Graphic Novel Review: The Long Road Home

The Long Road Home by Robin Furth and Peter David, The Dark Tower Graphic Novels #2

Gunslinger Roland Deschain has seen the death of his lover Susan Delgado, and now the Big Coffin Hunters who burned her at the stake are in pursuit of Roland and his ka-tet Cuthbert and Alain. The friends are forced to flee into the desert with the deadly posse in hot pursuit - and Roland is in a coma!

The Long Road Home is the second comic book adapation in the graphic novels series and tell a never before told story. That of what happened after Roland's "inauguration" as a gunslinger in Mejis. Just in short, in the first book Gunslinger Born, the illustrated version of Wizard and Glass, how Roland fell in love with Susan and the corrupt town of Mejis with the Big Coffin Hunters and Rhea of the Coos. In the end Roland and his ka-tet, Alain and Cuthbert, managed to defeat them and get away with Merlyn's Grapefruit. 

This second addition to the graphic novel series picks up with Roland and his ka-tet on the flee for the Big Coffin Hunters, however Roland is entranced by Merlyn's Grapefruit and by the grapefruit it's influence in placed into a coma. Now Alain and Cuthbert have to not only stay alive themselves but also have the burden of keeping Roland alive. And when chased down by people with guns and horses it is hard. Next to the focus on the Roland, Alain and Cuthbert, we finally get to see just what happened with Sheemie. In my review of Wizard and Glass I mentioned that Sheemie's character was just brilliant and that it is unable not to feel for him. That a lot of people underestimate him is only for the better I think, he is a smart boy but naieve, and this is precisely what the follow up shows. Sheemie ventures after Roland's ka-tet and comes across a hide-out and stumbles on a robot. Not just a robot, one from the company of North Central Positronics, does it ring any bells? Now Sheemie's life is about to change... 

The story is a short one but one that pays off, I have been thinking about what happened after Mejis. I can fully imagine that for some readers of The Dark Tower series, this is a let down, that it might have been better to not have reaad what happened keep one guessing what might have happened, same counts for reading after the author's note in The Dark Tower. The sense of imagination. For me I like to get my answers and find that The Long Road Home offers a very clear way of direction for the story. 

Because in the end, when you see this picture below, with Sheemie to the rescue, saying before hand that Roland deserves a hero.. but all he gets is Sheemie on a mule, well Sheemie rocks! Period.