Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Omnibus TP
Blade Runner was one of those movies that one has to watch multiple times, to make a proper opinion of it, as everyone I know looks at this work in so many different ways since their first viewing. Just like any movie, you pick up on certain things you never noticed the first time, plus you actually beign to see certain things that other people have pointed out. Personally, I did not like the movie the first time around, I remember being 8 years old, and not getting what the story was about or why Harrison Ford’s character is chasing people around the city. It was not until I was 15 that picked up the source material, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which blew my mind.
Philip K Dick’s story was miles away from what the movie was in my memory; I cannot even say it captured the essence of the book, as it pretty much was a departure from what the story was altogether. So when the Director’s Cut of Blade Runner came out a few years ago, I finally understood why they never fully realized the original vision, with all the behind the scenes turmoil and the pressures from the studio. As the Director’s cut, prove more faithful, but not so much that it changed my opinion of the movie, which is why I crave for a better adaptation. BOOM! Studios answered that call, with their adaptation a few years ago.
BOOM! recently released an omnibus version of the series, in all of its glory, and collecting all 24 issues of the original entire run of the comic. Unlike most adaptations, this one has got to be the most faithful to the original book than I would have ever imagined, and from reading all those years ago, it still remains intriguing and cerebral in the right marks, much like the book. This adaptation reminds me exactly why I liked Rick Deckard in the book, because he comes off so much like John Wayne’s character in the Searchers, a well worn warrior, who just has one more mission to go on, while searching for these replicants(androids), he actually searches for himself. By story’s end, the reader finds resolve at the same Deckard does, but not without going through change.
Overall, an excellent adaptation, it captures the book in its best lights, as it soars in faithful adaptation where the Watchmen movie, often suffocated. Philip K Dick’s story still stands strong, many years later from its conception, as from the many recollections about his writing process especially on this book, he wrote like a man possessed. The art by Tony Parker and Blond, is a beautiful mixture of 80s comic book art and new school vision. Altogether, a solid book, at 642 pages, for any fan of Philip K Dick, considering one of his other books which has been adapted, is now streaming on Amazon Prime, he is at his best with this book.
Story: Philip K Dick Art: Tony Parker and Blond
Story: 10 Art: 9 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy NOW
BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Growing up watching movies as a teenager, some of the best that I remember were horror movies. These movies not only pushed the boundaries of imagination but sometimes were the stuff of nightmares. The ones that made your skin crawl and had you checking under your bed and all throughout your closet. As you get older, sometimes those same things don’t scare you as much, because you see them coming.
As a child of the 80s, I remembered the first time I became aware of who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were. I can recall, one of my friends at school, was talking how cool they were, and how the show was not only funny but had ninjas and mutants and was set in New York. At this time, the only cartoon that pretty much me , my friends and my cousins could talk about was Ghostbusters and SilverHawks, and could not see any other cartoon taking my attention away from those two. I was never as wrong about anything up to that point, as I immediately got immersed in this cartoon, and became a disciple soon after.
One of the very first books I picked when I was a child was Edgar Rice Burroughs Warlord Of Mars. It captivated my attention, as Burroughs prose swirled in my head with such imagery, that within my mind’s eye I saw Mars as he described it. The book had all the makings of a blockbuster as it took the average man and put him into a world full of beings that looked nothing like him. It was a world; I would visit multiple times throughout his adventures that featured the epic hero, John Carter.
Supernatural stories have flooded the just about every entertainment medium and to some varying effects, especially the whole variation on good versus evil. The one thing that just about all of them have lost or maybe, never had at all is the “scare factor”. What makes them so devoid of this essential element in horror is that they usually travel down the same familiar roads and ultimately utilize the most common genre tropes. There are always the exceptions like The Strangers, Deliver Us from Evil, N0sfer@2and the Purge.
George Orwell’s 1984, often warned readers of all-pervading regime surveillance and how the issue of privacy is really an illusion. What many people who have not read the novel do not know, is where we get the often used “Big Brother” reference from, and it is from this epic novel, which refers to the government as such. The novel also talked about the very idea of free speech, how institutions persecute individuality by arresting those who thought outside of the box of “thought crimes”, something which has been seen in V for Vendetta and Minority Report. It is truly terrifying to think that such a novel would not only leave an impression on readers about a dystopian future but in how many ways, most of it became true.
As a child of the 1980s, I was first introduced to Zorro, through his Saturday morning cartoons and through his later live action Disney series. I remembered what made him cool, was what Batman cool, which was that he was a man of mystery. He corrected wrongs where there were ones and fought for justice in black suit and black mask, much like Batman. You add in, the fact, that it was a Western set in , Pre-America Los Angeles, and it gives a reader a peak into just how California was, before it became a part of the union.
The thing about legends that makes them endure is the part of the human psyche which does believe without actually seeing any empirical evidence, that which some call, faith. Some of these legends come off as mere “tall tales” or exaggerations of what actually happened. Then there are those which are told so visceral, that the details make them, live long after the storyteller has left the living. One of those legends, that had so much detail and told in such a tangible way, is the tale of the Devil and Robert Johnson.
When it comes to the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who fandom, he often gets overlooked as his tenure was really one appearance which was meant to be a series relaunch but became two , with the mini-episode “Night of the Doctor.” In his brief appearance in the series, he has left an indelible mark on the series, and the fandom worldwide, as his memory has not lived on as a squandered opportunity but what could have been. He ended up living on in individual stories published in novel, novella, short story and audio form. Now he finds his way onto the comics’ medium, with all the carefree charm his character is known for.
Raising daughters can be a very interesting journey for a man, as you may have sit through TV shows and characters that you could care less to watch. I have seen shows like Bratz and Strawberry Shortcake, with them until they outgrew it. In fact, I was going through their old DVDs to take to Salvation Army, and ran across a ton of these DVDs, and not one of them the girls would watch now. Both of them read comics, but they also read chapter books, and they even have read some classic literature. So in my mind, they are miles away from this time in their lives.