Marvel Was Responsible For One Of The Earliest Stephen King Adaptations

Adapting Stephen King’s works has been a lucrative endeavor since the release of Brian De Palma’s Carrie in 1976. That film was based on King’s novel of the same name, which had been published just two years earlier. This film made a lot of money on a low budget, instantly establishing King as a creative force to watch. She was even nominated for Best actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards. In 1979, CBS aired the creepy miniseries “Salem’s Lot,” a spinoff of King’s vampire series, which also caused quite a stir, being nominated for three Primetime Emmys. In 1980, Stanley Kubrick adapted King’s famous novel “The Shining” for the big screen, and perhaps surprisingly, it was nominated for two Razzies for Worst Actress and Worst Director (!). However, “The Shining” case has long been revisited, and is now considered one of the scariest cases of all time.

However, in 1981, a somewhat obscure version of Stephen King was published that few people are likely to remember. At that time, Marvel Comics launched a series called “Bizarre Adventures”, a throwback anthology book reminiscent of the horror comics produced by EC in the 1950s. In issue #29 of that series, artist Walt Simonson took portions of text from Stephen King’s short story “The Lawnmower Man” and provided the appropriate accompanying graphics. King is the credited writer of the comic, although the comic book’s author (uncredited here, but likely Simonson) planned and edited the story into comic book form.

It was, historically, only the fourth adaptation ever done by Stephen King. It predates classics like “Creepshow,” “Cujo,” “The Dead Zone,” “Christine,” and even that popular song taken from “The Stand” by British rock band The Alarm.

It should be noted right away that Stephen King’s short story “The Lawnmower Man” is not at all similar to the 1992 film adaptation by Brett Leonard. Leonard’s film was, oddly enough, a cyber-thriller about a mad scientist who uses virtual reality technology and cutting-edge drugs to turn a local gardener and lawnmower into a super-genius. Everything goes wrong, and Lawnmower Man turns into a psychological supervillain. The film was so far removed from King’s story that the author successfully sued to have his name removed.

Meanwhile, the short story was originally published in 1975 in Cavalier magazine and later included in King’s 1978 compendium Night Shift. It wasn’t about VR technology, but about a mysterious freelance gardener hired by a humble homeowner named Harold. Harold discovers that the gardener has a lawn mower that seems to run on its own. Also, the gardener loves to walk naked behind the lawnmower, eating grass clippings (!). It is revealed that the gardener is actually a satyr, and that he is using the lawnmower to sacrifice people to the great god Pan.

The 1981 Marvel Comics adaptation was a direct adaptation of King’s story, which, as previously mentioned, used King’s actual script. He also influenced the tone of domestic Americana, suggesting that having a well-manicured garden is a symbol of masculine strength, and that Harold was little threatened by the gardener’s assertive and unusual behavior, and his references to the goddess Circe. The comic was in black and white, which allowed some of the gorier scenes to go unnoticed by the notorious Comics Code Authority.

Funnily enough, many online sources had to point out that the Cersei mentioned in this Marvel Comic is not the superhero Cersei from “The Eternals.”

“The Lawnmower Man” was also the source of a 12-minute short film, made in 1987 by director James Gunness and writer Michael De Luca. Horror fans may recognize the name Michael De Luca as the writer of Rachel Tallay’s “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness,” and Danny Cannon’s “Judge Dredd.” He also served as an executive producer on countless high-profile horror films throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Trekkies know De Luca from his story idea for “Threshold”, which is often considered one of the worst episodes of the series (although it’s not that bad).

Gonis’ 1987 short film was part of the famous King’s Dollar Baby deal. King fans can tell you that Dollar Baby was a special program created by the author to help aspiring young filmmakers. King knew that college students might want to turn some of his small works into films, and he often allowed them to purchase the rights to said small works for just $1. Gonis bought the rights to “The Lawnmower Man” and made an ambitious 12-minute short film from it. However, the short was only shown at horror film and Stephen King festivals. Its low budget and amateurish characteristics make it reminiscent of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Low-quality bootleg material for the short story leaked online.

And of course, there are feature film adaptations from the major studio. Brett Leonard’s film, mentioned above, wasn’t accurate to King’s story, but it was still successful enough to spawn a crazy sequel in 1996. Only true Schlock explorers have seen Farhad Mann’s 1996 film “The Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace” (later retitled “The Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War”). It only applies to the brave.