Stephen King to write Vertigo comic book

October 26, 10:42 AMColumbus Comic Books ExaminerWesley Smith

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Stephen King/AP Photo

Newsarama is reporting that Stephen King has signed on to write backup stories for the first five issues of American Vampire for DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.

From the Newsarama article:

The character King latched onto is Skinner Sweet, a bank-robbing, murdering cowboy of the 1880s who becomes a new breed of vampire. King's story of Skinner Sweet will be one half of the first five issues of "American Vampire," while [Scott] Snyder's half will tell another story of a vampire in America during the 1920s. Both stories will be drawn by artist Rafael Albuquerque, who will continue on the series with Snyder after King's story ends.

Although this is King’s first foray into writing an ongoing comic book, he has had a long relationship with comic books. The vignettes in Creepshow were inspired by horror stories in titles like Creepy published by EC Comics. Illustrations in Cycle of the Werewolf and two books in the Dark Tower series were done by horror comic book great and Swamp Thing co-creator, Bernie Wrightson. The Talisman, based on the novel by King and Peter Straub is currently being adapted for Del Rey Comics. And of course King currently has an ongoing relationship with Marvel Comics adapting and expanding King’s most epic works to date, The Dark Tower and The Stand.

Snyder has his own connection to super-hero comics. He has a Colossus story in the first issue of the X-Men anthology series, Nation X. He has a previously released short story collection, Voodoo Heart.

The first issue of American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, with art by Rafael Albuquerque, is scheduled to be released in March 2010.

King’s new novel, Under the Dome will be released on November 10, 2009.

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