| "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 | |||
| Publication date | 1994 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"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]
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.
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]
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]
Forrest James Ackerman was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a prominent advocate of the Esperanto language; and one of the world's most avid collectors of genre books and film memorabilia. He was based in Los Angeles, California.
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