The Long Road Home (The Dark Tower Graphic Novels, Book 2)

When Marvel's first collaboration with Stephen King's Dark Tower series first hit with The Gunslinger Born, it was a revelation. Purists may see things a little different, but to me, The Gunslinger Born was a wonderfully realized comic event that even more wonderfully captured the spirit and soul of King's beloved series. Being a smash hit for Marvel, it comes to no surprise that a sequel would get greenlit, hence The Long Road Home. Picking up right where The Gunslinger Born left off, The Long Road Home finds young Roland Deschain reeling from the tragic death of his first love Susan Delgado, but it isn't long at all before Roland and his ka-tet are on the run, leading up to a meeting with none other than the Crimson King. As mentioned above in an excellent review, The Long Road Home isn't quite as gripping as The Gunslinger Born, nor is it as simple for newcomers to King's universe to get into either. Still, co-writers Peter David and Robin Furth manage to pay wonderful homage to King's epic universe, while setting up the future, catastrophic events to follow. Jae Lee continues to render some beautiful, intense, and occasionally horrifying artwork as well, which is reason enough to pick this hardcover up. All in all, The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home doesn't quite live up to The Gunslinger Born, but it still manages to leave the reader with quite an impression regardless.

Shortly after graduating high school (too many years ago to admit to), I read my first Stephen King novel called Firestarter about young Ms. Charlie McGee. Shortly after, I decided to take on King's 800+ page epic called The Stand (updated in the 90s to 1100+ pages!)....After those two novels I was hooked on anything King...couldn't wait for his next release.

In 1982 King brought back the main antagonist (albeit under a different name) of The Stand for the beginning of what turned into an awesome seven-part series called The Dark Tower. In 2007 we were treated with a new beginning to The Dark Tower series, a prequel, a graphic novel called The Gunslinger Born. Hence, I could not wait for The Long Road Home...this second installment of the spinoff comic book Dark Tower series.

King again worked closely with Marvel, his personal assistant of several years (Robin Furth) and an experienced comic book writer (Peter David) in order to deliver this second adaptation of his work. The Long Road Home is a bit more Robin Furth and Peter David than was The Gunslinger Born. In other words, any King fan(atic) knows King's signature style and typical prose. And that style and prose was clear as day in The Gunslinger Born. But in The Long Road Home, it just seemed a bit less King and a bit more Furth and David. This is not really a bad thing. It's just that King has that magic that makes you a dedicated reader; that magic is kind of MIA in The Long Road Home.

Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed The Long Road Home. But don't expect a Stephen King novel. Sure, King had oversight, and Furth and David are good...but they are not The King.

The story picks up with Roland Deschain and friends Alain and Bert as they make their way home from their first assignment by The Elders that was played out in The Gunslinger Born. It's a cool adventure, but I'd be more interested if from here Furth, David and King took the actual Dark Tower novels and converted them into graphic novels for an amazing, image-filled, refreshing re-read. After all...it's been 25 years since I read the first Dark Tower novel, and the way my memory has been working lately, a graphic novel adaptation would be like reading it for the first time. Do ya kennit?

Regardless, whether you've ever read a comic book, graphic novel, Dark Tower or Stephen King story for that matter, The Gunslinger Born and The Long Road Home are great escapes into a world that goes on forever. I highly recommend reading them in the order that they were released.

I'm a fan of The Dark Tower series. And these comic serializations are pretty good (though so far, I don't see that they fill in gaps so much as reorder the story). But each new edition advances the storyline painfully slowly -- and by the time it is all finished, what will it have cost the reader -- several hundred dollars or so? That just seems awfully expensive compared to the seven books themselves.

I really do wish these comics would take the narrative farther each time. It's like paying four or five bucks for one day's worth of a daily comic strip.

I have been looking forward to this imagining of the Gunslinger novels since I heard of it, and I have not been disappointed. The artwork is wonderful; vibrant colors and gritty realism. The Long Road Home fleshes out a period of Roland's quest for the Tower that is not within King's canon, but is interesting nonetheless.
I could have done without some of the fiddling with the story (an expanded role of Sheemie), and the comics unfortunately don't convey the vastness of Roland's world and his quest as well the words "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Still, a great addition to the Gunslinger universe.

Unlike Gunslinger Born this is pretty much new material, not a quick summary of Roland's flashbacks. The authors take some liberties with the story, especially concerning the story of Sheemie. (In DT7 Roland says he always knew Sheemie was special but according to this story that was quite the understatement.) But it also means it flows a lot better as a comic book. Read it if you're a tower junkie. If not, you probably won't get much out of it.