BOOK REVIEW by J.

Dark Tower Comic Books Series - Issue 3

Issue 3 picks up with the story of Roland and Susan meeting after she has escaped from the Witch of the Coos. He finds out that she is Patrick Delgado’s daughter, and that she is promised in marriage to the Mayor since as the daughter she cannot inherit her father’s fortune. As it turns out, Roland and his ka-tet are headed that way themselves.

He asks her about a noise he’s hearing, and she tells him he’s hearing a thinny, a creature that lives in a canyon nearby. They part ways, but not before she tells him to pretend that he doesn’t know her when they come to the Mayor’s house

We then meet Farson, who is a strange looking man ruling over the oil fields and machines of Indrie. He is out knocking around a human head with a stick (!) when a door opens in a rock formation and Marten steps through. Farson asks him where the oil is that he promised him, but Marten wants to talk about other subjects.

The next scene is at Mayor Thorin’s house, where the ka-tet has arrived. At the house are the Mayor and the leader of the Big Coffin Hunters, Eldred Jonas. Jonas notices something between Roland and Susan. They meet up later, but Roland is cold to her.

At a bar in town, the Coffin Hunters are causing trouble when Cuthbert shoots the gun out of the hands of one of them with a slingshot. It looks like all three of the ka-tet are going to be involved in a brawl at the bar when Roland gets the drop on Eldred Jonas and manages to defuse the situation. They end up shaking hands when forced by the sheriff, but nothing is really solved and Eldred Jonas swears to hunt down the ka-tet and kill them, which is where we leave the story.

After the main story, there is a short essay called The Guns of Deschain, which talks about the forging of the first firearms in Mid-World and of a great snake that has invaded the land and how the weapons inspired the first gunslingers. Again, there’s a sketchbook that shows some of the fantastic art that was actually rejected by the artist himself when it didn’t quite match up to what he wanted.

There is also an interview written up with the creators of the comic at the New York Comic Convention. and a preview of next month’s issue. As usual, both the art and the writing were very well done; the feel of the land is really coming through both. The only flaw I would point out would be that the narration is sometimes in the dialect of the land. It’s a small matter, but it would be just as effective if they left the narration in regular English. Anyway, a fine issue, and a good lead-in to issue 4.