Sunday Reading Roundup

Between late night diaper changes and the first week of a demanding new semester teaching second-year literature, I'm just barely maintaining. And of course I'm really falling behind here on the blog. So here, in digest fashion, are some of the stories flowing through our great series of tubes.

1) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the Prequel. The comic-centered and PKD knowledgeable blog, nutintheshell, has the details:

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?: DUST TO DUST #1
Written by Chris Roberson, art by Robert Adler.

A science-fiction publishing event! Who hunted androids before Rick Deckard? Taking place immediately after World War Terminus ends, the problems with artificial life -- androids -- become apparent. The government decides they must become targets, hunted down, but who will do the dirty work? Two men are assigned: Malcolm Reed, a "special" human with the power to feel others' emotions, and Charlie Victor, who's the perfect man for the job -- or is he? Meanwhile Samantha Wu, a Stanford biologist, fights to save the last of the world's animals. John W. Campbell Memorial Award-nominee Chris Roberson writes the prequel to John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winner Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever published!

32 pages, $3.99. Releasing: April, 2010

Yeah, but will it have Jar Jar Binks in it?!

2) The Electric Ant comic book. Is it out yet? I'm not a huge comic book fan, but I'd like to hear the opinions of some in the comments section...

3) I've saved the best for last: LA freelance writer Scott Timberg, has written a pretty extensive series of articles on PKD for the LA Times and his blog. Scott and I talked a lot during the writing of the article, and I'm impressed by his work (and not just because he quoted me a few times). Here's a link to Scott's main article for the LAT. Then Scott wrote more extensively in subsequent posts. Links to parts one and two here. The rare pic of PKD and Tessa posted at the top appeared on Scott's blog; I don't think I've seen it before.

4) Scott also has ins over at io9.com and recently posted an interview with Radio Free Albemuth director John Simon, and talked about his sneak peek at the film...

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to Become a Comic Book Series

Boom Studios announced today that it plans to publish a 24-issue comic book adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Remember, Dick's trust authorized an adaptation of "The Electric Ant" last year, and this looks like another pretty good move, hopefully exposing the novel to another set of fans. One thing that I like about the project is that they plan to a complete adaption, totally faithful to Dick's original, even using his original text.

I'm not a huge comic fan, but the illustrations look good, and my guess is, this won't hurt Dick's burgeoning literary reputation. This article over at MajorSpoilers.com quotes Dick's daughters Laura and Isa as saying:

“We are thrilled that DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? is being adapted for this audience by such a talented team. We’ve been incredibly impressed with BOOM!’s ability to create such a faithful interpretation of the original work without sacrificing their own original instincts and artistic sensibilities,” said Laura Leslie and Isa Dick Hackett of Electric Shepherd Productions. “Through this medium, readers will now have visual access to parts of the novel not explored in the film adaptation BLADE RUNNER.”

Warren Ellis is set to provide "backmatter" for the novel to appear in the first issue. That's the only red flag. Ellis, who probably doesn't deserve the bashing I gave him in this post awhile ago, nevertheless rubs me the wrong way. Remember he wrote one of those old, backhanded-compliment "PKD was a brilliant nut-case" articles we all had to wade through when Dick had his literary coming out party with the release of his first volume from the Library of America.


Those covers look better than these:

'The Electric Ant' Comic Series In the Works

According to a press release posted on PhilipKDick.com yesterday. One of PKD's coolest short stories, "The Electric Ant" is set to become a "limited series" (whatever that means) in 2009. According to the press release:

"The creative team behind this existential thriller includes acclaimed writer David Mack (Daredevil, Kabuki) and artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men, 1602: Fantastik Four), joined by Consulting Editor Brian Michael Bendis (award-winning author behind Secret Invasion) and renowned artist Paul Pope, who will provide covers to the series."

"The Electric Ant" is one of my favorite PKD shorts, and I think, with the right team, this could be a great series. I know Lethem's a big fan of comics, so let's hope he's helping steer. Certainly Dick appreciated comic books, how well do you think this medium will suit the story or PKD's work in general?

Update: Here's an article with tons more info.

Double X2 Update: The paid writers over at io9.com have posted some sample art from the series (below and above).