Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly: a Graphic Novel

A Scanner Darkly: a Graphic Novel

Philip K. Dick

Pantheon, Jul 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0375424024

In the future in Orange County, California, America has lost the war on drugs though some futile efforts remain by law enforcement. Uncover police officer Fred is assigned to prevent Bob Arctor from selling the lethally still illegal addictive drug Substance D by finding evidence to arrest the dealer, who unbeknownst to the cop is also a user. Getting nowhere as he cannot even find his target, Fred decides on a dangerous ploy to masquerade as Bob Arctor, which means using Substance D in order to find the proof. What Fred fails to know is that the brain spits into two personalities when abused by Substance D; Fred seeks to incarcerate himself as he already is Bob.

This graphic novel of the animated film version of Philip K. Dick's classic science fiction thriller is a superb entry that fans of the author who love this dark tale will appreciate though it is more comic book than novelization thriller. Though the book is fun to follow it seems it will pale as still frame when compared to the action sequences of the movie (about to be released) and is clearly nothing like the real thing. Still even in comic book form, Mr. Dick's dark vision of a drugged future retains the awesomeness of the original.

Harriet Klausner