The Killer (short story)

"The Killer"
"The Killer"
Short story by Stephen King
Original title	I've Got to Get Away!
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication
Published in	Famous Monsters of Filmland
Publisher	Warren Publishing
Media type	Print
Publication date	1994
Chronology
; Jhonathan and the Witches	; 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 malfunctioning robot.

Publication

King wrote "The Killer" as a young teenager; it is a rewrite of his story "I've Got to Get Away!", which was self-published as part of the collection People, Places and Things in 1960.^[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]^[6] It has never been collected.^[1] The reprint came about after Ackerman paid a visit to King's house and read him the story; after King failed to guess the author, Ackerman revealed that King himself had written the story.^[7]

Reception

Rocky Wood describes "The Killer" as "derivative of pulp fiction" but "fairly well written for a probably 13 or 14 year old".^[1] Stephen Spignesi describes the story as "an early example of King's frequent motif of out-of-control technology", comparing it to works such as "Trucks", "The Mangler", and "Obits".^[7] Spignesi also states that, "in tone and technique it comes across as something that was probably written a short time after that eclectic potpourri of juvenilia".^[8] 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

^ ^a ^b ^c Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. pp. 187–189. ISBN 978-1-892950-59-8.
^ Wood, Rocky (2014). Stephen King. Le opere segrete del Re (in Italian). Kipple Officina Libraria. p. 138. ISBN 978-88-98953-14-1.
^ ^a ^b King, Stephen (2020). On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Simon and Schuster. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-1-982159-37-5.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ Vincent, Bev (2022). Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences. becker&mayer!. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7603-7682-9.
^ ^a ^b Spignesi, Stephen J. (2018). Stephen King, American Master: A Creepy Corpus of Facts About Stephen King & His Work. Permuted Press+ORM. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-682616-07-9.
^ Spignesi, Stephen J. (1998). The Lost Work of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Versions, and Oddities. Carol Publishing Group. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-55972-469-2.

External links

I've Got to Get Away! title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

[WoodKing2012-1] Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. pp. 187–189. ISBN 978-1-892950-59-8.

[Wood2014-2] Wood, Rocky (2014). Stephen King. Le opere segrete del Re (in Italian). Kipple Officina Libraria. p. 138. ISBN 978-88-98953-14-1.

[King2020-3] King, Stephen (2020). On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Simon and Schuster. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-1-982159-37-5.

[Beahm1998-4] 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.

[O'Brien2012-5] 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.

[Vincent2022-6] Vincent, Bev (2022). Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences. becker&mayer!. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7603-7682-9.

[Spignesi2018-7] Spignesi, Stephen J. (2018). Stephen King, American Master: A Creepy Corpus of Facts About Stephen King & His Work. Permuted Press+ORM. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-682616-07-9.

[Spignesi1998-8] Spignesi, Stephen J. (1998). The Lost Work of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Versions, and Oddities. Carol Publishing Group. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-55972-469-2.

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