Warren Publishing, "The Rook," and "The Dark Tower"

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celticbear

New Member
Oct 5, 2011
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You may hear about Stephen King plagiarizing "The Dark Tower" from a comic book called "The Rook" and here are the three main reasons you should ignore it:

1) The Rook used his chess rook shaped tower to regularly travel though time and space. The Dark Tower is just a cosmic reset button only used once by Roland Deschain.

2) The Rook is a hyper intelligent physicist who dresses like a gunslinger and makes plans that always miraculously (bad writing be praised) work in McGyver like fasion. Roland Deschain is an ACTUAL GUNSLINGER who makes mistakes all the time and has to learn from them along his Hero's Journey.

3) The Weird West genre was around for a long time before either story, dating back to the pulps.

If anything, the BBC should be suing Warren Publishing for blatantly ripping off Dr. Who.

(Posted by Craig Bertuglia, professional comic book geek, Houston Public Library)
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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5cc875cb30a513fba4d0b75b46e05b56.jpg
....welcome!....
 

Philzilla

Well-Known Member
Mar 1, 2009
176
604
Though you have to admit Roland Deschain and Restin Dane are strangely similar.

And is that Susannah Dean and Andy?

vampi_rook2.jpg


;;D

On a serious note The Gunslinger wasn't in print until late 1978, and apparently SK has admitted to reading the comics, at least according to the lawsuit.
$500 million yikes.
Warren must think they're suing James Patterson.
The Robert Browning estate probably has a better claim though.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
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Spokane, WA
Though you have to admit Roland Deschain and Restin Dane are strangely similar.

And is that Susannah Dean and Andy?

vampi_rook2.jpg


;;D

On a serious note The Gunslinger wasn't in print until late 1978, and apparently SK has admitted to reading the comics, at least according to the lawsuit.
$500 million yikes.
Warren must think they're suing James Patterson.
The Robert Browning estate probably has a better claim though.
So is this a real lawsuit? If so, Warren pubs. are idiots because, like I said, Steve wrote portions of his tale years before those comics were published. If anyone sues, it should be Steve suing the comic book writer.
 

Philzilla

Well-Known Member
Mar 1, 2009
176
604
So is this a real lawsuit? If so, Warren pubs. are idiots because, like I said, Steve wrote portions of his tale years before those comics were published. If anyone sues, it should be Steve suing the comic book writer.

Yeah it's real apparently. And SK said he wrote it years before, but it wasn't in print till years after (almost, 20 months or so). The comic creator has a 20 month head start to when this was available to the public.
Stephen King Sued for Ripping Off 'The Dark Tower' Character from a Comic Book | TMZ.com
Stephen King's Dark Tower gunslinger 'based on The Rook' | Daily Mail Online
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
Yeah it's real apparently. And SK said he wrote it years before, but it wasn't in print till years after (almost, 20 months or so). The comic creator has a 20 month head start to when this was available to the public.
Stephen King Sued for Ripping Off 'The Dark Tower' Character from a Comic Book | TMZ.com
Stephen King's Dark Tower gunslinger 'based on The Rook' | Daily Mail Online
Well, there's going to be plenty of witnesses from his college days that will testify that they saw Steve writing on that weirdly shaped ream of green colored paper and then they were able to read the first couple of installments about Roland back in the late '60's. Steve has told the story of how Roland came to be for many, many years so this lawsuit won't hold. This is just like that woman that sued him over Misery.
 

Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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Well, there's going to be plenty of witnesses from his college days that will testify that they saw Steve writing on that weirdly shaped ream of green colored paper and then they were able to read the first couple of installments about Roland back in the late '60's. Steve has told the story of how Roland came to be for many, many years so this lawsuit won't hold. This is just like that woman that sued him over Misery.
Exactly. Didn't King reiterate this story in On Writing? He said he began writing the story on some green paper he found at the library. Tabby wrote a story on blue paper and a friend of theirs wrote one on pink paper, I think. It is something that can easily be verified and I think the original green pages still exist...or were they lost?
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
Exactly. Didn't King reiterate this story in On Writing? He said he began writing the story on some green paper he found at the library. Tabby wrote a story on blue paper and a friend of theirs wrote one on pink paper, I think. It is something that can easily be verified and I think the original green pages still exist...or were they lost?
Pretty sure they're in the special King section at Folger's Library at UM.
 

Ebdim9th

Dressing the Gothic interval in tritones
Jul 1, 2009
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This lawsuit is a ludicrous attempt by Dark Horse Comics to cash in on the arrival of the Dark Tower movie. Bill DuBay, who exclusively wrote and published for Warren Comics the first story of the Rook, "The Man Whom Time Forgot" (Eerie comic issue #89, 81 I believe?), in February 16, 1977, died in 2010, seven years ago. Warren was a highly profitable venture, he had a major stake in it before beginning to work with other publishers, like Dark Horse in the early nineties, and no doubt his fortune is not inconsiderable, and his family well covered in his will. This is a corporate decision not at all made by the creator of the series. It's false for reports to claim the creator had anything to do with it. I'm not sure Warren comics as an independent entity even exists anymore.
 
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Ebdim9th

Dressing the Gothic interval in tritones
Jul 1, 2009
6,137
22,104
So far I haven't been able to find that filing itself. The only mention I could find was in Hollywood.com where it reads that its unclear who is behind the lawsuit as DuBay himself died in 2010, but that he also worked on the comic with his creative partner Budd Lewis and writer Jim Stenstrum. I saw a 79 reprint, but the first story, is credited exclusively to Bill DuBay. Lewis worked for Mattel, and used old cowboy molds to help create a visual look for the character. Dark Horse owns the property, and as you know when the rights to a movie are sold, all lawsuits begin and end with them, regardless of who is asking them to do it on their behalf. I'd like to check out the filing Philzilla wherever you've managed to dig it up online. ETA It was Peretz not Lewis, that worked for Mattel. Lewis was DuBay's partner at the Cartoon Factory that did illustrations for Cracked, etc.

Stephen King sued over The Dark Tower character

Warren Publishing - Wikipedia
 
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