The Popcorn King is the primary antagonist in the horror novel The Drive-In by Joe R Lansdale.
History[]
The Popcorn King was once 2 humans who were very close friends: a teenager who dabbled in special effects and a working class man in his 20's. After being trapped in the Drive-In by unseen "B-Movie Gods" (though whether the force is alien, godly or anything else is never revealed), the two characters spend more time together, with the younger one riding on the older one's back. Slowly, they become one being and begin demonstrating super-human strength and the ability to generate bizarre, organic junk-food from their bodies. Eventually, this "Popcorn King" goes mad and declares himself king of the Drive-In. He is later killed while Jack and his friend attempt to destroy The Orbit; the drive-in itself. As it is dying, the Popcorn King laments the terrible special effects, revealing the last of it's remaining humanity before it dies. In later books, it is revealed that women who ate the Popcorn King's "scabcorn" gave birth to little popcorn kings, though whether they were also evil or just freakishly deformed is never revealed.
Physical Description[]
In the book, the Popcorn King is described as two people merged into a single entity. One was sitting on the shoulders of the others and their flesh merged together.