Marvel has released a media blitz in advance of the February 7th release of the first issue of DARK TOWER, the Stephen King-inspired mini-series. First came the exciting news that King will be a Guest of Honor at the 2007 New York Comic-Con:
World Fantasy Award-winning writer Stephen King, long acknowledged as the master of modern horror, will appear as a Guest of Honor at New York Comic Con taking place February 23-25, 2007. King will join a special panel hosted by Joe Quesada, Editor In Chief of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. on Saturday, February 24, 2007 to discuss the ground-breaking new comic book series adapted from his magnum opus, The Dark Tower.
“We are absolutely ecstatic that Stephen King will be attending the February 2007 New York Comic Con,” said Ruwan Jayatilleke, Director of Development, Marvel Publishing. “His appearance will be a huge thrill for Dark Tower enthusiasts, comic book fans, and convention-goers alike. Marvel is extremely grateful for this opportunity—and aims to make this convention a landmark event for all of graphic fiction storytelling.”
Then there was this interview in USA TODAY:
Q: How much involvement on the plot and dialogue with writers Peter David and Robin Furth did you have on The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born? And did you work with artist Jae Lee on the look and feel of the books? King: “I had a lot of involvement in casting the course of the narrative, and in fact suggested that these illustrated narratives should focus on Roland’s young manhood. Beyond that, I wanted to give a lot of the control over to these other imaginations, which I had come to respect. “The first few issues, I should add, are almost entirely drawn from the books. Readers will recognize them and hopefully be as thrilled as I am. And I know Jae Lee’s work well enough to trust him entirely. It pays off. His work has never been better.”
Finally, there is a Dark Tower mini-site with a video (which we can’t get to work on our primitive equipment) a blog by editor Nicole Boose, and much more.
EDIT: Okay the trailer is working it just took about 10 minutes to load.
It’s not just you, Heidi. The trailer doesn’t work at all in Firefox, and gives me an “undefined” error in IE.
Way to show yourself on the cutting edge of promotional technology, there, Marvel.
Hm. Images look okay—some nice limited animation. But the narrator is terrible; I know they haven’t got the budget for Sam Elliott—or Sam Shepard, for that matter—but this fellow is the local pizza guy trying to sound “badass.”
Note to Marvel: lots of reverb is not a substitute for character.
The music, however, is very nice. Rather than go for the obvious Ennio Morricone pastiche, it goes instead for a Ry Cooder vibe with a touch of heaviness. I approve.
Sounds an awful lot like King would be an executive producer if this were a film instead of the writer or director.
Jordi Bernet would’ve done a better job than Jae Lee.