Philip K. Dick: A Comics Biography

by Laurent Queyssi, Mauro Marchesi

One of the greatest writers in science fiction history, Philip K. Dick is mostly remembered for such works as Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall. His dark, fascinating work centered on alternate universes and shifting realities in worlds often governed by monopolistic corporations and authoritarian governments. His own life story seems a tussle with reality, cycling through five marriages and becoming increasingly disjointed with fits of paranoia and hallucinations fueled by abuse of drugs meant to stabilize him. His dramatic story is presented unvarnished in this biography.

Genres: Biography, Comics, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Bande Dessinée, Comix, France

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opening with Philip K. Dick seeing early footage from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner shortly before his death in 1982, Laurent Queyssi and Mauro Marchesi’s Philip K. Dick: A Comics Biography is a fine overview of one of the most original and notable writers of the 20th century.

Dick had health troubles from birth, both physical and mental, exacerbated later in life by a heavy pill addiction that began to ensure his work rate remained high - he wrote five novels alone in 1964! But the drugs finally took over and began affecting his health until he went to rehab. His mental health though remained shaky until the end. Besides hallucinations about otherworldly beings speaking to him, he became paranoid, thinking the government was spying on him!

Beyond the generic biographical route showing his rise to fame from writing short stories for sci-fi magazines to Hugo Award-winning novels like The Man in the High Castle, we learn about his penchant for brunettes, his many marriages and suicide attempts. There isn’t much insight in the latter though beyond one page where he tells his second wife that he was sexually molested as a child. So, was that true or was that another hallucination? In this regard, I didn’t find this book especially informative or enlightening.

It’s not the most gripping of reads either which isn’t Queyssi/Marchesi’s fault as they’re just recounting the facts of Dick’s life. Dick was just another writer whose work was far more engrossing than their comparatively mundane life.

If you just want a brief summary of Philip K. Dick’s life, this comics bio will do the trick but not if you’re looking for a deeper understanding of the writer and the man. Queyssi and Marchesi give us a quick and readable but very surface-level account of this sci-fi giant.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title says it all. Yes, this is a biography of Philip K. Dick. And yes, it's in comics form. The blurb on the front cover plays up the many Hollywood films that have been adapted from his stories. Fair enough. I think more people have seen those movies than have read his work, even if that work has been ill-represented by the films (I'm looking at you in particular, Total Recall.)

The book even kicks off with Dick in Hollywood at a private screening hosted by Ridley Scott of a montage of scenes from the then upcoming movie Bladerunner to get his reaction. And later on we applaud his integrity in turning down a lucrative deal to write a novelization of the movie, preferring instead to re-release Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with a movie tie-in cover. There's more to Dick than any movie will be able to show …

While I enjoyed this book, especially the references to his stories and novels throughout--the page where he sprays his meds with a can of Ubik, for instance--it never really rises above novelty value. In a truly good comics biography, the emphasis should be on the second word of that phrase, not the first. If you're not already noddingly familiar with Dick’s life and work, it's difficult to say how much you're going to get out of his experiences in 1974, for instance. This book covers the basics, but there's a lot of nuance in other biographies that gets glossed over here.

Those who are into Dick (Hi, Bryan!) will want to read this, but I’m not sure how much the casual reader and/or comics fan is likely to get out of it.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Little one or two page peeks into Phillip K. Dick's life. The book almost ignores his literary impact. The Man in the High Castle gets a one line mention. None of his impact on culture is mentioned. Instead it focuses on how many times he was married and his mental instability. The storytelling is very disjointed and almost incoherent in places. Yes, you will get little moments in his life, but nothing beyond the surface and nothing that actually tells you a story of his life. I found myself severely disappointed and struggled to finish.

Received a review copy from NBM and Netgalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is just too disjointed. Little snippets from Dick’s life. It would seem he had some mental health issues, although a lot of that might be explained by what looks like some pretty serious meth use. I’m guessing the combo is pretty potent. On the plus, Dick just wrote a bunch of weird sci-fi (and, okay, engaged in some domestic abuse) as opposed to creating a…let’s call it a “reich.”

I think the book tried to cover too much, and it just didn’t have the space.

I visited Philip K Dick’s grave years ago. It was the first time I had a car that could make it a few hours, so I went for it. Okay, full disclosure, it was my brother’s car. I did a rubbing of the grave and put it in a ZINE! I made a zine. Maybe two issues. The only reader of which was ALSO my brother.

PKD is buried in Fort Morgan, Colorado, next to his twin sister, who died in infancy. She was buried there early on, 5 or 6 weeks after her birth, and they share a headstone.

This is where I’m having trouble putting things together. Should we try and solve a mystery!? Why are Philip and his twin, Jane, buried side-by-side in Fort Morgan CO, marked with a headstone with a cat on it?

In the book, it’s explained that the twins were unhealthy, and by the time they got them to the hospital, Jane had died. However, in the book it appears they were at home when this happened. The likelihood that Jane would end up buried in Colorado seems low if events occurred as they appeared in the book. But it’s a reasonable fudge of the truth. It’s not really critical to know that this happened in the middle of cross-country travels, and the book doesn’t SPECIFICALLY say the Dicks were at home when all of this went down. Just seems unlikely, right?

Philip’s Wikipedia page says that the twins were born 6 weeks premature. It doesn’t mention their location.

According to a web page for a Philip K. Dick festival held in Fort Morgan, Jane died when the Dick parents were headed cross-country. Philip’s sister, Jane, died on the way, in approximately Fort Morgan(?)

The Dicks would have been traveling from Chicago to San Francisco around early 1929, WAY before the interstate system existed, so I was curious whether this still worked out. It does! According to an old-ass map I found, it seems very plausible that if someone was driving from Chicago to San Francisco at that time, they’d pass through Fort Morgan.

Another account says the Dicks were driving cross-country when the twins were born, and as a result they stayed a few weeks in Fort Morgan.

The books DOES say that both twins were unhealthy, which may have something to do with why they purchased a headstone to bury them side by side. Perhaps the Dick parents expected Philip to pass as well.

However, another article on a potentially disreputable web site (noted by the lime green text on dark background usually favored by UFO watch and white power websites) the Dick parents were from Colorado, dad from Cedarwood, mom from Greeley, and Fort Morgan was a “compromise site.” Mom IS from Greeley (hometown hero!), but I’m not sure how Fort Morgan is a compromise site between the two parts of CO. Fort Morgan and Cedarwood are almost directly north/south of each other, and Fort Morgan is east of Greeley, WAY closer to Greeley and nowhere near Cedarwood, really. It’s not in between the two, so a “compromise” location of Fort Morgan is very confusing, and I’m not buying that.

So, after looking like 10 different places, it would appear: The Dicks were headed from Chicago to San Francisco for Dick’s dad to get a job. I would guess, based on some maps from the era, that they could make the trip inside of a week. The Dick twins were born 6 weeks premature, so that might explain why the Dicks were caught on the road in a small town on the eastern plains of Colorado. If both twins were premature and sick, this being 1928, it might have made sense for the parents to expect, after Jane’s passing, that Philip wouldn’t make it, so they made a nice headstone for both babies.

Some Find a Grave research showed that Philip’s father and grandparents are in the Fort Morgan cemetery. Which means:

Jane was buried there in 1929.
Grandma Bessie was buried there in 1949.
Grandpa William was buried there in 1954.
Philip was buried there in 1982.

So was it only chance that Jane was buried there?

…it’s also possible that Edgar, PKD’s dad, had parents in the Fort Morgan area. Both of his parents are buried in Fort Morgan as well. However, I didn’t find any info on this. So it’s possible that the Dicks passed through Fort Morgan by chance, and it’s also possible they were headed that way anyway to stop with Edgar’s parents.

Philip’s remains were taken to the grave site by his father, who died a few years after Philip and is buried in Fort Morgan as well.

This leaves two mysteries:
1. Is the current tombstone original, or was it changed in the decades after Jane’s death?
2. What’s the deal with the wildcat symbol?

Mystery 1:
According to a picture caption in The Sun, the tombstone is probably original (though I can’t say that definitively). I was curious about whether a tombstone of this type would likely come from the 30’s, so I also looked through headstones in the Fort Morgan cemetery on Find A Grave from around 1930, and I found at least 2, Georgia Lee Adams and George W Akers (may they rest in peace) that do have some similarities in appearance. So it’s possible that there have been restorations of all three around a similar time, but it’s also plausible that these three are as originally created. However, Edgar Dick, Philip’s dad, who’s also buried in Fort Morgan, has a dog on his stone, and it looks very similar. Edgar having died a few years after Philip…unless he had his stone made in the same style?

According to the aforementioned disreputable neon site, Edgar, Philip’s dad, made the tombstone and wanted the twins reunited in death. There’s something to this theory as Dick was supposedly haunted by a gravestone with his name on it somewhere out there in the world. So maybe it wasn’t something he was pumped about, and therefore wouldn’t have altered or really dealt with.

Mystery 2:
I didn’t find a lot about the symbolism of cats on tombstones. Some say it’s a symbol of resurrection, cats having 9 lives. I did wonder whether the cat was a later addition. Dick wrote books that did have concerns with animals, including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in which pets are a beloved status symbol, and a book called Nick and the Glimmung, a children’s book where a cat plays a key role. Dick was also known to like cats.

The problems with Mysteries 1 and 2 is that they lead me to different conclusions. Mystery 1 makes it seem like maybe a cat was always on the grave. Mystery 2 made it seem like it was a later addition with Dick’s growing into adulthood.

Maybe there needs to be an email to a historical society. This is my Golden State Killer moment.

*************************UPDATE********************

I decided to go ahead and see what I could dig up. Pardon the graveyard pun.

I emailed the director of museums and libraries in Fort Morgan, who asked two experts: a PKD literary expert and the cemetery superintendant. Here’s what I got:

Cemetery Superintendant:

so the stone at Philip’s gravesite was placed after he passed away… until then there was only a temporary marker for his baby sister, a very common marker to be left in our Cemeteries. Regarding the cat… the family members I have talked to have told me it is as simple as Philip was a cat lover. His love for the feline species is fairly well documented. I know there is no significance to a cat as it relates to their birthday or the fact that they were twins, so I feel comfortable rolling with that rationale.

PKD Expert:

PKD loved cats. His and Tessa’s cat Pinky (diminutive of Pinkerton as Tessa told me and nothing to do with any ‘pink beam’) figures, however, in Phil’s 1974 pink-beam events. In my Index to THE SELECTED LETTERS OF PHILIP K. DICK: 1974 there are 23 references to Pinky in Phil’s letters that year. He actually died and returned to Phil in one of his strange dreams to say farewell. He writes movingly of it in these letters.

The pink beam events refer to hallucinations/visions that PKD experienced during his lifetime.

So there we have it. There was A stone there, but not the current stone. Which explains the cat as well as the dog on Edgar’s grave.

I’m prepared to call it case closed here. Thanks to Chandra McCoy: Library/Museum Director for the City of Fort Morgan!

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting use of illustrations with bio and quotes. poor pkd has some real mental and social problems, that and writing almost continually/ constantly plus self medicating heavily and not getting literary respect drove him again and again to the wall. till finally he gave

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. I've read a longer text-based bio of PKD, so not much of this is new to me. In the longer bio, I felt there was more information than I really cared to know. In this, there is too little. But enough for the casual admirer of PKD who wants to learn a little about his life.

The graphic format works, and can do some things that are hard to do in prose, like show you what the places looked like.

A few things that I found missing: it shows PKD as an adult stealing his mother's benzedrine, but it never explains that his mother and his doctors had got him hooked on that as a kid. It doesn't explore his relationship with his mother at all, though that was interesting and complicated. It shows the death of his twin sister as an infant, but doesn't mention how that haunted him. Etc. But for an introduction, or for those who don't need a full biography, this works well.

Like 99% of the books I read in translation from French, this was translated by Edward Gauvin. Either he totally owns the translation market, or we just have similar tastes!

[Levent Pekcan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kötü değil ama ben pek iyi de bulamadım. Baskısı, çizimleri güzel. Çeviride de beni rahatsız eden bir detaya rastlamadım. Ancak, eser P.K. Dick'in hayatının çok çok azını, çok yüzeysel olarak ele alıyor. Bir biyografi olarak tanımlamak çok zor, PKD ile geçecek bir ya da iki akşam sağlayan bir çizgi roman olarak değerlendirebiliyorum ancak.

Eserin tüm yüzeyselliğine rağmen kitabın arkasındaki alıntılarda kitabı "...kapsamlı ve derinlemesine bir bakış" diye tanımlayan, dBD rumuzlu yayın yada eleştirmenle özellikle tanışmak isterdim.

[Senga krew_w_piach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note to myself: nie czytaj biografii autorów z młodości, na których książek podstawie kreowałaś swój czytelniczy wszechświat.

Dowiedziałam się z tego komiksu, że z Dicka był prawdziwy dick. Nieogarnięty, żyjący w swoim świecie, wiecznie szukający młodszych żon typ, który nie brał odpowiedzialności za kolejne rodziny i dzieci, za to nie stronił od przemocy. Zakompleksiony, zaszufladkowany jako autor SF, pomimo nagród i sukcesów marzący o byciu uznawanym za pisarza mainstreamowego. Żarł amfę i leki jak tik taki, przez co był niezwykle twórczy i pracował w szaleńczym tempie, ale wpędził się tym w chorobę psychiczną, ostrą paranoję i manię prześladowczą, a do tego wciągał w swoje jazdy bliskich. Owszem, miał w życiu trudne momenty - w niemowlęctwie zmarła jego siostra bliźniaczka, on sam ledwo przeżył i miał przez to problemy ze zdrowiem, których narkotyki nie wspierały. Na koniec odkleił się tak dalece, że w zasadzie uznał się za boski byt, który poznał tajemnice wszechświata.
Najgorsze było dla mnie to, że wizje z jego książek, które były kiedyś dla mnie porażające i wspaniałe, okazują się być dziełem nie kreatywnego, wybitnego umysłu, tylko chorych ćpuńskich jazd. Odpycha mnie to okropnie. Nawet przez sekundę nie było mi go żal i chyba już nie wrócę do książek, których niemało mam na półce.
Najzabawniejsze było dla mnie posłowie, w którym autor po tych wszystkich scenach twierdzi, że tym komiksem wyraża swoje uwielbienie, że czuł sympatię do przedstawionej postaci, że Dick może i był trudny, ale dobry i empatyczny. To chyba coś mu w przekazie nie pykło 😬
Ale sam komiks jest bardzo wartką, ciekawą opowieścią, która wydaje się uwzględniać nie tylko najważniejsze wydarzenia z życia pisarza, ale też sporo niuansów. Czyta się dobrze, a ilustracje świetnie oddają ducha epoki, klimat twórczości Dicka i popadanie bohatera w coraz większy obłęd.
Mam tylko uwagę do polskiego wydania - dwie strony, na których jest sporo tekstu na tyle skomplikowanego, że bez przynajmniej średniej znajomości języka angielskiego odbiorca go nie zrozumie, pozostało nieprzetłumaczone. Nie wiem czy to celowo, czy błąd redaktora.

[Vigneswara Prabhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating 2 out of 5 | Grade: D-; In Shallow waters is where the ignorant suffer.

Philip. K. Dick is perhaps one of the most underappreciated, and lesser known writers of the 20th Century. While commonly pigeon holed as a science fiction writer, in reality he was someone who used the premise of Science fiction settings, to write human stories, and those which delved deep into the psyche, the human condition, reality vs illusion, thought and most famously, what it means to be human.

His lack of fame is made all the bizarre when you consider the sheer amount of successful TV & movie adaptations which have been made from his works. These Include 'Total Recall', 'A Scanner Darkly', 'The Adjustment Bureau', 'The Minority Report' & 'The Blade Runner'(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). Freaking Blade Runner, considered to be one of the most seminal Science-fiction movies of modern cinema. Not to mention acclaimed TV Series such as 'The Man in the High Castle'.

This Graphical novel Biographical Memoir of the authors life should be something taught in schools as to how NOT to write a person's life story. Composed of mainly snippets from the time of his childhood, tumultuous family life, five marriages, his problems with drugs and self medication, and in the final years searching the meaning of life in metaphysical ramblings.

But other than touching about aspects of his life, and name dropping his major works & collaborators, it never gives us an insight into the person who was Philip. K. Dick, beyond the shallow characterization.

We don't really understand what sort of writer he was, what drove him to write, where he came up with some of his more fantastical premises (other than drug induced hallucinations), or even his relationship with his wives and children. It is just a snapshot of life, by taking frames from different time periods, with just as much depth in narration.

As someone who is an intermediary reader of PKD's bibliography and wanted to know more about the author, this was a definite letdown. Will not recommend.

[Lauren]

▫️PHILIP K. DICK: A Comics Biography by Laurent Queyssi, art by Mauro Marchesi, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin, 2018

One of my book club buddies recommended this graphic biography as a supplement to PKD's life with insight into his work. Got my library copy and read through it all this morning.

The graphic novel integrates many of his famous stories into the text, and even begins with PKD meeting Ridley Scott, the film director of BLADE RUNNER based on PKD's short story. It's illuminating and unvarnished, as in it shares the array of personal struggles, addictions, illness, and controversies, while still recognizing the brilliance of one of the pre-eminent scifi writers of all time.

The graphic novel uses quotes from his letters and diaries, and I was happy to see Ursula K. Le Guin name dropped. These 2 writers had a correspondence and a mutual admiration for each other.

[Gancu · Rating 3 out of 5]

To ciekawa, ale dość powierzchowna próba przedstawienia życia jednego z najciekawszych pisarzy science fiction. Laurent Queyssi i Mauro Marchesi skupiają się głównie na faktach biograficznych, bez zgłębiania wewnętrznego świata Dicka, co czyni ten komiks bardziej streszczeniem niż dogłębną analizą.

Choć komiks dobrze oddaje kluczowe momenty życia autora, jak jego uzależnienie od leków, paranoje i halucynacje, brakuje tu głębszego zrozumienia jego twórczości oraz wpływu osobistych doświadczeń na literaturę. Szybkie przeskoki między wydarzeniami sprawiają, że historia wydaje się fragmentaryczna i nie w pełni rozwinięta.

Mało się dowiedziałem, kreska jest generyczna i miejscami brzydka. Największym plusem jest okładka. 2.5/5

[Lukasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Dick’s novels and short fiction have ignited imagination of countless readers around the globe and inspired a handful of cult films. I’ve discovered him in my late teens and read all his books in less than two months. I became a fan.

Laurent Queyssi and Mauro Marchesi‘ graphic biography of PKD focuses on pivoting events of his life, starting on February 17, 1982 (when he suffered a stroke). Readers get to see him as a shy and passionate teen obsessed with music and science fiction. Later as a young husband and published author who struggles with deadlines and everyday life. DIvorce follows divorce. Caught is a psychoactive substance abuse, Phil wonders where the reality ends and perception begins.

I needed time to get used to the art, but once I did, I started to appreciate how effortlessly it shows the author’s life, his personal and business relationships, and struggles. Storytelling feels focused, effortless and skilled. 

Well worth the read. 

ARC through NetGalley

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

Philip K. Dick was a very well known science fiction writer, but I have not read anything by him besides Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which became the movie Blade Runner). I was mostly interested in the comic biography form, but was also glad to learn more about Dick's complicated life.

This was not the most in depth analysis of the author or his work, but I think it worked quite well for those who just want to know a bit more about him. I certainly learned new things, one of the most shocking the shear amount of novels the man wrote in a very limited window. 5 in one year alone.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Jon Stout · Rating 1 out of 5]

This graphic biography of Philip K. Dick, while artful and drawn well, is not up to the standards of other graphic “novels” that I have read. Philip K. Dick’s life, at least in this portrayal, seems to consist of a series of dysfunctional marriages and drug addiction crises, without any pattern of growth or insight to give it meaning. I have read four of Dick’s novels, and I went back to reread my own reviews of them. All were much more interestingly constructed than the biography. One would hope that an author who could construct elaborate fictional structures could construct some meaning in his own life. If he did, it was not captured in this biography. Perhaps he left it all in his novels.

The graphic artwork is appropriately psychedelic for the psychotic breakdowns, and there are connections made here and there between Dick’s life events and his novels. Other science fiction authors are depicted as friends, but not Robert Heinlein, who I understand helped Philip K. Dick at critical points in his life. I don’t doubt that Philip K. Dick’s life was troubled and unhappy, but this graphic biography does not explain how Dick overcame that to write his inventive novels.

[Jeremiah Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow--this book has a lot in it. I think this is both a strength and weakness, because while I kept turning the pages, I kept wanting to know more but the story moves quickly through his life. I think a graphic novel of this length might benefit from focusing on one period in PKD's life instead of covering everything.

I like to write but never feel like I have enough time. But reading PKD's story makes me cool with that--there seems to be a price to pay when devoting one's entire life to a passion.

I'm always fascinated by Dick's thoughts on Christianity and mysticism, this book touches on that a little but I guess there's lots of other places to read that stuff.

I didn't like the ending--I kind of wanted some kind of closure to PKD's life but I guess that's hard to do with real people.

[Snakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the visuals with the comic narrative. I have yet to read any other Dick biographies, and while this one appears well researched and almost a conglomeration of several others, it seemed jerky and sparse at times, which more than likely resulted from the format. I also had no idea that Dick tore through a handful of brunette teenage wives and girlfriends and ostensibly had kids with them all. As strange as his fiction.

[Güngezgini · Rating 2 out of 5]

K.Dick'in çalkantılı hayatının magazinel yanına odaklanan kitap hiçbir özgünlüğü olmayan, internetten edinilebilecek bir paragraflık bilginin sündürülmüş hali.
Maalesef son zamanlarda artan biyografik çizgi romanlar orjinal eserlerin içeriğini özletir oldu.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Essential reading for fans of PKD.

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography comics offers an original point of view on the life of one of the best sci-fi writers. I used to read Dick’s work during my puberty and after, and then I stopped for some reason I can’t rememeber of now, but after this I am in pretty good mood to start again with his work. This was kind, enjoyable and informative in good way (not just filled with stupid facts and dates). Nice look into tragic life of five times married, mentally unstable sci-fi author. 3,5/5

(Challenge 2019 - Biography – done)

[Sinamile · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC Review: Received for free via Netgalley for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

CW: drug use, ableist slurs, abuse

This is like a solid 3 stars tough I couldn't really tell you what I liked and hated about it. It's a cool read, if you want a quick history lesson, but it's not a lot. The art was nice but the story was kind of bland and, I don't know maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but the ending felt sudden. It's alright though overall.

[Hayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

In recent years, I have been fascinated with Philip K Dick's work, thanks to films such as Total Recall (1990), short stories I found in the Electric Dreams collection, and reading his novel A Scanner Darkly. He is a fantastic and imaginative writer who presents us with interesting and disturbing topics that let us view the world in a different light. So, of course I would jump on the chance to read about his life.

Was it worth the read?

Well...yes and no.

There are several details about Dick's life at play here. His health problems from birth, his drug addiction, his mystifying ideas and his paranoia (not to mention the slew of relationships he had). These details, small and disjointed as they are, offer a glimpse at the author at work and why he wrote the stories he did. It seemed at times that it was an outlet for him to let out the complex, hurtful and surreal images in his mind.

That being said, the biography never takes full advantage of these details, nor does it paint Dick as anything more than a paranoid drug addicted writer. All we truly get is less of a non-linear storyline and more of a 'this happened and then this and then this' trip. Give us more! Even showing his journey into one of his novels would have provided more meat to the bone. For instance, A Scanner Darkly is said to be a personal story for the man in question, yet there is only one mention of it. I would personally have loved to see that being written and what his methods were like.

The illustrations, provided by Mauro Marchesi, are the best aspects of the biography. A blend of realism and surrealism, the artwork is expressive and bright, yet always hiding that darkness, much like Dave Gibbons did for Watchmen. It was a marvel to experience, especially some of Dick's dreams and hallucinations.

Whilst not terrible and providing a few interesting facts about the writer himself, it did little to show Philip K Dick for who he truly was. All it provided in this intriguing yet underdeveloped graphic novel is a writer without showing their methods.

[Ana Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,5)
Creo que su forma de mostrar la enfermedad mental es destacable. La narración resulta fragmentada y algo caótica, creando una atmósfera perfecta para imaginar cómo debía sentirse Dick. Además, aunque desde un punto de vista respetuoso, no edulcoran en exceso los datos biográficos mostrados. A nivel visual es correcto, cumpliendo perfectamente su cometido y resultando agradable y fácil de leer.

[Erik Carl son · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the art and what the books seems to accomplish, but the scope of the narrative is limited and works more as a Cliff’s Notes for the large biographies.

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5.0

[Lizz Edgecomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting high level overview of Phillip K Dick's life. The artwork is great. Never actually dives in too deep on one thing but is a warts and all biography, which is always refreshing.

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crítica original em Rascunhos

Premiado ou nomeado para quase todos os prémios que possam ser atribuídos à ficção especulativa, Philip K. Dick ficou conhecido na história da ficção científica por obras que viriam a gerar os filmes Minority Report e Blade Runner. Mas ainda que a sua carreira seja de sucesso junto dos leitores, o seu precurso profissional enquanto escritor não foi muito simples.

Este livro apresenta uma biografia em versão de banda desenhada, que passa por todos os momentos fundamentais do autor, interligando episódios pessoais com a concretização de obras – os vários casamentos e a quebra dos relacionamentos amorosos, o uso de drogas e a crescente psicose que o torna instável, quer a nível emocional, quer a nível profissional.

Desde cedo que Philip K. Dick demonstrou uma tendência para se afastar dos padrões académicos, escolhendo escrever ficção científica ao invés de enveredar por um percurso mais tradicional. O arranque da carreira da escrita foi lento, claro. Começou por ir vendendo pequenas histórias nas revistas da época, como The Magazine of Fantasy or Science Fiction ou Planet Stories e cedo começou a participar em encontros de ficção científica, onde conheceu outros grandes escritores do género.

Entre os encontros de ficção científica (onde criava ligações a outros escritores) e os romances falhados, a escrita vai sofrendo uma forte influência da peculiar visão da realidade, à qual se misturam as psicoses e as drogas. Estes dois elementos reflectem-se quer nas realidades criadas, quer em episódios mais psicadélicos que encontramos nas histórias.

Ainda que o visual seja um pouco estático (e algo aborrecido), a banda desenhada consegue captar os momentos fundamentais da vida do autor e referir, q.b. a sua relação com as obras. É uma narrativa carregada de curiosidades de Philip K. Dick, de leitura interessante, mas que não surpreende em termos visuais.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 3 out of 5]

He estado algo alejado de Phil durante algún tiempo. Me he leído casi todas sus novelas, aunque de lis cuentos no puedo decir lo mismo. La serie de TV basada en sus cuentos no me ha entusiasmado mucho y tampoco El hombre en el castillo. De ambos he visto sólo un capitulo. Este cómic biográfico tampoco me ha parecido una gran maravilla. Cumple con mostrar la biografía y con un buen dibujo, pero no más. Supongo que tiene que ver con mi mood o tal vez es que realmente no tiene mucho que ofrecer mas que retazos de la vida de Phil. No me hagan caso a mi, mejor léanlo, conozcan al autor y lean sus obras.
Tal vez es hora de visitar de nuevo a los amigos, pero para mí, no estuvo aquí. Pero se agradece el esfuerzo de cariño y amor de los autores.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most significant episodes of Philip K. Dick's life, presented in a comics format. In order to come in at a reasonable lenght, Laurent Queyssi had to pick and choose which events to dramatize. In general, I think his judgment was excellent. My only complaint is that PKD's first wife, Jeanette, is completely absent from the account. The art is excellent, depicting period details like clothes and furnishings perfectly. While these are all events I'd read about in other PKD biographies, when they are accompanied by illustrations, it makes them seem fresh and new. A very enjoyable addition to the body of PKD biographical works.

[Paul Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philip K. Dick is probably best known for Blade Runner, adapted from his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? He died in 1982, just as the movie was nearing completion, though he did see a twenty-minute show-reel shortly before his death.

It took audiences a while to warm to Ridley Scott’s film, but it’s now considered a true classic. Later film and TV adaptations include Total Recall (two versions), Minority Report, a Blade Runner sequel and The Man in the High Castle. All of these helped to cement Dick’s reputation as a visionary, with his take on a future ruled by monolithic corporations now uncomfortably close to real life.

The biography opens with Dick viewing that Blade Runner show-reel, which he loved. Then, a month later, he collapses and is taken to hospital. While he lies in his bed we see his life unfold in a series of flashbacks.
It can be difficult to present a graphically interesting biography of someone whose main contribution was made while sitting at a typewriter, and any book of this nature is bound to consist largely of talking heads. That’s not to say that Dick didn’t have an interesting life. He liked a certain type of women and married a staggering five times! This, almost inevitably, led to a life filled with complications. The story is also enlivened by a couple of domestic disputes and Dick’s phantasmagorical experiences when he went tripping out of his nut (he was consuming a massive amount of drugs to maintain his gruelling workload). He was also burgled, and this haunted him for the rest of his life, as he feared he was being spied on by the FBI. Given his lifestyle – almost always broke, and hanging out with some unsavoury types – it’s actually surprising that he wasn’t burgled more often.

Mauro Marchesi’s art is very much in the style of Daniel Clowes, though it isn’t quite as polished. However, the page layouts are well designed, and the colouring helps to pull Dick’s whole story together nicely. Laurent Queyssi, the writer, lectures on Dick and clearly knows his stuff. The plot flows smoothly, circling back on itself to a satisfying conclusion. Characters include many popular sci-fi writers, like Harlan Ellison and Tim Powers, whom Dick was hanging around with, often in settings that are like something out of a James Ellroy book.

Dick is portrayed as a flawed individual, neither scumbag or saint, and this is a laudable and largely successful attempt to create a biography that will work for aficionados, while still having an appeal for anyone not familiar with the man or his work, beyond the movie adaptations.

One Philip K. Dick fact you won’t find mentioned in this book: the K stands for Kindred. Best middle name ever.

[Magali · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai vraiment été déçue par cette BD. On me l'a conseillée en me disant que c'était génial et qu'on apprenait pleins de choses sur la vie de Philip K. Dick... Et globalement ce que j'ai appris c'est qu'il passait son temps à échanger sa femme pour un modèle plus jeune, que ça finissait toujours en relation toxique, qu'il avait des problèmes de maladie mentale (mais aucune idée de quoi précisément, c'est pas clair dans le bouquin) et qu'il prenait de la drogue... Ah oui, il s'est fait cambrioler une fois aussi.

Donc voilà. Honnêtement, rien de révolutionnaire. Sans compter que Dick est pas rendu très sympathique par cette BD. Et que vraiment ils auraient pu mieux expliquer ses problèmes de maladie mentale, parce que ça semble avoir été un gros fil rouge dans sa vie, mais là on le voit juste faire des crises de paranoïa, avoir l'air vaguement dépressif et peut-être un peu agoraphobe, mais c'est même pas bien clair.

A aucun moment où ne nous parle vraiment de son inspiration. Plusieurs fois j'ai cru qu'on allait enfin me montrer son univers intérieur mais en fait pas du tout. De même, la relation à ses enfants s'arrête à chaque divorce, du moins dans la BD c'est comme ça, et on n'a aucune idée de ce qu'il ressent à ce propos. D'ailleurs, on n'a aucune idée de ce qu'il ressent à aucun propos. C'est très neutre, un peu comme si on nous montrait des scènes de sa vie mais il n'y a pas de sentiment, pas d'analyse, du coup ça paraît pas super cohérent et ne nous donne pas l'impression de mieux connaître le sujet de cette biographie.

Ah et j'ai pas trouvé le dessin génial honnêtement non plus, du coup entre le fond et la forme, cette BD ne m'aura vraiment pas convaincue.