The Dark Tower (comics)

The Dark Tower
Cover of The Gunslinger Born #1
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Genre	Fantasy, science fiction, horror, western
Main character(s)	Roland Deschain, Alain Johns, Cuthbert Allgood, Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean
Creative team
Writer(s)	Robin Furth (adaptation) Peter David (script)
Artist(s)	Jae Lee, Richard Isanove, Dean White, Sean Phillips, Luke Ross, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Laurence Campbell, Alex Maleev, Piotr Kowalski, Nick Filardi, Julian Totino Tedesco, Jonathan Marks, Lee Loughridge, Nimit Malavia, Juanan Ramirez, Jay Anacleto
Creator(s)	Stephen King

The Dark Tower, first published in 2007, is a series of comic books by Marvel Comics based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. Overall, it is plotted by Robin Furth and scripted by Peter David. Stephen King serves as Creative and Executive Director of the project.

Overview

The first chapter run of the series, entitled simply The Dark Tower, consists of thirty issues that make up five volumes illustrated primarily by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. The first volume, The Gunslinger Born, is based mostly on flashbacks from The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass; the remaining volumes (The Long Road Home, Treachery, Fall of Gilead, and Battle of Jericho Hill) contain mostly new content which expands upon details and events more briefly referenced throughout the novels. In addition to the five primary story arcs, the chapter run also includes one limited series, The Sorcerer. As stated by Peter David's afterword to The Long Road Home, the chapter run details Roland Deschain's "progress from callow youth to gunslinger," starting with his adventures in Mejis from Wizard and Glass and ending with the Battle of Jericho Hill (as detailed in The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower).

The second chapter run, under the title of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, consists of another thirty issues broken up into five additional volumes written by Furth and David. Following Lee's departure from the series, this chapter run featured Isanove teaming with a different artist for each story arc. The first volume, The Journey Begins, takes place twelve years after the Battle of Jericho Hill and mostly details events which occurred between the time of the battle and the start of the novel The Gunslinger. The second volume, The Little Sisters of Eluria, is based mostly upon the short story of the same name (originally published within Legends) found in the Stephen King collection Everything's Eventual. The remaining volumes are largely adaptations of the novellas within The Gunslinger. The third, The Battle of Tull, is based mostly upon content from "The Gunslinger". The fourth, The Way Station, is based mostly upon "The Way Station" and "The Oracle and the Mountains". The fifth, The Man in Black, is based mostly upon "The Slow Mutants" and "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man". In addition to the five primary story arcs, a total of three limited series (Sheemie's Tale, Evil Ground, and So Fell Lord Perth) were released as part of this chapter run.

The Dark Tower comics were planned to be finished after the August 7, 2013, release of So Fell Lord Perth.^[1] However, on April 25, 2014, a third chapter run, The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, was announced.^[2] This chapter run, based primarily on the novel The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, continued to be written by Furth and David but featured, for the first time, new, rotating artistic teams that did not feature Isanove. The volumes in this chapter run focus on the newly gathered (or 'drawn') members of Roland's ka-tet, as divided in the novel into sections based on the mysterious doors through which Roland must travel. The first and second volumes (The Prisoner and House of Cards) focus on Eddie Dean, who was introduced in the section of the novel also named "The Prisoner". The third and fourth volumes (Lady of Shadows and Bitter Medicine) focus on Odetta Holmes, who was introduced in the section of the novel named "The Lady of Shadows". The fifth volume (The Sailor) focuses on Jake Chambers, who survived his original fate thanks to a change in the timeline (as shown in the section of the novel named "The Pusher") and who now struggles to find a way to return to Mid-World (as depicted in the first half of The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands).

As of November 7, 2007, Marvel has been publishing collections for each story arc, and on September 21, 2011, it began publishing hardcover omnibus editions collecting each chapter run, with bonus materials not contained in the original releases.

Chapter runs and story arcs

Arc #	Title	Issue(s)	Date(s)	Plot	Script	Interior Art	Cover(s)*
The Dark Tower
1	The Gunslinger Born	7	February 7 - August 1, 2007	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove
2	The Long Road Home	5	March 5 - July 2, 2008	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove
3	Treachery	6	September 10, 2008 - February 25, 2009	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove
*	The Sorcerer	1	April 15, 2009	Robin Furth	Robin Furth	Richard Isanove	Richard Isanove
4	Fall of Gilead	6	May 13 - November 25, 2009	Robin Furth	Peter David	Richard Isanove, Dean White	Richard Isanove, Jae Lee
5	Battle of Jericho Hill	5	December 3, 2009 - April 21, 2010	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove	Jae Lee & Richard Isanove
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
1	The Journey Begins	5	May 19 - September 22, 2010	Robin Furth	Peter David	Sean Phillips & Richard Isanove	Sean Phillips & Richard Isanove
2	The Little Sisters of Eluria	5	December 8, 2010 - April 13, 2011	Robin Furth	Peter David	Luke Ross & Richard Isanove	Luke Ross & Richard Isanove
3	The Battle of Tull	5	June 1 - October 5, 2011	Robin Furth	Peter David	Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Richard Isanove	Michael Lark & Richard Isanove
4	The Way Station	5	December 14, 2011 - April 25, 2012	Robin Furth	Peter David	Laurence Campbell & Richard Isanove	Laurence Campbell & Richard Isanove
5	The Man in Black	5	June 20 - October 17, 2012	Robin Furth	Peter David	Alex Maleev & Richard Isanove	Alex Maleev
*	Sheemie's Tale	2	January 9 - February 13, 2013	Robin Furth	Robin Furth	Richard Isanove	Richard Isanove
*	Evil Ground	2	April 3 - June 5, 2013	Robin Furth	Peter David	Richard Isanove, Dean White	Richard Isanove
*	So Fell Lord Perth	1	August 7, 2013	Robin Furth	Peter David	Richard Isanove	Richard Isanove
	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three
1	The Prisoner	5	September 17 - November 30, 2014	Robin Furth	Peter David	Piotr Kowalski & Nick Filardi	Julian Totino Tedesco
2	House of Cards	5	March 25 - July 15, 2015	Robin Furth	Peter David	Piotr Kowalski & Nick Filardi	Julian Totino Tedesco
3	Lady of Shadows	5	September 2, 2015 - January 20, 2016	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jonathan Marks & Lee Loughridge	Nimit Malavia
4	Bitter Medicine	5	April 20 - August 31, 2016	Robin Furth	Peter David	Jonathan Marks & Lee Loughridge	Nimit Malavia
5	The Sailor	5	October 12, 2016 -	Robin Furth	Peter David	Juanan Ramirez	Jay Anacleto

Notes

Cover artists listed are for primary first-printing cover art, not additional printings and/or variant covers.
The Sorcerer is a one-shot that serves as a prelude to Fall of Gilead.
Sheemie's Tale, originally a one-shot that was meant to serve as an interlude between The Journey Begins and The Little Sisters of Eluria, was scheduled for publication in November 2010, then postponed to January 26, 2011, and later put on indefinite hiatus.^[3] The final issue of The Man in Black announced that Sheemie's Tale would be next in the series.^[4] While it was originally solicited as a one-shot, when finally released in 2013 it was announced as a two-issue limited series.^[1]^[5]
Evil Ground is a two-issue limited series which, chronologically, takes place between The Journey Begins and The Little Sisters of Eluria but also features memories of a journey in the past. It is framed as a story-within-a-story-within-a-story, much like the Dark Tower novel The Wind through the Keyhole, although the plots are not directly related.
So Fell Lord Perth is a one-shot which, when published, concluded the run of releases from The Gunslinger. Its story, featuring the fictitious legend of Arthur Eld and his battle against the towering Lord Perth, mirrors the biblical account of David and Goliath.

Other releases

Title	Issue(s)	Date(s)
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born Sketchbook	1	December 13, 2006
Marvel Spotlight: The Dark Tower	1	January 27, 2007
The Dark Tower: Gunslinger's Guidebook	1	August 1, 2007
The Dark Tower: End-World Almanac	1	July 2, 2008
The Dark Tower: Guide to Gilead	1	April 8, 2009

Notes

Gunslinger's Guidebook, End-World Almanac, and Guide to Gilead were each one-shot sourcebooks written by Furth and Anthony Flamini with additional interior art by David Yardin. Each publication provided background information on the people, places, and mythology of the Dark Tower series.

Collections

Story arc collections

Vol #	Title	Format	ISBN	Release date	Collected material
The Dark Tower
1	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born	Hardcover	0785121447	November 7, 2007	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1-7
1	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born	Paperback	0785121455	May 19, 2010	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1-7
2	The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home	Hardcover	0785135715	October 7, 2008	The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1-5
2	The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home	Paperback	0785127798	October 20, 2010	The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1-5
3	The Dark Tower: Treachery	Hardcover	078513574X	April 21, 2009	The Dark Tower: Treachery #1-6
3	The Dark Tower: Treachery	Paperback	0785135758	March 16, 2011	The Dark Tower: Treachery #1-6
4	The Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead	Hardcover	0785129510	February 23, 2010	The Dark Tower: The Sorcerer #1 and Fall of Gilead #1-6
4	The Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead	Paperback	0785129529	November 2, 2011	The Dark Tower: The Sorcerer #1 and Fall of Gilead #1-6
5	The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill	Hardcover	0785129537	August 18, 2010	The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #1-5
5	The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill	Paperback	0785129545	May 9, 2012	The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #1-5
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
6	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Journey Begins	Hardcover	0785147098	January 25, 2011	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Journey Begins #1-5
6	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Journey Begins	Paperback	0785147101	November 14, 2012	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Journey Begins #1-5
7	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Little Sisters of Eluria	Hardcover	0785149317	June 22, 2011	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Little Sisters of Eluria #1-5
7		Paperback	0785149325	January 29, 2013
8	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Battle of Tull	Hardcover	0785149333	January 25, 2012	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Battle of Tull #1-5
8	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Battle of Tull	Paperback	0785149341	May 7, 2013	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Battle of Tull #1-5
9	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Way Station	Hardcover	078514935X	June 27, 2012	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Way Station #1-5
9	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Way Station	Paperback	0785149368	July 30, 2013	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Way Station #1-5
10	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Man in Black	Hardcover	0785149376	January 15, 2013	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Man in Black #1-5
10	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Man in Black	Paperback	0785149384	October 29, 2013	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - The Man in Black #1-5
11	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Last Shots	Paperback	0785149414	October 8, 2013	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Sheemie's Tale #1-2, Evil Ground #1-2, and So Fell Lord Perth #1
The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three
12	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - The Prisoner	Paperback	0785191577	March 10, 2015	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - The Prisoner #1-5
13	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - House of Cards	Paperback	0785192816	September 22, 2015	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - House of Cards #1-5
14	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Lady of Shadows	Paperback	0785192824	March 29, 2016	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Lady of Shadows #1-5
15	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Bitter Medicine	Paperback	0785192808	October 18, 2016	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Bitter Medicine #1-5
16	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - The Sailor	Paperback	0785192840	April 4, 2017	The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - The Sailor #1-5

Omnibus collections

Vol #	Title	Format	ISBN	Release date	Collected material
The Dark Tower
1	The Dark Tower Omnibus	Hardcover	0785155414	September 21, 2011	Story arc collections 1–5
1	The Dark Tower Omnibus Companion	Hardcover	0785155414	September 21, 2011	Bonus material not included in the original individual collections (1-5)
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
2	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Omnibus	Hardcover	0785188703	September 3, 2014	Story arc collections 6-11
2	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Omnibus Companion	Hardcover	0785188703	September 3, 2014	Bonus material not included in the original individual collections (6-11)

Notes

Story arc collections 1-10 originally were made available in both hardcover and softcover (paperback) formats. Beginning with collection 11, the only printed edition released was a paperback format. (This does not apply to the omnibus editions, which continued to be released solely in hardcover.)

The Stand (comics)

References

External links

Official Dark Tower comics site

Stephen King

Bibliography Short fiction Unpublished and uncollected Awards and nominations

Novels	Carrie (1974) 'Salem's Lot (1975) The Shining (1977) The Stand (1978) The Dead Zone (1979) Firestarter (1980) Cujo (1981) Christine (1983) Pet Sematary (1983) Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) The Talisman (1984) It (1986) The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) Misery (1987) The Tommyknockers (1987) The Dark Half (1989) Needful Things (1991) Gerald's Game (1992) Dolores Claiborne (1992) Insomnia (1994) Rose Madder (1995) The Green Mile (1996) Desperation (1996) Bag of Bones (1998) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) The Plant (2000; unfinished) Dreamcatcher (2001) Black House (2001) From a Buick 8 (2002) The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) Lisey's Story (2006) Duma Key (2008) Under the Dome (2009) 11/22/63 (2011) Joyland (2013) Doctor Sleep (2013) Mr. Mercedes (2014) Revival (2014) Finders Keepers (2015) End of Watch (2016)

The Dark Tower series	The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004) The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)

Richard Bachman novels	Rage (1977) The Long Walk (1979) Roadwork (1981) The Running Man (1982) Thinner (1984) The Bachman Books (1985) The Regulators (1996) Blaze (2007)

Short fiction collections	Night Shift (1978) Different Seasons (1982) Skeleton Crew (1985) Four past Midnight (1990) Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) Six Stories (1997) Hearts in Atlantis (1999) Everything's Eventual (2002) Just After Sunset (2008) Stephen King Goes to the Movies (2009) Full Dark, No Stars (2010) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015)

Non-fiction	Danse Macabre (1981) Nightmares in the Sky (1988) On Writing (2000) Secret Windows (2000) Faithful (2004) "Guns" (2013) Hearts in Suspension (2016)

Screenplays	Creepshow (1982) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) Pet Sematary (1989) Sleepwalkers (1992) A Good Marriage (2014) Cell (2016)

Teleplays	"Sorry, Right Number" (1987) Golden Years (1991) The Stand (1994) The Shining (1997) "Chinga" (1998) Storm of the Century (1999) Rose Red (2002) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Desperation (2006) "Heads Will Roll" (2014)

Comics	Creepshow (1982) Heroes for Hope (1985) The Secretary of Dreams (2006) The Dark Tower (2007–) The Stand (2008–12) The Talisman (2009–10) American Vampire (2010) N. (2010) Road Rage (2012) The Dark Man (2013)

Musical collaborations	Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997) Black Ribbons (2010) Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012)

Anthologies edited	The Best American Short Stories 2007 (2007) Six Scary Stories (2016)

Worlds and concepts	Fictional locations of Maine Jerusalem's Lot Castle Rock Derry Fictional books Multiverse All-World Connections to The Dark Tower

Related articles	List of adaptations Books about Stephen King Dollar Baby Philtrum Press Charlie the Choo-Choo Rock Bottom Remainders Tabitha King Joe Hill Owen King

Book Category

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

Novels	The Gunslinger The Drawing of the Three The Waste Lands Wizard and Glass Wolves of the Calla Song of Susannah The Dark Tower The Wind Through the Keyhole

Short stories	"The Gunslinger" "The Way Station" "The Oracle and the Mountains" "The Slow Mutants" "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" "The Little Sisters of Eluria"

Comics	The Gunslinger Born The Long Road Home Treachery The Sorcerer Fall of Gilead Battle of Jericho Hill The Journey Begins The Little Sisters of Eluria

Characters	Roland Deschain Father Callahan Randall Flagg Crimson King

Related books	'Salem's Lot The Stand The Talisman Skeleton Crew It The Eyes of the Dragon Insomnia Rose Madder Desperation The Regulators Bag of Bones Hearts in Atlantis Black House Everything's Eventual From a Buick 8 Charlie the Choo-Choo

Other	All-World Multiverse Film

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