Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and His Dog

by Harlan Ellison, Richard Corben (Illustrator)

Trade paperback collection, color reprints.

Genres: Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Short Stories, Horror

128 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Ivan Lutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Znam znam to je Harlan i dobila je priča sve moguće i nemoguće nagrade. Vjerojatno je vremenski odmak u pitanju. Priča je vrlo oštra, jednosmjerna i šovinistička, brutalna i ostavljena na samo "id" čovječnosti. Kraj je odličan i zbog toga vrijedi pročitati, no gnjavila me sredina i taj neki zaplet... Ali simpatično orginalna priča koja mi se svidjela, ali nije me izbacila iz cipela.

Sviđa mi se fora komandosa s telepatijom i psima pomagačima (mislim totalno otkidam na pse i da mi žena dozvoljava imao bih 20 komada u kući)

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would've rated higher but if I wasn't deeply disturbed by the story.

Misogyny, rape, violence abound. Hard to stomach but I haven't read anything like it. It was quite a page-turner. Now excuse me while I puke.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Boy and His Dog has long been one of my favorites, and I liked the film pretty well, too. This is a pretty good -if overly abbreviated- adaptation, along with two other very short stories set in the overall narrative. (It seems unlikely that Ellison will ever finish the final novel version he envisaged, which is a shame.) I was never a big Richard Corben fan, his muddy underground-komix style is a vibe that wears thin fast for me, but I enjoyed reading this one. Perhaps it helps to make clear that Vic is not the hero, a fact that many people seemed to miss in earlier incarnations.

[Emilio Arias H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salvaje, irónico y muy humano.
Adaptación al cómic de los tres relatos que conforman la novela corta A Boy and His Dog. Harlan Ellison, quien es el autor original del texto narrativo, escribe el guion y el maestro Richard Corben aporta el dibujo.
Esta edición es en color, por ello los dibujos se aprecian menos que en la edición original de dos números en blanco y negro.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dystopias and dogs? I’m in. Set in the prescient hell scale of the 2020s, this book follows the fallout (!) of World War III. Blood is a telepathic dog and his human is a teenager named Vic. Blood attempts to educate the moody teen and keep him alive in very grim and brutal surroundings. Another Ellison work to have a lasting influence on popular culture.

This includes a prequel and sequel told from the perspective of Blood and both are decent enough. The basic comic art isn’t adding much value to the text though.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, here is what this book is: Harlan Ellison wrote a short piece of fiction that was supposed to be the beginning of a novel. (This was made into a movie, but I didn't see the movie, so that doesn't concern me at the moment.) Then he wrote a bit of a prologue to that. Then, when this particular edition of the book was in the works, he wrote another short piece, which is also supposed to be the beginning of the eventual novel. We'll see if he actually ever completes it. Although I really don't care if he does, and I'll explain why below.

Each story is also told in graphic form. The comic is presented first. This is a mistake. The comics don't include everything that's in the story -- also, the comics are sort of terrible. The art is amateurish and the colors are muddy. They add nothing to the story. Screw the comics. Read the story first, then take five minutes to read the comic because why not, it's right there.

The first story (written second) was okay. The second story (written first) was fantastic. I sure do love me some post-apocalyptic tales. It was believable and interesting and had a great ending.

The third story was boring, and diminished the ending of the second installment. He shouldn't have written it.

I would have given just the second story -- story alone, no ugly comic -- four stars. All the other crap in this book brought it down a star.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of the film ‘A Boy and his Dog’, which was adapted from the book, ‘Vic and Blood’. The book is slightly different from the film and in all honesty ~ better, especially the ending of the film which Harlan Ellison hated and I can see why.

Blood the dog is telepathically connected to Vic, a young boy who survives with Blood’s help in the vast wasteland following numerous wars, Blood’s telepathy was inherited from an experiment on his ancestors, he is unable to do what dogs should be able to do, which is hunt but he cannot, so he depends on Vic, while Vic depends on Blood to cope with the world around him.

Vic and Blood’s relationship is shown well and is heartfelt and humorous at times.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Boy and His Dog, was by far one of the strangest and most influential movies of my youth. The post-apocalyptic world where teenage gangs with psychic dogs fight in the nuclear wastelands for food by day, and spend the nights watching pornos in the burnt-out shells of movie theatres, while the middle class has moved underground into a 1950s negative utopia complete with clown make-up, oom-pah bands, and robot guards that try to steal Don Johnson's sperm really took hold of my imagination in the strangest possible way. Stumbling across this comic adaption that also included a prequel, a sequel and the original prose versions of all three was heaven.

[Vardan Partamyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the story inspired a movie and could be credited with helping establish the whole post-apocalyptic desert roaming-beyond the end-black humor-no morality quest genre, A Boy And His Dog was not a story to enjoy. Told through the eyes of lone wanderer Vic, this tale of gratuitious violence, rape, sadism, masochism and collective masturbation is, at the end of the day - pointless. The characters inspire nothing but vague disinterest and when the story ends with a "shocking" twist, you are so, excuse the pun, fed up with the whole thing that you cannot stomach another bite (more puns...all of which I humbly apologize for).

[Donald Armfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man's best friend, through wasted lands, no matter what happens or the ones who could come between them.

A sci-fi wasteland and the travels of a boy and his dog. A very sad story but Interesting read.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can acknowledge the strong voice, sardonic tone, vivid actions and so on, but the main character is an utter douche nozzle. Teen boys might love his ruthless sexual misogyny (rape and such), but as a father of a daughter, I just don't get it.

[Harrison Rinelli]

after you read the stranger, use the next hour to read this, then sleep for 21

[Guillermo Galvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do awful things entertain you? Maybe you cheer when the bad guy with the chainsaw finally catches up the dimwits running blindly through the woods. Alright then, here’s Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and his Dog.

However, this isn’t some brain-dead slasher comic. Harlen Ellison, winner of the Hugo and Nebula, is the writer who penned one of the darkest sci-fi stories, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which directly inspired the Wichowski’s to create The Matrix.

Now pair Ellison with the visual genius of Richard Corban, whose dark fantasies infused Heavy Metal magazine for decades, and you’ll get one of the most hardcore comics in the post-apocalyptic genre.

Vic and Blood is subversive to its core. It takes the classic premise of a boy and his dog but changes the setting to the burned-out husk of a dying planet where people survive by committing atrocities or are murdered by raiders, mutated spiders, radiation, or glowing zombies.
Our anti-heroes have an edge. Blood is a genetically enhanced, super intelligent war dog who can telepathically communicate with Vic. Vic, on the other hand, is a horny teenager handy with a rifle. The story follows these characters as they travel through the wastelands, scavenging loot and having a little fun in the process, such as going to the movies and committing rape. Blood is more interested in food and preventing Vic from getting them killed.

The plot becomes a demented love story when Vic meets a girl who tests his loyalty to Blood. Interestingly, below the surface of hyper violence and splatter punk gore, the story explores genuine themes of friendship. Blood acts as an older, wiser brother to Vic, while at the same time tearing him apart with vicious insults. Sometimes Blood takes it too far and attempts to make amends, flinging the dynamic of “master and pet” directly on its head.

Ellison is a mean bastard, a god who tortures his characters (and readers) without mercy. In an interview, Ellison said he’s concerned with the true nature of violence, something that’s been transformed into a masquerade pretending not to hurt. Love is real and so is pain. This comic has both in unequal doses.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a huge Corben fan, but I respect his work well enough and I've enjoyed some of his projects. This one ... is muddy. The coloring makes it hard to read and the line work feels a bit unfinished. Oppressive. Maybe that was intentional, as the stories themselves are quite dark. While "A Boy And His Dog" has a current of misogyny that I dislike, I can overlook it a bit because it's an interesting scenario (I enjoy Quilla's joyous rejection of her puritan upbringing!) and it's a good "EC Comics-style" twist ending. The prologue feels a bit pointless - establishing a relationship and a world that are effectively established in the main story -, and the second story feels even more pointless - wrapping up and writing off a relationship built up over the two previous stories for the point of what? Showing that Vic got his for murdering Quilla?

One big thing in the formatting of this book - each of the three stories appears twice consecutively - first in the comic book adaptation by Corben, then as Ellison's original prose incarnation. As noted earlier, the comic adaptations aren't great. The prose versions are all more engaging, particularly "A Boy And His Dog." That said, the formatting for the prose versions is so ugly - the spacing between paragraphs, the text on the bright white pages. The comic book dimensions and printing aren't really effective or appealing for prose. An ugly book. I mean, it's an ugly story, but it knows it's an ugly story. That's no excuse for an ugly book.

[Joseph B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vic and Blood adapts three short stories about a telepathic dog and his teenage partner living in a post-apocalyptic world. This'll be a short review, as there isn't much to the storylines. There's rape, violence, and a few mature elements to these. The comic released in the late 80s and the art reflects that. The plots can feel quite dated at times and the "edgy" nature might turn some people away, but if you want a decent post-apocalyptic comic to pass an afternoon this is worth checking out.

[Shawn Roblez · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a very surprise to me i mean i not enjoyed a book as much since 1995 when i read robert heinlein's stranger in a strange land for the first time. i read half of this in one day the day i started it on the 23rd and just got distracted but picked it up and finished it the other night and this was such a surprise ending

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bleak story of a teenage thug and his psychic dog, trying to survive in a bombed out, post-apocalyptic America. The boy is mostly concerned with day to day survival. The dog is grooming the boy for a hoped future when the world bets back on the tracks.

It was a fun read, but was not uplifting at all.

[Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the story. The flawed characters, the interesting settings, the harsh realities of this post apocalyptic world. Nobody is safe and nothing is sacred.

Playing the Fallout games is close to living inside this story and others with Vic and Blood but it doesn't quite capture the desolation for the most part. It's bleaker here and it seems more appropriate.

[George H · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotional and sometimes entertaining addition to A Boy and His Dog. It was a little difficult to obtain a copy and harder still to read through the post apocalypse tale. It will be an interesting read for those who are familiar with the movie starring Don Johnson in his earlier years. All in all, it was a story that really fleshed out the world and its characters' lives.

[Paul Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

i might be generous with the score. i like the world of this, but the art is not the best, and the story seems rushed. the movie is superior, but i would like to them remake it into something closer to Ellison's vision

[Kirk Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is a pioneer of sci-fi, and this book deserves 5 stars. Why am I giving it three? It was too dark and left me feeling crappy.

There's plenty of 5-star reviews - read them to get an idea of why the book's good... but skip if you're not in the mood to visit dark places.

[José Álvarez Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia corta pero muy original.

[Titus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have reread more times than i care to admit.

[Sean Bills · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite short stories ever. I wish there was more!

[Shazza Maddog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of Vic and Blood the same way a lot of people did - through the movie that kept being played during the early '80's on the Cinemax channel. I was intrigued and appalled, and, while it wasn't my first taste of dystopia, it did make an impression - I wanted a Blood of my own. Telepathic, talking dogs? How cool.

And I also noticed whose work the movie was based on - Harlan Ellison, he of the many Hugo awards, gently mocked by Isaac Asimov, teller of stories that alternately creeped me out and left me gasping. So, I started looking for the novella, A Boy and His Dog, though I never found it in printed form, at least until recently, when I spotted this graphic novel/novella counterpart at the local library.

Someone had found me the graphic novel, A Boy and His Dog, and I have it on my shelf, so I pretty much ignored the same story told in this collection, and went straight for the prose. The story is told in three parts - the opening and closing sequences are in Blood's point of view, while the middle sequence, the original novella, is told in Vic's point of view. While the opening and the middle are very well written, and show Ellison's skewed humor and deft way with words, the final sequence left me thinking it was pushed on me, and I actually found myself preferring the corresponding graphic novel part.

For those of you who don't know the story, World War III and the following wars pretty much took out Earth, leaving behind a radioactive planet, with few women, hard-to-find food, dangerous creatures and even more dangerous humans. Vic is a kid in his mid-teens, and Blood, the dog, is descended from the harrier hounds bred by the United States to telepathically communicate with their handlers. Blood has a keen sense of smell and intelligence - it appears he's definitely smarter than Vic, and knows a great deal more history, if nothing else. Blood is the dreamer of the pair, while Vic is a hardscrabble type. This all changes when Blood smells a woman in a movie theater, and Vic and he track her down.

Quilla June, they find out, is from underground, where the 'decent folk' escaped to, with only air shafts left to open up into the atmosphere. They have their own ways down there, and are stuck more or less in the '50's in appearance. Quilla June escapes, and leaves Vic and Blood to come after her, but Blood's too hurt, and refuses to go underground, so Vic goes it alone.

If you've seen the movie, you know what happens next; if you haven't, well, I don't want to spoil it for you. The black humor is still evident, either way you see the material, either movie or novella form.

I would very much like to read the entirety of Blood's story, Mr. Ellison, so I do hope you get around to writing the rest of it one day.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit torn on this one as it made me so queasy sometimes that it was hard to click a button that said "Liked it" or "Really liked it." But the stories were well-told, and the main characters/narrators (the stories are told first-person, with the narrators switching off) were engaging -- especially Blood, the dog.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to read the novel that's excerpted here, "Blood's a Rover" (if it even is ever finished, which I guess it hasn't been yet). On the one hand I wanted to know what happened, but on the other hand -- well, I didn't want to know what happened.

This book includes two full stories and a novel excerpt in text-only format, as originally written by Harlan Ellison, plus comic versions of each by Richard Corben. I would have rated the book higher if it had just the stories, but the comics brought it down a star. I only read the first comic version. but I didn't think it added much. That was possibly partly because of my middle-aged eyes and reading at night. The colors seemed muddy, it was hard to read the text, and I didn't love the art. And maybe partly bad printing. My copy seemed to have been printed on some self-publishing platform that maybe wouldn't do great color graphics printing. But I also think the art just wasn't that great, regardless.

Anyway, my point is, you could probably find these stories in an edition that was cheaper and/or contained other stories, so don't buy this one.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic stories. Mad Max, The Fallout series, The Road and many more. I just can't enough of a depiction of a world destroyed and where rules are a thing of the past.

Here, I began to recognize the inspiration this novella had on the genre. George Miller (director of Mad Max series) has said himself that the film adaptation of this is was what inspired the concepts for Mad Max and the vision of a post-apocalyptic future.

Granted it is brief after all. If you've ever played a fallout game, it feels like a sidequest more than a fully fleshed out story. It's a short-story so it can be forgiven in this instance. But a full novel would have been a treat.

In as far as my praise goes for this, I loved the dialogue, the fast-paced action, the ideas, the humour and it's refusal to depict a post-apocalyptic world as anything but anarchy.

In conclusion, for what it is, I love it. If you have similar tastes as me, I'd highly recommend you check this one out also.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a foreword this one opens with the author's comment in giant caps "Vic never touched the meat"... as in referring to something the movie adaptation did, that he personally finds awful .. blah blah blah
Only picked this up for the novella sections. The comic isn't very good looking, the illustrations that pop up in middle of the prose are fine tho! How does that even make sense?

Eggsucker is technically a prequel, 'cept it was written 2nd... and kinda isn't as good
Run, Spot, Run was... yeah... Giant Mutated Spiders, yo!

A Boy and his Dog are the original, tho now "middle" and still clearly the best! Just read that story solo elsewhere and don't bother with the rest

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was positively frightening, shocking. I can only imagine reaction to the short story when it was first published. I can see how the story possibly influenced some of my favorite books.

I can not believe I found this by chance. I had never heard of it, not the story or the movie, and I had no idea what to expect. I mean, the title is decieving.

Highly, highly recommended but I'm not sure how someone who has read the story will feel about the art. I found it fitting, the darkness and tones setting an eerie atmosphere.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahh, nothing like some vintage trope-setting post-apocalypse. With a mildly telepathic (?) dog, and a completely horrid human stain of a main character.
Vic is a rapist asshole ... but the story wouldn't really be any fun otherwise! And somehow did not see that ending coming, which probly why it was so damn enjoyable

PS: would have probly been more shocked if was 20 years younger and living at least 30 years ago. Just sayin'