Summary: The creator of “The Rook” comics is suing Stephen King for copying a lead character.
Prolific writer Stephen King is responsible for some of the most memorable stories in the world. (Shoutout to The Shining, It, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary, and the list goes on and on!) While it is no doubt that he is a creative genius, one rival believes that King is also a plagiarist and is suing accordingly.
According to TMZ, the unnamed plaintiff claimed that King based the character Roland Deschain of “The Dark Tower” off of the character, Restin Dane, from the comic series “The Rook.” The plaintiff said that not only do the characters have the same initials but that they are both “time-traveling, monster-fighting, quasi-immortal, romantic adventure heroes” who dress up as cowboys even though they aren’t from the Wild West.
King’s “The Dark Tower” series consists of eight books that incorporate elements from fantasy, horror, science fiction, and Westerns. Each book focuses on the adventures of Roland, the gunslinger.
According to the book’s Amazon description, “[Roland] is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.”
The Amazon description stated that King based the story off of a poem by Robert Browning called “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.”
While the plaintiff has not been identified, TMZ states that he or she is a creator of “The Rook.” According to The Toronto Sun, the original creator of “The Rook,” Bill DuBay, died in 2010, but he worked on the series with partner Budd Lewis and writer Jim Stenstrum.
“The Rook” had over 5 million magazines in circulation from 1977 to 1983, and King has admitted to reading and loving those comics. His “Dark Tower” series was released in 1982, and legal experts have questioned whether or not his fandom could cost him.
The plaintiff is seeking an astounding $500 million from King, who has amassed a fortune with his books and book adaptations, “The Dark Tower” amongst them.
This week, a trailer for “The Dark Tower” movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey was released, and Elba will be playing Roland Deschain. The movie will hit theaters in July and also stars Kathryn Winnick, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Claudia Kim, Tom Taylor, and Jackie Earle Haley.
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