"...and the Gunslinger followed"
Started this one back in November...
Roland Deschain, main protagonist of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The last of gunslinger (a kind of diplomat/peacekeeper/knight) in a world that has moved on. We first find him chasing down "The Man in Black", questing for the semi-mythical Dark Tower, the axis upon which all worlds spin.
Roland's appearance is based largely on Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" character from Sergio Leone's Westerns and also described as looking like Stephen King himself. I put a lot of research into this figure, so I imagine the following will be quite long…
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A few overall descriptions of Roland appear throughout the books, starting with:
"A hide waterbag was slung around his middle like a bloated sausage. […] The two belts crisscrossed above his crotch. The holsters were oiled too deeply for even this Philistine sun to crack. The stocks of the guns were sandalwood, yellow and finely grained. Rawhide tie-downs held the holsters loosely to his thighs, and they swung a bit with his step; they had rubbed away the bluing of his jeans (and thinned the cloth) in a pair of arcs that looked almost like smiles. […] His shirt, the no-color of rain or dust, was open at the throat, with a rawhide thong dangling loosely in hand-punched eyelets."
I originally assumed the "shirt, the no-color of rain or dust" was a dirty white, or at least a light shade, and designed it accordingly. Later though, I discovered a further description of his clothing:
"He wore dark clothes of some homespun material; the shirt, its sleeves rolled up, was a black faded almost to gray, the pants something that looked like bluejeans."
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I also assumed, as stated in the opening pages of the book, "His hat was gone", but there are numerous descriptions of him having a hat earlier:
"The gunslinger touched the brim of his hat."
"The gunslinger took off his hat and wiped his forehead."
"[she] turned to watch him get his hat. He clapped it on his head"
Which would lead you to assume that at some point he lost it. Except that in the second book, his hat is mentioned:
"the rawhide thong from the gunslinger's hat"
"The gunslinger had removed his own hat"
"Roland removed his hat, armed sweat from his brow, then replaced it."
"A fresh gust of wind flipped his hat from his head and into Susannah's face. She grabbed it and jammed it down all the way to his ears, giving Roland the look of a half-crazed hillbilly."
Fine, I think, he got another hat from somewhere and it just isn't mentioned. Except that he doesn't go anywhere he could have acquired one. As there is no other mention of his hat being gone, I had to assume that King specifying no hat was an error, especially in light of the endless mentions of his hat throughout the series. Also, what kind of gunslinger doesn't have a hat! :)
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The next big thing in his appearance is a coat. Almost all artwork of Roland, and particularly the recent Marvel comics, has him wearing a big, long coat. Obviously this is great visually, and is a staple of the Western genre, but I could not find a single direct or indirect reference to a coat in the text. For example, when Eddie first comes through the door on the beach and sees Roland, the description states that the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up, which obviously you wouldn't be able to see if he was wearing a coat.
In the last book of the series, Roland and Susannah do make "a vest, a pair of leggings, and a coat. They also had a pair of mittens each." from deerskin, and Roland does wear this coat until the end of the book: "He grabbed a fold of Roland's coat and twisted him off-true." So I guess at some point, Roland does wear a coat, but for the majority of the series he is coatless. As a final point on the coat matter, why would he need to make a one with Susannah if he already had one?
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Roland also carries a bag, his "gunna":
"He gestured toward a cracked leather bag lying on the sand. It looked more like a big packsack than a purse, the kind of thing you expected to see hippies carrying as they made their way along the Appalachian trail, [...] except this looked like the real thing, not just a prop for some airhead's self-image; something that had done years and years of hard, maybe desperate, travelling."
This bag contains all sorts of things, the contents never fully revealed, and remains with Roland for the vast majority of the story.
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Well, that was pretty long! I hope you like the fig, and let me know how closely this matches with the Roland in your head :)
"...and the Gunslinger followed"
Started this one back in November...
Roland Deschain, main protagonist of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The last of gunslinger (a kind of diplomat/peacekeeper/knight) in a world that has moved on. We first find him chasing down "The Man in Black", questing for the semi-mythical Dark Tower, the axis upon which all worlds spin.
Roland's appearance is based largely on Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" character from Sergio Leone's Westerns and also described as looking like Stephen King himself. I put a lot of research into this figure, so I imagine the following will be quite long…
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few overall descriptions of Roland appear throughout the books, starting with:
"A hide waterbag was slung around his middle like a bloated sausage. […] The two belts crisscrossed above his crotch. The holsters were oiled too deeply for even this Philistine sun to crack. The stocks of the guns were sandalwood, yellow and finely grained. Rawhide tie-downs held the holsters loosely to his thighs, and they swung a bit with his step; they had rubbed away the bluing of his jeans (and thinned the cloth) in a pair of arcs that looked almost like smiles. […] His shirt, the no-color of rain or dust, was open at the throat, with a rawhide thong dangling loosely in hand-punched eyelets."
I originally assumed the "shirt, the no-color of rain or dust" was a dirty white, or at least a light shade, and designed it accordingly. Later though, I discovered a further description of his clothing:
"He wore dark clothes of some homespun material; the shirt, its sleeves rolled up, was a black faded almost to gray, the pants something that looked like bluejeans."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also assumed, as stated in the opening pages of the book, "His hat was gone", but there are numerous descriptions of him having a hat earlier:
"The gunslinger touched the brim of his hat."
"The gunslinger took off his hat and wiped his forehead."
"[she] turned to watch him get his hat. He clapped it on his head"
Which would lead you to assume that at some point he lost it. Except that in the second book, his hat is mentioned:
"the rawhide thong from the gunslinger's hat"
"The gunslinger had removed his own hat"
"Roland removed his hat, armed sweat from his brow, then replaced it."
"A fresh gust of wind flipped his hat from his head and into Susannah's face. She grabbed it and jammed it down all the way to his ears, giving Roland the look of a half-crazed hillbilly."
Fine, I think, he got another hat from somewhere and it just isn't mentioned. Except that he doesn't go anywhere he could have acquired one. As there is no other mention of his hat being gone, I had to assume that King specifying no hat was an error, especially in light of the endless mentions of his hat throughout the series. Also, what kind of gunslinger doesn't have a hat! :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next big thing in his appearance is a coat. Almost all artwork of Roland, and particularly the recent Marvel comics, has him wearing a big, long coat. Obviously this is great visually, and is a staple of the Western genre, but I could not find a single direct or indirect reference to a coat in the text. For example, when Eddie first comes through the door on the beach and sees Roland, the description states that the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up, which obviously you wouldn't be able to see if he was wearing a coat.
In the last book of the series, Roland and Susannah do make "a vest, a pair of leggings, and a coat. They also had a pair of mittens each." from deerskin, and Roland does wear this coat until the end of the book: "He grabbed a fold of Roland's coat and twisted him off-true." So I guess at some point, Roland does wear a coat, but for the majority of the series he is coatless. As a final point on the coat matter, why would he need to make a one with Susannah if he already had one?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roland also carries a bag, his "gunna":
"He gestured toward a cracked leather bag lying on the sand. It looked more like a big packsack than a purse, the kind of thing you expected to see hippies carrying as they made their way along the Appalachian trail, [...] except this looked like the real thing, not just a prop for some airhead's self-image; something that had done years and years of hard, maybe desperate, travelling."
This bag contains all sorts of things, the contents never fully revealed, and remains with Roland for the vast majority of the story.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that was pretty long! I hope you like the fig, and let me know how closely this matches with the Roland in your head :)