BLADE RUNNER COMIC BOOK ADAPTATION

Marvel managed to snag the rights to the adaptation of BLADE RUNNER and published the first of the two-part series about two weeks before the film premiered. The script was written by and illustrated by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzón. Dan Green and Ralph Reese were credited as inkers along with Williamson and Garzón, but it is not known to what extent they contributed.

The comic does a fair job of presenting the story, considering it lasted just the two issues. Of note is Williamson's and Garzón's pencils and the inks bear a striking resemblance to Jim Steranko in a number of panels.

Today's post includes both issues and are presented without ads.

BLADE RUNNER

Volume 1, No. 1

Cover date: October 1982 (On sale date: July 13, 1982)

Marvel Comics Group

Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter

Editor: Jim Salicrup

Cover: Al Williamson; Carlos Garzón

Adaptation: Archie Goodwin

Pencils: Al Williamson; Carlos Garzón

Inks: Al Williamson; Carlos Garzón; Dan Green; Ralph Reese

Colors: Marie Severin

Letters: Ed King

Pages: 36

Cover price: 60 cents

BLADE RUNNER

Volume 1, No. 2

Cover date: November 1982 (On sale date: August 17, 1982)

Marvel Comics Group

Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter

Editor: Jim Salicrup

Cover: Brent Anderson

Adaptation: Archie Goodwin

Pencils: Al Williamson; Carlos Garzón

Inks: Al Williamson; Carlos Garzón; Dan Green; Ralph Reese

Colors: Marie Severin

Letters: Ed King

Pages: 36

Cover price: 60 cents

THE MAKING OF BLADE RUNNER

Novelist, short story writer and essayist Philip K. Dick authored the book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" from which the movie BLADE RUNNER was based. First published in 1968 by Doubleday, it has made the rounds in many editions since. Admittedly, I haven't quite "grokked" the full philosophy that lies behind his work, but there's no denying that he is one of a handful of true visionary science fiction writers.

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982).

As with any adaptation to film, the book does vary in a number ways. For instance, besides the title itself, the setting in the book is San Francisco and in the film it's moved to Los Angeles where the Tech Noir elements of the story are closer tied to Hollywood film noir.

Cover of the first Doubleday hardcover edition, 1968.

In a speech he gave in 1972 at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention at the University of British Columbia, Dick said regarding his essay "The Android and the Human":

Machines are becoming more human, so to speak -- at least in the sense that . . . some meaningful comparison exists between human and mechanical behavior. But is it not ourselves that we know first and foremost? Rather than learning about ourselves by studying our constructs, perhaps we should make the attempt to comprehend what our constructs are up to by looking into what we ourselves are up to.

If you enjoyed yesterday's post, you should like this one even better, as a deeper dive is taken into the making of this remarkable film in CINEFANTASTIQUE (July/August 1982).