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

This book has many different covers.
I have found 4 different covers so far.
One cover is only at Amazon.
One cover is only at Borders. ISBN: 978-0-7851-3572-2
I found "two" different covers at Barnes & Noble, one cover is only at Barnes & Noble. ISBN: 978-0-7851-3573-9 the other is ISBN: 978-0-7851-2709-3
I don't know if there are more covers.
If anyone finds more than 4 different covers please add that information to this site.
Thank-You :-)

Beginning immediately where THE GUNSLINGER BORN ended, THE LONG ROAD HOME tells the story of how the young Roland Deschain, Alain Johns, and Bert Allgood returned home to Gilead after their first major adventure together. Roland shoots Maerlyn's Grapefruit which turns into a giant eyeball that jumps on Roland and sucks his soul into a neatherworld of evil. There Roland comes face to face for the first time against the Crimson King. Alain and Bert carry Roland's body with them and protect it while being chased by the last Big Coffin Hunter and mutated wolves. Meanwhile, Sheemie, the mentally-challenged boy that Roland and his ka-tet defended and took under wing, struggles alone on his own and encounters a robot that gives him special powers.

THE GUNSLINGER BORN was the beginning of an epic saga. It read like an action-filled television series leading to a climatic cliffhanger. THE LONG ROAD HOME reads as the season-opening episode of the same series that wraps up the cliffhanger from before. The story is much simpler, much more direct, and moves at a faster pace. Much of the THE GUNSLINGER BORN was given to exposition. There is no exposition in THE LONG ROAD HOME. Yet, the story is just as engaging. Where THE GUNSLINGER BORN told how Roland and his original ka-tet came together, THE LONG ROAD HOME alludes to a future in which the ka-tet will be dissolved.

The artwork is magnificent and some of the stand alone frames and scenes could be blown up and turned into wall-mounted pieces. The artists do an excellent job of capturing the pink and bleak world that Roland finds himself in when swallowed by the Eye, juxtaposing it to a more colorful, though darker world where his ka-tet are.

The only major drawback of the book is that readers who have not read the previous book, THE GUNSLINGER BORN or who have not read King's WIZARD AND GLASS might be confused when reading the book. As mentioned before, there is no exposition in this story which is a good thing for fans of the series, but something newcomers might find a bit confusing.

Overall, not a bad graphic novel that fans of Stephen King and THE DARK TOWER series will probably enjoy the most.

The folks behind this project are determined to give readers the "back story" to how Roland became the man we first meet following the dark man across the desert. The first release in this series relied on the story from "Wizard and Glass", but now the authors are on their own. From this book on, there are no more tales from Stephen King's work to guide them, only hints here and there that don't add up to much, but are quite intriguing. As to the book itself, the artwork is excellent, and the dialogue is fairly true to the King style. It appears that this is going to be a long series, going from the end of this book all the way to the battle of Jericho Hill. No matter how long it takes, or how many books need to contain it, I will certainly be along for the ride!

This is the second story arc of Roland and The Dark Tower, and it picks up right after The Gunslinger Born. Roland has Merlyn's Grapefruit and they are trying to flee back to Gilead. Along the way Roland gets trapped in the grapefruit and has to face horrors as well as the Crimson King.

I enjoyed this story arc better than the first because this was all new material, so I was being told a tale of Roland than was previously untold. But I will admit it wasn't great, just good. In fact I really can't see someone really getting into this story unless they've read The Dark Tower by King because so much of it is based on other events that have been previously told, and events that happen reference the books. So you catch those references if you've read the books, but you'll miss them if you haven't.

And once again the best parts of these comics are the in-depth detail about the cannon of The Dark Tower stories and world. At the end of each comic is text that goes of for at least 4 pages explaining some detail of The Dark Tower cannon. I somehow feel that something's not right when I actually enjoy these parts better than the comic story arc itself. Regardless, if you are a fan of The Dark Tower these comics are becoming very valuable companion pieces to the stories.

If you're a fan of the Dark Tower Comics, then this book is a must have.

Gathered here is the Long Road Home story arc.

Please be aware - there is another Hardcover available only here at Amazon which features a different "sketch" cover.