Batman Short Story From Stephen King Recreated In Audio Form

Acclaimed writer Stephen King has always had a soft spot for Batman, and in 2012 he wrote a short story that featured his favorite hero in an interesting way. Now you can hear the story retold in audio form (via Wired).

The short appeared in an issue of Harper's Bazaar, amongst a variety of other King penned short stories titled The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. In the story, a man and his father, who suffers from Alzheimer's, have lunch together while discussing memories from their past. It is here that the dad, who tends to get names and years mixed up, fondly recalls the events of a past Halloween, where the two went out dressed as Batman and Robin.

The story has been recreated in audio form, given voice by actor Stephen Lang. It debuted on NPR's Too Hot For Radio podcast, and can be found in its entirety above.

King previously wrote a lengthy essay on his Batman appreciation titled "Why I Chose Batman". There is an excerpt that perfectly represents why the character resonates with the famed author.

"Batman, however, was just a guy.

A rich guy, yes.

A strong guy, granted.

A smart guy, you bet.

But....he couldn't fly.

I think that formed my preference more than anything else. I remember the ads for the first Superman movie (remember the first Superman movie gang? Back there when the world was young and dinosaurs walked the earth?), the ones that said You'll Believe A Man Can Fly. Well, I didn't. Not in the movie and not completely in the comic books (ironically, the closest I ever came to believing it was in the TV series). But when Batman swung down into The Joker's hideout on a rope or stopped The Penguin from dropping Robin into a bucket of boiling hog-fat with a well thrown Batarang. I believed. These were not likely things. I freely grant you that, but they were possible things. I could believe in a Caped Crusader who swung on ropes, threw boomerangs with deadly accuracy, and drove like Richard Petty getting a pregnant woman to the hospital."