Written by Phillip K. Dick

Illustrated by Tony Parker

Afterward by Warren Ellis

Mark Waid’s Boom!  Studios has begun a unique and risky experiment with their 24-issue comic version of Phillip K. Dick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. This is not an adaptation; it’s a word for word retelling of the entire novel in comic form.  Dick’s narration is contained within the captions, while the dialogue is provided within the usual word balloons.  Judging from the first issue, it looks like this series will appeal mostly to fans of the original novel, though some curious newcomers may find it worth checking out.

Readers expecting a Blade Runner comic will be severely disappointed.  Aside from the basic plot, location, and characters, the novel and the movie are quite different from one another.  Both tell the story of main character Rick Deckard hunting Roy Batty and his gang of Replicants (called “Andys” in the book and comic - short for “Androids”), but the novel spends a lot more time illustrating the world around Deckard, which is much more bleak and desolate than in the movie.

The story takes place in San Francisco in the year 2021, after the U.S. has been decimated by a nuclear war and most of the population who can afford to do so has emigrated to Mars.  Nearly all animals have died out due to the fallout.  Pets are seen as status symbols due to the rarity of actual animals, and those who cannot afford them sometimes resort to buying mechanical beasts to save face in the neighborhood.  The book and comic revolve around two characters:  Deckard, a bounty hunter who hunts and kills rogue androids; and John Isodore, a brain-damaged man who befriends the androids who are on the run from Deckard.  (Isodore’s role is lessened a bit in the film). 

This first chapter doesn’t really get the plot rolling very much.  It sets up the two main characters and gives exposition that reveal their personalities and motivations, and it helps to establish the overall theme of the book.  At times, the issue reads like a modern “Classics Illustrated” comic.  Dick’s prose takes up so much space on the page at times that it threatens to overtake Tony Parker’s art, which is capable but not spectacular.  While it’s a difficult read at times, it’s clear that the author is weaving a fascinating story and creating some fascinating and well-developed characters. 

Time will tell whether this gamble will pay off.  Many readers will be turned off by the heavy prose of the captions and the slowness of the plot (at least in the first issue) and the fact that, being a 24-issue series, it will take the reader at least two years to finish a story they can finish in a matter of days if they just read the novel.  Fans of the movie will definitely be taken aback by the way the protagonist is portrayed.  In the movie, as played by Harrison Ford, Deckard resembled a film noir gumshoe, but in the novel and comic, he is more of a working-class everyman trying to  get ahead in life.  This comic is recommended mostly to fans of the novel who would like to read it in a new medium…but in their cases, they may prefer to wait for the inevitable trade or hardcover.  Still, those willing to stick with this story until the end might just experience a true milestone of serialized science fiction. 

Rating:  3 1/2 out of 5 lead codpieces