Yay, for the return of Jae Lee in the final five issues of the first DT comic run. As of now, these comics are the only telling of the events immediately after the story in Hambry as told in Wizard & Glass. Hopefully, before sai King goes to the clearing at the end of the path, he'll write about the fall of Gilead and the Battle of Jericho Hill. Unlikely, but it would be cool.

A nice ending to the prequel graphic novel series of Rolands life. This collection of books is on par with the better dark tower novels and breathe life into Roland’s early adventures. This would make a great TV series and as for Ronald’s world and the characters in it, I find myself liking more than the ones he meets later on his journey in the novels.

The time jump was a rough transition. It's 9 years after book #4 and the slim volume takes place over months. It also felt redundant in some of the twists. It was good to see what happened on Jericho Hill but this was by far the weakest book in the series.

Spoiler

Yet another traitor brings about destruction, this time it's Randolph...who was just introduced.

Both Bert and Alain die...in fact everyone dies...except Roland. Though he should have. He was knocked out by the General's son...who was just introduced. I get that it's "punishment" from the Crimson King to not mutilate the bodies and leave them for the slow mutants, but that felt like they wrote themselves into a corner and had to figure out how Roland would survive.

Wow..just wow.

Beginning immediately after the fall of Gilead, Roland and his ka-tet make one last desperate stand against Farson and the Crimson King, leading to the Gunslinger we know today.

Okay, now that I've read the first five volumes, I feel like I can give an accurate review. First, let me say that I LOVE the Dark Tower and the artwork in these graphic novels is outstanding; however, I'm left feeling like it was a waste of my time reading these. I think it's a combination of preferring regular books over graphic novels, and that the overall story these volumes told didn't really add anything to the story that I already know and love; therefore, they all received a 3/5 rating from me.

I won't be continuing the graphic novels; the next volumes simply retell what I've already read. I definitely recommend that anyone who appreciates graphic novels to read them, BUT you should know that it won't be an adequate substitute for reading the original novels.

[b:The Dark Tower, Volume 1: The Gunslinger Born|342445|The Dark Tower, Volume 1 The Gunslinger Born|Robin Furth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437712487s/342445.jpg|2402933]
[b:The Dark Tower, Volume 2: The Long Road Home|2834890|The Dark Tower, Volume 2 The Long Road Home|Robin Furth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327977405s/2834890.jpg|2860996]
[b:The Dark Tower, Volume 3: Treachery|6215832|The Dark Tower, Volume 3 Treachery|Robin Furth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327977889s/6215832.jpg|6396466]
[b:The Dark Tower, Volume 4: Fall of Gilead|6697968|The Dark Tower, Volume 4 Fall of Gilead|Robin Furth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327977491s/6697968.jpg|6893660]
[b:The Dark Tower, Volume 5: Battle of Jericho Hill|7879834|The Dark Tower, Volume 5 Battle of Jericho Hill|Robin Furth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327977773s/7879834.jpg|13665509]

[b:The Gunslinger|43615|The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1375776480s/43615.jpg|46575]

Some good things in this book to temper the bad. Alain and Cuthbert's deaths were heartbreaking (though I didn't see Bert laughing as he died, Y'ALL HAD ONE JOB). I wanted more from Roland, though idk how to explain it. I also feel like they dropped the ball so heavily with Aileen. She had her own story and motivations at first, but in this book she just showed up to be all fluttery when Roland's around. Even in her death scene she's talking about 'hope I didn't disappoint Roland'. Ugh. I mean, she has feelings for him and that's cool, but did she have to be reduced to that? Really?

Still, like I said, the sad stuff was good. Made me feel an emotion.

These are as close as you can get to more stories from Roland's early days.

Great art for a great story.

Got a few pages in before my urge to read left me. Came for story based on SK characters, left because it wasn't too far off from being a pastiche.