Stephen King speaks at NYCC

The panel included King, Jae Lee (artist), Joe Quesada (head honcho/artist), Robin Furth (Queen of Dark Tower knowledge), Peter David (writer), Ralph Macchio (Marvel man, definitely not Daniel LaRusso), Richard Isanove (colorer) and Chris Eliopoules (letterer), although King was the one people wanted to talk to the most. He came out wearing a SHAUN OF THE DEAD t-shirt and the audience just went nuts for him. They were all there to talk about the comic, but the geeks, of course, wanted to know a little bit about everything. Here's a rundown of what was discussed:

-Right now there are no plans to bring on any other artist for the Dark Tower comics. King loved Jae Lee's work and says that these books are firmly Lee's, Furth's and David's vision.

-The comics will follow Roland through Mejis (all Book 4 stuff), but it definitely WILL go past Book 4 and all the way up to Jericho Hill, which King demanded a giant splash page from Lee.

- Regarding further Dark Tower comics, King said, "There's always more stories."

- Hal from 2001 inspired Blaine the Mono (and that is the truth).

- When King writes, he doesn't see his characters, he doesn't tend to visualize them. "It's like I'm behind their eyes... maybe if they looked in a mirror..."

- King views the Dark Tower series as a first draft and plans to rewrite the entire series, but he promises he won't make them the Special Editions. The originals will always be out there.
Now for the two biggest newsworthy bits to come out of the panel:

- When asked if he'd turn another one of his books into a comic series with Marvel, King said he and Quesada were just beginning to talk about doing a version of The Stand as a Comic series. That made me perk up. How cool would that be?

- And the JJ Abrams bit. King said that Damon Lindelof and JJ Abrams did express interest, especially Damon, and wanted to develop the project. King said he was resistant to everybody in the past, but trusted Abrams and Lindelof. He said he trusted Frank Darabont, too, but he felt Frank always had too much on his plate. When Abrams and Lindelof approached King about trying to make the project work, King responded, "I'll tell you what... you can option the books and see what you can do with it." Nothing is set up, but they have the option... and if it doesn't work out, then no harm no foul, yeah? How much did Abrams and Lindelof pay for the option? $19, of course.

So, yes. They have the option. I talked with King an hour or so after the panel (a true geek out moment if there ever was one) and got more out of him about Abrams' plan. I'll have that out to you in less than 2 days, so keep an eye out for that in the very near future.