Marvel to continue DT comic adaptation with The Drawing of the Three

[Bev Vincent]

During his Emerald City Comicon Secret Origins panel, Peter David was asked by a member of the audience whether he enjoyed the collaboration with his co-creators on the "Dark Tower" comics. Rather than answer directly, he revealed the Marvel adaptations of Stephen King's fantasy epic will resume with "Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three." He also provided the 'secret origin' of how the project was greenlit.

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[Lookwhoitis]

Awesome news!

[herbertwest]

As a comic then i guess

[CyberGhostface]

I wonder how much longer they're going to drag this out, especially since King has effectively thrown them out as any sort of canon to the main series. Are they still making money? It seems no one cares about them anymore compared to all the hype surrounding the first arc.

[jhanic]

I seriously doubt I'll be buying these. I don't like a "re-telling" of a book in a graphic novel form. I didn't mind the other King comics because they (mostly) told new stories, but I never bothered with The Talisman when they came out.

John

[CyberGhostface]

I felt the same way with 'The Stand'. It just drags when you're telling a story like that on a month-by-month basis.

[mattgreenbean]

I'd get it, or at least wait for the hardcover.

Obviously it won't be better than Steve's original telling, but I like having the visual story as well. I've read the book a few times, I've listened to the audiobook, I've hoped for a movie (live action or animated), and this would be another way for me to enjoy the story.

I hope they do the entire story eventually.

[Tik]

Brilliant news! Hopefully the full series will eventually be done. I hope we can look forward to extra/new scenes akin to those we got in the Wizard and Glass adaption. Also hoping for more Dark Tower short stories in the back of the issues as these really help expand the mythos/canon.

[Brainslinger]

I seriously doubt I'll be buying these. I don't like a "re-telling" of a book in a graphic novel form. I didn't mind the other King comics because they (mostly) told new stories, but I never bothered with The Talisman when they came out.

John

Yeah, that's how it is for me too, and that's coming from someone who reads quite a few comics and loves the medium. The Gunslinger Born was essentially a retelling of a lot of stuff from Wizard And Glass though, but I didn't mind that because it still included things not in the original novel. I. E. things going on with Walter, Farson and his folk that Roland (as the main narrator of Wag, albeit in third person) wouldn't have been privy to.

I wouldn't mind more new stories in comic form as long as they're under King's guidance and preferably authored by him, although that seems unlikely.

[SirJohn]

I wish I would have found this thread before I wandered into the comic forum lol. Personally, I have greatly enjoyed the Marvel series so far. I am looking forward to everything else they plan to deliver.

-SJ

[CyberGhostface]

I'd be kind of surprised if they ever got to finishing the full series unless future books were considerably condensed (like the first arc for W&G) as opposed to spreading out over multiple series like they did with the Gunslinger.

[Bev Vincent]

'The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three': Exclusive artwork from Marvel's new Stephen King adaptation, 'The Prisoner'

But this September, Marvel will release the first issue of a new series that will delve into a new corner of King’s Dark Tower saga.

The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three–The Prisoner is a five-issue miniseries focusing on Eddie Dean, a character first introduced in King’s second Dark Tower book. And as drawn by artist Piotr Kowalski (Marvel Knights: Hulk), it’s also a departure from the post-apocalyptic Western setting of the previous comic books.

We’ll have more information to share with you about The Prisoner on Sunday — and Marvel will be discussing their future plans for the series this weekend at C2E2 — but for now, EW is excited to share the cover and the first seven pages of inked artwork from The Prisoner. Click on each picture for a larger image — and some eagle-eyed Dark Tower fans might find some embedded references to King’s work.

[CyberGhostface]

That's not Roland on the cover, is it? Looks like some gangster from the 1920s.

[Bev Vincent]

Probably not: The series promises to track Eddie from his life in Brooklyn in the mid-60s, ultimately leading to his meeting with Roland the Gunslinger.

A new kind of Dark Tower called for a new artist, with Piotr Kowalski bringing the series into a gritty, urban setting. But it also called for a new kind of storytelling. “When I crafted the dialogue for the first series, there was an internal narrator,” says David. “A narrative voice that I always envisioned was an old man sitting at a campfire along the trail. He’s Walter Huston, Walter Brennan. Everyone’s sitting around the campfire, and this guy is telling you the story of Roland Deschain.” The Prisoner‘s narration shifts to a more grounded perspective, with the point of view coming straight from Eddie. “When he first starts, Eddie’s drug-addled, to put it mildly,” says David. “He’s the definition of an unreliable narrator.”

Readers of the Dark Tower series know that The Drawing of the Three is, in some respects, a book about getting the band together. Eddie is one of the titular “three,” and although The Prisoner is very much Eddie’s story, it’s not the only story. In describing the process of adaptation, Rosemann offers up a comparison to Marvel’s biggest super team. “In the Avengers comic book, you see the story from the point of view of the whole group. What if we chop it up and we see what was Thor doing before the Avengers? What was Captain America doing?”

Future Dark Tower miniseries are planned, focusing on the later chapters of The Drawing of the Three. (Teasing the arrival of a fan-favorite character, David exclaims: “Detta’s probably one of my favorite characters of the whole thing!”) And after The Drawing of the Three, there are still five more mainline Dark Tower books by Stephen King, not counting the myriad of tangentially connected literature. It took King over thirty years to craft the whole Dark Tower epic. Will the Dark Tower comics ultimately tell the whole tale? In response, David deadpans: “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get it in under three decades.”

>>> Marvel creators reveal secrets from the new Stephen King adaptation

[herbertwest]

Last time i read this article, was sort of quickly. Thank you for quoting it, and make me notice that it's likely to have some sort of miniseries dedicated to Detta (and maybe Jake?)!