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BeDaN
09-19-2008, 08:37 PM
I was thinking because movies do tend to complicate and degrade most books, would it be a bad idea to have an illustrated rendering of all the books? Not so much a comic, there would be no dialogue just illustrations through each of the books, say maybe 30-40 pages or more of drawings used to describe each book. I personally think this would be a great idea, and I would love to see the folks at Marvel work on something like this considering they have done such a beautiful job with the comics. This way we get the visual aspect of the books without the possibility of ruining a good thing. What do you guys think?

Daghain
09-20-2008, 10:21 AM
Actually, I think I might like that idea. It would definitely be different.

Brice
09-20-2008, 11:44 AM
I like that idea, also. :thumbsup:

jayson
09-20-2008, 01:16 PM
I think it's a great idea BeDaN. We already have the words and they're not going to get any better than the way King wrote them. I think more illustrations sounds appealing. :thumbsup:

Jackie
09-20-2008, 02:38 PM
It sounds like a good idea, and i think it woud be really amazing to also do on the side but i still think a movie/mini series would be good too. Just for the fact that i think a lot of people wouldn't want to spen money on a book of "just pictures". And the movie would just spread The Dark Tower love evern futher :wub:

Arthur Heath
09-20-2008, 03:23 PM
Marvel did this for a month on their regular series which they called 'Nuff Said' (homage to Stan Lee) where it was a rendering of juxstaposed sequintial images with no dialog. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but you have to find an incredible writer to be able to compose such a project. Most of Marvels work where hard to follow because there was prior backstory then suddenly no dialog on a continious story line. Perhaps if people where completely familiar with the story from start to finish it could be pulled off. I do enjoy the idea also, nice thought...

Brainslinger
09-20-2008, 04:43 PM
Whilst I like the pictures in some editions of the current books, I'd prefer them not to take that route and leave it to our imagination. If they do do a few more pictures (which I wouldn't mind) I'd prefer it to be the art styles currently used rather than a comic style. I like comic art, but I wouldn't particularly want it in the main novels. Nice to keep them as seperate beasties I reckon. (Style-wise, I'm not speaking of continuity.)

If new editions are produced, I would like them to be revised so the little errors and contradictions are sorted out. Within reason.

BeDaN
09-21-2008, 09:44 AM
I honestly wouldn't mind who did the illustrations, like I said I love the Marvel style.

I'm partial to them because I picture Roland the exact way they rendered him in the Long Road Home when young Roland was in Maerlyn's Grapefruit and he caught a glimpse of his future self. He looked extremely bad ass.

But I would be cool with Michael Whelan doing it though. I will always have a picture of them in my head the way I want it to be, but it's cool to so how others perceive the characters.

jayson
09-21-2008, 01:50 PM
I honestly wouldn't mind who did the illustrations, like I said I love the Marvel style.

I'm partial to them because I picture Roland the exact way they rendered him in the Long Road Home when young Roland was in Maerlyn's Grapefruit and he caught a glimpse of his future self. He looked extremely bad ass.

But I would be cool with Michael Whelan doing it though. I will always have a picture of them in my head the way I want it to be, but it's cool to so how others perceive the characters.

If it's a choice between Marvel's illustrators (or anyone) and Whelan I would choose Whelan every time. I think the Marvel folks are doing a fine job, but to me, Whelan sees Roland's world as clearly as King does.

Patrick
09-21-2008, 08:36 PM
Yes, but does Whelan do comic books? He'd be great, but I'm not sure whether he would have the interest in doing that.

Brice
09-21-2008, 08:41 PM
Does it matter if he's interested...as long as he draws us more pictures??? :cyclops:

Patrick
09-21-2008, 08:43 PM
Yeah, it would be awesome, but he's probably got enough work to keep him busy, so he'd likely have to want to do a comic series vs. needing to. Sweet idea though.

Wuducynn
09-22-2008, 06:23 AM
I was thinking because movies do tend to complicate and degrade most books, would it be a bad idea to have an illustrated rendering of all the books? Not so much a comic, there would be no dialogue just illustrations through each of the books, say maybe 30-40 pages or more of drawings used to describe each book. I personally think this would be a great idea, and I would love to see the folks at Marvel work on something like this considering they have done such a beautiful job with the comics. This way we get the visual aspect of the books without the possibility of ruining a good thing. What do you guys think?

I love this idea. Good call.

Mr. Clean
09-24-2008, 11:58 AM
There already are artists interpretations out there of the Dark Tower books in the novels. Bernie Wrightson and Michael Whelan were the only two who actually illustrated the books faithfully. The others artists were too abstract. But there's two ways of looking at doing illustrations for books. The first is to illustrate in great detail, leaving no room for interpretation. The second is the abstract, which leaves things so wide open that you're still having to dig for a mental image without any outside influence. I wasn't really crazy about the second at all. The comic book series is about the closest we're going to get to a broad scope of illustration regarding The Dark Tower series.

IMHO, an illustration only book is not really something that I forsee selling like hotcakes. So it's unlikely it would ever be actually published. Fan art, however, is a different thing entirely. I myself have been considering doing some of my own (I have some artistic talent in that area, which is why I may be a bit snobby about the whole thing to begin with). Most fan art I have seen has been far off the mark as well. Everyone will have his/her own ideas or imagery of what the series of books looks like in their own head, which I respect. But, in the end, the closest I've seen is what comes from Michael Whelan.

Matt
09-24-2008, 01:55 PM
We would love to see some of your fan art here Mr Clean.

We are building "Towerpedia!" which is a wiki on the books and trying to use mostly fan art for the illustrations, contests going on all the time in the forum dedicated to it.

Right now, its Oy. :rock:

CyberGhostface
09-24-2008, 02:46 PM
Well, that depends. I honestly believe that if, say, HBO were to fully commit to doing a faithful adaptation of the series and not cop out at the last minute (*coughs* Carnivale *coughs*) it would be more effective than seeing a comic. On the other hand, if they were to cram all seven books into three movies...that would be a mess. But at the same time, being a comic doesn't necessarily mean it will be completely faithful: just look at The Gunslinger Born.

In my mind, though, given how long The Stand is going to be (thirty issues), I think a complete adaptation of The Dark Tower in comic form would get tiring after a bit. I know that whenever I reread the series by the end I'm just forcing myself to get through it. So if I had to choose, I'd rather see a faithful tv show/movie over a faithful comic.

Brainslinger
09-26-2008, 08:22 AM
We would love to see some of your fan art here Mr Clean.

We are building "Towerpedia!" which is a wiki on the books and trying to use mostly fan art for the illustrations, contests going on all the time in the forum dedicated to it.

Right now, its Oy. :rock:

Really? I knew about the contests, but I didn't realize the winning pictures were actually being used on the wiki!

(I had a kind of jokey version of Oy in mind too...)


being a comic doesn't necessarily mean it will be completely faithful: just look at The Gunslinger Born.

To be fair I thought the comic was pretty faithful. They left stuff out, sure, and added other stuff that was 'off-stage' in the books (bad guy machinations etc.) but there was little that actually contradicted the book.

Unlike the start of Long Road Home (the section that overlaps with WAG), that still bugs me a bit.

I agree though, I'd rather not see a comic adaption of all the books as well. More illustrations with revised editions of the books 2-4 certainly but not comics or the excessive 'every page illustrations' suggested above.

theBeamisHome
09-26-2008, 09:01 AM
I saw the title for this thread and thought maybe you had taken my idea.... maybe it can be included here since this is an "instead of a movie" thread?

a Video Game. yes, i said it. a video game... an RPG of course, with a set story, but you still get to control the characters... or a character.. it would have a co-op of course so 4 people could play.. start off with Roland, draw the other characters, fight through the wastelands, dixie pig, all that good stuff... i think it could be amazing... :swoon:.... ummm thoughts?? don't want to hijack the thread tho.. you can throw me somewhere else if it please ya.

Brice
09-26-2008, 09:04 AM
Beam, I've often thought it could make a great RPG too. :thumbsup:

theBeamisHome
09-26-2008, 09:05 AM
yay! of course you have. great minds and all that jazz :couple:

Brice
09-26-2008, 09:09 AM
:couple: It should be done by the same people who did the best FF games. :D

jayson
09-26-2008, 09:18 AM
A video game would fit in well with the way many seem to view the series anyway...

that the Tower is some kind of reset button so Roland can go back and face the exact same situations and do them "right" this time. "Pick up horn. Don't drop boy. Turn left at Tull."

theBeamisHome
09-26-2008, 09:51 AM
that's what i was thinking! and also in light of the game that my bf just finished, Tales of Vesperia.. after you beat the game you can start over and do different things. I think that the loop is perfect for a video game. And lots of games have it so you can do things differently and have different outcomes.

Brice
09-26-2008, 04:24 PM
DT VII spoiler:19 different outcomes and you can only get the best outcome by doing everything right with absolutely no walkthroughs. :evil:

Mr. Clean
09-26-2008, 04:48 PM
:ninja:
But at the same time, being a comic doesn't necessarily mean it will be completely faithful: just look at The Gunslinger Born.

True, that is true with many comic books. Although, I believe that Stephen King is the Creative and Executive Director on the series. And if that means what I think it means, then he has the final say as to what goes on in the series. Which means it should be canon (faithful) to the books.

IMHO, comics are the perfect medium to adapt this into, if you really think about it. What better way to visually explore the worlds of the dark tower? And it can be done on a low budjet! :D First will come the comics and then the movie/tv series/whatever.

As for fan art... Oy, eh? I'll have to check out that area... :ninja:

Mr. Clean
09-26-2008, 04:57 PM
I saw the title for this thread and thought maybe you had taken my idea.... maybe it can be included here since this is an "instead of a movie" thread?

a Video Game. yes, i said it. a video game... an RPG of course, with a set story, but you still get to control the characters... or a character.. it would have a co-op of course so 4 people could play.. start off with Roland, draw the other characters, fight through the wastelands, dixie pig, all that good stuff... i think it could be amazing... :swoon:.... ummm thoughts?? don't want to hijack the thread tho.. you can throw me somewhere else if it please ya.

Amazing. :) I was just thinking about this the other day. Kind of in a Knights of the Old Republic way? Or closer to MMORPG? The latter has more potential for massive failure. But the single player could potentially really be awful as well. Especially if some jerk who knew very little about the series came along and tried to make it "marketable" by adding in a lot of garbage that didn't need to be there. I think it would be cool to do this as a MOD to an existing game... alas, it was probably not meant to be... :|

theBeamisHome
09-28-2008, 07:51 PM
:lol:
sorry Mr. Clean, but most of that was lost on me. all i know is that i would love getting to actually "be" Roland and the tet.. make some decisions i think they should have.. you can play it by the book (lol) or you can try to make it better.

Patrick
09-29-2008, 08:48 PM
I was thinking because movies do tend to complicate and degrade most books, would it be a bad idea to have an illustrated rendering of all the books? Not so much a comic, there would be no dialogue just illustrations through each of the books, say maybe 30-40 pages or more of drawings used to describe each book. I personally think this would be a great idea, and I would love to see the folks at Marvel work on something like this considering they have done such a beautiful job with the comics. This way we get the visual aspect of the books without the possibility of ruining a good thing. What do you guys think?
This idea reminds me of Cemetary Dance's publications, THE SECRETARY OF DREAMS. Volume I has been released, Volume II will be released... sometime. Each volume of TSOD is a collection of King's short stories with every word intact, but fully illustrated, much like a comic book might be. As always with adaptations, there is debate about the artist, but I haven't heard anyone say that they didn't like the concept in and of itself.

theBeamisHome
09-30-2008, 04:10 AM
as long as it isn't the the artist that did DTVII... his Oy was all wrong :smh:

jayson
09-30-2008, 05:07 AM
as long as it isn't the the artist that did DTVII... his Oy was all wrong :smh:

Seriously? I think Michael Whelan, the artist who did DT-7 is the ONLY one who did any of the books who got things right. I think his Oy is pretty close to the way I pictured Oy from the description. He's also the only one who ever made Jake blonde. He's the one artist that we know read and loved these books. Like I've said before, I think Whelan sees Roland's world as clearly as King does.

theBeamisHome
09-30-2008, 05:55 AM
his Oy was all wrong! where were the gold rings around the eyes? Oy was supposed to have thick silky fur... idk i just didn't get that from the picture. *shrug* lol

jayson
09-30-2008, 06:03 AM
To my eyes, both illustrations in DT-7 that have Oy in them show some pretty thick fur. As far as the eyes go, it was my impression that the gold rings are within the eyeballs, around the iris itself. Neither illustration is close up enough to show the eyes in that kind of detail, but it looks to me like there is definitely gold in the color palette Whelan used.

theBeamisHome
09-30-2008, 06:07 AM
that's true. i guess it's a matter of interpretation.. i always figured because he was supposed to look kind of like a raccoon that the rings were around his eyes.

jayson
09-30-2008, 06:36 AM
You may be right. I don't remember for sure, but there's the scene in The Waste Lands...

...when Jake is being held captive by Tick-Tock and sees Oy through the vents and knows Roland is coming to save him

... Something about the description of Oy's eyes in that scene gave me the impression the rings were within the coloration of his actual eyes. I will have to read it again when I get home tonight.

MonteGss
09-30-2008, 07:26 AM
as long as it isn't the the artist that did DTVII... his Oy was all wrong :smh:

Seriously? I think Michael Whelan, the artist who did DT-7 is the ONLY one who did any of the books who got things right. I think his Oy is pretty close to the way I pictured Oy from the description. He's also the only one who ever made Jake blonde. He's the one artist that we know read and loved these books. Like I've said before, I think Whelan sees Roland's world as clearly as King does.

I agree with both of you, actually. Whelan is the grand-master of DT pictures and nobody came close. However, I've not liked any version I've seen of Oy.

theBeamisHome
09-30-2008, 08:22 AM
i'm looking at the picture with Jake and Oy in the dixie pig kitchen and i don't think he looks very blonde... but don't get me wrong.. it's not that i don't like the artist. his art is good.. i just don't like his Oy.

but as for the game... Knights of the Old Republic is something like what I'm thinking... and Fable also.. choices you make affect the gameplay.

Brainslinger
09-30-2008, 03:57 PM
From the description in The Waste Lands I had the idea the gold rings were around the inside of Oy's eyes too, although the End-World Almanac states it's the fur around the eyes. I don't think it was ever stated for certain though (although I'm gonna grab the book and check it out.)

Patrick
09-30-2008, 04:41 PM
You might also check the Illustrations Catalog here in the Restaurant forum.

jayson
09-30-2008, 05:46 PM
From the description in The Waste Lands I had the idea the gold rings were around the inside of Oy's eyes too, although the End-World Almanac states it's the fur around the eyes. I don't think it was ever stated for certain though (although I'm gonna grab the book and check it out.)

I'll go with the one King wrote (ie. not the comics)

theBeamisHome
09-30-2008, 06:34 PM
the End-World Almanac is from the comics? and i thought King supervised all that anyway. he wouldn't let them print it if it's not what he meant would he? the reason i thought it was the fur around the eyes is because they would talk about how it seem like the rings moved sometimes.. i just always imagined it looked like that because of the wind in the fur or something.

jayson
10-01-2008, 03:33 AM
the End-World Almanac is from the comics? and i thought King supervised all that anyway. he wouldn't let them print it if it's not what he meant would he?

There seems to be no definitive answer to just how much participation King has with the comics. I suspect he plays some sort of final decision-maker role, but we don't know for sure. Besides, given the number of contradictions/continuity gaps just within the series itself, who's to say that King would necessarily even catch any/all that come up with the comics.

theBeamisHome
10-01-2008, 05:15 AM
lol... maybe that's why people think differently about Oy's eyes.. maybe then inconsistency is in the series itself

jayson
10-01-2008, 05:22 AM
:lol:

So I looked at Waste Lands again this morning. The part I was thinking of is actually when Jake first meets Oy. The second time King describes Oy he mentions "those gold/black eyes." In the next paragraph Jake talks about how beautiful the eyes are. Those parts lead me to believe the black irises themselves are ringed with gold. Gold fur around the eyes would be cool, but I don't know that they would be described as "gold/black eyes". It seems to be a description of the eyes themselves.

theBeamisHome
10-01-2008, 05:27 AM
maybe it's both... cuz like i said it was mention how the gold rings seemed to move or rotate sometimes... that's what made me think it was the fur. i think that would be pretty anyway. gold/black eyes with gold rings around the eyes.

Brainslinger
10-01-2008, 05:32 PM
maybe it's both... cuz like i said it was mention how the gold rings seemed to move or rotate sometimes... that's what made me think it was the fur. i think that would be pretty anyway. gold/black eyes with gold rings around the eyes.

I thought the rotating effect was from within the eyes themselves, i.e. the result of the light reflecting of of them.


I'll go with the one King wrote (ie. not the comics)

Fair enough, but bear in mind King didn't actually state clearly, (as far as I'm aware.) That's why the gold fur is still potentially correct.

I'm not saying that makes the comic right by default though. They get other things wrong after all (and some of the diagrams are wrong too, although beautifully drawn.)

theBeamisHome
10-01-2008, 05:45 PM
are we off topic?

Silvermoth
11-10-2008, 04:28 PM
I think that idea sounds pretty much like a comic book adaption of the novels we all love so much so why not have dialogue also? I would read it! I'm busting to see what a proffessional artist can make of a Billy Bumbler, Jericho Hill or the the field of roses.

As for a video game, I'ld love to see something in the style of "Timesplitters 3"