Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the first of many regular columns that I'll call Quint's Chum Bucket. I was toying with the idea of a regular column that revolved around the stuff that floats my boat, be it video games, books, comics, toys, multi-region DVDs... All would have to have a heavy geek interest (and if it's something I'm interested in to the extent that I'm writing about it, you can bet it's really geeky stuff) and be material that you usually don't see covered very often on AICN. To pop the Chum Bucket cherry, I thought it'd be appropriate to write about something that's very close to my heart, THE DARK TOWER series.
Starting at about the 6th Grade, I began devouring all things Stephen King. You can thank my childhood love of films like STAND BY ME, SILVER BULLET, CARRIE, CREEPSHOW and THE SHINING and a mother who was a constant reader. I started with CUJO and didn't stop. I spent almost all my free time through Junior High in the library, checking out book after book with King's name on them.
I took an occasional break to make room for required reading and to give some other popular novelists a shot. I read a lot by Benchley (due in large part to my love of the film JAWS), Crichton, Saul, Koontz, Grisham and Struab. While I enjoyed many of the books I read, particularly Crichton's SPHERE and CONGO before both were turned into bad movies, I was raised a King man and I found I always returned to his stuff.
I got to a point when I was trying to decide what to read next. I was running out of King books. I had seen the Dark Tower series in the library, but I was weary of starting them. I wasn't much for westerns at that age (it took a class-room viewing of THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE a year or so later to change that) and that's all I thought the books were. I had also just come off my least favorite King book to date: THE TOMMYKNOCKERS and didn't want a repeat of trudging through a long book that I didn't like.
So, I asked my 8th Grade history teacher his opinion on the Dark Tower books and if I should give them a go. Mr. Kelly was one of those great teachers... the kind that would play The Beatles in class and actually seemed to give a damn about what he was doing. He was a King fan, too, so I knew he would steer me right. His answer: "They're great, I love those books... But if I were you, I'd wait until he finishes the series and just read them straight through." I didn't take his advice.
At that time only the first three books were out: THE GUNSLINGER, THE DRAWING OF THE THREE and THE WASTELANDS and I blew through them like nothing else King had written. Roland's quest for the mysterious Dark Tower, a thing that binds all times, ages, people and realities became a passion for me. King creates a great blend of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action, Horror and Western that is both unique and terribly addictive. I have re-read the books four or five times now (I make it a habit to read through the series whenever the next book is about to be released) and they have lost none of their potency.
I was thinking of giving a rundown of all the previous books, but since this article is mainly for folks that have read the books, I figured that would just get dull. For those of you out there who haven't read the books, I would rather you read through the series than listen to some dumb-ass web movie guy give you a boring book report, so I've made the below fairly spoiler free. It's really just a taste of the universe. For those that know it, there're groovy bits from the next two books, for those that don't... well, consider this a sort of wine tasting. If you like what you see or what you read, head over to the nearest book store and give the first book a read. I bet you'll be hooked!
The last book released was Book 5, THE WOLVES OF THE CALLA, which was a fantastic homage to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and, vicariously, SEVEN SAMURAI. The Dark Tower series he has been incredibly consistent through King's ups and downs as a novelist and I was happy to see that WOLVES OF THE CALLA was still King at his very best.
So it is that in the year 2004 the final two books will be released: THE SONG OF SUSANNAH and THE DARK TOWER. I thought I'd dig up some info on these upcoming books and share what I find with you folks out there, be you constant reader or fresh meat.
This book comes out June 8th and boy does it sound funky. Here's a link to the description as posted on Donald M. Grant's Official Website (be warned there are spoilers). I didn't copy and paste the description as a means to avoid spoiling the story thus far, but I do have some interesting tidbits I've gathered from interviews with King and some side research that shouldn't be too big a deal.
It appears that King has written himself into the series Charlie Kaufman style. That's kinda messed up, but somehow fitting. I also read an interview with King where he said that there are some surprise returning characters from the first four books. When pressed he gave up one name: Sheemie. Those fans of WIZARD AND GLASS I'm sure will be happy to hear that.
The above pic is the cover art for the UK edition of SONG OF SUSANNAH, which looks cooler (in my mind), albeit a tad reminiscent of THE TWO TOWERS. Also released are 2 of the 10 illustrations that will accompany the book, illustrated by Darrel Anderson:
The artwork reminds me of Dave McKean's work on the fourth Dark Tower book, WIZARD AND GLASS.
It's not my favorite artwork from the series, a bit too abstract for me, but it's always interesting to see the Dark Tower universe through the eyes of different artists. I loved Bernie Wrightson's illustrations in WOLVES OF THE CALLA.
But I have to say that even though I think Michael Whelan (THE GUNSLINGER) is the best at capturing the magic of the story, I'm more partial to Phil Hale's work in the second book, THE DRAWING OF THE THREE.
Anyway, without any further ado, how about a look at two images from the 7th and final Dark Tower book: THE DARK TOWER (to be released on September 21, which, funny enough, is also King's birthday)... In a grand bookend to the series Michael Whelan, illustrator of the very first Dark Tower book, finishes out the series. This is my favorite of the two images that have popped up. Fan site Lilja's Library says that this is the cover for the audio book, which would make it one of Whelan's illustrations within the book:
I love that shot... To me it's the closest any of the illustrations of Roland have gotten to what is in my mind. This final picture is supposedly the UK cover of THE DARK TOWER.
It's alright, but I hope the US cover is more like the previous books, with the cover being one of the illustrations from within. This kinda looks like it should be on the T-shirt of a D&D geek with a fiery dragon standing in front of it.
With the success of LORD OF THE RINGS and the scramble to greenlight other Fantasy films, does that mean we'll see a Dark Tower series made? King has always said that he'll never let the rights to the books out, but in more recent years he suggests it's a possibility, but it'd have to be given a LOTR treatment or be an HBO series.
I personally would hate for the books to be made into an episodic series... But HBO I think would treat the material right. You'd definitely get away with the Demon rape, foul language and gore, which is a big plus. Maybe instead they will make a series of HBO Original films, premiering two a year until the story is finished? Who knows. Right now all that's sure is King has a tight handhold on the rights and won't let them go.
I'm going to try to get my hands on Advance Reading Copies of SONG OF SUSANNAH and THE DARK TOWER... If I get 'em I'll make sure to review 'em for you folks. Who knows? Maybe I'll even be able to wrangle an interview with King himself and then we'd get to the bottom of the movie rights angle. I'll see what I can do.
To those that haven't picked the series up yet (if you haven't and you've read this far, then I'm sure you're terribly confused), now's the time. Hit the Half-Price Books in your area and find the large soft covers with the illustrations in them. Or if you want to shill out the big bucks, you can always go to Amazon.com.
That about wraps this one up, squirts. I know this first Chum Bucket plays a bit to an exclusive audience, those Dark Tower junkies like me, so thanks for sticking with me.The next installments will be a bit more eclectic, I assure you! I'll be back soon with some reviews and maybe even an interview or two. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
email: Quint has not forgotten the face of his father! Email him here!!!
