Saturday, March 20, 2010

IN THE CLASSROOM THIS WEEK

From the Editor

This week we offer a young reader comic written and illustrated by female creator Ashley Spires, and a series of three biographies of female political power brokers. It is Spring break for me and I haven't made it to the comic book store yet. So no listing of comics this week. 

In other news, I went to a comic book convention a couple of weekends ago and filled in some gaps in my collection. Now, I have all four hardbound editions of Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER comic expansion. I say expansion, because the comics are not adaptions of his opus. The stories are new material that delve deeper into the gunslinger's past. It's presented in comic format and have never been told. (The exception is the first volume (THE GUNSLINGER BORN) which is an adaption of Roland's back story from WIZARD AND GLASS, which was done for continuity's sake. The rest are new stories.)

I have read King's entire seven-part series years ago and really enjoyed them. I had never read anything like them. The fantasy/sci-fi/cowboy/modern world mix were so interesting. (I wasn't that crazy about King being a character in his own book, but that's a minor detail.) Book 4 (WIZARD AND GLASS) was my favorite because of the story of Roland's rise to becoming a gunslinger and his first love. The incident would define him, change him, forever ... and probably not for the better. 

The comic explores the most tumultuous of adolescent life experiences much to my delight. So far, I've read volumes 1-2 and I'm starting volume 3 today. I plan on reading the four published volumes of the comic over Spring break. There are six volumes planned.

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