Stephen King's The Dark Tower - The Gunslinger: The Journey Begins

In the first Dark Tower novel, The Gunslinger (1982), we are introduced to protagonist Roland Deschain as he chases the Man in Black across the Mohaine Desert. We learn of his quest and glimpse parts of his tragic past, getting a clearer sense of the boy who becomes the man.

This graphic novel is

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essentially a retelling of The Gunslinger, but with an ingenious twist: The back-story points to a different part of Roland's still-unexplored youth. I was not expecting this, and I thought it a uniquely clever way to color Roland's story without retreading too much.

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Roland Deschain has lost everything and everyone he cares about and now in 'The Journey Begins' he is alone and pursuing the Man in Black across the desert. He encounters a few hospitable strangers and shares his tale, remembering some more of his past in Gilead. The mature Roland is more tolerable

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and less arrogant than his younger self.

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This is the 6th book in the Dark Tower Graphic Novel series. I was super excited to read this installment in this series because it starts the story of Roland and his journey as the lone Gunslinger. It ended up being a well done story but jumps around quite a bit.

The story starts with Roland as an

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older Gunslinger, many years after the Battle of Jericho Hill. Then the story promptly jumps back to the events immediately following Jericho Hill. We also get to jump way back into the past when Roland was a young boy, this happens when older Roland stumbles upon an old man in a deserted hut and tells him some stories from his youth.

This book is the start of the long, lean, and ugly Gunslinger we are all familiar with from the Dark Tower series. We get to see him search the vast wastelands as he follows The Black Man in hopes of finally reaching The Tower. I was hoping we would see more of Roland as the aged Gunslinger in this book. However, we see more of flashbacks into his past than anything else.

The book was interesting and made me excited to see what future books hold for our grizzled old Gunslinger.

The illustration throughout was very well done; it’s full color, incredibly detailed, beautiful, and easy to follow. I enjoyed the illustration a lot.

The story continues to have a very dark and hopeless tone to it and is set in a desolate world. I would recommend for older young adults or adults.

Overall this was a well done installment in the Dark Tower graphic novel series. I continue to enjoy the beautiful illustration and was excited to see Roland as the old grizzled Gunslinger who is on his eternal quest for the Dark Tower. I was a bit disappointed by how much the story jumps around...however it was nice to get some resolution around the battle of Jericho Hill and get some brief glimpses into a very young Roland’s life. I will definitely continue reading this series and recommend it to those who enjoy dark and gritty fantasy graphic novels.

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This was the weakest of the collections I've read so far. "The Journey Begins" picked up where "The Battle of Jericho" left off, which is a good thing because the way the writers kept Roland from dying was unrealistic and ambiguous. "The Journey Begins" clears that up in a satisfying way. But from

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there, Roland returns to Gilead and encounters the ghost of Hax and we re-live that part of "The Gunslinger." We also see Roland meet up with Brown and the crow Zoltan, also from the beginning of "The Gunslinger." This time, rather than telling Brown about Tull, we here a different story from Roland. It's not bad, but it's not anything special either.

If you love The Dark Tower and have read the other collections, by all means, read this one. Just don't expect as much.

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