My Favorite Stephen King Characters

in no particular order

• Ben Hanscom-IT: The fat kid of the Losers Club, I identified with him well. Plus, he grew up to be wealthy. hehehe My time will come! I just hope I don't end up looking like John Ritter.
• George Stark-The Dark Half: Alter-ego of (fellow) writer Thad Beaumont, and a real bad-ass! I wouldn't mess with this joker in a dark alley.
• Mattie Devore-Bag of Bones; I like my women just a little on the trashy side. hehehe So what if she lived in a trailer, she was hot stuff! Mike Noonan certainly thought so anyway. Anyway, she was a good mother and sweet woman despite all of her hardships. It still pisses me off, what happened to her!
• Harold Lauder-The Stand: Another bullied fat kid I can identify with, only this one had a mean streak. He went wacko, but I still felt sorry for him.
• Glen Bateman-The Stand: The old sociology professor who thought the world was better off with all of its people dead. hehehe
• Johnny Marinville-Desperation, the Regulators: A Harley-riding author in one and a guitar-playing pacifist in the latter, this cool cat was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he got his stuff together and knew exactly what to do. Very admirable, especially in Desperation.
• Father Donald Callahan-Salem's Lot: His desire to fight 'evil with a capital E' and his failure to stand up to his convictions as a priest really intrigued me. When Barlow damned him and sent him packing, it really left me wondering what was in his future, after the clergy. According to SK in the Afterward of Wizard and Glass, we'll be running into Callahan again later in the DT series! And from what happened in the Little Sisters of Eluria, when the former priest joins the gunslinger and his crew, he'll most likely get to redeem himself by battling the undead again.
• Richard Vickers-'Something to Tide You Over': If you hated that Magoo movie, go rent Creepshow to see this one and watch Leslie Nielson kill his cheating wife and Ted Danson. hehehe Sure, he's insane, but you have to admit that his revenge for adultery is justified. However, his cruelty to his wife that drove her into the arms of another man justifies their returning from the grave for vengeance. This character is very similar to Cressner from 'The Ledge,' a story featured in Cat's Eye. He also devised a wicked revenge plot upon his wife and her lover, and again it backfired. That guy was cool though. hehehe 'Just keepin ya on your toes!'
• Jack Torrance- The Shining: All I've got to say is: wow. How much realism can be packed into one guy? An abusive father, alcoholism, the shame of losing his job, fear of becoming what his father had been towards his own child, his obsession with the history of the Overlook Hotel, and of course, how all of these things were able to drive him mad in the isolation with pressure from the lingering spirits.
• Andy Dufresne (pronounced Dew-frain)-Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Not only is the Shawshank Redemption my all time favorite movie, but this character could inspire hope into the darkest of hearts.
• Carol Gerber-Hearts in Atlantis: A real sweetie-pie led astray while trying to protest the war in Vietnam. She was gutsy and sexy despite her plainness, and her character development from a child to a lady in her late 40s throughout the book gives so much insight to her character, I can't help but like her.
• Todd Bowden-Apt Pupil: The lethal brat that blackmailed a Nazi into spilling his guts... his wicked little plot wound up biting him on the tukus, but It was fun while it lasted, eh, Todd? =)
• Susan Delgado-Wizard and Glass: Roland the Gunslinger's true love, doomed from the start by her wicked aunt and the witch Rhea of the Coos. ::sigh:: She reminds me of my first love. And I love the way she talked! 'Aye!' mmmmm...
• Atropos-Insomnia: One of the 'little bald doctors,' also known as the fates... I liked the way he randomly cut those strings of life from around the auras. He was cool. As was his master, the Crimson King, who I believe to be the same being as the next...
• Pennywise the dancing clown-IT: The monster of all monsters, he knows what you fear most and can quickly become it.
• Susanna Dean-The Dark Tower series: The Lady of Shadows, three in one. One tough cookie! Especially as Detta Walker. And her man ain't bad either, especially the way he dealed with Blaine the Mono, the crazy train (OZZY RULES!!!) that was obsessed with riddles (whom I also thought was cool) in Wizard and Glass!
• Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man-The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass: Descendant of the only giant from Mid-World to fly into our world, fascinated by clocks and Nazi Germany (much like Todd Bowden), this big guy had a short temper, which was probably why he was leader of that gang in the underground city of Lud. Of course, he later became a servant of the Walkin Dude, good ol' RF, just like the Trashcan Man. No surprise that their names are so similar.
• Jim Gardner-The Tommyknockers: Another fellow writer, and an activist to boot! As a democrat, I had to respect this guy, even though most people hated the book. His fear was very much real, as was his drinking problem. In many ways he was like Jack Torrance from the Shining (both drunks, both writers). The main difference being that his big fear was nuclear power whereas Jack's lied within his family. Also, instead of facing actual ghosts like Jack, Gard had to deal with the possession that the alien ship had over the town of Haven. He also reminds me a little of Johnny Marinville. An unlikely hero, in the wrong place at the wrong time and definitely unwilling to take on the responsibility, but in the end, he was able to overcome.
• Richard Dees-The Dead Zone, 'The Night Flier': Perfect sleazeball newshound. 'Never believe what you publish, never publish what you believe.' Gotta love it!
• Roland LeBay-Christine: The vengeful old fellow whose fury was inherited by his... Fury. =) Plymouth Fury, that is. One bad ride, she was.
• Andre Linoge-Storm of the Century: 'Born in lust, turn to dust. Born in sin... come on in!' He knows all the dirty laundry on everyone, and he is EVIL!!! Give him what he wants so he'll go away!
• Gary Pervier-Cujo: He just didn't give a shit! About anything! Not even the rabid St. Bernard that ate him! hehehe The funniest line in any Stephen King book is when it said that Gary had a guy melt down the congressional medal of honor he received in the war and turned it into an ashtray; he would have asked to have it made into a toilet so he could shit in it, but it wasn't big enough. lol
• Richard Pine-'Survivor Type': Any guy that'd eat himself for the sake of survival is cool in my book! The second funniest line in SK history: 'They say you are what you eat, well, if that's true I haven't changed one bit! hahahaha!'
• Leland Gaunt-Needful Things: To paraphrase Kathy Bates, who portrayed 2 other admirable King characters (Dolores Claiborne and Annie Wilkes), Leland Gaunt is the Debol! And the shop he runs has everything you could ever want, and more. His thugs, Ace Merrill and Danforth Keeton III ('Don't call me Buster!') are also a pair I liked.

Stephen King really has a knack for making believable characters. The kids from IT, David Carver from Desperation, and Dolores Claiborne are just a few of the people I would not be surprised if I met them down the road; they're that real. There are other characters I wish I could have put on that list, such as Greg Stilson and Johnny Smith from The Dead Zone, The Stand's Lloyd Henreid, Tom Cullen, and Trashcan Man, Misery's Annie Wilkes, the entire Rock n Roll Heaven line-up from 'You Know They Got a Hell of a Band' (fiction or no fiction, I love Jim Morrison, Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix lol), Ed Deepnau from Insomnia (he was abusive and crazy because of the Crimson King, but I couldn't help but like him), Jenna from the Little Sisters of Eluria, and Jessie from Gerald's Game. Damn that list's limit of 24! But you get the idea. =)

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