The Talisman: The Road of Trials #1 cover image

After releasing a special preview issue, Del Rey Comics published The Talisman: The Road of Trials #1, the first issue of a multi-issue, comic book adaptation of The Talisman.  The Talisman was a novel written by Stephen King (The Stand, Salem’s Lot) and Peter Straub (Ghost Story, Koko) and originally published in 1984.  The Talisman is the story of Jack Sawyer, a teen boy who can save his dying mother, Lily Sawyer, only if he retrieves a magical talisman.  To find it, Jack must cross back and forth between his world and a frightening and dangerous, parallel Earth called “the Territories.”

As The Talisman: The Road of Trials #1, opens, Jack and his mother are at the Alhambra Hotel, a decaying edifice on the New Hampshire coast, where Jack’s quest will begin.  In a nearby, run-down amusement park located on the desolate Arcadia Beach, Jack meets Lester “Speedy” Parker, a mysterious figures who teaches Jack about the Territories.

Speedy tells Jack that there is a parallel version of his mother in the Territories – called a “twinner.”  Like Lily Sawyer, her Territory twinner, Queen Laura DeLoessian, is also dying, and Jack’s quest to save his mother is also one to save the dying queen.  Meanwhile, Jack’s “uncle” Morgan Sloat, his late father’s business partner, plots to capture the Sawyers.

This first issue of The Talisman: The Road of Trials is an improvement over the #0 preview issue.  Series’ writer, Robin Furth (a former assistant to Stephen King) gives the pertinent details: goals, motivations, obstacles, etc. in a fairly clear manner.  Even better, the characters are intriguing, whereas they seemed too vague in the #0 prequel issue.

Artist Tony Shasteen’s storytelling, good in the prequel story, is actually better.  Shasteen conveys the inherent moodiness of the early part of The Talisman’s narrative.  Dressed in Nei Ruffino’s colors, Shasteen’s art becomes a fever dream sodden with the magical potential of The Talisman: The Road of Trials.  Hopefully, this series will reach that potential.

B+