Oh I love Stephen King. There were a few summers when I would go on a massive Macabre obsession and read all the King I could find. My only complaint with him is that his endings are a bit lacking, but that's only sometimes. He creates some deliciously creepy characters and some fucked up situations. Misery was pretty bad. As was The Shinning. The Last Stand was creepy in the whole "the disease that ate the world" way. Truly played up my love of harmful diseases. It was spooky until it reached the end. That's where I felt it fumbled.

But as you said, not all Stephen King is art. THe fact that he was able to draw me in even if I didn't particularly enjoy his ending says that he's a good writer.

Oh, I forgot to mention The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. That book was good all the way through. I love how he writes personal demons. They're more scary then the actual monsters.