Judging from the looks of the lively crowd that congregated near the 200 block of East Broughton Street Sunday morning and afternoon, you’d think there might have been a famous rock star in town. Or perhaps a flash mob. Or maybe a king.

Actually, it was a king. With a capital “K.”

Stephen King, the award-winning author of The Shining, Carrie, The Stand and scores of other popular fiction works, provided the perfect bookend to the last day of the 2012 Savannah Book Festival with an intimate closing ceremony yesterday at SCAD’s Trustees’ Theatre.

In a presentation that lasted about 45 minutes, King spoke about his newest novel, 11-22-63, a fictional work about a time traveler who tries to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

King, who flew into Savannah on his private jet, kept the proceedings light and loose, like a Sunday afternoon chat among a few hundred of his closest friends. Wearing a loose-fitting slate t-shirt and jeans, King looked more incognito than iconic.

“It looked like a really interesting and up-and-coming book festival, and because I wanted to come to Savannah,” says King, who also read the first chapter to his upcoming sequel to The Shining. “I love [Savannah]. You think ‘Oh, those are just touristy pictures and it’s not really going to look like that,’ but it’s just terrific.”

Occasionally sipping on a Diet Pepsi, a pair of thin-framed glasses shielded his angular, diamond-shaped blue eyes as he alternated between sitting, standing and walking around during his presentation. King looked healthy and lean, and genuinely seemed to enjoy the repartee with his legions of fans, many of whom had traveled hundreds of miles for the opportunity of an intimate gathering with perhaps America’s most celebrated novelist.

After the presentation, approximately 400 readers patiently waited their turn for a few seconds of face time with King. Organizers distributed numbered bookmarks to the autograph seekers, and 25 at a time were called from the seated audience in the lower level of the Trustees’ Theatre to make their way up onto the stage for a few seconds with the living legend. Howard Taylor, owner of SCAD’s Ex Libris , stood to King’s right, opening each book to the inside cover for the 62 year-old author to affix his signature.

Robin Endsley wore her ‘Constant Reader,’ t-shirt, an homage to King’s direct fellowship to his audience that he puts in each book.

“I just wanted him to know that I was a big fan,” says Endsley.

Endsley had traveled all the way from Charlotte, about 250 miles due north of Savannah, for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

It was worth it.

“I like that he takes the ordinary, like a cell phone, a car, a dog and makes it extraordinary,” she says.

Dillon Brown came to Sunday’s event with his mother. He’s been reading King’s work for three years. A sixth-grader at nearby Richmond Hill Middle School, he’s already read five of the author’s vast catalogue.

“She told me that he was coming to town, and I wanted to come [today],” says Brown, who counts Pet Sematary as his favorite King work. “There’s just so much imagination in his books.”

On the edge of the stage was Jack Romanos, the retired former CEO of Simon & Schuster who had successfully lured King away from Viking Books in 1998. It was also Romanos who had helped recruit the busy author for this year’s festival. Festival officials had first contacted Romanos by email last March, but didn’t hear back for several months. Finally, in August, they heard word that King would be able to come if it wasn’t too late

“No, it wasn’t too late,” Duttenhaver added, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

The closing ceremony put the perfect final curtain on the festival, which included presentations from celebrated authors Pat Conroy and Walter Isaacson, among others.

“Getting Stephen King [to participate] is probably the pinnacle,” says Duttenhaver, who is already organizing next year’s event. “We’ve had an amazing turnout, people coming from all over the United States … And that’s what we’re here to do, to keep the whole concept of the book alive.”

And as the last fan, likely Bookmark #400, made her way across the stage to King’s table, the author still looked as relaxed as his well-worn pair of blue denims.

“Is that it?” King asked to nobody in particular.

A quick pan of the theatre’s empty auditorium confirmed his inquiry. A gentle smile formed on the edge of his lips as he slid himself back from the chair and table that had become his impromptu home for the last two hours.

“I guess that’s it.”