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Dark Tower Comic Series Confirmed
uberbastard writes "For all of you die-hard fans of Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series, it looks like we're in for an extension. Stephen King and Marvel comics will be teaming up along with renowned artist Jae Lee to create an original comic series based on The Dark Tower. From the article: '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.'"
... which the author feels compelled to conclude with a plea not to drive by his house and take out his mailbox with a baseball bat, is probably best left concluded.
Marvel has brought high profile writers from outside the comic genre before, like Scott Orson Card on Ultimate Iron Man
I wonder how DC will respond, if they'll respond at all.
I loved the series. My only gripe was King slowly added more "stuff" to the universe that wasn't there in the first one (where the universe was introduced). So, it'll be nice to get the back story and more information on stuff that "appeared" 1/2 through the series. I guess I'll have to shell out the cash for this one.
Anyone else wonder at first, 'Isn't Dork Tower already a comic?'
For the most part I hope that Stephen King is doing this by his own volition, a desire to expand his genre to the more visual aspects.
The book King wrote, "Dragon's Eye", reveals a great deal about Flagg, for those interested. It's an old book, fairly difficult to find.
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
The end to the series, the final solution as to what lies behind the final door, was the probably the best I've ever read (only second to Asimov's The Last Question .
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
Have you read the last revision of the first book? It got a freaking taheen brute-forced into it completely out of the story line! It does [maybe] help holding the series together, still IMHO it just sticks out as a sore thumb :-(
My other Beowulf cluster is... er...
Many Dark Tower fans praise Wizard and Glass as the best of the series. And most fans will agree that there are many unanswered questions at the end of Dark Tower VII, so any exposition, even a comic book, is most welcome. I did not like the way Randall Flagg was handled at all. The "resolution" of his story clashed jarringly with everything that was known about Maerlyn, and about what kind of creature he was ("His name is Legion. He is the King of Nowhere.") There is a lot missing about the nature of the Guardians, Maturin especially. Most of all, the connections with other books aren't satisfactorily resolved.. for instance, It... is It simply a glammer, a vampire, or something more? Is It the Crimson King himself, and is Black Thirteen the object that It arrived in? Are the Deadlights what everyone thinks they are? What is the connection between The Mist and the Dark Tower series? And what are the names of the rest of the Guardians, besides Shardik and Maturin?
But I heard here on Slashdot that Stephen King was dead...?
Yup...
I for one found the end to be very fitting, plus it opens up an interesting possibility: another writer could now pick up the story of the Dark Tower, and write it as he sees fit, tying it into his own bibliography... I know it ain't gonna happen, no way King is gonna sign the rights to TDT away, but maybe someone might pick up the story again once it ends up in the public domain. Doubt I'd still be around to read the result though; last time I checked my due date was way before 2500AD. ;)
No, what I had more trouble with was the rushed feel to the last couple of novels... The first one is a mess, to be sure, but it was a charming little mess and it wasn't too long... Books 2 and 3 were goddamn genius. But then it went downhill; the cliffhanger with Blaine was concluded too easily and felt like a rather cliché way of moving the story on so he could get sidetracked by the whole "Roland's Youth" story.
After that there were too many loose ends, like what the heck was Father Callahan doing in Wolves of the Calla? If King needed an ally there, anyone would do, but why did he have to pick Father Callahan? He makes it look like it has some sort of deeper meaning, as if the Father will become part of the ka-tet, and then the poor sod dies in the stupidest way ever: "Run, Jake! There's no particular reason why we couldn't escape together, but I wanna sacrifice myself. Sorry if it's hard for you to emotionally detach yourself and get running, but I feel like dying for no particular reason today"...
And please, don't get me started on Flagg and the Red King... They were supposed to be the god damn major enemies, men of great power and cunning, yet they died easier than a blindfolded slow mutant in a boobytrapped maze. And what the heck was with the Harry Potter thing anyway? If you gotta reference stuff from our world, at least reference the classics, not that J.K. Rowling kiddy crap.
Don't get me wrong; I still love the series, but book 4 was somewhat of a disappointment: waiting for years for the story to progress, and being treated to a history lesson instead. And everything after that felt somehow rushed and... cheap...
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees it this way...
Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?
People still make comics?
You're right, we shouldn't expect all the answers.
However, with regard to the Dark Tower, there's a pretty clear (and pretty unfortunate) division between books 1-4 and the rest: the pre-accident and post-accident era. King's near-death experience profoundly affected him (heck, the fact that he writes the guy who hit him into the story--a guy who, you'll remember, killed himself not too long after the event in question--is testament to that by itself), and frankly, I think his writing suffered in the aftermath. A few people theorized that part of the problem is that his editors "went easy" on him afterwards, and that he was rushing to complete the series "just in case."
I agree with the grandparent that the series ended on a slow, disappointing note. No, I didn't expect everything to be explained. What I did expect, however, was storytelling that made up for the lack of clear explanations. Books 1-4 had this in spades. 5-7? Exposition, exposition, exposition. The characters are no longer "effortlessly" the characters we got used to; instead, they're almost forced in mannerisms and attitudes. Et cetera.
They weren't bad, but they weren't great, and as one who thinks that Stephen King is a profoundly underrated author (yes, yes, he's popular, but I think he has a grasp of literary technique that he is rarely acknowledged as posessing) I expected more.
I started reading Stephen King books back when Carrie first came out. I really enjoyed most of them, but in recent years his quality has dropped. Most of my friends have been wondering why I continue reading his books because like they say, "His early books were good, but it's pretty much just crap any more." I have every book he published. I really enjoyed the first three books of the Dark Tower series. The ending to book three pissed me off because of the "cliff-hanger" ending. What made it worse is the way he started book four. Can anyone whose read it say that was an honest conclusion to the climax of the third book? I don't think so. The quality of the series continued to go downhill from there. I see a few people commenting on how they thought the ending and what was behind the final door was great. I can't disagree more. I thought that was the most amatuer ending of any of his books and that's saying quite a bit. Sad to say, but I've stopped purchasing SK books and the poor quality ones will be finding themselves in the closet as I find new books to replace them on my bookshelves.
I'm left with The Stand (another one that was great until the end), It (ditto), Salem's Lot, Misery, Christine, The Dead Zone, The Shining, The Night Shift Collection, Firestarter, Pet Semetery and Carrie. I tried to stay a loyal fan and I made it much longer than others I know, but after all those years of the Dark Tower to end like that...I'm done.
But why is the rum gone?
Diddi-chik?
And as a follow up:
Daddi-chum?
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