Of Kings and PADs

[sdelmonte]

Peter A. David will be scripting the first seven issues of Marvel's Dark Tower preqeul comic book.

Let's ignore for the moment the disappointment of seeing anyone but King writing Roland and friends.

Instead, let's ask whether this is a good match. And while I think PAD is one of the best comic book writers in the game, and that King is a brilliant master of fantasy and horror, I don't like this matchup.

See, King and PAD are often cynics, but King's cynicism is often balanced by a certain optimism this is of late missing from much of PAD's recent work. What's more, PAD is known for a brand of humor that is very different than King's. King can be crude at times, but is also rather subtle. PAD is almost never subtle, and a master of the in-joke.

Will I buy this? Of course. It's Roland, it's King's plots (we think), and it's PAD's scripts. Do I have much in the way of expectations? Not really.

Thoughts from the DT crowd? Or from the PAD fans, for that matter?

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I've never read Dark Tower, but I do like Peter's work. So I may pick up the first few issues to see if I like them.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

eh... I haev never been a fan of DT before Milliways, but I am a PAD fan... I guess I will see what there is to see.

[agonistes]

I admit that I'm skeptical about any of King's efforts to write for a visual medium, because he hasn't really done well -- with the possible exception of Kingdom Hospital. As long as King is masterminding the actual plot, I'm content to leave mechanics of scripting to someone who knows the medium.

I have no familiarity with Peter A. David, but...depending on what King has in mind for these first seven issues, there's a definite place in what's missing in canon that will lend itself to a total lack of optimism.

[silveraspen]

Can you direct me to something PAD-written? I will go find it for comparison's sake.

Beyond that, what Sweeney says is definitely true -- King's efforts to write in screenplay format, for example, just make me twitch and hide. If he's in charge of the story and someone who does this medium well is in charge of fitting the story to the art, then it could work very well.

[sdelmonte]

His stand alone novels include the Apropos of Nothing series (the first of which didn't work for me, but which was well written) and the Knight Life books about King Arthur reviving and entering NYC politics (whihc I have not read).

His comics include a wide variety of work for DC and Marvel. The most notable stand-alone comic is Fallen Angel, which is thick with religious metaphor and symbology. The first six issue are in a collection published by DC.

[cleverthylacine]

I can't imagine anyone else writing Roland. This isn't the same Peter David that has that show on HBO? Cause that show is scary.

[sdelmonte]

The HBO show - I assume you refer to Curb Your Enthisaism - is by Larry David. Though I think that the two Davids are pretty much about as cynical.

[sdelmonte]

You (and Aspen) didn't like Storm of the Century?

[agonistes]

It could have been done a lot better. I'm not saying it was rancid. It's just that King's forte is prose, and considering the odd literary traditions from which DT derives, I'd really rather not run the risk of the comics taking on the same qualities -- and considering the time period in canon that they're going to cover, that chance is so there. I like old-school chivalric narratives (so long as they're not in Middle English), and I like Owen Wister-style Westerns (even if the ideology is problematic), but neither of them lend themselves very well to condensing to a medium where quite literally every word is vital, and where image is just as if not more important than word.

...and I just realized that I could condense all that by saying that this is the part of DT where it's more like Shane than anything done by Sergio Leone, and Leone lends himself to comics in terms of style, while Shane just begs something overwrought and too detailed. And King loves him some details. So. :D