February
7
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1
Creators: Stephen King, Robin Furth and Peter David, writers; Jae Lee and Richard Isanove, artists
Marvel, 48 pages, color, $3.99
So? Here at last, Marvel delivers an engrossing read unlike its usual superheroic offerings. First off, the art is absolutely stunning. Lee, long an artist's artist, draws this with detail and drama. Lee's art also is a perfect match for Isanove's digital coloring — better even than Andy Kubert on Origin. The story — originating with King, plotted by Furth and scripted by David — reveals the complicated and compelling world of young Roland Deschain. This looks like a Western, but it's really an excellent fantasy story set in a world that has been fully thought out and actually interesting. The events of the first issue are in and of themselves simple, but reveal a depth in the characters, situations and world that hasn't been seen in comics in a long time. There's the action of a comic, but the feel of a novel. Not having read any Dark Tower novels, this issue was good enough to make me want to check them out. Throw in some text pages that offer background on this world, a preview of the next issue and tasteful ads for other Marvel projects, and this is a winning package that actually lives up to the hype. As long as the quality remains high (and there's no reason so far to think it won't) this is likely to be a very big, longterm success for Marvel. Grade: A-
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Anyone have any idea how exactly the writing credits go here? Is this Peter David writing a story based on King's characters, or did SK actually write this?
Posted by: Jeff | February 07, 2007 at 07:37 PM
It appears to be Furth on plot and David on script, with input and supervision from King.
Posted by: Tom McLean | February 08, 2007 at 04:14 PM
This is almost to the tee what happens in the first Dark Tower Book. It was a flashback dealing with how Roland came into manhood and started his path toward the Dark Tower. If you haven't read the books you really need to before picking up these comics. All seven combined made for a Masterpiece that I read over the span of 17 years.
The Third book is probably the best book in the series.
Posted by: John | March 05, 2007 at 04:34 PM