DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

Boom! Studios Announces new 24 issue comic book mini-series based on PKD's classic novel.

Written by Phillip K. Dick, art by Steven Dupre, covers by Dennis Calero, Bill Sienkiewicz, Moritat and Scott Keating.

The book that inspired the film Blade Runner comes to BOOM! with backmatter by Warren Ellis!

Visionary sci-fi author Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" has been called "a masterpiece ahead of its time, even today" and served as the basis for the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner.

The Story: San Francisco lies under a cloud of radioactive dust. The World War killed millions, driving entire species to extinction, and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic fakes: horses, birds, cats, sheep -- even humans. Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter tasked to find six rogue androids -- they're machines, but look, sound, and think like humans, clever, and most of all, dangerous humans.

Rick Deckard, Pris, The Voight-Kampff Test, Nexus 6 androids, the Tyrell Corporation: join BOOM! Studios as the complete novel transplanted into the comic book medium, mixing all new panel-to-panel continuity with the actual text from the novel in an innovative, groundbreaking 24-issue maxi-series experiment.

Coming in June.
32 pages, $3.99.

To Luke Crow

As the serpent is lifted up in the wilderness
so is my anger lifted up against you
If my desire to end your life were a flame
oh how I would burn
supernova, under a blue sky
with a Bible in my hand
and a thorn in my side
I am torn, I am
torn between lusting
for the warmth
of your blood
on my hands and
longing to see you covered
in the blood of the Lamb.

And I hope one day
to find you sleeping
and to raise my sword
above your head
to cut a lock of your hair
and leave it beside you
as you dream

You are not the king
you hope to be
and my songs can never
soothe the demon
in you
or me

by keith giles

Elegy by Keith Giles

and so we make ourselves ready
with cloth and comb and polish
measuring the circumference
of a life once lived
careful with our hands
we smooth the wrinkles
straighten the crease
immerse ourselves in sunlight
shallow and warm and silent

we cradle the glass
in trembling palms
take sips between exchanges unspoken
breathing slowly
when it comes between us
unexpected, quiet, and dark.

we make ourselves ready.

THE UNTELEPORTED MAN by Philip K. Dick (A Review)

While visiting my parents in El Paso I ran across two great paperback editions by PKD, one was "The Unteleported Man" and the other was "The Eye in the Sky". I picked up both for $5.00 which was awesome and I started reading "The Unteleported Man" immediately.

The first 100 pages of the book are seriously amazing. I was all prepared to declare it one of my favorite PKD books, up until page 100 when the story took a complete left turn into stupidity.

Apparently the book has been published in various forms over the years with the additional material (where things get really stupid) being added in by the author himself to expand a short story which originally appeared in a sci-fi anthology as a long-form short story.

Those first 100 pages are good enough to inspire a feature length film, as long as the adaptation avoided the detour added in to pad the story.

I would recommend the book to those who already love PKD as I do and who are patient enough to plow their way through the second half of the book to get to the ending which was part of the original short story.

For the record, these are my favorite PKD books in no particular order:

*Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
*Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
*The Man Who Japed
*Ubik

I might also note that I have read but not particularly enjoyed "The Man in the High Castle" and "A Scanner Darkly" which are often hailed as some of PKD's greatest novels.

Of course, I have barely scratched the surface since he wrote over 40 novels and hundreds of short stories in his lifetime.

I am currently reading the "Paycheck" collection of short stories by PKD and have just finished "The Eye of the Sybil" collection.

While I'm in a list-making mood, here are my favorite sci-fi films of all time:

*Blade Runner
*Brazil
*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Children of Men
*Gattaca
*Alien
*Aliens
*Terminator
*The Matrix

-kg

MY FAVORITE CARTOON

SOONER OR LATER - SHORT SCI-FI FILM

This 10 minute short sci-fi time travel film will warp your brain like a PKD short story on speed. (Which PDK was on most of the time).

Check it:

INTO THE TEETH OF THE DARK KNIGHT

It's not uncommon for a film director to use a recurring visual theme to communicate something to the audience that transcends the script or the performance of the actors.

For example, "Blade Runner", the epic sci-fi film directed by Ridley Scott, employs a recurring eye theme throughout the film. The movie opens on a tight close-up of an eye wherein we see the reflection of giant refineries belching fire into the night sky. The camera lingers on the eyes of each actor. Characters sport strange eye-glasses. We are inundated with the human eye throughout the film and it becomes a visual touchstone for the viewer and a subtle whisper for the director to point us to notice something unspoken in his art.

One of the most unexpected themes of the new "Dark Knight" film starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger is teeth.

Anyone who watches this film will know what I'm talking about. The teeth in this film are a significant visual touchstone.

First we have our main star, Christian Bale. The first time he smiles on camera you'll notice that he's wearing a set of those fake vampire teeth that you buy from the vending machines at Toys R Us, which is kinda cool except then you realize that he's not wearing one of those and you say to yourself, "Hey, that guy has really weird vampire-like teeth."

Morgan Freeman, an actor of amazing range and ability, also has a set of very scary teeth. Just watch the scene where he smiles at the Chinese business owner from across the bargaining table. It will make you wish you were a dentist…or maybe thankful that you're not his dentist.

The Joker, played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger, also sports a set of yellowed, coffee-stained chompers which he flashes to us continuously throughout the film in scenes gruesome, black humor.

Finally, Aaron Eckhart, who plays the tragic Harvey "Two Face" Dent, displays a
mouth full of perfectly-formed pearly whites which become even more prominent when you get to peek through his grotesquely burned cheek at those never-ending, shiny white molars.

Not sure why the film has such a strong teeth motif, and I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but this film leaves a serious bite mark.

-Keith Giles