Stephen King - Thanks For All The Fears!

He's written more than fifty novels and over two hundred short stories. 350 million of his books have been sold worldwide. He's written horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. His works have been adapted for film, television and comics. And just like me, he hates clowns.

As soon as I mention to others that he's one of my favorite authors, quite often the response is,"Ugh! How can you READ that stuff."

Aside from the fact that I could respond with,"Well...at least I read," I usually retort,"Where there's great evil, there's always potential for great good."

And that's what horror is all about anyway, isn't it? (Well...unless you're a psychopath, but the laws of averages dictate you're probably not.)

We willingly experience horror through movies and novels, because most of the time, good triumphs over evil. And the real world doesn't always operate that way.

Stephen King was born on this day, September 21, 1947. I'm hoping we see him churning out his awesomeness for at least two or three more decades.

Here's a couple videos that ought to bring a smile. The first is an original trailer for the TV miniseries It (1990). And the second? Excerpts from a talk he gave, proving that if he didn't choose writing, he could easily have become a comedian.

Happy Birthday Mr.King!

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VierLights or on the Tumblr machine at http://vierlights.tumblr.com/.