This illustrated poem from the earliest days of King's writing career is a superb marriage of word and image. I only have two gripes that prevent me from going 5-stars. 1) It's such a short poem that the book begs for another poem or two, or a short story to round it out. 45s have B-sides, and many one-shot comics have back-up stories, after all. The hardcover edition even has a few blank pages in the back, which stand in vicious contrast to the baroque illustrations on the preceding pages. 2) The breaking of poetic lines across pages occasionally futzes with the flow of the poem. Each page spread covers a complete line from the poem, but some of the poem's rhetorical turns encompass more than a single line. When one line = one impression, the reader can linger on the detailed illustration and uncover hidden gems without losing track of the poem. However, when multiple lines constitute a single impression, the reader either has to quickly turn the page to complete the thought, then go back and admire the imagery, or admire the imagery, risk losing the flow of the poem, and re-read. Nevertheless, the images are rich enough to afford multiple rewarding reads, proving that King's power to evoke unsettling characters and moods can be just as effective when concentrated into small packages as when spread over a thousand pages. More, please :)

Interesting illustrated poem by Stephen King. The poetry was a worthy effort but not grand, but the illustrations were very well done and creepy.

The poem that spawned Randall Flagg, Stephen King's bogeyman who appears in many of his novels, most notably The Stand and The Dark Tower series. This book also features full page artwork by Glenn Chadbourne.

This is an ebook file only, just the poem. I would like to read a copy of the Illustrated edition sometime. I think that may raise the star rating.

I am not skilled in the way of reviewing poetry and it takes me even longer to find the meter to read it in but I liked this poem. I liked it more when I could read the whole thing without the pictures. The illustrations were not in a style of art that I enjoy and they were dark and the contrast of words and the font style made it difficult to read.

I was first introduced to Randall Flagg in The Stand so this was an interesting prelude to a character that is extremely prominent in the Stephen King universe.

The poem was underwhelming for me but the art is fantastic.

I think this is a 3.5.

The poem was okay but I thought that the artwork was really neat!

Randall Flagg is a really memorable character

I think I liked this as much as I did due to the illustrations. It gave the poem the captivation that it seemed to be lacking.