Authors: Hans-Ake Lilja
Lilja:
Yeah, I was very surprised by how good it looked. And I especially like, and I don’t know if this is common in the comics now, how the illustrations go all the way from left to right…
Joe Quesada:
That is more of a stylistic thing that happens depending on the artist. But yes, it gives a panoramic, cinematic kind of feel to it.
Lilja:
Yeah, kind of a widescreen feeling.
Joe Quesada:
Exactly.
Lilja:
It looks very good.
Joe Quesada:
And then the computer coloring, which is now a staple of comic books today. It’s not that flat coloring that most people remember.
Lilja:
I read that you originally planned to do two different versions of the comic. One as it is now and one with just Jae’s sketches.
Joe Quesada:
That’s something Jae wanted at one point. He had never really been digitally painted. He was just of the traditional pen-and-ink method in comics. And I was the one pushing Jae to try the digital painting: “I’m gonna give you the best guy in the business, Richard Isanove, who has digitally painted me in the past.” And Jae said, “OK, but I want a second version with the ink,” and I said, “Yeah, OK, fine.” Then when he saw the digital painting he was like, “Wow, forget the other version, this is the version I want out there.” So, that’s the way Jae tells the story.
Lilja:
And you actually did one of the covers?
Joe Quesada:
Yes, I did one of the covers.
Lilja:
Did you actually do the cover yourself?
Joe Quesada:
Yeah, I drew it, and it was digitally painted by Richard Isanove as well.
Lilja:
It’s very nice. I really like it.
Joe Quesada:
Thank you.
Lilja:
I understand that at the beginning there were only supposed to be different covers for the first issue and just one cover for the rest?
Joe Quesada:
I don’t know about that. You have to ask our marketing people. I don’t know what the plan was with that.
Lilja:
Are you worried at all that some people may think that different covers are just a way for Marvel to squeeze more money out of this?
Joe Quesada:
You know, the alternative covers phenomenon has been with comics for the last twenty years. The people that really appreciate those are our retail partners, who hold them as premiums. But at the end of the day we’re not forcing anyone to buy anything. We just put them out there and some people really enjoy collecting the multiple covers. And the truth of the matter is that those additional covers are mostly for the comic book shops. When these books are compiled and sent to the bookstores they’ll go out like regular books and they’ll probably have the additional covers on the inside where you can see them if you want to see what they were all about.
Lilja:
It’s very nice to see the different covers because, as far as I have seen, they are very different from each other.
Joe Quesada:
Yeah. The other thing is that we have so many artists. So many of our top artists at Marvel are such huge fans of Stephen King and
The Dark Tower
that they were all a bit jealous, and we figured, here is a chance to get a bunch of them to do some covers as well.
Lilja:
You are also releasing something called
Gunslinger’s Guidebook
.
Joe Quesada:
Right.
Lilja:
Can you tell me what that is?
Joe Quesada:
It’s particularly for the fans who are not really aware of
The Dark Tower
, who are learning about it for the first time. It’s just a guidebook that shows you who the characters are, the world of
The Dark Tower
, just more merging
into the world.
Lilja:
Is it something like Robin’s
The Dark Tower Concordance
?
Joe Quesada:
Yeah, it’s very similar to that, only with significantly more illustrations.
Lilja:
Are you going to do more special issues like the
Guidebook
?
Joe Quesada:
Again, I’m not one hundred percent sure. I think we take it one step at a time and see how it goes.
Lilja:
Also, at the last Comic-Con you mentioned that you might try
The Stand
as a comic.
Joe Quesada:
That was actually Mr. King. He said, “You know, I’m having fun with these guys. Let’s do
The Stand
.” He said it in the middle of the panel and the crowd got crazy.
Lilja:
Is there any truth to it or is it just something he said?
Joe Quesada:
As far as he’s concerned it’s the truth, and when he said it to me I’m like, “Let’s go! If you wanna do it, let’s go.” You know I love working with Stephen King and I love the guy, he is a great guy. It’s a joy hanging out with him.
Lilja:
Do you think you can convince him to do something original for you, something that hasn’t been published before?
Joe Quesada:
You know, that is putting the cart way before the horse. We have one issue of
The Dark Tower
now, he’s talking about possibly doing
The Stand
. I’m happy with what we’re getting but believe me, if he ever wanted to write or release a story, an original story as a comic book first, I don’t think we would have a problem with that. [laugh]
Lilja:
So you’re not gonna say “No”? [laugh]
Joe Quesada:
No! [laugh]
Lilja:
OK, it was very nice talking to you. Can you leave me with any scoop?
Joe Quesada:
I will say this. One of the things I found most fascinating was at our first meeting with Mr. King. Again, I have sat across the table from many of the best writers in the business, but there was something about Mr. King, when he started talking stories and he was creating some material for
The Dark Tower
, he sort of just sat there, he sort of looked up at the ceiling and it was almost as if the ideas were floating in front of him and he was plucking them out of mid-air. And he just sat there and recited a story for us that he just made up on the spot. And it had the structure of a middle, beginning and end, a satisfying end. He sat there and was like, “Is that good?” and we’re like, “Yeah!” I have never seen anyone do anything like that, I mean he was really…it was magical. It’s the only way I can describe it. Absolutely magical.
Lilja:
Yeah, he is very talented.
Joe Quesada:
I would think that is an understatement. [laugh]
Lilja:
Yeah. [laugh] OK, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
Joe Quesada:
Thanks man, take care.
****
Ralph Macchio
Posted: April 17, 2007
Lilja:
Thanks for calling; I’m glad you wanted to do this interview.
Ralph Macchio:
Sure, I read your review and I was very, very happy with it. We really wanted to make each issue better than the last one and we didn’t want to show everything with the first issue and go, “OK, that’s it. Now, from here on it’s routine stuff.” We wanted to make each issue a real surprise.
Lilja:
Yeah, you definitely did that.
Ralph Macchio:
Thank you.
Lilja:
I really liked the illustrations of the Big Coffin Hunters.
Ralph Macchio:
Yeah, Jae did a superb job on that.
Lilja:
Yeah, they where really nice. And the Crimson King.
Ralph Macchio:
Yes.
Lilja:
Actually everyone looks terrific.
Ralph Macchio:
Yeah, it took him a long time…those are second- and third-generation versions of the pages. The first time around he made them look one way and then he just went back and said, “No, wasn’t good enough,” and he redid them to make them what they are.
Lilja:
I’m not that big of a comic reader, actually, but I have never seen anything like this. I was just blown away by it.
Ralph Macchio:
Thank you. Well, we keep trying to improve and we also keep trying to impress you with every single issue.
Lilja:
The Dark Tower
fans are hard to impress.
Ralph Macchio:
I’m sure they are, but we knew that at the very beginning, and the comic book fans are really the same because they have seen a lot of stuff, and you do have to be bold enough to keep looking for new ways to impress them and please them. And that’s all you can do. You can’t be intimidated by it.
Lilja:
What kind of reactions have you gotten? The second issue is released tomorrow, right?
Ralph Macchio:
Yes. We got advance copies and the book looks terrific. The reaction we’ve gotten so far is very, very positive. We haven’t really heard anything negative about it. Everyone seems to be very pleased. I understand the first issue may have already sold out, so that’s good too.
Lilja:
That’s very good.
Ralph Macchio:
Very, very good news. There haven’t been many negatives about it. We also know that in addition to pleasing
The Dark Tower
fans we have to please Stephen King, we have to please Robin, who is also involved in the process. And Chuck Verrill. And so far we seem to be doing that. That is extremely important to us.
Lilja:
Have you gotten any reaction from readers who haven’t read the books before they read the comics?
Ralph Macchio:
I’m sure there has been but I am not familiar with that. What we have heard, in general, from the canvassing that was done of comic stores after this first issue was released at the midnight showing was that many people who were not familiar with the books picked up the comic and have decided to give it a try, so it does seem that we’re gonna get some crossover audience from the comics to the books as well as from the books to the comics, and that’s nice.
Lilja:
It seems that you picked the right story to begin with. It doesn’t really demand that much prior knowledge.
Ralph Macchio:
That’s true.
Lilja:
I guess that’s why you picked that one to start with?
Ralph Macchio:
You know, that is really tough to say. I’m not sure if that went into the decision or not. I know initially when we had the big round-table discussion with Stephen King and Robin Furth that we had talked about going back to Roland’s early days. I’m not sure if it was for issues of clarity or just because at some point it just seemed that it was a good place to start the story, and I think that had a lot to do with it. You know, to be able to follow him from when he is just getting his guns and then take him on through up to the battle of Jericho Hill. It just seems to me, and to the rest of us, I think, a nice cycle of stories to go through because it allows us the opportunity to pick up the important material from
Wizard and Glass
, and elsewhere, but then also to do the original stuff and bring in incidents that are not in the book and that we’ll be able to conceive of here and put that in as well, so it’s really a nice combination of things.
We had a problem at the beginning with how to phrase it. You know, that’s something…these are not really adaptations. We are taking the material from
Wizard and Glass
and using it as kind of our foundation, but we are going off on our own to explore Roland and his worlds, and those are not adapted. I mean, they will certainly have Stephen King’s creative involvement from the very beginning and he will be the guy setting the tone for it. And we’ll also be going off in our own directions with him guiding us, saying, you know, “Let’s do this and let’s do that and see where this leads us.” So, these are not really strict adaptations. They take new material and intermix it with what’s already in some of the books.