Books
In a Big Year for Richard Bachman, the Legacy of Stephen King’s Pen Name Grows with ‘The End Times’
Getting several new Stephen King adaptations in a given year isn’t surprising to horror fans, but this year has an added dimension of intrigue for longtime Constant Readers. Two of the King films released in 2025 – The Long Walk and The Running Man – were originally released under a different name.
Beginning in 1977, King adopted the pen name Richard Bachman when his publishers advised him against releasing more than one novel a year under his given name. So, Bachman was born, and for a while, got to live his own fictional life separate from King. Bachman released five novels – Rage in 1977, The Long Walk in 1979, Roadwork in 1981, The Running Man in 1982, and Thinner in 1984 – without ever being linked to King. By 1985, the game was up after a bookstore clerk realized the two writers read similarly, then went to the Library of Congress to confirm his suspicions.
Since then, despite King’s outing as Bachman, Bachman himself has taken on a life of his own. Due to its connection to a school shooting, Rage is no longer in print, but the other Bachman books remain in circulation, and King even released a couple of additional stories under the pen name. The Regulators, a companion novel to King’s Desperation, landed in 1996, and Blaze, a 1970s-written book King released as a “found” novel from the now-deceased Bachman, arrived in 2007. Among King’s fans, Bachman has come to represent a repository for King’s pulpier novels, ones with a harder exploitation edge, usually driven by a high-concept premise. He’s got his own fanbase among King’s readers, and King himself even played “Richard Bachman” on Sons of Anarchy back in 2010. Now, despite years of lying dormant, Bachman’s legacy is getting a new chapter courtesy of a very unconventional project.
Stephen King as Richard Bachman in “Sons of Anarchy”
Beginning November 19, indie horror publisher Bad Hand Books will release the first issue of The End Times, a post-apocalyptic story told through 12 issues of a community newspaper in the fictional town of North End. Written by Benjamin Percy, the series was inspired, in part, by King’s own serialized novels like The Green Mile and The Plant, and in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Percy noted he saw other links to King’s work from the beginning.
“I was thinking about big swings that King had taken with Riding the Bullet and The Plant, and I was thinking especially of The Stand, which is essentially the world in which The End Times takes place,” Percy said.
With the feeling of King’s influence gnawing at him, Percy decided to reach out to King to see if he might be interested in being part of The End Times. What happened next is a dream come true for pretty much any horror writer on the planet.
“I finally got the guts to shoot him an email, thinking the worst he can say is no,” Percy said. “He said yes, because he’s an incredibly generous guy, and it’s been such a pleasure and honor to be able to collaborate with a hero of mine. I am that Constant Reader. I grew up worshiping at the altar of King, and it’s amazing to be in conversation with him.”
‘The End Times’ cartoon by Matt Bowers, courtesy of Bad Hand Books
So, how does Richard Bachman figure into all of this? Well, in an early issue of The End Times, as first reported by Fangoria, Bachman’s surname makes an appearance, and a supporting character in his life takes center stage. Bachman’s wife, Claudia Inez Bachman, who is thanked in all of his books, emerges as a character in The End Times, creating an unlikely continuation of the Bachman legacy. How did that happen?
“When I talked to King, I was like, ‘My name’s not going to appear in the newspaper. Your name’s not going to appear in the newspaper,'” Percy explained. “He threw out the idea of Claudia Inez Bachman, which was a wild moment, because if you’re a Constant Reader, you know that all those Bachman books are dedicated to Claudia.“
But Claudia is not just the silent wife of a writer. Much like King’s own wife, novelist Tabitha King, she’s a writer herself, and that’s already a canonical part of King’s universe. In the multiverse of King’s The Dark Tower saga, Bachman (under the name Claudia y Inez Bachman) wrote the children’s book Charlie the Choo-Choo in Roland Deschain’s universe. Is that the same Claudia Bachman we find in The End Times? Percy’s not telling, but it sounds like we’ll get to know Mrs. Bachman very soon.
“She writes an introduction to herself in the paper, and she introduces herself as coming from New England,” Percy explained. “She talks about her husband. She talks about what she’s been up to over the past 12 years, because this is a time of reconstruction. Our story doesn’t take place as the world is falling apart. It takes place as the world is building itself back up. So, I don’t want to get too much into it for the reasons of spoilers, but there’s a whole established backstory there, and she also has some secrets which she carries with her.“
We don’t know what secrets Claudia Bachman carries, and what, if any, relationship they have to her more famous fictional husband, but it’s very interesting that her name is coming up at a time when Bachman’s stories are gaining fresh traction in pop culture. It’s been more than a decade since we heard from Richard Bachman, and now he’s back in the limelight alongside his spouse. What does that say about the lasting legacy and impact of King’s alter ego?
“If you look at the, let’s say, the acerbic quality of a Richard Bachman novel, look at it with the backdrop of 2025,” Percy said. “Here you have, in The Running Man, an authoritarian government and a population that takes pleasure in cruelty. It finds voyeuristic pleasure in seeing other people run for their lives. Here, you have The Long Walk, which tells the story of a country that sacrifices its underclass. In the case of The End Times, there are certainly some parallels when you look at attacks on the press, the rise of disinformation and misinformation, and the heroic act of journalists.
“So The End Times has that knife’s edge to it, but ultimately, this is a story that’s hopeful. It’s important to note that Claudia Bachman is not Richard Bachman. I mentioned that she carries secrets with her. I’ll also say that she speaks, in her introductory letter, about how her marriage was not a happy one. So, their voices are distinct and their outlook is distinct. And again, I won’t say too much about her arc over the course of this story, but we’re both channeling Bachman and reinventing things.”
Reach an excerpt from The End Times below.
The End Times launches November 19 from Bad Hand Books.
Excerpt courtesy of Bad Hand Books
Books
Urban Legends, Serial Killers, and Space Epics: 10 Horror Books We Can’t Wait to Read This June
We have entered summer reading season.
Schools are emptying, beaches are filling, and it’s a great time to pack a tote full of brand-new books and get some reading done in the shade. But even if the sun is bright, your fiction can still be dark, because June is absolutely packed with great new horror releases from rising stars and genre icons.
From a Psycho retelling to a dark twist on Peter Pan lore to a new book from a Pulitzer Prize winner, these are the horror titles we can’t wait to crack open this June.
The Children by Melissa Albert – June 2
A blend of dark fantasy, Gothic family saga, and horror novel that’s received rave reviews from Stephen King and more, The Children follows the adult children of a legendary fantasy author who died when a fire consumed their home. Now, living their own creative lives, Guinevere and Ennis must revisit the secrets from the night of the fire, the darkness surrounding Ennis’s new art installation, and the truth of their family legacy in both fact and fiction. It sounds like a wonderful twisted nest of secrets and magic, and I’m eager to dive in.
Marion by Leah Rowan – June 2
Just when you thought we’d run out of interesting ways to riff on Robert Bloch and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Leah Rowan comes along with Marion. As the title suggests, it’s the story of the Bates Motel’s most famous victim, but this time, she doesn’t die in the shower. She takes control of the knife and the narrative in this daring retelling of a proto-slasher classic. The story we know is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to find out the end.
Headlights by CJ Leede – June 9
Through her first two novels, Maeve Fly and American Rapture, CJ Leede emerged as one of the most exciting new horror voices of the 2020s, and she’s just getting warmed up. Leede’s third novel follows an FBI agent on the brink of retirement, running from his past and from the unsolved case that haunts him most, as he’s slowly pulled back into a gruesome serial killer narrative. Victims start turning up again, wearing someone else’s skin like a cape, with no memory of how they got that way, or how they got a lone strand of unidentified hair tied around their tongue. Both a riff on The Shining and a journey into the dark Colorado night, Headlights is one of the year’s most exciting horror lit events.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo – June 9
Cynthia Pelayo‘s novels have always felt like dark fairy tales, and with her latest, she’s taking things into the realm of one of the most famous children’s stories ever. It Came From Neverland follows a version of Wendy Darling who, while working as a schoolteacher and as an aid to rehabilitate World War I soldiers, finds old fears returning when a student goes missing. It seems that an entity Wendy knows only as “Peter Pan” is back on the prowl, and unlocking her memories might be the only way to stop it. That’s right, it’s a dark Peter Pan retelling as only Pelayo can do it, and you know you want a piece of that.
The Other by Annie Neugebauer – June 9
Annie Neugebauer’s The Extra ranks as one of the most clever and frightening horror novellas in recent memory, but that was only the beginning. This June, Neugebauer returns with the next book in what’s been dubbed “The Outsiders Sequence.” This time, Neugebauer’s strange world of doppelgangers and mimics turns to a couple on a hike who run into their exact duplicates, setting off a chain of events that will test their understanding of each other in terrifying ways. Neugebauer’s one of horror’s finest rising stars right now, so if you haven’t jumped on board The Outsiders Sequence yet, pick up The Extra and get ready for The Other.
Marla by Jonathan Janz – August 18 (Editor’s update: Release has now shifted from initial June 23 publication date)
Speaking of rising stars in the horror world, we’ve got Jonathan Janz, whose work has hit another level in recent years thanks to work like Children of the Dark and Veil. Now he’s back with Marla, the story of a local woman surrounded by urban legend, and her possible connection to a string of crimes in the community of King’s Branch. Is Marla a witch, a killer, a victim, a helpless child? We’ll have to read and find out in what feels like a perfect jumping-on point for new Janz readers.
The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus – June 23
Daniel Kraus has long been a favorite among genre readers, but thanks to his recent Pulitzer Prize win for his brilliant novel Angel Down, he’s more visible than ever, and all that visibility comes as he’s about to unleash a space epic with all the hallmarks of epic sci-fi and horror alike. The Sixth Nik promises everything from a sentient spaceship to a rogue planet full of plague to a nine-year-old “cultist” with an enhanced brain. This is Kraus playing in a brand-new sandbox, and genre readers everywhere won’t want to miss that.
Slasher Summer by E.L. Chen – June 23
E.L. Chen‘s latest novel is described as a love letter to ’80s slasher films, and anyone who’s taken a dive into the meta-horror of Scream or My Heart is a Chainsaw will want to sit up and take notice. The book follows a group of friends who grew up in a town famous as the location of a slasher movie, where they frequently played the characters during midnight shows. As adults, they return to their hometown, and to the location of the slasher movie, only to find that someone’s out to get them, someone wearing a very familiar mask. This sounds like a blast, and the latest in an ever-growing strand of slasher novels reinventing the genre on the page.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay – June 30
Modern horror master Paul Tremblay‘s latest novel sounds like his most ambitious yet, and that’s really saying something. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep follows Julia, a former pro gamer who gets an offer she can’t refuse: For a hefty payday, she must pilot a man named “Bernie” across the country for her mother’s tech company. The catch? Bernie’s in a vegetative state, and his mobility comes from the AI chip in his head. As Julia moves Bernie’s body, Bernie’s mind moves through an unfathomable nightmare world, but where are they heading, and what’s Bernie really meant to find? Every new Paul Tremblay book is an event, and this one feels particularly special.
Red X by David Demchuk – June 30
This one’s technically a reprint, but David Demchuk’s Red X is so revered among the horror community, and particularly other horror authors, that it feels worth highlighting, especially during Pride Month. Complex and metatextual, Red X is about a series of disappearances and a demonic entity plaguing the gay community of Toronto, but it’s also an autobiographical sketch of an author navigating death, survival, queer culture, horror as a means of expression, and more. In short, it’s an essential, and this new edition, complete with fresh writing by Gretchen Felker-Martin and Anthony Oliveira, is a must-have.
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