Not too much to say here. We get to see Gilead before it's fall. Constant Readers know about some of the events if you have read the other Dark Tower books. We have Roland reeling from killing his mother and Cort on his deathbed. 

 

Oh Roland. He is really a tragic figure. I know that King took inspiration from the Tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table when writing the Dark Tower. You just see more similarities in the comics than the books when you read about Maerlyn, and Stephen Deschain and his wife, Gabrielle Deschain. I am starting to see Roland a more of a Galahad at times with him and his quest for the Dark Tower. 

 

We get Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain still doing what they can to stand by Roland and Gilead. We also have the character of Aileen Ritter who would be a gunslinger except for her being born a girl and not a boy. And we follow along with Sheemie too. 

 

I don't have much to say besides I really enjoyed this installment. We know what what the Gunslingers are going to go and though you wish it could be different, it is not meant to be. We also get some backstory on the Man in Black and I maybe get the skin crawls. Reading this on my Kindle was fine. I was able to zoom in on panels. I just wish that Amazon had set it like it did the one shot comics I was reading where the panels zoom in automatically for you and then zoom out when you get to the last one on the page. 

 

The illustrations are a bit darker in this one I have to say. It was hard to read people's faces here and there.

 

 

The comic flow was a bit haphazard at times before we get to the endpoint. 

 

Looking to read "Battle of Jericho Hill" next. 

Oh god, this book. This is what I've been waiting for since I started reading the first issue of the first mini.I always knew this could not end well. We know from the books that it ends with the deaths of Roland's family and friends, the destruction of his home and the victory of the villain of their time. But seeing it all happening in the pages of this book, seeing the mounting sense of horror and loss and desperation as thing after thing goes wrong... it was one of the most driving and yet gut-wrenching comics I've read.Jae Lee's art has been pretty spot-on in every issue, but I think he really hit it out of the park here. There are so many pages that almost felt like they'd be even better, even more impactful without the text. The page where Roland's holding his mother's corpse, and the one where Cuthbert learns of his father's death were both incredibly moving.

Another awesome installment of this series. I really love these graphic novels, and I love the extension of the Dark Tower story told through them.

The artwork is fantastic in these, and I love the tone and the wry humor that comes through the narration. There's a distinct tone to these that doesn't exist in the books, and I really enjoy that.

I also loved that there was more of Cuthbert in this one... He had some great bits. Real funny stuff that had me giggling out loud a few times.

Definitely recommend this series.

I just cannot get enough of Roland, Mid-World, or the Gunslingers. The Marvel series of comics/graphic novels really does a great job of fleshing out Gilead and Roland's life as a teenager, while still keeping King's tone of the books. Highly recommended for all Dark Tower fans.

They changed the artist. Fail. This series is being written by Robin Furth, not Stephen King, which creates an understandable bit of confusion as to what is official Dark Tower canon and what is not (although King does give his approval to the series and I'm sure he's involved in the production somehow). Maybe, I just need to go back and reread the original novels, but I seem to remember Steven Deschain and his ka-tet dying differently than is being presented in the Fall of Gilead. That could just be me though.

This is, in some ways, entirely new territory for Dark Tower fans. The story being explored here is merely referenced in Wolves of the Calla, when Roland recounts his mother's fate, and cryptically mentions the Battle of Jericho Hill that claimed the lives of his friends Alain and Cuthbert. Here, we see what happens as events unfold in Gilead and learn a good deal about the most eventful and meaningful formative experiences in Roland's life: the death of his father, his ascension to dinh, and his failure to protect his father's city, the city of Arthur Eld, and his friends from John Farson and the Man in Black.

Let's face it though: Furth is not Stephen King, and though she tries to emulate him in box narration ("do ya kennit?" and such), she's just not him and hasn't found her own voice, to this series's detriment. The artwork in this volume leaves much to be desired, and it's fantastically gory (the death of Cort is gruesome to say the least). Perhaps the medium of the graphic novel doesn't do wonderful things for this type of story-telling. Furth does finally help to clarify a couple of things: 1. What happened to Gilead and to Roland's father exactly? and 2. John Farson is indeed distinct and separate from the Man in Black, a.k.a. Walter O'Dimm, a.k.a. Randall Flagg, a.k.a. Marten Broadcloak and not just another one of his alias's. Farson's role in the fall of Gilead and the fate of the Deschains is explained plausibly and with enough new material to keep Tower fans satisfied in the post-King era. He is a miscreant, a rabble-rouser and a revolutionary, an interesting character in his own right. In addition, the fleshing-out of Aileen, the only woman gunslinger continues, and her ties to Roland are further explored. To date, she is the only character outside of the Tower novels to be introduced by the comic writers. I'm on the fence about her still though.

Some interesting questions linger. As the ka-tet escape Gilead, the only survivors of a massacre as Farson's troops sack the city, when will we see the Battle of Jericho Hill? What role will Aileen play and how will they explain the fact that in years traveling together Roland does not mention her to his new crew? What role is Sheemie going to play before the end? And why doesn't Roland remember him? What becomes of Farson and Gilead once it is in his possession? Why doesn't he pursue Roland after Jericho Hill?

The series is good enough to keep me reading, but probably only because I consider the original a masterpiece of Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror/Adventure/Romance, whatever...as usual the Dark Tower defies classification.