My wife is a big fan of A Softer World, a popular web comic by Joey Comeau which I certainly enjoy whenever she shows me a particular favorite and/or entertaining strip. When she mentioned about some shorts that Comeau had written that has now been turned into a book — One Bloody Thing After Another — my interest was piqued and now I’m looking forward to reading this new release and who knows, it may turn into an interview for BookBanter.
After the success of the brilliant Marvel adaptations of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, the skillful writing hand of Robin Furth now turns to the bestselling story of The Talisman, along with experienced artists Tony Shasteen, Nei Ruffino, and JD Mettler. Stephen King and Peter Straub co-wrote and published The Talisman in 1984. It is the epic tale of Jack Sawyer, a young boy with a sick mother, who must travel to the other side of the country to find her cure. He also must travel to an alternate world known as the “Territories,” where he will meet up with a number of “twinners” from his world – doppelgangers of people he knows. He also meets up with some very strange and unusual people in this fantasy world: some nice who he becomes friends with, and some enemies who want to hurt him. Then there is Morgan Sloat, Jack’s father’s business partner who knows all too well about the Territories and is looking to bring over some advanced technology like electricity and nukes to change the world and profit from it. Sloat also knows what Jack’s up to and is trying to catch him and put an end to him. The question is whether Jack will be able to make it to his destination and get the talisman that will save his mother, as well as her twinner, the queen.
And now Robin Furth is adapting the powerful words of King and Straub to the world of graphic novels, with stunning artwork from Shasteen, Ruffino, and Mettler. In this first volume, The Road of Trials, Furth does a great job of shrinking the lengthy beginning of The Talisman to a number of pages, while the artwork brings the great fantasy world of the Territories to beautiful fruition. The Talisman Volume 1 is a great start to this new graphic novel series that looks to take the reader on as a great ride as King and Straub did with their readers in the original Talisman.
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Originally written on May 18 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.
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