ABSTRACT
The recent comic book adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by BOOM! Studios makes Dick's classic novel particularly relevant today as we increasingly live in the cyberpunk futures depicted in earlier fiction, film, and television; however, Tony Parker's visual artwork, in conjunction with key cover art, helps illuminate and visualize subtleties in Dick's source text that are brought to the fore in the comic book adaptation, notably the key role of ‘bugs' in the narrative. As a result, Parker's visual adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? resituates Dick's novel within a broader cultural formation, one defined by significant ecological devastations wrought by human urban and rural development, the exploitation of nature in the name of capitalism, and the untenable environmental crisis that threatens all forms of life on the planet. In the end, BOOM! Studios' comic book series emphasizes the necessity for an authentic kinship with our fellow animals, even when those animals are of the six- and eight-legged variety.
