In response to disappointment by some fans that Stephen King won’t be writing the Dark Tower comic, Don MacPherson dissects Marvel’s initial press release on the Stephen King/Dark Tower comic and the subsequent announcements about the book’s content:
The problem is that recently, many are crying foul, feeling as though Marvel promised a King-written comic book featuring new content, not adapted material. It turns out comics writer Peter David is penning the scripts, with art by Jae Lee. Thanks to the magic of Google, it’s easy to determine if those bait-and-switch allegations have any real basis. I dug up the original news release (issued in the fall of 2005), as well as various websites’ coverage of the initial announcement.
Other versions of the initial news release online note that the first issue of this landmark project was originally slated for release in April 2006. With Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1 slated for release Feb. 7, that puts the project almost a full year behind schedule. That’s another black eye for the project from a publisher with an unfortunate reputation for lateness when it comes to high-profile projects.
Read the rest over at Eye on Comics.
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
As a huge fan of the Dark Tower Series, and am looking forward to this, even if King is only “overseeing” the project. If you have some time, go over to the http://www.darktower.net and check out the comments on this series. It spells out several questions and problems with the comics industry. Mainly format, price and distribution.
It’s funny to see them so surprised at the “cheap” price of 3.00 per issue.
They are also very confused on where they can buy the comics.
It also seems like they are very excited about the signed editions. DF should do very well.
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
In other words… Marvel led everyone to believe that we were going to get “original” Stephen King material and we end up with Peter David’s adaptation of a King novel.
BREAKING NEWS: This just in - Marvel has joined forces with Bill Shakespeare to produce original material…Romeo and Juliet by Peter David!
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
In other words… Marvel led everyone to believe that we were going to get “original” Stephen King material and we end up with Peter David’s adaptation of a King novel.
You didn’t bother to actually read the link, did you? You just saw the word “Marvel” and went into bash mode, didn’t you?
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I read it. Yes - they used clever PR wording to hide the truth, but that doesn’t change the fact that they did everything they could to make us THINK King was writing an ORIGINAL story.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Actually the original reason for the delay given was King’s schedule, but since it’s actually written by someone else there’s really no reason for a nearly one year delay.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:07 pm
The original reason given for the delay was to give Jae Lee time to draw the series, I don’t remember King’s schedule being mentioned in relation to this.
Also, it was clear from the beginning that King wouldn’t be the only one writing this project (Robin Furth was mentioned in the original press release):
http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=1287274&postcount=34
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
“You didn’t bother to actually read the link, did you? You just saw the word “Marvel” and went into bash mode, didn’t you?”
You didn’t bother to actualy read his comment, did you? You just saw the word “Marvel” and went into attack mode, didn’t you?
Cause, God forbid anyone dare say anything remotely critical about Marvel Comics. Thank God for you though. Why Marvel might be a billion dollar corporation, but their feelings get hurt.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm
David H. wrote:
Marvel might be a billion dollar corporation
Whoa. Marvel doesn’t do business in the billions each year. Millions, yes. Not billions.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Don M wrote:
Whoa. Marvel doesn’t do business in the billions each year. Millions, yes. Not billions.
Ummmm…now that they have their own movie enterprise, I don’t think that will be the case.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:56 pm
As I’ve posted on Don’s blog:
I think you stretch greatly here. We have many words that contradict this being unoriginal stuff, but you’ve hinged your defense on one word (”adapted”) that could still have allowed for this to be fully original. You could say “Smallville” adapts the Superman/Superboy mythos for the Beverly Hill 90210 audience, but it is still is largely original material.
January 3rd, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Both Stephen King and Jae Lee are on record saying the first few issues are straightforward adaptation material. I doubt the King fanbase still stick around beyond that point for “new” or original material.