Writer: Stephen King, Robin Furth & Peter David
Artist: Jae Lee
Company: Marvel Comics

It’s a relative impossibility for anyone to not have heard that the master of modern horror, Stephen King, is taking a stroll back into the medium of comics. Over the years, he’s done it a few times, penned a two page story for a benefit comic and offered up an original graphic novel called Creepshow. This time however, King brings with him his epic, if not his masterpiece, The Dark Tower Series to Marvel Comics and allows audiences yet another entry point to the profoundly fascinating yet daunting landscape of Mid-World and the Clint Eastwood-like character, Roland Deschain.

As a large fan of the source material myself, I was extremely skeptical of whether it was a good idea or a bad idea to bring such a thing to the realm of comics. Over the years we’ve had to endure the countless rumors of a television series or a feature length movie in the works, and with each mention of these I’ve shook my head and said rather calmly, “Bad idea.” This is a story that worked so well in novel format, and while it’s marginally possible for such a thing to work in the realm of visual media, I feared that it would no doubt be condensed, butchered and more likely morphed into something that only vaguely resembled what it truly was, the same way that most every movie or television series adapted from a Stephen King book has been. So, as you can see, I was ready to call bullshit on Marvel and just chalk this high profile attempt up as yet another failure for the comic book industry.

Still, though my hopes for this series weren’t high, it’s nice to be proven wrong every once in awhile.

While the The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born is not a completely new story for die hard Stephen King fans to gobble up and devour, it is a faithful adaptation of major events taking place both in the first novel of King’s series, The Gunslinger and the fourth novel, Wizard and Glass. The one major deviation from the original material is that rather than the story being told told through Roland’s eyes, the perspective is changed to that of a more omniscient narrator, allowing for a slightly different view of the events as they unfold. As for what events take place in this first issue…Well, it chronicles the starting point for young Roland Deschain and his initial Ka-Tet, the trials and tribulations of what it takes to become a gunslinger and hints at what lies just over the horizon in Roland’s heady future. The collaborative effort of Peter David and Robin Furth works tremendously well and their ability to properly translate the same vibe and gravitas as the books do is an amazement in and of itself. Furth’s map of the Barony of New Cannan and the backup story that tells of a school lesson with Roland and his friends is a nice tidbit as well, as it gives further insight to the background to things like the Tower, Gan and the 6 Beams of the Dark Tower.

Among the many great things that are accomplished by the writing, it can’t be helped that there are a few drawbacks as well, mainly with the cadence of speech and the Old World dialect that’s used. If you’ve read any of the books before then you should be good as you have no doubt heard these terms before and are used to them. If this is your first time with The Dark Tower, then some of the words like kennit (understand) and Ka (Destiny), not to mention the shear mountain-like amount of information given at the start of the issue may bog down the story to some degree. It’s by no means a deal breaker as this is the norm for most introductory issues but there may have been a better manner to get to the meat of the story. After the first few pages though it’s clear sailing, as the tension and action take center stage.

Another thing that had the possibility to derail the entire book was the direction of the art. Many adaptations skew off into the land of obscurity because the look doesn’t sync up with the work. When Jae Lee (Inhumans/Ultimate Fantastic Four) was picked for the job, I found it an odd choice as his art has always been very hit and miss depending on the project. As it turns out, with Gunslinger, Lee brings his “A-Game” and displays some of his best to date, helped by Richard Isanove’s deep and ethereal color palette. There is still a slight case of rigidity to some of Lee’s panels, a staged feeling that is a bit distracting. That said it’s not the case for all of them as his action scenes and backgrounds are seamless and dynamic. Also important is that I can see Jae Lee’s work mingling with the other artists who have already contributed to the series, people like Dave McKean, Phil Hale and Michael Whelan whose works are ingrained upon my brain as to what the landscape of the Dark Tower should look like.

As skeptical as I was, The Gunslinger Born strikes all the right notes, strikes them very well. If it continues to dish out the same level of professionalism and content, then this title could very well be on it’s way to becoming an instant classic that’s earned the right to stand cover to cover with its counterpart on my bookshelf.