The Stand -Volume 1: Captain Trips [Hardcover]

I don't want to be a pain in the arse here, but I get serious about great--classic--books, particularly those that you need to take down off of the shelf and read every year or two. The Stand by Stephen King is one of those. Marvel has begun a beautiful and respectful adaptation of The Stand, not breaking it up, but carefully sectioning the work into five issue arcs that, as you read them, draw you deeper and deeper into a dark world, our world, where an apocalyptic battle between the good and the very, very bad is about to take place. Marvel is not doing here what it's been doing with King's world of The Dark Tower--that is a broader, much different canvas, of which The Stand is actually a part. No; you don't fool with The Stand. If reading the adaptation of The Dark Tower is like going to hear a hot jazz combo on ten straight nights riffing differently and brilliantly on the same set, reading the Marvel adaptation of The Stand is like going to hear your favorite rock band perform on a night when they're on it in every conceivable way, playing all the songs you've come to know and love them by. They're not doing a slavish note-by-note imitation --- you could have stayed at home and listened to them on your iPod if that was what you wanted to hear --- but they're playing the songs with an energy and love that one associates with hearing them the first time through.

The collection of the first of these arcs, The Stand: Captain Trips, will send the blood rattling through your veins, as the boys in Spoon would say. The team of folks doing it--Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Sensational Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, and Big Love) on scripting, Mike Perkins (Captain America)on art, and Martin (Ultimates 2, Astonishing X-Men) on inks --- has been pitch and letter perfect from the beginning to end of each issue. Reading The Stand: Captain Trips is like a Classic Illustrated adaptation of a novel loving done by EC Comics (and there are those of you who know what a compliment that is). And indeed, it is a classic. When The Stand was first published in edited form in 1978, home computers were the stuff of science fiction. Cell phones were a decade away. The internet was in its infancy, its accessibility limited to a few. Cable television was new. The beta vs. VHS VCR wars were in full swing. And people knew AIDS only as a weight loss supplement, rather than as a disease which was beginning to attract uneasy attention from a handful of doctors in a very limited number of urban centers. So when I call The Stand a classic, I mean that it is as timeless and as timely today--right now--as if it was published yesterday, notwithstanding the thirty-odd years that have passed since the original novel first saw the light of day.

The story, for the uninitiated, begins when a very nasty designer viral strain, dubbed "Captain Trips" (a sideways tribute to Jerry Garcia) escapes from a secret government facility and spreads. When Charlie Campion and his family escape from the facility--or think that they escape--they are doing nothing more than postponing the inevitable and spreading death in their wake. From the moment that their automobile with its extremely ill passengers makes a final stop at Bill Hapscomb's gas station in Texas, the fate of the nation is sealed. Since the virus is a secret, no one knows what they're dealing with. Each person who gets it--and just about everyone gets it--thinks they have "the flu," at least at first. The few who don't, and who constitute a fractional rounding error off of ninety-nine percent, include Frannie Goldsmith, a young pregnant woman who is facing the birth of her unborn child on her own; Larry Underwood, a fledgling rock star unable to come to terms with the terms of his own success; Nick Andros, a young man with a hearing and speech impairment who lists compassion as among his few remaining assets; Stuart Redman, one of the first to be exposed at Hapscomb's gas station, and who may hold the key to immunity; and Lloyd Henreid, a homicidal killer who awaits what would seem to be an inevitable justice. They are all, to varying degrees, haunted in their dreams by an enigmatic character named Randall Flagg, known by those he meets in the back alleys and the shuttered rooms of America as the Walkin' Man or the Boogeyman. Flagg welcomes Captain Trips as a harbinger of his ascent to glory, even as he haunts the dreams of the survivors.

The Stand: Captain Trips adapts wonderfully to the sequential art media, primarily because the team in charge of this wild night's ride approaches the work the way a groom should approach his bride: with love, respect, and, most importantly, unbridled passion. There is plenty of opportunity for shock and awe here, and Perkins and Martin are not above presenting some of the more gruesome scenes in all of their graphic glory. Yet, they are more than capable of wringing terror from the most ordinary scenes. Have you ever had your hair stand on end as you witness...a handshake? You will here.. Aguirre-Sacasa, for his part, brings his considerable cinematic narrative talents to the proceedings, infusing even the most benign passages with an atmosphere that hints and whispers that all is not well, even as he moves the narrative along at a perfect pace. And Perkins and Martin are in perfect synch with him, pulling back when appropriate, and getting up close and personal when necessary. And one note, here: I haven't always been the biggest fan of Perkins' work, but I am on this effort, where his lines mesh flawlessly with the storyline and with Martin's dark, somber coloring.

The Stand: Captain Trips is an indispensable take on a much-loved work, a gutsy effort whose reach and grasp are as one. I cannot wait for more. This volume (as well as future ones, presumably) includes reproductions of the alternate covers of each issue, notes from creators, and other contributions to give the reader an over-the shoulder look at how the sequential art adaptation in their hands came into being. Such lagniappe notwithstanding, however, the meat of the book is the story itself, and what a rich, irresistible feast it is. Strongly recommended.

-- Joe Hartlaub

Reason for Reading: I re-read The Stand this year and heard about the comic adaptation, so of course wanted to check it out.

This is a very faithful adaptation of King's The Stand and I enjoyed it immensely. This first book covers the whole superflu leak. The government part of the story is taken care of pretty quickly, giving us enough information and background to know what happened but care has been taken to include the significant small things such as the man whose face is in the tomato soup. We meet most of our heroes in this volume and what they were doing at the time the flue, nicknamed Captain Trips, hit. We only meet one member of the dark side in this volume. We are introduced gently to the dreams of the cornfield as a couple of people have the visions and Randall Flagg is introduced here as well. We are given his background, what he knows of it, and we are in no doubt that he is the evil force.

I'm really pleased with how closely the story stayed to the book. Of course, things have been condensed. Whole situations have been summed up in a few scenes but the important plot points are there along with the small things that are important to character development. I really like how the characters have been portrayed as well. It's been a quick introduction in this volume so not all the characters have come into themselves yet, but so far I think Stu, Frannie and Randall have had the best characterization. All in all, well done. I'm really looking forward to continuing with the series but I'll take my time with it since it's only 4 volumes in so far.

Its the end of the world as we know it and I - don't feel so good. Maybe it happens to be the thing with that little fiasco out in the middle of nowhere, where the people heard alarms and saw the place shut down. and maybe that would havebeen for the best - had it not been for one little mistake that killed us all. Still, were it not for the death that hovers over the land we would not see the way that people look when they start to fall off the board forever, or how it seems when the nightmares come to those that remain. Even now you can see them, the way that things are taking shape, and the way that people are trying to figure out what everything means. You also have the scraps of civilization trying tohold on, clawing and scaping and hoping to learn something from the people that are immune to what is now being called Captain Tripps.
But the Captain is bigger and badder than anything the world can throw at it.

When one talks about major undertaking, this should be listed as such. The Stand itself was a major undertaking and, honestly, it is one of the best books I have ever read. I'm not really the King type when it comes to my morning commotion, either, but the Stand is one of those things that really hits you on a human level. what would happen if the world ended and less than 1 percent of us survived? you know a lot of people would turn into monster and a lot of others would want to become their Night of the Comet dreams but, really, what would we be reduced to?

In the Stand, King answers this by focusing on two groups of people as they gather. These people are bad and good in some ways but, in some ways,, they are also neither. The people calling to them - now there is your good and your evil putting out the signal to the fallen and the still Sytanding alike. And, watching the people come together, its not always easy to tell what side of the fence someone will fall on.

In this first volume you have some major things happen. Death of humanity, the spread of toxicity, the people leaving their bunkers that they used to have, and the world falling into the sea. It is written superbly and has a lot to say to us, too, and the way it is conveyed is rich and deeply touching. I love the way the art looks, the way the people are depicted, and the way the story sets up.
Its like a dream turning into a nightmare.
Its beautiful in its own right and perfectly rendered.

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