- Dark Tower: The slinger Born.
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the slinger
followed." With those words, millions of readers were introduced
to Stephen King's Roland - an implacable slinger in search of
the enigmatic Dark Tower, powering his way through a dangerous
land filled with ancient technology and deadly magic. Now, in a
comic book personally overseen by King himself, Roland's past is
revealed! Sumptuously drawn by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove,
adapted by long-time Stephen King expert Robin Furth (author of
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance) and scripted by New
York Times bestseller Peter David, this series delves in depth
into Roland's origins - the perfect introduction to this
incredibly realized world; while long-time fans will thrill to
adventures merely hinted at in the novels. Be there for the very
beginning of a modern classic of fantasy literature! Collects
Dark Tower: The slinger Born #1-7.
Questions for The Dark Tower Illustrators, Peter David and
Robin Furth
Amazon.com: How closely did you work with Stephen King on this
project?
Peter David: Robin worked far more closely with Steve before
the fact, as it were, working out the overall story arcs and
beats. My association was more after the fact: I wrote the
scripting, which then went to King who provided the line edits
and tweaks.
Robin Furth: I’ve been working with Steve King (and
Roland!) for about seven years now, so the three of us have quite
a long history. While working on The slinger Born, I ran my
outlines by Steve King and Chuck Verrill (Steve’s editor) at the
same time that I ran them by our Marvel editors. After all, The
Dark Tower is Steve’s child so it’s only right for him to have
first dibs on any changes. I feel it’s really important that
Steve has final say about The Long Road Home. Hence, I always try
to make sure he sees everything as soon as I can send drafts to
him, and that includes the articles I write and which are at the
end of each issue.
Steve has been really supportive of this whole project which
has been great. I was lucky enough to be with Steve while he
looked through some of Jae’s early sketches for The slinger
Born and his reaction was a lot like mine—it felt as though
somebody had reached into his imagination and had taken his
characters and given them a physical existence. I think that’s
pretty high praise, don’t you?
Amazon.com: Roland is one of the most iconic characters King
has ever created. How hard was it to get him (and the other
characters) "right" on the page? Did any iterations get vetoed by
King?
Robin Furth: We were really lucky with The slinger Born
because we could adapt scenes directly from Wizard and Glass. We
could really stick to Steve’s descriptions. (Occasionally we
dipped into other Dark Tower novels, but on the whole, Wizard and
Glass was our template.) The Long Road Home was a little more
complicated since we spun the story from scattered tales that
Roland tells about his youth—stories that are found throughout
the Dark Tower books. (As you can imagine, I used my Concordance
quite a lot while I was working on the outlines!)
To tell the truth, Roland has such a strong personality that he
feels almost human. I even dream about the guy, and once or twice
I swear I’ve seen his shadow pacing past my writing room door.
(No joke.) But even when it comes to writing about someone you
know well, every person has their own perspective. As long as
Steve King feels like we’ve caught Roland’s youthful self, I’m
happy. If longtime Dark Tower fans feel we have, then I’ll be
INCREDIBLY happy. So far Steve has been pleased with our
approach. Fingers crossed that the fans will feel the same way!
Peter David: King was very supportive of the license we took in
terms of both the story compression and narrative stylizations
that Robin and I undertook that were required to take a work of
such massive and transform it into something that works as
a graphic series.
Amazon.com: What was the most challenging aspect of this
particular project?
Peter David: For me? Stage fright. Steve had stated that, as
"a words guy," he was awaiting the scripts with great
anticipation. That's pretty daunting, knowing that Stephen King
is going to be going over my interpretation of what is arguably
is most personal work.
Robin Furth: I suppose the biggest challenge has always been
(in Mid-World speak) to stand true. In other words, to remain
true to our original mission and to translate the Dark Tower
universe from novel form to comic book form. The Dark Tower
universe is so big that we have to do a lot of condensing. It’s
both y and exhilarating.
Amazon.com: Robin, I imagine it is challenging to fit a several
thousand page series into a graphic novel. As the DT aficionado,
was it hard to adapt this series? What parts of the book did you
wish you could include but had to cut because it just wouldn’t
fit?
Robin Furth: It certainly has been challenging (you should see
the state of my fingernails), but it has also been a really great
experience. I have learned huge as about comics and about
storytelling. I have always loved Roland, Alain, Cuthbert, and
Susan so it has been wonderful to work with them again. There’s
something very moving about working with young Roland—the boy who
grew into such a hard and (at times) unforgiving man. You see
the wounds that later become calluses, if you know what I mean.
As for the parts of the book I had to cut—there are many! When
we first started working on these comics, The slinger Born was
supposed to be six issues long. I handed in eight issues! In
the end we managed to cut back to seven, which worked well. In
retrospect, I guess the greatest challenge has been to know when
to stick to the plot of Wizard and Glass and when to borrow from
other books (or occasionally even other parts of the Dark Tower
universe) in order to fill out Mid-World for those who don’t know
the novels, or to make the comics ring true for long-term fans.
That takes a lot of careful planning and sometimes it means
taking risks, but if it works it’s really worth it.
Amazon.com: Peter, What was it like to work with Robin and King
on this project? Have you worked closely with writers before on
adaptations of their work?
Peter David: It was both exciting and daunting: exciting being
part of something as ambitious and potentially groundbreaking as
this endeavor, and daunting in that King is a writing god whom I
desperately wanted to please with my interpretations. No, I've
never worked with a writer adapting his work before, which is why
this was new territory for me: And what a place to start, huh?
It's difficult to imagine any subsequent experience with adapting
someone's work measuring up to this.
Amazon.com: What is your favorite panel?
Robin Furth: I must say I like them all, so I don’t know if I
could choose. However Jae recently sent me the cover for the
first issue of The Long Road Home, and I think that would be in
my top ten!
Peter David: I'm torn on that. In terms of story narrative,
the one where Roland and Susan give in to their passion. In
terms of pure iconic power, that two-page spread early on where
we first see Roland, as the slinger, in pursuit of the man in
black. You never have a second chance to make a good first
impression, and Jae and Richard just absolutely nailed it.
