Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1

History

Marvel's announcement of the Dark Tower comics adaptation came in late 2005, with Stephen King himself publicly confirming the project on his official website. The adaptation was shaped by Robin Furth — King's own research assistant and author of the official Dark Tower concordance — who plotted the series, while seasoned Marvel scripter Peter David handled the dialogue; King took the formal role of Creative and Executive Director and personally reviewed scripts and line-edited the work before publication. Furth's deep familiarity with the source material led to a workflow in which her outlines were simultaneously submitted to King's longtime editor Chuck Verrill and to Marvel's editorial staff, ensuring the comics hewed faithfully to King's vision while also functioning as a genuine entry point for readers unfamiliar with the novels. The first issue shipped in an oversized 48-page cardstock format on February 7, 2007 — given a midnight release to match the fanfare typically reserved for major prose releases — with immediate demand prompting at least two subsequent printings of the debut issue.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First comic book issue ever published based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower novel series (Marvel Comics, February 7, 2007).
• Creative team: plot by Robin Furth, script by Peter David, pencils/inks by Jae Lee, colors by Richard Isanove, letters by Chris Eliopoulos; Stephen King served as Creative and Executive Director.
• First comic book appearances of Roland Deschain, Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Marten Broadcloak, Cort, Gabrielle Deschain, Steven Deschain, and Roland's hawk David.
• The story adapts events primarily drawn from King's fourth novel, Wizard and Glass, depicting Roland's coming-of-age duel against his trainer Cort — fought at age fourteen, an unprecedented feat — in which Roland uses his hunting hawk David as his weapon to win his guns.
• Issue #1 received a midnight launch with Peter David, Jae Lee, and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada appearing at a Times Square signing event, a launch format normally reserved for major novel releases.
• Multiple variant covers were produced for the first printing, including a 1:25 retailer-incentive variant with a cover by Joe Quesada and a 1:75 Jae Lee sketch variant; a second printing featured a new Quesada cover.
• The seven-issue series was collected in a hardcover edition (Marvel, November 7, 2007), though that collection omitted the prose bonus material published in the individual issues; a paperback followed in 2010.
• In 2018, Gallery 13 (a Simon & Schuster imprint) acquired the publication rights and reprinted the collected series under the banner Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Beginnings, and a complete boxed set of the first five volumes was released in October 2018.

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Variants (5)