Reviews

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Man in Black by Robin Furth, Alex Maleev, Peter David, Stephen King

ibnjah's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

duparker's review against another edition

3.0

Took a bit to get back to this story. I am still enjoying the Dark Tower as a comic series, especially as this is the beginning of the Gunslinger book, which is the best of the series, to me. The art is good, the story familiar but not repetitious. All in all, I am enjoying it.

duparker's review against another edition

2.0

Pretty weak ending to the series. I can't stop comparing this to the book, and it fails each time. It just doesn't have the same classic elements of the novel I read in the 1980s. It makes me glad I haven't read the 2003 revised version. Happy to be done with this series.

lezreadalot's review against another edition

3.0

At least this Susan didn't get fridged.

waldowade's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wuchtorff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

trudilibrarian's review against another edition

4.0

I adore Roland and everything Dark Tower and I’m not ashamed to say that I squeed with delight (in true fangirl fashion) when I heard that Marvel and Robin Furth would be spearheading a graphic novel adaptation. Things started out well enough – I was so charmed by the first installment – [b:The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born|342445|The Dark Tower The Gunslinger Born|Robin Furth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173898471s/342445.jpg|2402933]. Essentially a re-telling of [b:Wizard and Glass|1081372|Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180827210s/1081372.jpg|750558] (Book 4 of the series), the colors were magnificent, the dialect spot-on, and I got shivers just reading that awesome line one more time: the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. By the second installment however – [b:The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home|2834890|The Dark Tower The Long Road Home|Robin Furth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1282377238s/2834890.jpg|2860996] – my enthusiasm had waned considerably. I still enjoyed the art, but there was something truly missing, which I tried to articulate here in my rambling but well-intentioned review.

Rather than read on in the series, I stopped while I was ahead. That Roland – while admittedly still the last gunslinger from Gilead – wasn’t my Roland. Then comes along this sixth installment in the next cycle of the series – The Gunslinger: The Journey Begins. It seemed like a good place to pick up the story again. Roland’s young battles are behind him, all has been lost, and he is now on the road to the Dark Tower as a solitary traveler, embittered, battle-weary, with no tears left to shed. This is worlds closer to my Roland and I was only too happy to walk beside him once again. As Robin Furth explains in the introduction: "I would have to show how a boy so completely devoted to his ka-tet could become the bitter, lonely, and dangerous drifter we meet in the first of the Dark Tower novels".

I love that idea, and I think this next cycle is going to be outstanding by comparison because of it. Roland has begun to manifest his "long, tall and ugly" grizzled forbearance. His ruthlessness is apparent, as is his integrity and courage. It goes without saying that the artwork is outstanding and it felt so good to be absorbed back into this time and place once again with a character I love above all others. Here’s to more long days and pleasant nights!

trudilibrarian's review against another edition

3.0

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone. Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.
"The Man In Black", Johnny Cash

Marvel's ambitious undertaking to adapt King's magnum opus has been hit or miss for me. The first five volumes (essentially a re-telling of Book IV - Wizard and Glass) did not work for me, most likely because Wizard and Glass is my least favorite of the series. While I eventually grew to appreciate the story for what it is, young Roland will never beat out long, tall and ugly Roland. So I actually skipped over Volumes 3-5 and didn't pick up the graphic novel series again until Volume 6 [b:The Journey Begins|8728918|The Dark Tower The Gunslinger The Journey Begins|Robin Furth|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327977651s/8728918.jpg|13383675].

I was so relieved and super-psyched to resume the story as it's finally reached [b:The Gunslinger|43615|The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)|Stephen King|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288354s/43615.jpg|46575]. Roland’s young battles are behind him, all has been lost, and he is now on the road to the Dark Tower as a solitary traveler, embittered, battle-weary, with no tears left to shed. This is the Roland I adore. This is who I want to read about and see captured in the panels of graphic novel.

In the previous volume, Roland finally meets up with Jake, and I loved how the Way Station encounter is handled. This volume focuses on the slow mutants attack and ends with Roland's palaver with the Man in Black himself.

I did not hate this volume by any stretch, but the series is now venturing into sacred territory and I didn't cotton to several of the storyline alterations. Not to mention, most of the art was just...not good. Inconsistent shall we say. I didn't like how in some panels Jake and Roland are very chiseled and there while in other panels they're barely there at all, kind of just shadowy impressions, blurry lines and all.

While I wanted to love the prolonged and "extra" interactions between Jake and Roland, something seemed not quite right about how they were speaking to each other. I can't put my finger on it really. But my gut just wouldn't leave it alone. And the climatic "go then, there are other worlds than these" scene fell flat for me. I didn't feel the punch or the emotionality I should have.

The last section capturing Roland's fireside conversation with The Man In Black is well executed. It strays little, if at all, from the original source material, a lot of the text lifted right from King's novel. Still, there are gaps even in this pivotal scene that I wish weren't there.

It's probably a mistake to read these graphic novels and judge them against King's books. Different format and all that, but I can't help it. And while I'm desperate for more Dark Tower, I'm probably much better off to just go and read the novels again rather than trying to find solace and satisfaction in the colored panels of a comic. A re-read is definitely on the table, but I will stick it out with the graphic novels too. When and where they've worked, I've been extremely pleased.

germancho's review against another edition

2.0

Not that good, the art was boring, the storyline was clumsily put together and that damn Mary Sue character of Aileen or whatever her name is makes a last, gasping appearance for no reason at all.

pete0926's review against another edition

4.0

Enjoying this series as it brings back memories of the original novels.