The Dark Tower Comics from Marvel

The final issue is finally out. Stephen King’s “The Gunslinger Born” from Marvel comics wrapped up it’s seventh issue which concludes the “Dark Tower” comic series. The comic is adapted from the seven novels by the best-selling author. I have read all seven more than once and the comics stay true to the books. Peter David does a great job in telling the story and has captured “the low speech” quite well. In the first issue it showed a few notes from Stephen King on how best to capture this alternate way of speech. The illustrations by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove are beautiful. It’s good to finally see the face of some of my favorite characters. Roland of Gilead definately looks different than I imagined him. In the books he is described as looking a bit like Clint Eastwood, but that is when he is an older man. The comics tell the story of his younger trials where he becomes a gunslinger, which is kind of like a knight in a world that has “moved on”. There are also side stories that weren’t in the books that are very interesting. One is the origins of “Charyou tree”, which tells of the burning sacrifices of townspeople in order to bring in a good harvest. Another is a tale of “Maerlin’s Mirror”, which is about an ancient mirror that gets broken and the shards fly throughout the worlds, bringing magick to those who come in contact with them. The comic is set in the time that is most touched upon in “Wizard and Glass”, the fourth in the “Dark Tower” novels. I must say that as soon as I finished the last issue, there was a satified smile on my face, not only because the story was great, but also because on the last page it tells of a new five part series, also from the “Dark Tower”, called “The Long Road Home”, that comes out in February 2008. I can’t wait.