Broken Frontier

For almost thirty years, Philip K. Dick’s peculiar brand of philosophical science fiction has garnered the attention of film, radio, and even the stage. His work has inspired blockbuster movies such as Minority Report, Total Recall, and Bladerunner. There was even a short-lived, if surprisingly faithful, TV adaptation that included elements of many of Dick’s tales called Total Recall 2070. It can still be found in syndication on some specialty channels. Until recently though, aside from an adaptation of Bladerunner back in 1982 and BOOM! Studios' Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, there’s been a noticeable absence of Dickian metaphysics in comics.

Part of the reason for this might be due to a lack of sophistication in the comic-buying audience. Most of today’s North American fan base started buying comics when they were children and have matured as the industry did. Dick was hitting his career peak just as many of us were barely starting to observe and understand the abstract questions he asks in his stories. Themes such as identity, the unconscious, the nature of reality, politics, and mysticism permeate Dick’s dystopian tales. Much of the action is internal as the protagonist struggles to understand or debunk the illusion that makes up his every day life. When you consider that comics are a medium in which conflict most often has its roots in physical confrontation, the challenges of adapting Dick’s stories and novels become evident.

In Electric Ant, Marvel Comics takes a courageous stab at interpreting one of the most convoluted and whimsical minds in all of speculative fiction. Creators David Mack and Pascal Alixe make a wonderful choice in adapting Electric Ant for comics. It tells the story of Garson Poole who wakes up in a hospital, minus one hand after a violent accident, only to discover he’s not human at all but an organic robot known as an “electricant”. The knowledge sets Poole on a frantic search for his origins and his purpose. The story is typical of Dick’s thematic leanings, as Poole questions everything from the practical to the ephemeral. At one point, he wonders out loud on a crowded train, whether or not he’s been programmed to think out loud his entire existence.

Mack possesses an obvious passion for Dick’s stories, handling the author’s themes with dexterity and intelligence. He introduces Poole’s sprawling urban future gradually, following his protagonist’s first stuttering steps from his hospital bed to the window and eventually beyond. It’s a journey through both physical and philosophical landscapes and Mack blends the two together effortlessly, creating a heightened sense of discomfort in the audience as they share Poole’s spiritual dilemma. Much of this has to do with Mack’s juxtaposition of the plot’s deliberate pace with an unpredictable, simmering internal struggle. Even as he considers the futility of his actions, Poole drives ever onward (and inward) in his search for answers.

Pascal Alixe’s vibrant, detailed artwork provides the audience with gorgeous visuals of Dick’s exotic future earth. Poole’s survey of the city from his hospital window is a beautiful introduction to his unique environment and captures all of its grit and grandeur. Alixe does stumble in the storytelling department at least once in the book, in his depiction of the flying-car accident that unexpectedly sets Poole on his quest. His layouts in this sequence are murky and he never really establishes the vehicle until the crash, making it difficult to understand the exact circumstances of the accident. His real strength is communicating the distinctiveness of the vast setting, while drawing attention to both its familiar and foreign characteristics.

Dick considered himself a philosopher who happened to write fiction. Right up until his death, he continued to ask the difficult questions most of us shy away from. He wasn’t afraid to place society’s ideas of perception, personal identity, and reality under his intense metaphysical scrutiny. Mack and Alixe show a similar fearlessness in their treatment of Electric Ant, enticing the audience to turn the spotlight on themselves, even as they fall into step with an artificial man on his journey of self-discovery.