The Stand: The Night Has Come #6 (of 6)

writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
artist: Mike Perkins

Hard to believe that it only took seven mini-series, thirty-one issues, and almost four years to complete an adaptation of Stephen King's masterpiece.

Okay, hard to believe because this was an incredibly important project for me, not because I had anything to do with it creatively, because I was just a reader, but rather because the original preview issue was something I picked up on a whim. I went to Stephen King's high school, and then Stephen King's college (and currently live in one of the few states King also happened to live in other than Maine), but wasn't what you could call an avid reader, more like an infrequent admirer (of The Green Mile, Different Seasons, and The Shining, but not from my original reading of The Gunslinger).

I had never read The Stand, could only scoff at the suggestions in the preview about "famous scenes" like the Lincoln Tunnel. I didn't know any of those characters!

And yet the good people behind this project imparted in me some sense of their passion, and so I started reading the comics, and then read the book, and then saw the TV mini-series. And I fell in love.

One of the sacrifices I had to make last year was to quit reading the comics, because it would have been impractical to try and keep tracking down new issues, especially in the period where I truly believed I wouldn't read a new comic book again for a long time (which lasted for about half the year).

And so this is pretty much the first issue I've read for more than a year. And it happens to be the finale. There are more loving tributes for what was clearly a labor of love for all involved. I read some of the early Dark Tower comics, but I came to embrace this one as the definitive Stephen King adaptation. I don't think I'll be changing my mind anytime soon.