The Talisman: The Road of Trials #3 cover image

Young Jack Sawyer is a boy of two worlds:  our world and its parallel world – a dangerous placed called the Territories, where science is magic.  Almost every person in our world has a counterpart in the Territories – a person called a “Twinner.”  Charged by his friend Speedy Parker, Jack must travel into the Territories to find the Talisman.  This precious magical object can save two women – Jack’s ailing mother, Lily, and her Twinner, ruler of the Territories, Queen Laura DeLoessian.

The Talisman: The Road of Trials #3 finds Jack in the Territories, and after seeking the help of Parker’s ally, Captain Farren, our young hero is in trouble.  Jack has fallen into the clutches of the sadistic and cruel Osmond, retainer to Jack’s nemesis, Morgan of Orris. It also doesn’t help that Jack’s feelings of dread and terror threaten to derail his quest.

[This issue also includes a four-page interview of series artist, Tony Shasteen.]

The comic book adaptation of The Talisman, the novel written by Stephen King (Salem’s Lot) and Peter Straub (Ghost Story) and originally published in 1984, gets darker with each page.  Written by Robin Furth (a former assistant to Stephen King) and drawn by Tony Shasteen, The Talisman: The Road of Trials threatens to set a new standard for dark and edgy in dark fantasy.  Nei Ruffino’s colors also make this a nasty piece of fantastic fiction that just will own your imagination.  Then, there are the images of the half-smashed head that will be burned into your mind.

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