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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust #1
By Dan Horn May 28, 2010 - 21:24
Publisher(s): Boom Studios
Writer(s): Chris Roberson
Penciller(s): Robert Adler
Colourist(s): Andres Lozano and Javier Suppa
Letterer(s): Jimmy Betancourt
Cover Artist(s): Trever Hairsine, Benjamin Carre, Julian Totino Tedesco, and Connor Willumsen
$3.99 US
The zany counter-culture sci-fi novels of the late, but
undoubtedly great, author Philip K. Dick have held a special place in the
hearts and minds of literary and film buffs the world over for decades. In
1982, Philip's novel Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? was adapted for the big screen into Ridley Scott's sci-fi
noir cult classic Blade Runner, and his
vertigo inducing drug yarn A Scanner
Darkly underwent a screenplay adaptation by Richard Linklater, debuting in
theaters in 2006.
Even more recently, the comic book publisher BOOM! Studios
acquired the rights to Philip's DADOES?,
turning it into one of the most lauded comic book series of last year and
earning the twenty-four-issue mini-series an Eisner-nomination. Now Dick's Electric Ant has hit comic store shelves
as well, and BOOM! has just released an authorized prequel to the fan-beloved DADOES? canon.
Whereas BOOM! Studios' Do
Androids... was entirely loyal to Philip's source material, serving as a
direct transplant from prose to graphic rendering (illustrated by Tony Parker
and Bill Sienkiewicz), the new series DADOES?:
Dust to Dust seeks to add even more depth (if that's at all possible) to
its classic predecessor's continuity. How does it fare?
Surprisingly well, actually. Chris Roberson does a fine job
of staying true to PKD's bleak yet at times caustically comedic vision of
America's post-nuclear war future. Roberson gives us a thoughtful retreading of
philosophical motifs which beg the question, what is life and why is it so
sacred? This sentiment is echoed by the main character, Charlie Victor, an
android hunting other renegade androids, in the opening panels.
"So strange. Once life has fled, what's left behind is
just this... thing. Like a machine that's run out of fuel."
Charlie Victor is after Talus and his gang of runaway C-V androids.
Talus is wise to Victor's presence in the toxic California city, but Charlie
Victor's got an ace up his sleeve: Malcolm Reed. Reed is a clairvoyant, heavily
medicated to block out the auras of those around him, but without his
medications, Reed is able to distinguish the almost invisible line separating
android and man. Malcolm's inner, third-person monologue is some of the most
spot-on character developing implemented in comic books today. Roberson
leisurely makes Malcolm's strange character seem somehow extremely accessible.
Robert Adler's panel work gives scenes the seamless
transitions they need to carry a story divided amongst several main characters.
His use of shadows and intense urban backdrops make Dust to Dust just as gritty as this prequel should be.