Forging an Art

Oh, these treasures are full of amazingness – how could they not?  King’s fabulous and hideous tale of well, good versus evil, with a superflu thrown in for good measure, couldn’t be more visually disturbing rendered by anyone but the team of Roberto Aguiree-Sarcas, Mike Perkins, and Laura Martin.  As always, I do appreciate the writer/artist comments on the work process, artistry, and general feelings about working on such an intense and frightening story.  The Stand is one of my very favorite King concoctions, and yes, I did cringe while sneezing during my reading.  Surprisingly, I was unfazed by the nasty dead faces, oozing with snot, blood, and random bodily fluid gore, while eating my lunch yesterday.  Becoming desensitized visually at my age, I guess – but my concern over coughing and sneezing while following the trail of Captain Trips indicates that I am still at the mercy of King’s creative terrorization.

When I get my hands on these graphic novels, the world stops.  It doesn’t take long to get lost in the Dark Tower series, with Furth’s articulate adaptation (which at times surpasses King’s original – yes, I am inviting trouble, nothing new) and Lee and Isanove’s delicately horrific art.  This may be a fantasy, but much of the time feels all too real.  Cuthbert, pants down, caught unawares by the stubborn Aileen, reminds us that these characters are children, teenagers nowhere near maturity, caught up in a history and tradition that has made them grow up all too soon.  Those moments – and how can readers not laugh at Bert, mouth open, drawers down, with the serious girl behind him, as we imagine her rolling those eyes at the silliness of boys, as teenage girls do – make us suspend any disbelief we may have in the fantastic, for even in this alternate world, these men, women, and children love, hate, and fear just as we do.

“At the end of her life she is aware of heat but not pain, and she thinks of you laughing with an ease and freedom you will never find again in your long life . . . ”

An appropriate description is elusive as I try to capture a way to explain the beauty of The Gunslinger Born. Much anticipated and feared overrated, this graphic novel is nothing less than a masterpiece. I am awe struck by all that it is, the writing, the artwork, the adaptation of an amazing story and sometimes bizarre method of communicating said story by originator Stephen King. Fourteen year old Roland Deschain finds death and love in a world vastly different but not too unlike our own – this is one of many contradictions in the story that is reflective of “real” life. Why do we follow Roland, why do we care? Why did some of us read every Dark Tower installment fervently, even when it was a struggle, searching for answers for Roland, and for ourselves? Family, honor, trust, self-control, prudence, passion, fury, anger – it’s all there, carefully and stunningly represented by Robin Furth, Peter David, Jae Lee, and Richard Isanove. This collection of seven issues chronicles Roland’s traumatic experiences at home that bring him to leave Gilead and travel to Hambry, where his life is forever rocked by emotions and events that are both within and beyond his control. The map and letter from Stephen King, along with the individual and alternate covers are nice additions to the back of the book, but the real deal is Roland, who at fourteen faces challenges we might think are unrealistic for his age, but we don’t need to question the story or Roland. We believe in his strength, his pain, his struggle; we long to stand beside him. This is the beauty of the tale; the connection forged between Roland and the reader is a bond woven over years of study, of an investment of time and emotion that make his story part of who we are at each stage of our reading. We might not understand all that is Roland, and we might not agree with all that he does or all that he believes, but we can relate to him and find solace in that connection as we wrestle with our own Man in Black or long for our own lost Susan Delgado.

The Dark Tower
Dark Tower Comics