The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (comics).

If I were reading The Dark Tower for the first time, reading the comics in the middle of the novel series kind of breaks the pace, although doing so sets up The Crimson King as more of a proper villain than King did in his novels, so it's not a bad idea actually. Or they can all be read after Wizard and Glass. (The other comics are sequels to this one, and do not adapt directly from the novels.) You can read the comics before the main series of novels (if you're re-reading the series you might as well skip most of Wizard and Glass). However, the first comic, The Gunslinger Born, is a re-telling of a flashback sequence that comprises the bulk of the fourth novel, Wizard and Glass. Note that they are official and canon, even though they're not actually written by Stephen King per se – they're plotted by Robin Furth (King's personal research assistant and the author of the authorized Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance), and King is Creative and Executive Director.Ĭhronologically, the comics serve as a prequel to the main series of novels. Interested constant readers should of course also see Stephen King's official list of The Dark Tower connections for a more comprehensive list of the actual references found in the books on this list, as well as some more tenuous connections I don't mention.įirst, the comics. Yet another is to read The Dark Tower first, and then all related works. Another way to do it is to read all related works first, and then The Dark Tower. Most of the references to other works are found in the last three main novels, so perhaps between books IV and V is a nice stopgap for many of them.

Stephen King writes long books, and interspersing the main series with lots of slightly-but-not-very related behemoths is a good way to never finish the series. This is just one, and it's not for the faint of heart. There are many suggested reading orders out there ( here's one and here another, plus a forum discussion on the topic).

Dark tower iv