue me.)

Anyway, this adaptation was great. I love how visually stunning a good graphic novel can be. And this one was. I am not a fan of rotoscoping - the movie adaptation of A Scanner Darkly is downright torturous to watch. I'm convinced that they had to use rotoscoping just to show that Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder could actually move their faces, they just choose not to. If Kristen Stewart was in the movie, it would have been a stony trifecta of awful. But I digress... As I was saying, I am not a fan of rotoscoping, but the art used for everything BUT the people was amazing. It had a kind of gritty clarity and realism that this story deserved. It makes one feel as though they could be catching the cold oneself.... which is crazy, of course. Everyone knows that odd numbers are better. It's the ka-tet of 19 and 99 after all. ;)
Profile Image for Nadin Doughem.
819 reviews67 followers
April 2, 2025

"الحقيقة لغز محير يا دكتور بونسينت، والأشياء اليومية هي القماش الذي نضعه فوقها كي نحجب إشراقها أو ظلمتها. صحيح أن البوابة موصدة علينا .. لكننا نعرف أنها لن تبقى موصدة دائما. ستفتح يوما ما لكل واحد منا، وسنعبر خلالها جميعا."

وإليكم هذا الفيلم القصير الرائع المأخوذ عن القصة ..

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-...

والآن يجب على أن أحصي عدد الكلامات التي كتبتها في هذا الريفيو
Profile Image for Jared Millet.
Author 20 books67 followers
November 16, 2010
Now that was messed up. This graphic novel adaptation of King's short story isn't just creepy, it's insidious.

There's a field in the backwoods of Maine (of course) where there are eight standing stones. Except when there are only seven. If there are seven, something horrible will break free into the world. If there are eight, the world is safe - for a time. The story follows a succession of people who come to learn about the stones and take on the burden of counting them, over and over, to make sure there is always the correct number. This obsession bleeds into their daily lives as a kind of contagious O.C.D. - a compulsion to put everything into even numbers, and to line the world up into circles and diagonals.

What's bad is that it works, especially in graphic novel form. I'm sure it helped that I'm a little OCD myself, but pretty soon, in every panel where the stones were depicted, I couldn't help but count to see how many were there. And it gets worse. As the narrators voices become more clipped and obsessive, you begin to suspect that even their dialog is structured, and you start counting words, and letters in words, just to see if you are right.

My only complaint is that there are too many characters - the chain of obsession passing from person to person to person feels like it goes on a little too long, as if at least one of those people was redundant. Then again, it might have been necessary to make the people in the chain an even number. After all, odd numbers are bad.
Profile Image for Craig.
6,339 reviews177 followers
February 2, 2024
This is an excellent adaptation of King's original story. The art enhances and advances the narrative, and it's a very well-written adaptation of the original. It's very Lovecraftian... or maybe it's just my OCD kicking in. And now I'm counting the words I've typed so far...would "OCD" be one or three? Is "well-written" one or two? Is it getting darker...?
Profile Image for Sarah.
1,008 reviews262 followers
July 18, 2019
This is a graphic novel adapted from Stephen King's novella of the same name found in his collection: Just After Sunset.

I enjoyed this- the art work was great and dynamic, and the mystery sucks you in right from the start.  It starts with a letter from a woman to an old friend talking about her brother's death.  From there we flash back to where it all started.  

The brother was a psychologist working with a patient who developed OCD after visiting Ackerman's field in Motton, Maine.

It wasn't quite a full five stars for me because the whole story is pretty ambiguous, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and will definitely check out the novella.  
If you decide to pick this up, don't skip the foreword.  Guggenheim pays a beautiful tribute to a good friend and makes clear his fondness for King and his excitement over this project.  I'd love to see more of King's short stories adapted into Graphic Novels turned into Graphic Novels.
Profile Image for Jim Ef.
434 reviews104 followers
January 2, 2016
Can a field make you obsessed? mentally ill? No right? that whould be crazy! When the patient only known by the name N. tells that he changed after visiting Ackerman’s Field in Maine, the doctor doesnt believe him. Well... he should

When you hear the name Stephen King, you expect something good, scary and good. N. will not disappoint you. The story ( nice job on the adaptation ) with the art are combined very well and the result is one of the scariest graphic novels.
Profile Image for Sud666.
2,330 reviews198 followers
August 30, 2017
N. was a pretty damn good story. I was not familiar with the SK short story behind this one.Marc Guggenheim does a good job adapting the story to comic format and Alex Maleev's art is very fitting to the story.

Ahh the story. I won't spoil it, but a brief overview might help. Dr. J Bonsaint is a psychiatrist who is helping a patient named "N".
N has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). As the Dr. listens to his tale it turns out there is a place called Ackerman's Field. After visiting this place N is obsessed with numbers..especially the "right" ones. Upon N's suicide the Dr. finds an envelope with information and decides to go check out this site, even though N advised him to never go there.

From here we see the steady decline in the Dr's mental health as he too begins to show the same form of OCD as N. What is going on here? Well that's why you read the story.

A well written and creepy SK story. A really nice example of how to do an horror comic adapting a short story. I enjoyed this one.
Profile Image for Ishraque Aornob.
Author 29 books403 followers
February 21, 2021
বিষণ্ন, অস্বস্তিকর, বিব্রতকর, গা শিউরে ওঠার মত একটা সাধারণ গল্প।
Profile Image for Stepheny.
382 reviews585 followers
January 3, 2016


When I first read Just After Sunset there were only a small handful of shorts in it that I actually liked. King’s short stories for me have always been hit or miss. But N. was an instant favorite. N. was compulsive and addicting. I loved it from the start and it finished strongly too- another of King’s big Hit or Miss topics.

When I made my trip to Bangor in April I was able to visit a real bookstore…and a real comic book shop! Now, this may seem like nothing to all of you who live where there are such things as book stores. But where I live my nearest book store is over an hour away. I hate it.

Anyway, I went into a real-life comic book shop and was right in my glory. There were so many choices I just didn’t know where to start. I was torn. I wanted everything; I wanted nothing. And then after going through boxes, shelves and racks of comics I somehow stumbled across the graphic novel version of N. I had a vague awareness that it had been made into a comic book but seeing it with my own two eyes was a different story. It was one of those glorious moments where the lights of the heavens shine down and you hear the angels sing. You all know what I’m talking about…

I have to confess something here. I wasn’t wowed. I thought the artwork was decent, nothing surely, to write home about. But it didn’t exactly bring the story to life either. I honestly think my own imaginings were a better vision of the story than how this artist created it.

Let’s talk, for a moment, about comics/graphic novels. I think the point of them, and I’m sure I’ll be told repeatedly by comic junkies everywhere that I am wrong, is to give us a story through pictures and a limited use of words. Emphasis on the word limited. The comics I like most are the ones that have just the right amount of words to match beautiful artwork.

This is a case of ok artwork and way, way too many words. Don't get me wrong here- I am very fond of words. I read all the time. BUT when I want to read a comic book it’s for a reason. I want a break from the word overload. I want pictures and speech bubbles and some cool sound effects. Maybe that’s not what comic book lovers everywhere want, but it’s what I want and this didn't fit the bill.

The short story is much better. Read that and then visit this if it appeals to you. I am very glad I bought it in Maine though. The story behind it is worth more to me than anything.

Profile Image for Mizuki.
3,368 reviews1,399 followers
February 7, 2017
Stephen King's N is based on Mr. King's short story. The narration, the artwork and the coloring is great (the coloring is more subtle and it isn't too bright and annoying like the other standard comic), the story is spooky and it also has a H P. Lovecraft's touch to it (cosmic horror and insanity, anyone?).

Plot Spoilers Warning below!

However! I totally don't get what the story is about, three people just go to this field which supposedly is the gateway to Hell and monsters *even knowing the danger is there* and then they just up and kill themselves when the madness becomes too much to bear? Don't get me wrong, I truly like this story but those characters and their action are so damn senseless. 3. 75 stars.
Profile Image for Chris  Haught.
594 reviews250 followers
November 23, 2015
This graphic novel had awesome artwork, and the pacing of the story was done nicely. I didn't find it to have quite the impact of the original King story, but that's not surprising. I mean, King is my favorite author and the visuals in his writing is rarely matched.

That said, this was an enjoyable read before bed. Though I do hope I didn't catch N's "cold".

I didn't count how many words were in this reviews...honest.

Really.

80.
Profile Image for Encarni Prados.
1,401 reviews105 followers
June 29, 2020
Los gráficos me han gustado, la historia también engancha, un lugar misterioso que atrae y obsesiona. No digo más. Sin embargo el final me ha parecido un poco abierto. Entretenido.
Profile Image for Joel .
472 reviews66 followers
July 21, 2019
Me sorprende la cantidad de 5* que tiene...

Aunque tratándose de autores reconocidos como King la gente suele guiarse mucho por el "no puedo darle menos a este autor:((((" En fin, cada quien su sistema.

N. es un cómic realmente corto que puede leerse en una hora sin complicaciones. Y realmente sí me refiero a "leerse" ya que la cantidad de texto es ridículamente alta para ser una novela gráfica. Vamos, que para eso mejor me leo la historia corta lo cual pienso hacer más adelante

En lo personal no me convenció ni el formato de narración ni el estilo de las ilustraciones. La trama tampoco es precisamente espectacular: no digo que sea una mala historia, pero tal vez no fue la mejor opción para adaptarse a novela gráfica.

El punto fuerte del libro es el monólogo del doctor B. que nos contagia de su impotencia y desesperación. Fuera de eso no es que valga mucho la pena.

Como fan de King me siento un poco estafado jajaja.

Lo Mejor: En efecto, las pocas páginas narradas por el Psiquiatra.

Lo Peor: Todo se siente incompleto. Ni el formato, ni las ilustraciones, ni el color, ni la trama parecen ser dignas de unirse para formar una historia.

Señores, King tiene más de una historia digna de ser adaptada, no malgasten el tiempo con las que no lo son.

Pregunta... La gente que piensa que es "creepy", ¿primera vez leyendo terror? ¿Verdad? :P
Profile Image for Richard Dominguez.
958 reviews124 followers
October 29, 2020
This is amazing and I thought while a departure from King's horror type of story, this was much better. "N" is a patient seeking help your his problem "am I losing my mind" and is recommended to a psychologist.
In this story, the horror doesn't attack as the way a rapid dog might. It doesn't climb out of a sewer and become a giant nightmare. The horror isn't the spirit of the dead or a car with a mind of "her" own. No, here the horror is much deeper ingrained, so deeply ingrained that even if we saw it coming at us we might not be able to stop it.
In this marvelous story King attacks our certainty that we are sane. The certainty that we can remain rational, because there is nothing in the world to rock that certainty ... or could there be?
The story (on audio as I heard it) was excellent, well voiced and paced beautifully. The story starts off normally enough, of course knowing King we know something is up. The beauty of the story is that the way it is told we experience the story as the psychologist experiences it. He is tailored made for us, confident of his sanity, seeing things as he believes they are, never considering the validity of what someone else see, because it doesn't sound sane. Another King novel that truly reaches out to a whole new level of horror.
This is a rock solid recommendation ...
Profile Image for Temi Panayotova-Kendeva.
511 reviews53 followers
September 2, 2018
http://www.writingis.fun/%D0%BD-%D0%B...

Графичният роман пресъздаден от Marvel по история на Стивън Кинг не разочарова ни най-малко. Малко закъсняло четене от моя страна, защото изданието е било отпечатано през 2012 при нас, ако правилно съм разбрала.
Просто уникално пресъздаване на една типично по "стивънкингски" история, включваща онова така познато натрапчиво чувство, бъркащо надълбоко в ума ти. Кинг за пореден път се затвърждава като майстор на хоръра с един кратък и леко смущаващ разказ - в който няма смисъл да търсите "щастлив край" - такъв няма да намерите.
Profile Image for Zai.
1,007 reviews25 followers
August 14, 2025
3,5/5

Este cómic lo he leído para una lectura conjunta aunque yo esperaba mucho más de él, ha estado entretenido, entre las cosas buenas que tiene está que la historia es bastante interesante(no sé si al leer el relato en que se basa este sea mejor en novela que en cómic), que es corto y se lee rápido y que los dibujos de Alex Maleev son impresionantes.
Profile Image for Dystopian.
434 reviews228 followers
December 30, 2024
যতটা এক্সপেক্ট করেছিলাম তার থেকেও বেটার! অবশ্য কিংস এর কাছে এক্সপেক্টেশন বলে কিছু নাই!
Profile Image for Tanya.
581 reviews333 followers
October 15, 2025
This is a four issue-graphic novel adaptation of N., the standout story in King's fifth short fiction collection Just After Sunset. N. is a haunting, insidious story of obsession and compulsion, a fantastic mix of supernatural horror and psychological terror, heavily inspired by Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan, which in turn inspired H.P. Lovecraft—and the monster from this story will definitely call Cthulhu to mind (although the depiction on the cover actually looks an awful lot like the Predator!).

Marc Guggenheim, who adapted the story, was asked by Marvel to expand upon it, so there are scenes that are not part of the original source, such as the opening sequence. Personally, while I didn't think the expansions added much, they also didn't detract from the tale—until the ending, that is, which I very much disliked, as it robbed King's story of its delicious open ending by going an unnecessary step further.

However, the artwork by Alex Maleev is stunning—digital drawings that walk a fine line between hyper-realistic and surreal, with a perfect eye for colors, especially the scenes set out on Ackerman's Field. The problem of adapting a nested narrative is solved by including the occasional full-page flatlays of documentation, such as letters, transcripts, notes, and newspaper clippings.

A worthwhile and mostly faithful adaptation of a great story, albeit one that took too many liberties at the end, which is why I'm detracting a star.
7 reviews1 follower
June 8, 2012
I read the short story first and then decided to order this Graphic Novel. By the way, the short story collection by Stephen King which this story is included in is called "Just After Sunset" and the first printing included a animated DVD of webisodes for this story - very cool.

This Graphic Novel really comes alive with the incredible detail involved in the illustrations and the dialogue is easy to follow and flows very smoothly. The story is very disturbing, in my opinion, as you follow the two main characters descent into madness. It reminded me of an H. P. Lovecraft type of story with a modern setting. I really liked the connection to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the relationship between the Psychiatrist and his patient. However, some may find this story a bit too creepy to resonate into their psyche.

In short, this graphic novel really brings the short story to life and is a worthy addition to your Stephen King collection if you are a Stephen King fan. If you are more of a casual reader, I would suggest at least taking this title out of your local library and checking it out. Who knows, you may be adding a whole new dimension to your way of thinking and that may or may not be a good thing. Don't say I didn't warn you!
Profile Image for Mohamed Shoaib.
374 reviews34 followers
April 20, 2017
شيلا تبعث برسالة لصديق طفولتها تشارلي تخبره فيها ان اخيها جوني الذي كان يعمل كطبيب نفسي قد انتحر .. شيلا تعتقد انها كان بسبب مريض اشار له اخيها ب اسم N
Profile Image for Julio Bonilla.
Author 12 books39 followers
August 8, 2017
I like how this story changes perspective in the final chapter. Photo-realistic artwork wasn't the best.

Everyone gets obsessed with the Stone Henge, pushed to the edge where they ultimately die! All because Mr. N.'s story about how he got OCD. N is for Nathan.
Profile Image for Peter (Peer105).
85 reviews23 followers
October 10, 2018
4.5 stars. The original story is one of my favorites from Stephen King. This graphic novel adaptation stays very true to the source material while also adding a bit more.
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