Review – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Omnibus TP (BOOM! Studios)

January 10, 2016

1–2 minutes

Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Philip K. Dick
Artist: Tony Parker w/ Blond
Release Date: 2nd December, 2015

Allow me to preface this review with a warning; This is a faithful adaptation of Dick’s original novel, which means that it’s both really long in graphic novel terms and also grim as all hell. As such it’s somewhat hard going and takes a bit of commitment to make it the end, but I can reassure you that it’s most definitely a worthy toil.

For those who somehow haven’t read the story or seen it’s derivative movie Blade Runner, the plot involves a bounty hunter – Rick Deckard – hunting androids who have escaped from the off-world colonies back to a irradiated, decaying Earth, illegally seeking a life beyond their programming.

The writing is all lifted from the original and as such is deeply introspective and dark, portraying a pretty bleak picture of humanity’s near future where the humans seem degraded and less vital than the androids.

Tony Parker’s artwork does justice to the source material, using a suitably dark palette, mostly drawing from shades of blue and brown, occasionally lit up by the neon light of Buster Friendly’s TV show or the crisp aesthetic of a corporate headquarters to contrast with the decrepitude of the rest of the planet.

My only criticism – and it’s a strange one, under normal circumstances – would be that the art stays very clean throughout and as such misses a bit of an opportunity to show off the grimy texture of this setting while contrasting it with the android’s vitality and the otherworldly nature of humanity’s distractions in the shape of Friendly & Mercer.

That minor and entirely personal quibble about texture aside, this is a grand translation of Dick’s seminal work into the graphic novel format. It’s grim, depressing and makes you think a lot about things like the value of life, identity and corporate influence.

Rating: 4/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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