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Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home
Posted 18 Jun 2008
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Jae Lee
Artist: Richard Isanove
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Publishing, Inc.
3.80 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by J. W. DeBolt Jr.
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The first thing you notice about the Dark Tower comicbooks —
if you can see past the creator’s name — is the
jaw-dropping artwork by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. They provide
the otherworldly setting for this tale, with off-color skies and
gnarled trees and a totally unfriendly atmosphere that suits well the
setting. You get an eerie feeling looking at the beautiful pictures.
“The light comes in exactly at the right places; it draws you in
and makes you want to study it,” one King fan told me.
“Some pages should be framed.”
This is the second — or, more accurately, the second part of
the first — adaptation of Stephen King’s writing to the
graphic arts medium by Peter David, Jae Lee and Richard Isanove.
Having King’s long-time assistant and the author/compiler of
the Dark Tower: The Concordance as plotter and consultant makes
this story into the bastard child of the King of horror, as a good
dark science fantasy should be.
Colorful phrasing abounds in the OldWestSpeech of the characters
and narrator (“skin the color of two-day-old
meat”) and is at times clever, as when Roland is being lifted
into the air while his foes tells him it is time to “reap the
whirlwind.” I also like the image of the crow changing into
Marten while perched in a tree (and a “martin” is a bird,
though a swallow, not a crow).
“The plot flows along
at a novel’s pace rather than the typical comic book pace, which
is the main drawback with adaptations and prequel extrapolations. But
I keep buying it.”
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In the story thus far, the gunslinger trio is still running from
John Farson and his posse, who are after “Maerlyn’s
Grapefruit,” a mystical orb Roland had appropriated.
Roland’s spirit has been drawn into the orb, where he battles
the formerly deceased Marten. Meanwhile, Alain and Cuthbert have to
transport Roland’s unconscious body while on the run. Suddenly
besieged by a pack of mutant wolves, the trio gets assistance from
Sheemie, a half-wit who has gained some sort of energy power after
his visit to the Dogan. In the sphere, Marten brings Roland to the
“master of evil,” the Crimson King. Sheemie uses his new
powers, of which he is still learning, to try to get to Roland.
Sometimes the writing gets in the way as in the bridge crossing
where the horses are endangered. The writer here spends so much time
telling us what is happening while the first horse is crossing that we
almost fail to see the bridge as a symbol of faith and the gorge as
our destruction when we give in to fear. The next page redresses that,
but by then the reader is so slowed down in explication that the next
action hits like a mild afterthought.
For those not familiar with The Dark Tower — and I must admit
I never read the books (so why not start with the comicbook
prequels?) — the story seems to me to be a traditional
western transplanted into Earth’s post-apocalyptic future,
where oil has taken the place of gold and refinery owners the place of
corporate ranchers. According to my King-fan friends, the comic is
less plot-driven and more character-driven than King’s
books. King fan Robert Fulton says, “The author’s message
is: Be true to your self; ‘you word is your bond.’ The
comic follows the same message as the books.”
C. A. Alcorn had never read comics until I showed her The Dark
Tower book. She comments on the presentation of both The
Gunslinger Born and The Long Road Home:
“As for The Gunslinger Born series, it was Stephen
King’s story in comic book form. There were no changes to the
main story, but there was the fleshing out of the themes mentioned in
his novels. This expanding of King’s work came in the form of
the ‘novelettes’ included in the back of the comic books.
“For The Gunslinger Born series, the novelette was the
area I would characterize as fan fiction. The characters and main
storyline were King’s, but since he did not go into detail on
those particular subjects expanded upon in the novelette, it gave the
comic book writer(s) the chance to do it themselves.
“The Long Road Home series is 100 percent fan fiction
and that’s a good thing for King fans because it gives details
on a part of the story that King only mentioned in his novels. I
assume King approved the direction the comic book writers took with
his story. [He did. —ed.]
“They do have a different style than King. I first thought of
calling them fan fiction because there is a bit more of a lyrical
style to the prose and more angst among the characters. Angst is a big
thing with fan fiction writers. The internal pain of a character often
gets more attention than the action in fan fiction (or at least the
fan fiction I like). The writers of the comic book series don’t
go overboard in this direction but their style is a little different
from King’s. King has always given more attention to moving the
story along.
“I’m very happy with the way the ‘new’
parts of King’s story are written and, because I’m a novel
reader, I’m quite satisfied with the novelettes in the back.
King’s world for the Dark Tower series is made up of multiple
worlds, realities, dimensions, magic, advanced technology; it’s
not easy to use all these resources without going overboard. The main
objection I have with the Dungeon and Dragons-themed novels is
that ‘new’ magic, monsters, etc. are pulled out of the hat
with every story. The writers on the comic books for the Dark Tower
series so far have used only King-created themes to move the
stories along.
“Since these are mostly graphic depictions of the story, I
have to say that I have mixed feelings about the way the story is
drawn. I’m a reader, so I’m used to seeing the characters
in my mind. This is much like the way I react when I see a movie made
out of a novel I’ve read. Sometimes it’s hard to
completely relax into the story when the actor is so different from
the way you imagined a character to look. But I had a completely
negative reaction to the way the characters were depicted in only two
instances, and these objections are purely personal and will vary from
reader to reader.
“The artist often blacks out the eyes of the characters. Are
the eyes the ‘windows of the soul’ for drawn
characters? If so, they often are blanked out with shadows,
leaving the viewer/reader with the task of figuring out the
characters’ expressions as a reaction to a situation. So
what’s the point of drawing a character if you have to use so
much of your imagination to create them because the artist left out so
much?
“The most powerful negative reaction I have to the way the
comics are formatted is the continual use of interviews and the
breakdowns on how the art is created at the back of each book. This is
a waste of space. The interview made some sense when it involved
Stephen King and spoke to the motivation behind creating the comic
book series in the first place. And showing how the art is created was
interesting the first time. Now it’s just self indulgence on the
part of the writers and artists. I don’t care about their
creative processes. Just tell the story and stand back.”
I have to agree with Ms. Alcorn there. If you don’t have
enough material for the entire miniseries, make it shorter. No
need for filler. I can understand the desire to print some extras, but
reprinting material that has already appeared online is redundant. The
creators could have used some of that space to create more empathy for
the characters and to let us into their heads more. And I agree about
the eyes. Keeping them hidden keeps the characters at a distance. The
story is already highly inaccessible to the new reader. The art,
though handsomely rendered, at times is more a series of
still-lifes than a depiction of action.
Speaking of accessibility, the continuing prose piece in the back
stands on its own and is more captivating than that in the first
series, Gunslinger Born.
Whether you’ve read the novels or not, this series is worth
looking at. If you aren’t a King devotee you may feel you
don’t connect with the characters and the background as well,
for I feel much is implied and not explained. And the plot flows along
at a novel’s pace rather than the typical comic book pace, which
is the main drawback with adaptations and prequel extrapolations. But
I keep buying it. You may well do the same.
(The reviewer would like to thank
Stephen King fans C. A. Alcorn and Robert Fulton for their insightful
input into this review.)
—CCdC—
Cover image used with permission of the publisher.
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