The Dark Tower/The Stand comics

[FrankZappa]

Is there a release date yet? That’s all I really care about.

I to would like to see more on the passing of the world than on Roland. I thought one of the coolest things was in drawing of the 3 when Eddie looked up at the stars on the beach and had a soliloquy about how the constellations looked familiar, but not quite right. I loved the series and will get these. Like all of kings’ work, it was long winded in parts but worth it in the end, even if the whole thing was a big tease.




Hey, he did warn me not to read the epilogue, so I guess it\'s my own fault.

OY!

[Me!]

yeah but that\'s like God telling Adam and Eve not to eat the apple, ofcourse your gonna do it.  I did, If there were another 1000pgs I would have kept reading.

Is there a release date yet? That’s all I really care about.

pushed back to feburary 2007:
source

The 1st issue of the yet-to-be-named first arc of the Dark Tower comic series will be shipping in February 2007. The last issue of this six-issue series will be shipping in July 2007. The first hardcover collection will be shipping in October 2007.

[FrankZappa]

That\'s exactly how I felt. You know he put that in there because every single person was going to read it and then read on. He was doing it just to tease you. thanks for the date.

[Me!]

"DARK TOWER" WITH ROBIN FURTH & MARVEL EDITORS
by Andy Khouri, Staff Writer
Posted: January 22, 2007

CBR News participated this afternoon in a press conference held by Marvel Comics to discuss Stephen King\'s “The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born” #1, released next month. Sitting at the head of the audio table was Robin Furth, chief story architect of the hotly anticipated comic adaptation and long time associate of Stephen King. Also in attendance were Marvel editors Ralph Macchio, Nicole Boos, John Barber, as well as Jim McCann, Marvel\'s Assistant Manager of Sales Communication.
Co-writer Robin Furth is acknowledged as the world\'s foremost expert on all that is “Dark Tower,” having authored “Stephen King\'s The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance,” a massive encyclopedia of Stephen King\'s opus, created originally for King\'s personal use. Readers both new as well as familiar with King\'s work may be surprised to learn that he had been developing ‘The Dark Tower” saga for thirty years, having written his first story featuring lead character Roland Deschain while still an undergraduate at the University of Maine. Besides the seven full-length novels in the “Dark Tower” series, the content has spilled out over the years into other works by the author. As such, there\'s quite a lot of material to be catalogued, necessitating Robin Furth\'s involvement as archivist and creator of the “Complete Concordance.”

“I\'ve lived in Mid-World so long now, I feel as though I actually do live there sometimes,” Furth joked.

Furth and Marvel are very conscious of the task of introducing new readers to the (Mid-)world of “Dark Tower,” a direction initiated by Stephen King himself. According to Furth, King envisioned the first comics series as a kind of prequel, focusing largely on the teenage Roland Deschain and his journey to become the mythical Gunslinger. As such, Marvel\'s first mini-series is an adaptation of King\'s “Wizard and Glass” novel, which detailed Roland\'s early life with his companions Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns. The story also features Roland\'s father Steven Deschain, the Gunslinger king, as well as the villainous Marten Broadcloak, a powerful wizard who\'s appeared many times across much of King\'s work.

“Wizard And Glass” itself is a novel around 700 pages in length, making the plotting of the comic a challenge for Furth. “I tried to focus it so that the essence of the book came through,” she explained. “With transforming a book like this, you know that you\'re going to have a lot of hardcore ‘Dark Tower\' fans, but you\'re also going to have a lot of new readers who won\'t have the background, so we were all really thinking about that.”

Huge reverence was paid to the story of “Dark Tower” during the comics adaptation. The main plot of the novels remains intact, with just some characters and subplots being left out. One notable omission is Aunt Cordelia, the aunt of Susan Delgado, who is Roland\'s love interest. Also trimmed down in the comics version of “Dark Tower” are the number of Horsemen\'s Association members and other assorted baddies. The comics series will along the way weave in much of the mythology of Mid-world with which Furth has become so intimately familiar, creating for all intents and purposes a chronological retelling of the “Dark Tower” saga in comics forum.

Furth found the comics creative process exhilarating, especially the collaborative aspects. “With the first issue, we were all trying to find our feet in how to work together. What\'s happening now is if Jae thinks something should be changed slightly to make it work better visually, he can write to me, or Ralph, or John and makes comments about it, and we can have a dialogue about it. And so can Peter, which is really great. It becomes this big, collaborative thing. I think that makes it stronger."

The writer added, “Learning how to focus [the story] on the action, so when things went to Jae, he had a story he could actually draw. That was pretty exciting to learn and actually made me a better writer."

Visually, “Dark Tower” is also milestone, as it is the first time Jae Lee has put out an uninked comic, which as Lee fans know is quite remarkable considering the artist\'s traditionally high-contrast, ink-heavy work. In the early stages of development, Marvel asked Jae Lee to draw four pages based on the opening of the first Gunslinger book. The original plan was for Lee\'s colorist Richard Isanov – whom Barber was quick to point out is more accurately described as a painter - to paint the penciled pages, after which Lee would ink them, giving King two different styles of art to consider.

“We got those first pages and they were just extraordinary,” editor John Barber gushed. “It was like nothing we\'d seen before. We knew there was no reason to have a version 2.”

Furth added her own stamp of approval to Lee\'s striking artwork, and detailed a visit to England during which she and King inspected some of the finished pages. King reportedly remarked, “It\'s like seeing the stories that you\'ve had in your mind all these years step onto a page.”

“[Stephen King\'s] really, really pleased with it,” said Furth. “You can\'t get higher praise than that!”

Indeed, everyone involved in the production of this series indicated their profound satisfaction with the finished results, despite an uncharacteristically lengthy production process. "It\'s pretty much been a full time job,” John Barber confessed. “Unfortunately, there are thirty-four other books we\'re working on. But it\'s been a lot of fun. It\'s been great work with everybody. It was really exciting to see the book go out the door and go to the printer and see the first runs of it back from the printer. It looks beautiful.”

While the project was announced last year and pushed back due to what McCann assures us was out of Marvel\'s control, the creative team never stopped work on the comic. At present, Jae Lee is drawing issue #7, the last of this mini-series, while Robin Furth has completed her plots for the entire second mini-series and just handed in the third. Succeeding story arcs will see where Roland and his friends go, what adventures they have, and will lead to what longtime “Dark Tower” surely wish to see , the last stand of the Gunslingers on Jericho Hill. The first issue of “Dark Tower” features a backup prose story called “The Sacred Geography of Mid-World.” As the keeper of all knowledge and folklore of Mid-World, Furth was uniquely suited to write this primer for new readers as well as old fans that may have become slightly lost over the series\' lengthy and dense run. Along similar lines, Marvel has plans to release in April a guidebook to the Dark Tower series.

To celebrate the release of “Dark Tower” #1, Marvel is working with one-hundred and fifty US retailers to bring to comics fans the first ever midnight opening for comic book sales, a practice usually seen with eagerly anticipated event films. More information on the midnight openings can be found on Marvel\'s Dark Tower site.

source

CONNECTICUT

Kenneth E Fargnoli
48 Flom Drive
Colchester, CT 06415
kenspidey@aol.com

The Bookie
155 Burnside Ave
East Hartford, CT 06108
860-289-1208
hkinney@snet.net

MASSACHUSETTS

Harrison\'s Comics and Collectibles
252 Essex Street
Salem, MA 01970-3434
978-741-0786
harrisonscomics@hotmail.com
http://www.harrisonscomicsltd.com

Larry\'s Comics
66 Lakeview Ave
Lowell, MA 01850
978-459-5323
larryscomicsinc@aol.com
http://www.atomictoymills.com/comics.html

That\'s Entertainment
244 Park Ave
Worcester, MA 01609
508-755-4207
webmaster@thatse.com
http://www.thatse.com

NEW YORK

Earthworld Comics
537 Central Ave.
Albany, NY 12206
518-459-2400
info@earthworldcomics.com
http://www.earthworldcomics.com

Flying Turtle Enterprises
5431 South Bay Road North
North Syracuse, NY 13212
315-382-3115
mpm@flyingturtletoys.com

Golden Memories
1242 Middle Country Rd
Selden, NY 11784
631-696-6991
gomemsel@optonline.net

Grasshoppers Comics
76 Hillside Ave
Williston Park, NY 11596
516-741-5724
ghopcom@aol.com
http://www.grasshopperscomics.com

Jim Hanley\'s Universe
4 W 33rd St
New York, NY 10001
212-268-7088
info@jhuniverse.com
http://www.jhuniverse.com

Midtown Comics
200 W 40th St # 2
New York, NY 10018
212-302-8192
info@midtowncomics.com
http://www.midtowncomics.com

list of store nationally here

[obsession600]

As such, Marvel\'s first mini-series is an adaptation of King\'s “Wizard and Glass” novel

With transforming a book like this, you know that you\'re going to have a lot of hardcore ‘Dark Tower\' fans, but you\'re also going to have a lot of new readers who won\'t have the background, so we were all really thinking about that.”

The main plot of the novels remains intact, with just some characters and subplots being left out. One notable omission is Aunt Cordelia, the aunt of Susan Delgado, who is Roland\'s love interest. Also trimmed down in the comics version of “Dark Tower” are the number of Horsemen\'s Association members and other assorted baddies. The comics series will along the way weave in much of the mythology of Mid-world with which Furth has become so intimately familiar, creating for all intents and purposes a chronological retelling of the “Dark Tower” saga in comics forum.

so this is just going to be a series of beautifully painted picture books retelling us less than we already know? I had much higher hopes for this. Someone please tell me I am misinterpreting it.

[Me!]

This article cerrtainly does make it sound like that, but from what I understand from reading earlier articles it\'s going to be Wizard and Glass esqe (sp?)  That the story wouldn\'t be the same but it would be stories of Roland\'s youth.

from an earlier post:

The comic series will mark the first time Stephen King has produced original content for an ongoing comic book project. The series will expand the saga of King’s epic hero, Roland Deschain, whose quest to save the Dark Tower is captured in seven best-selling novels published over the course of twenty-five years. King’s unparalleled storytelling power will inform new stories that delve into the life and times of the young Roland, revealing the trials and conflicts that lead to the burden of destiny he must assume as a man, the last Gunslinger from a world that has moved on. The comics will work in conjunction with the novels, further supplementing and defining the saga’s mythology under the direction of the acclaimed author himself.

"supplementing"

[obsession600]

I remember reading that. That is what had my hopes up. But isn\'t that earlier article from a year ago or so. It sounds like things have changed.

Furth added her own stamp of approval to Lee\'s striking artwork, and detailed a visit to England during which she and King inspected some of the finished pages. King reportedly remarked, “It\'s like seeing the stories that you\'ve had in your mind all these years step onto a page.”

“[Stephen King\'s] really, really pleased with it,” said Furth. “You can\'t get higher praise than that!”

King does not sound all that involved with the project at this point. His only quotes for this story are all second hand and old.

Succeeding story arcs will see where Roland and his friends go, what adventures they have, and will lead to what longtime “Dark Tower” surely wish to see , the last stand of the Gunslingers on Jericho Hill.

somehow I missed this part of the paragraph. This is promising but how long until they get to this. It sound like there are roughly 21 issues in the first three series so if they put out one a month we should see some new plots in about two years.

I waited for the books since the first one saw print, I can wait for the comics. :rolls a cigarette Roland style:

[Me!]

there\'s actually a few interesting things on youtube and elsewhere of fan montages and what not.   But this one is official, from Marvel.

[Me!]

OK, I went onto a Dark Tower message board, and asked about this conundrum and here was my reply:

ekkatin wrote:
can someone help me out here? I\'m a little confused, I\'ve gotten from some sources that this will pretty much be a comic version of Wizard and Glass, but I had also heard that it was just from that time period i.e. Roland\'s childhood. Does anyone know for sure?

The first 7 (which is the "trial" run of the book) will be pretty much a recounting of the flashback in W&G. Assuming these books sell well (and lord knows they will) then the series will continue beyond 7, at which point the story will be "all new" and start at the end of W&G. Bascially it\'s going to fill in what happened between W&G and The Gunslinger

[FrankZappa]

that\'s a good part of the story when he tests his trainer. Using the bird as a weapon and all.

Remeber when they went to see the cook on the gallows? vivid. Still, I\'m probably just going to wait for the graphic novels to come out. :shrug:

[obsession600]

I might just do this.

[Me!]

FYI: the hardcover graphic novel of The Dark Tower The Gunslinger Born, will be released on Nov 9th

[Yoda]

Paul -
I have all 7 issues.  I can send them to you if you want to read them.  It\'s pretty good, but feels out of place and really doesn\'t give King\'s storytelling justice.  It feels similar to the way TV did the Godfather Sage, where everything was edited in linear order.  But it\'s still pretty good.  Let me know.

[Me!]

I just received my hardcover copy of this from amazon.  Psyched to check it out.  I\'m also about 1/2 way through re-reading Wizard and Glass, so it\'s good timing actually.

[FrankZappa]

I think I\'m going to get the hardcover version. Are the comics in good condition? I used to be a comic geek, paper inlays, individually sealed bags, etc. If they are in good condition I\'ll gladly take them, but don\'t mail them, wait for the next time we\'re all in jersey and I\'ll pick them up from you. I\'ve got a bunch of cds you wanted copys of, we can work something out.