OR YOU COULD JUST READ CHILDE HAROLDE:

Iconic novelist hopes to draw readers into a more graphic tale (Geoff Boucher, February 2, 2007, LA Times)

STEPHEN KING's "The Dark Tower," a magnum opus about a haunted gunslinger on a quest for a mysterious spire, stretched out over 22 years, seven novels and a staggering 4,272 pages of eerie adventure.

But here's the really spooky thing: King fans want more.

Now they're about to get it, although this time around King is taking his readership to a new place that might scare some of them off. "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born," the Marvel Comics series, launches next week, and more than 100 retailers nationwide are opening their stores for midnight release parties. [...]

As with his novels, King's move into comics is fraught with subplots. One big one: "The Dark Tower" famously finished with a fizzle in 2004 -- many fans complained of a letdown with the saga's final pages and the fuzzy fate of its hero, Roland Deschain, the nomadic hero armed with Winchester revolvers in the face of mutants and magic.

The new "Dark Tower" project provides a chance for King "to make it right," noted Jud Meyers, co-owner of Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks, one of the retailers that will be open Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning to sell the comic.