Sometimes, as I'm following a story thread to its ultimate conclusion, I find that I start swimming in deep water and need to run an idea by Steve [King].

In order to capture Mid-World for new readers, I had to streamline the original tale [ The Gunslinger Born], but I also had to incorporate scenes from earlier Dark Tower novels.

Because I was new to comics, I didn't know what to expect! However, I really like working collaboratively [on Dark Tower series], since I feel that - with so many different imaginations working together - the final product is so much richer. I also feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with such an accomplished and experienced team.

This is going to sound strange, but I really feel I know Roland very well. In Wizard and Glass, I got to know the young Roland, and then as I traveled with him from Eluria (found in the story "The Little Sisters of Eluria") through Tull and the Mohaine Desert (The Gunslinger), and then all the way to the Dark Tower.

Bringing Mid-World to a new readership felt like a big responsibility, but I'm so glad that readers have enjoyed the story. That is a reward in itself.

In the earlier novels, Steve King tells us that John Farson, and perhaps even the Crimson King himself, are but other names and faces that belong to Walter O'Dim. However, in The Dark Tower, he tells us very clearly that Walter, John Farson, and the Crimson King are actually separate individuals.

I suppose that, for me at least, the biggest difference betweenThe Gunslinger Born and the next two story arcs (The Long Road Home and Treachery), is that while Gunslinger Bornwas a translation of an existing novel, the next two arcs are really the stories that I've been weaving since I first started working with Steve King on the Dark Tower back in 2000/2001.