****
The Gunslinger Born 4
Posted: April 25, 2007
Issue 4 of The Gunslinger Born is here. I have just finished it, and here is what I think:
As usual, it’s a very good issue—well-scripted, well-drawn, well-colored and well-lettered. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that issue 4 continues where issue 3 ended. The entire series is one long issue divided into smaller issues. It will be very interesting to read it all as one story in the omnibus edition later this year.
So, in other words, we start off with Roland and Susan meeting again after they meet at Mayor Thorin’s house. There Roland was rather hard and judging of Susan, and now he gets the chance to apologize.
We also get to see when the boys ride out to Eyebolt Canyon and get a first look at the thinny there. We get to see Roy Depape backtrack the boys to find out who they are and why they are there.
And, we get to see more of Walter O’Dim, who is a very frightening being. He looks a little like the vampire Barlow from ’Salem’s Lot, but more evil. This time he’s plotting against the boys…
As usual, the coloring is excellent and the feeling is that Jae, Richard, Peter and Robin have done their best issue yet. Doing that for the fourth time is very impressive in my book.
The history lesson is called The Laughing Mirror, Part 1 and is about how a man is divided into three boxes: a thoughtbox, a heartbox and a ki´box. It also tells the story of how Maerlyn came to be and how he is to blame for the fall of the guards of The Dark Tower.
And, as if this weren’t enough, we also get to see how a page is made all the way from the script to the finished page. I love stuff like this! We also get part two of the panel discussion from Comic-Con.
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 4
Issue 4 is like the first three issues—extremely pleasant to look at. Jae and Richard have done an extremely good job. The story plot keeps impressing me again and again. The translation from book to comic has turned out a lot better than I dared to hope for. In other words; make sure you get a copy of issue 4 the second it’s released.
****
The Gunslinger Born 5
Posted: June 5, 2007
With more than half of the story arc done, I can honestly say that Gunslinger Born is a success. I’m not speaking of numbers of sold issues (not sure what those are, but I think they are a success as well), but about fan appreciation. Most, if not all, comments that you hear on the Internet are positive, and in my book that is a success.
In issue 5 Roland and Susan’s relationship is fulfilled by their making love. Afterwards, we also get to see an ugly example of Rhea’s evilness. When Susan visits Rhea, she hypnotizes her, and because of that she now tries to cut her hair off. Roland saves the day, though, and keeps her from completing the act.
Their relationship is not without problems, though, and it’s not well-received by Roland’s ka-tet. Alain especially dislikes it and feels that Roland has lost sight of their mission. This tension between the ka-tet gets worse when The Big Coffin Hunters find out that the boys are all but innocent, that they are, in fact, gunslingers.
The issue ends with high tension in the ka-tet and Jonas finding Bert’s “Lookout” close to where Farson’s tanks are hidden. It doesn’t take him long to realize that the boys know about the tanks and that something has to be done about that…
We also get parts two and three of The Laughing Mirror (the titles are The Seduction of Rhea and The Corruption of Jonas), part three of the Stephen King panel and two pages from the issue in Jae’s uncolored pencils.
The Seduction of Rhea tells the life story of Rhea and it’s a very interesting story that proves that she has been waiting for Roland for a long time. Very interesting. The Corruption of Jonas tells the story of Eldred Jonas and how he was given the chance to be a gunslinger, threw it away and swore revenge on every gunslinger he saw. These two tales are connected by the Laughing Mirror.
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 5
Well, what can I say that I haven’t already? I will admit that I really didn’t think the comic would keep me in its grasp for as long as it has. I had no doubt that it would be good, but that it would be this good? No way. I’m very glad I was wrong, though, and that Jae, Peter, Robin and Richard keep delivering what everyone has come to expect from them…and then some.
****
The Gunslinger Born 6
Posted: July 3, 2007
In issue 6 of Gunslinger Born we get closer to the end of the first story arc. Only one issue remains until we reach the horrifying ending everyone who’s read Wizard and Glass knows is coming.
In issue 6, Jonas is trying to frame Roland and his friends for the murder of Mayor Thorin. By doing so he also sets off a series of events that will have horrible results for Susan and the boys. The ka-tet is planning a nasty surprise for The God Man’s soldiers.
Things are starting to heat up for the big finale next month. Those of you who have read Wizard and Glass know most of what’s happening, but it’s still very interesting to see Jae’s interpretation of it.
The illustrations of Jonas, Roy Depape and Rhea are perfect. I love the way they look and it’s a perfect visualization of the characters from King’s books. They look very nasty, especially Roy Depape with his evil-headmaster look. Very good translation from the book to the comic by Jae.
Besides the story itself, we get the first part of the story of “Charyou Tree” in The History of Charyou Tree. “Charyou Tree” is a bonfire upon which people are sacrificed in return for a healthy crop. As the story is told the whole idea of “Charyou Tree” is started by Maerlyn and shows how evil he really is…
We are also told the story about the different guns a gunslinger can have in A Gunslinger’s Gun.
As earlier, the illustrations, the coloring, the scripting and the story are very well done and a lot of work is put into this issue, as with the previous five. It’s great to see that everyone involved in the comic seems to be as enthusiastic and inspired now, six issues into the series, as they were when issue 1 was released.
Robin is getting very comfortable with the Gunslinger saga, and the history lessons are so good that I hope one day they will all be released as a “real” history book.
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 6
Issue 6 is, as I have said, as good as the previous five issues and keeps the story moving. Now there is one issue left, and after that we’ll get to see what the team can do with Roland without King’s books to lean on. Personally, I think they’ll keep making magic!
****
The Gunslinger Born 7
Posted: July 27, 2007
So, the end is here…
Well, not forever. This is just the end of the first story arc, but there will be at least four more. In fact, at the end of issue 7 we get to know the title and the release date of the second arc. Marvel has asked me not to reveal that information, though, until the issue is released on August 1st, so…sorry.
Since most of you probably know how the story ends (being it has already been told in Wizard and Glass), I will talk about it in my review (if you don’t want to know what happens, please come back after you have read the issue). But, even when you know what’s going to happen it’s very intense to see it illustrated in the comic. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove have really managed to translate King’s written text brilliantly in the comic. Susan’s death is very gruesome to see in print.
Also, their interpretation of the thinny and the faith of the people Roland and his gang lead into it is very effectively illustrated. The coloring and the mood is different from the rest of the issue and very fitting for the occasion.
Finally, we also get to see Susan’s aunt, Cordelia Delgado, in issue 7. She looks very much like I interpreted her from King’s text—very stiff and not very kind. While she is being manipulated by Rhea we also, once again, get to see how evil Rhea is, and I love every second of it.
The history lesson this time is part two about the Charyou Tree and is called Come Reap! It tells the story of when King Arthur Eld tried to ban the reaptide burnings (Charyou Tree), but instead got to see his only love Emmanuell burn and his wife, Queen Rowena, give birth to a crimson, eight-legged spider.
We also get two pages of Jae’s uncolored pencils for this issue and, as usual, it’s very nice to see the difference between uncolored and colored pages…
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 7
With the very intense ending, the best cover yet and the hard work put in by Jae Lee, Richard Isanove, Robin Furth, Peter David and Chris Eliopoulos, we have a superb issue in our hands. Issue 7 is, so far, the best issue of the Gunslinger Born series, if you ask me. Everything falls into place, and I can only bow my head and say thank you for the ride. Now I’m looking forward to the second story arc.
****
The Gunslinger’s Guidebook
Posted: July 27, 2007
The Gunslinger’s Guidebook has had a lot of release dates, but now it’s finally landed on August 1, the same date that issue 7 of Gunslinger Born is released. After reading the guidebook I’m glad that they didn’t release it earlier. There are a lot of spoilers in it about what happens in the last issues of Gunslinger Born, and for those of you who don’t know how the story ends it would have been unfortunate to read The Gunslinger’s Guidebook in advance.
The Gunslinger’s Guidebook is very much an illustrated version of Robin Furth’s The Dark Tower Concordance. Every important character has his or her own section in which we get to learn the basic facts about that particular character. We get his or her aliases, nicknames, place of birth, occupation, known relatives, education, history, special skills and equipment. We also get information like height, weight, hair color and eye color of that character.
In addition to that, we also get information about the affiliation, gunslingers, Gilead, Hambry, Eyebolt Canyon, horsemen’s association, reaptide festival, End-World and Maerlyn’s rainbow. Those of you who have read The Dark Tower Concordance will recognize a lot of this. At the end we also get a Mid-World glossary.
So, is this something you should invest in even if you have The Dark Tower Concordance? I definitely think so. The Gunslinger’s Guidebook is a very good complement to The Concordance. This guidebook is sort of a light version of The Concordance that only covers the Gunslinger Born saga. It’s something that you read from cover to cover while The Concordance is more of a dictionary that you use to look things up when you need it.
My advice is to get the guidebook as a complement to The Concordance. If you do, you will definitely be set with all the info you could ever need about The Dark Tower series.
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger’s Guidebook
I enjoyed The Gunslinger’s Guidebook very much and it was nice to get the series covered both with all the information we need as well as pictures of (almost) everyone. So, make sure you get this. It will not only give you a good time while reading it, but it will also give more depth to the story about Roland’s early adventures.
****
The Gunslinger Born (omnibus)
Posted: October 31, 2007
In just a few days (Nov. 7), the hardback edition of Gunslinger Born is released. I got a chance to check it out a bit early and here is what you can expect. It’s a very nice book that we get. It’s a hardback in about the same size as the comics and it contains all seven issues. A chapter page separates them, though, so they are still like seven issues collected in one volume. I was kind of hoping that they would just have the pages go on as if in one book instead of seven. This isn’t a big problem, though, and the chapter pages are really cool, but still…
Anyhow, it’s not something that I’ll lose sleep over. Is it very different from the separate issues then? Well, not that much. It’s in hardback, of course, and that is very nice. You can easily put it with the rest of your King books in the bookcase. That’s hard to do with comics.
We also get all of the individual covers—all of the regular, the sketch and the variant covers. We also get the covers for later printings, and it’s nice to get all of those collected, and the ones here don’t have all the text on them, which makes it extra nice. You might even consider buying an extra copy of the hardback and cutting out the covers, framing them and hanging them on your wall.
We also get a letter from King, a letter from Ralph Macchio, some sketches and some pencils by Jae Lee. Richard Isanove also shows us how the painting process goes. These things aren’t new, but it’s nice to have it all collected in one book.
Oh, and whatever you do, don’t forget to remove the dustjacket. Underneath you’ll find a very beautiful cover. I’m not sure if it’s real leather (probably not), but it looks like it and has a blood red color. It also has The Dark Tower logo on the front. Very impressive!
Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born (omnibus)
So, who is this edition for? Well, it’s obviously for the fans of The Dark Tower comic. But, if you just like the series, like with any other comic, you might do well with the single issues and save your money for the coming ones instead of spending it on this hardback, since most of what’s in it you get in the single issues as well.
With that said, I won’t deny that it looks extremely good in my bookcase or that it’s very nice to have all of the issues in one book. That alone is worth the money it costs to buy this edition and I know I would miss it if it weren’t in my bookcase.
I do, however, miss the history lessons by Robin Furth, which aren’t included here…
****
The Long Road Home 1
Posted: March 3, 2008
The first issue of The Long Road Home is finally here. This is the story arc that isn’t based on something King has previously written and I can imagine that Jae, Richard, Robin, Peter and the rest of the team are a bit nervous to see how this one is going to be received by the fans. I’m sure King likes it or he would have told them so, but the fans? You can never really know until the issue is out there, and then it’s too late to do anything about it, right?
Well, let me tell you…Jae, Richard, Robin, Peter and all the others can relax. The first issue of The Long Road Home is good. Very good, in fact. It continues right where the last issue of The Gunslinger Born ends, and we get to see how Roland is caught in Maerlyn’s Grapefruit and his friends, Alain and Bert, have to carry him along with the only surviving Big Coffin Hunter, Clay Reynolds, on their tails.
The issue is very intense and also contains some rather gruesome images of a burned Susan Delgado, but after reading it I feel very comfortable that the team behind it will succeed in bringing the story of Roland to the next level and, by doing so, also tell us about the events King hasn’t already written about in the books.
As usual, the illustrations, the text and the story itself feel very true to The Dark Tower world(s), and I actually feel that this is the road King could have taken if he had written about this in any of the books.
As with The Gunslinger Born, we also get to read about historical events in The Long Road Home, and this time we get something called Welcome to the Dogan, Part 1: The Ghostly Queen. This is a continuation of the one in the last issue of The Gunslinger Born called Come Reap! And I must say that this history lesson is one of the best, including the ones in The Gunslinger Born. It also got me wondering if this Dogan has anything to do with the one in Wolves of the Calla.
As if that isn’t enough, we also get to see Jae’s original drafts for one page, then a spread and then how they ended up looking when he finished them. There aren’t any big differences in the versions, but you can definitely see that he has worked on the second one a little and it’s interesting to see how it has developed.
Lilja’s final words about The Long Road Home 1
It feels very good to have the second story arc starting and even better that I, after reading it, am left with a very good feeling. A f
eeling that tells me the remaining issues will be true to King’s story and tell us about the new events in a correct way, just like we thought they would.
****
The Long Road Home 2
Posted: April 2, 2008
The second issue of The Long Road Home continues where the first ends. Roland is trapped in Maerlyn’s Grapefruit and his two friends are fleeing for their lives with the posse from Hambry on their heels.
Inside the Grapefruit, Roland is fighting a battle against Marten that almost costs him his life and destroys the Grapefruit itself.
Bert tries to lead the horses over a claptrap and is almost successful. It’s very fortunate for Roland that his friends are so fast even though they aren’t “real” Gunslingers yet. If not for them, Roland would be dead and his hunt for The Dark Tower would never have happened.
As usual, the issue is masterfully illustrated by Jae Lee as well as colored by Richard Isanove. These two, together with Robin Furth and Peter David, have really found each other and are now working as one. Each issue is getting better and better and the expectations get higher and higher with every issue they produce. It’s very rewarding to be able to tell you that they really are living up to the expectations put on them.
It’s also really nice to see that they are leading the story in The Long Road Home down the right path, even though King isn’t involved any longer. Or, not as involved as with Gunslinger Born, which they did based on his book. He has still set up the guidelines for the work and I guess that he might have the final say on some things, but so far I bet he is very happy!
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