Comic book - "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Written by Philip K. Dick

Art by Tony Parker

Issue #1, 24 pages

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is one of my favorite novels and I absolutely loved the movie adaptation of the novel, “Blade Runner”. Usually I am not that thrilled about movie adaptations, but this one was a very good one and one which complemented the book very well. Lately there is also an increase in the adaptation of various novels into comic books. And one such novel is “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”.

The first issue of the comic book introduces the readers in the world imagined by Philip K. Dick and the initial action point. For those familiar with the novel all the major aspects and elements of our future world described in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” are present in the comic book adaptation, the Empathy Box, the Penfield Mood Organ and the Mercerism. The story concentrates on the main character, Rick Deckard, for most of the time, but also on John Isidore, another key character and a familiar one for me.

However, the art of the comic book is not very much on my liking. The characters seem too common and a bit inexpressive, the setting treated too lightly and without much attention given to the details. I am certain that I am influenced by the way I pictured all these in my mind while reading the novel and by the images from the movie adaptation and it is almost impossible for the artist to match all this. But the result is the least I have expected and I think it doesn’t live up to the expectations raised by the novel.

I am more than conscious that we live in a commercial world and many ideas can turn into profit in different ways. Such is the case with novels, movies and comic books too. I admit that this is not always on my likings and that I found many adaptation results unsatisfactory, but I also admit that this process lead to some wonderful results as well. Unfortunately, it is not the case here. Although the story is caught pretty good and true to the one of the “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” novel I find the relationship between the story and the drawings, which make comic books so interesting, to be poorly executed. I don’t know if I was influenced by my experience with the novel or the movie, but I honestly have to say that the comic book adaptation didn’t have a positive effect on me and I will not pick the future issues of the “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” comics.