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[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

I asked this on reddit once and was 100% ignored so here goes nothing, maybe someone here will have some idea.

The 2000s style of his paperback republished novels, as seen here, when did they start and when did they stop being printed in this style?

Stephen King's books keep getting republished with different covers over the decades, for example here are what the 90s ones looked like.

But I'm interested in which they stopped the 2000s style since those were many of what I first read as a teen, as far as I can tell they started in 2002 and ended in 2009 with a re-release of Dolores Claiborne, but I can't seem to tell for sure, does anyone know anything about this?

 

[rm082e]

I bought most of mine during that 90s run. I definitely had a bit of a collectors itch to get them all. I had almost everything written prior to The Green Mile, then I was buying those when they were the new release:

Goodreads says that version you're asking about was Jan 1 2003? Not sure if they're just ballparking it.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Wow...looking back at all of those releases and the amount of changes they made with each reprint is crazy. I can recognize all of the books I had growing up but the serial series for the green mile looks great.

NGL...not a fan of The Stand reprint at the top for some reason...gives me 50's horror movie poster vibe.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Hard to pinpoint when it started and ended. I remember buying the Dark Tower books and reading through them around 2004 - 2006ish. The first 3 or 4 books had that cover style.

 

[Artoris]

I did not buy many books in that time period

 

[bitbydeath]

Some info can be found here:
Signet printed them, so next step would be to find out when the signet run was.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I hate when they make so many changes to covers.

This does remind me how amazing the stand was/is though. Might need to listen to it again on audible

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

Did you try asking Stephen King? I think he's on Bluesky and I'm pretty sure he would never go back to Twitter so don't even look there but ask him on Bluesky.

 

[kruis]

Some info can be found here:
Signet printed them, so next step would be to find out when the signet run was.

Oh, boy, the guy who designed these covers didn't put any work into those. Just a bunch of photos grabbed from some photo licensing site with minimal additional editing. The cover for "The Running Man" is both laughable and sad ...

 

[jason10mm]

Not an answer to your question bit a favorite shirt of mine...

 

[AJUMP23]

King is a hack. I do not buy his books.

He is really prolific. But I don't buy his stuff.

 

[Major Insano]

Oh, boy, the guy who designed these covers didn't put any work into those. Just a bunch of photos grabbed from some photo licensing site with minimal additional editing. The cover for "The Running Man" is both laughable and sad ...

I'd laugh if SK designed them.

The 'hand drawn' covers are always better for books imo.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Creepy fucker that one.

 

[ClanOfNone]

King is a hack. I do not buy his books.

He is really prolific. But I don't buy his stuff.

He's produced some hackneyed stuff for sure, but he also has quite a few bangers. It's been interesting to see his style change over his lifetime.
From the cocaine/booze fueled craziness of his early stuff to the much more thoughtful works he produced later. And all points in between, the man has range.

 

[Hookshot]

He's probably my most read author and yet each time I read one I wish I hadn't.

Last two I read were Cell and 11/22/63 back when they were each new and I didn't like either of them lol.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I loved the style of the 90s covers. I have a few myself. Those were the covers I saw when I first visited Amazon.com so many years ago. Used to print them to use as bookmarks. Good times.

The covers as seen in the OP must have come in the early to mid 00s. I was absolutely livid when they changed cover style midway through The Dark Tower series. I have the first four books with that style, then with book 5 they changed it to a full-cover illustration with no title band. I hate having different cover styles for the same series on my bookshelf.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

11/22/63

That was the last one I tried, I haven't finished it. I found myself thinking about how an editor says to one of the best selling authors of all time "do YOU think the book is too long and spends too long meandering and not really advancing the plot? Me? No, I'm not saying that, I just want to know what you think..."

 

[Hookshot]

That was the last one I tried, I haven't finished it. I found myself thinking about how an editor says to one of the best selling authors of all time "do YOU think the book is too long and spends too long meandering and not really advancing the plot? Me? No, I'm not saying that, I just want to know what you think..."

Don't bother, "He's going to save Kennedy and change the future" is not what it's about. As you say it meanders about, getting bogged down in the monotony of life there.

You can Google the ending if you want but I personally found it all pointless.

 

[Poppinfresh]

King is a hack. I do not buy his books.

He is really prolific. But I don't buy his stuff.

King's best output was from when he was drunk and doing a bunch of cocaine.

Sober King definitely wasn't as good, and now Trump seems to have completely broken the man. His recent output has been pretty much trash, with "The Outsider" being the only thing he's written lately that I enjoyed.

He also has a weird fascination with kids and childhood innocence that I don't really care for and sometimes find downright disturbing. It would not surprise me if he was outed as a pedo at some point.

 

[BennyBlanco]

King's best output was from when he was drunk and doing a bunch of cocaine.

Sober King definitely wasn't as good, and now Trump seems to have completely broken the man. His recent output has been pretty much trash, with "The Outsider" being the only thing he's written lately that I enjoyed.

He also has a weird fascination with kids and childhood innocence that I don't really care for and sometimes find downright disturbing. It would not surprise me if he was outed as a pedo at some point.

I just read You Like it Darker and thought it was really good. Honestly I think his best stuff is his short stories.

 

[SamuraiEdge]

I loved my original Dark Tower book prints I had back in the early 2000s when I read them

New ones I bought last year are different (lost my originals) but these felt rather special.

 

[Ulysses 31]

I bought most of mine during that 90s run. I definitely had a bit of a collectors itch to get them all. I had almost everything written prior to The Green Mile, then I was buying those when they were the new release:

Goodreads says that version you're asking about was Jan 1 2003? Not sure if they're just ballparking it.

But you didn't get this one?

 

[AJUMP23]

King's best output was from when he was drunk and doing a bunch of cocaine.

Sober King definitely wasn't as good, and now Trump seems to have completely broken the man. His recent output has been pretty much trash, with "The Outsider" being the only thing he's written lately that I enjoyed.

He also has a weird fascination with kids and childhood innocence that I don't really care for and sometimes find downright disturbing. It would not surprise me if he was outed as a pedo at some point.

The ending of "IT" where they all have to rape the girl and they are all around 12 is so gross.

 

[Poppinfresh]

The ending of "IT" where they all have to rape the girl and they are all around 12 is so gross.

I don't think it's technically rape and is more of a consensual orgy, but yeah, it's gross.

I've read interviews where he talks about that scene and says that the kids had to essentially become adults quickly. I'm sure there was another, better way of portraying that than what King did.

He just seems to have a weird fascination with kids and sex in general. It's creepy and not in a good, horror sort of way.

 

[SamuraiEdge]

I don't think it's technically rape and is more of a consensual orgy, but yeah, it's gross.

I've read interviews where he talks about that scene and says that the kids had to essentially become adults quickly. I'm sure there was another, better way of portraying that than what King did.

He just seems to have a weird fascination with kids and sex in general. It's creepy and not in a good, horror sort of way.

 

[rm082e]

But you didn't get this one?

No, I had this older copy of Different Seasons that my Dad had bought:

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

There's a SK before the accident and a very different one AFTER the accident.

What an incredible run, though. The GOAT in the horror-dark fantasy genre, absolutely undisputed.

You guys should write for a while to understand how crazy is what this man did in his early years. That level of quality at that pace is insanity.

 

[Toots]

The ending of "IT" where they all have to rape the girl and they are all around 12 is so gross.

I don't think it's technically rape and is more of a consensual orgy, but yeah, it's gross.

I've read interviews where he talks about that scene and says that the kids had to essentially become adults quickly. I'm sure there was another, better way of portraying that than what King did.

He just seems to have a weird fascination with kids and sex in general. It's creepy and not in a good, horror sort of way.

Yes it is not a rape it is a gang bang, she encourages them to do it since they might die and never know what it is like (from memory).
She even cums when the fat one takes his turn, because he has a huge cock (of course since he is King's self insert).
I was mostly the same age as those kids when i read that, it truly is the most despicable thing i read in a King book, or any other for that matter, and it will be etched in my mind forever thanks to my malleable 12 yo mind (at the time).

Please parents don't let your kids read Stephen King before at least 16.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Yeah, that part is gross and probably off-limits. I understand the "concept" but could have been made in a more elegant way.

However, as a counter argument I will say that it's aligned with the extremely dark tone of the book. That's my main problem with the movies, they are like long episodes of Stranger Things, while the book is not like that AT ALL.

I felt the same with The Ender's Game. They messed up many things but the worst ofender was reducing the mature themes of the book, turning out in a dumbed down version for kids.


As a side note, if you want to read imaginatively crazy and funny sex scenes (that today would be heavily censored) in a history fiction setting read any book by Gary Jennings, an absolute genius of a writer who is tragically forgotten. Read: Aztec, Falcon or Journeyer. He is the Stephen King of the historical fiction. Incredible stuff.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I loved my original Dark Tower book prints I had back in the early 2000s when I read them

New ones I bought last year are different (lost my originals) but these felt rather special.

Is this a UK edition? I don't remember an American edition with those covers.

 

[SamuraiEdge]

Is this a UK edition? I don't remember an American edition with those covers.

Yeah UK, probably why.