I think it was junior high when I really got into science-fiction, and I think Harlan Ellison was one of the first names I heard. I know that the first Harlan Ellison story I read was "A Boy and his Dog," in a short story collection that I borrowed from the decent-sized Ellison collection of my older cousin Mike. It's no exaggeration to say that "A Boy and His Dog" is responsible for me spending a fair amount of money on Ellison's books, or indeed for drawing me deeper into the science-fiction genre. So I was pretty pleased to see a graphic novel adaptation of "A Boy and his Dog" coming out from I-Books, and even more pleased that it featured artwork by Richard Corben and further stories with the characters which I hadn't previously read.
It seems almost silly to review the actual stories, since I think most folks who will have an interest are probably familiar with it, but in the interest of completeness: Vic and Blood is set in a post-apocalyptic world where civilization has gone underground and the aboveground is the province of mutants, kid gangs and one particular kid, named Vic, who has a telepathic dog named Blood to serve as his companion. This was my first exposure to the prequel and sequel of "A Boy and His Dog," and while they're both good, with the sequel featuring an ending even more dark than the main story, I felt like they couldn't measure up to the tale of "A Boy of His Dog," which did such a great job in a small space of establishing setting, character and an interesting conflict. Certainly the early days of Vic and Blood in "Eggsucker" introduces the bond that is so important to "A Boy and His Dog," and "Run, Spot, Run" gets into the consequences of Vic's decision at the end of "A Boy and His Dog," but given how classic I felt the ending was to the main story, I confess that I'm not sure I really wanted to see what happened after, regardless of how well-written it was.
To be honest, I didn't experience any of the trepidation with this adaptation that I usually do when approaching adaptations of much beloved works, largely because there were no other authors involved and the adaptation was being done by an excellent artist, Richard Corben. The adaptations here are definitely true to the original source material, and though the occasional cut has been made (often losing a funny line in the process), for the most part this is a line-for-line adaptation of Ellison's work, an illustrated novella as much as it is a comic-book, despite the panel arrangement that marks it as an actual comic.
This is early work from Corben, and though you can definitely recognize his style, especially when it comes to the stylized faces of the characters, it has a rougher look than his recent work for Marvel. Which actually works fine, given the dark, rough setting of the story, but I must confess that it's not quite as gorgeous as the modern work he's done. However, his illustrations in the text versions of the stories are beautiful, the painted work looking more like his detailed work in modern comics.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the format of this collection. There are three stories here, a prequel, "A Boy and His Dog," and a sequel. And each one has the comic adaptation and then the full text version of the story. Despite the fact that the sequel story is part of an unfinished novel, it's pretty easy to call this collection complete. I'll confess that given the faithful adaptation of the stories, it almost seems superfluous to have the actual stories reprinted as well, but given how good the stories are, it's hard to complain too much. I do think that the better way to present the material would have been text first and comic adaptation second, but that's more or less a nitpick.
Vic and Blood, the collection of all the currently published work about these characters, is an interesting collection for fans of "A Boy and His Dog," but I don't think that is its strongest potential audience. Instead, given the strength of the work here and the inclusion of both prose and graphic novel forms of the stories, I think it could serve the same purpose for new readers that my borrowed copy of Ellison's short stories did. Which is to say, Vic and Blood could definitely compel new readers to seek out more Ellison, as its a pretty strong showing for the author, and a nicely done volume by I-Books.
