Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born

Shortly after graduating high school (too many years ago to admit to), I read my second Stephen King novel. I decided to take on King's 800+ page epic called The Stand (updated in the 90s to 1100+ pages!)...this after finishing his awesome story about young Ms. Charlie McGee called Firestarter. After those two novels I was hooked on anything King...couldn't wait for his next release.In 1982 King brought back the main antagonist (albeit under a different name) of The Stand for the beginning of what turned into an awesome seven-part series called The Dark Tower. Flash-forward to 2007 and here we are with a new beginning to The Dark Tower series, a prequel, a graphic novel called The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born.King worked closely with Marvel, his personal assistant of several years (Robin Furth) and an experienced comic book writer (Peter David) in order to deliver this inaugural graphic novel adaptation of his work. Jae Lee (another experienced comic booker) did the amazing artwork. And the result?...the beginning of what will hopefully go on for many years...a neverending adaptation to a neverending story one can only hope.Unlike a King novel that takes a guy like me days (sometimes weeks) to finish, The Gunslinger Born takes about an hour. And readers are rewarded with King's signature prose and stunning images to accompany every word.The story starts with Roland Deschain's Gunslinger School "graduation test" (rest assured this ain't no written test), then follows Roland and friends as they embark on their fisrt assignment by the elders.Another chapter in the series titled Dark Tower: The Long Road Home is slated for release in October 2008, and I'm pretty excited about it. But I can say that I'd look forward much more to taking The Dark Tower novels and converting them with this writing/artistic crew into graphic novels for an amazing, refreshing re-read. After all...it's been 25 years since I read the first Dark Tower novel, and the way my memory has been working lately, a graphic novel adaptation would be like reading it for the first time.Regardless, whether you've ever read a comic book, graphic novel, Dark Tower or Stephen King story for that matter, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born is a great place to escape into a world that goes on forever. Do ya kennit?Add it to your cart.

For fans of King's popular Dark Tower series, and most especially for those who truly loved the forth installment, Wizard and Glass (WAG), this graphic novel is a real treat! In reality it is a carbon copy of WAG yet it is dappled with additional (detailed) insights not found in the series. The artwork is totally out-of-this-world! Beautiful illustrations throughout make it a real joy to experience from cover to cover. The hardback volume includes all of the seven previously released graphic additions of the novel.For me the graphic novel was more of a review of WAG...but to see the graphics made me glad to discover that my mental imagery of the original story translated nicely with the illustrations in the book. Overall it was a thrill to read this special edition. I totally recommend it to all fans of the Dark Tower series. For those unfamiliar with the series, I would recommend reading at least through the fourth book in the series. If you have read the first four novels and are not hooked...well, you're missing out on a very entraining tale from the mind of Stephen King.I give Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born 4/5 stars.

I have to start this by saying I never intended to buy this graphic novel. This may sound a bit odd because I am a huge fan of Stephen King, most notably the Dark Tower series. The reason I wasn't going to check out this book is because it is based on a flashback which occured in the 4th novel, "Wizard and Glass". The extensive flashback is the main reason I did not like this particular book. A lot of people love the story because it gives us insight into Roland's past and shows some of the events that shaped his personality. When I read the novel I became aggravated by the mind boggling length of the flashback which in my mind was interrupting the real story. Like I said I wasn't going to buy this graphic novel but the price was too good to pass on. I'm big enough to admit what a mistake this would have been.Peter David does an amazing job bringing the story to life. If I didn't know better I would think King had written this himself. Granted, the material is from King's writings, but David does a marvelous job filling the holes between events that occured in the novel. As for the pencils Jae Lee was an excellent choice. I first became familiar with his work about a decade ago. Since then his technique has become quite refined. Several of the pages in "The Gunslinger Born" should be counted as art, they are that good. I have seen cover art look clean but never have I seen so many panels within a book look this good.In closing I would say that I haven't been this moved by a graphic novel since catching up on the collected "Sandman" stories. As a reference I would place "The Gunslinger Born" right up there next to "Season of Mists" and "Brief Lives". I cannot give a graphic novel any higher praise. This material is so good that it has made me rethink my previous opinion of "Wizard and Glass", so much so, that I am planning on re-reading the enire Dark Tower series very soon. I won't rush through the "boring" flashback in book 4 this time.