The Killer (short story)

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"The Killer"
AuthorStephen King
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Horror short story
Published inFamous Monsters of Filmland
PublisherWarren Publishing
Media typePrint
Publication date1994
Preceded by"Jhonathan and the Witches"
Followed by"Blind Willie"

"The Killer" is a short story by Stephen King. Written in the early-1960s, it was first published in issue #202 of Famous Monsters of Filmland in spring 1994.[1]

Plot summary[]

The protagonist of the story awakens in a munitions factory; he is unable to remember his name or anything else. Seizing a gun, he demands that another worker tell him who he is; after the worker ignores him, he clubs him with the gun. After a man on an overhead catwalk flees from the protagonist, he shoots him; the wounded man sounds an alarm. As the protagonist attempts to flee, he is intercepted by men wielding "energy guns"; he shoots one of them before being hit with "energy beams". The story ends with the protagonist being loaded into a truck. A watching man notes that "one of them turns killer every now and then", with another man musing that "they're making these robots too good", revealing that the protagonist was a robot.

Publication[]

King wrote "The Killer" as a teenager in the early-1960s; it is a rewrite of his 1960 story "I've Got to Get Away!".[2] King submitted "The Killer" (as Steve King) to Forrest J Ackerman for the magazine Spacemen; it was the first story he submitted for publication.[3][4] While not accepted at the time, the story was later published in issue #202 of Famous Monsters of Filmland in spring 1994 with an introduction by Ackerman.[5] It has never been collected.[1]

Reception[]

Rocky Wood describes "The Killer" as "derivative of pulp fiction" but "fairly well written for a probably 13 or 14 year old".[1] Reflecting on the story, King wrote "I was still in the Ro-Man phase of my development, and this particular tale undoubtedly owed a great deal to the killer ape with the goldfish bowl on his head."[3]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. p. 187-189. ISBN 978-1-892950-59-8.
  2. ^ Wood, Rocky (2014). Stephen King. Le opere segrete del Re (in Italian). Kipple Officina Libraria. p. 138. ISBN 978-88-98953-14-1.
  3. ^ a b King, Stephen (2020). On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Simon and Schuster. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-1-982159-37-5.
  4. ^ Beahm, George (1998). Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8362-6914-7.
  5. ^ O'Brien, Christopher M. (2012). The Forrest J Ackerman Oeuvre: A Comprehensive Catalog of the Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Screenplays, Film Appearances, Speeches and Other Works, with a Concise Biography. McFarland & Company. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-7864-4984-2.

See also[]

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