'Philip K. Dick' by Laurent Queyssi with art by Mauro Marchesi is a graphic novel biography of the famous writer.

The framing story is told in flashbacks from his hospital bed at the end of his life. By all known accounts, Philip K. Dick was a driven person who used narcotics to help his creative process. This is self-evident from some of his bizarrely entertaining books and stories. It also likely contributed to his paranoia and strange speeches at cons. But he is nonetheless a favorite author of me and others.

This is a fairly unflinching biography and I appreciate that. I liked the cast of real life characters, like Tim Powers. The art is really good and I really liked this story where truth is stranger than fiction.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from papercutz and NetGalley. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This graphic novel is a straight for word biography of the science fiction author. The GN concentrates on his life and loves. Since it is a GN it is not a real in depth look. The art is OK but not very original. It is a quick read. This book will mainly appeal to those not very familiar with the author's life. Enjoy

Disclaimer: I received this this in exchange for an honest review from the publisher through NetGalley



This was a wild ride. I didn't know much about Philip K Dick as a person going into this and so this was fascinating. I've read only one novel by him - Ubik, which I loved - and this made me want to dive back into his work all over again.



I love the art style and the attention to detail I felt like was present. I've never taken perception altering drugs, and I'm not just saying that, but I feel like some of these spreads made me feel like I assume that feels like.



Overall I'd definitely recommend this to people who are even a little curious, but he was a very interesting man. Not a very nice or maybe even good man, but he was trying. And it was a wild ride.



There's also inclusion of snippets of some of his own letters, which was really cool to see his words in his own experience since I've never read any of those. And, to be honest, am not super interested in reading through his letters without the context I feel like was given here.



To wrap it up - I'd recommend this book, for SciFi lovers or others, especially for writers it was interesting to me.

Little one or two page peaks into Phillip K. Dick's life. The book almost ignores his literary impact. <i>The Man in the High Castle</i> 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.

This is very much what it says it is – a graphic novel biography of the novelist Philip Kindred Dick. Some will find it very episodic, to the extent that some episodes are, without reason or apology, not even in the right order. But I liked it for its visual and story-telling simplicity. I don't turn to these books expecting all the ins and outs of a prose biography – and I'm not that much of a fan to desire one of those in the first place. And let's face it, a biography more in tune with the style of the subject would be unsufferably druggy and off-a-cliff-all-over-the-place. There are instances of that here, but this more controlled and concise life-and-times was much more up my street.

While the art in this biography of Dick is rather mundane, there are some subtle touches that show him aging and changing throughout his life. There are a few surreal moments, which are appropriate, but I think the author could have done more artistically. This is a pretty average biography.

A nice overview of Dick's life in a graphic novel, but I would have liked less about his various marriages and more on the inspiration of his books.

I’m never sure if I want to know more about my heroes. Specifically, literary heroes.

It’s not that I have any aversion to biography as a genre – I even enjoy a good memoir now and then – but for whatever reason, I tend to tread carefully when it comes to books about the people who write the books I love. There’s a separation between art and artist that just feels more important when it comes to authors I admire.

But then I stumbled across a graphic novel biography of Philip K. Dick and I couldn’t say no.

“Philip K. Dick: A Comics Biography” – written by Laurent Queyssi and illustrated by Mauro Marchesi – tells the story of one of the most prolific and belatedly iconic science fiction writers of the 20th century. It follows Dick through the trials and tribulations of his life, from his early concerns to his later paranoia to his lifelong struggles with money. While there’s not much new here for longtime fans, those with limited knowledge of the writer whose work inspired movies like “Blade Runner” and “Minority Report” and TV shows like “The Man in the High Castle” will encounter some surprises.

Few writers have had the kind of long-range pop cultural impact that Dick has. His scores of novels and hundreds of stories have in many ways served as the foundation of modern science fiction. His railing against creeping corporatism and the surveillance state has only grown more relevant as the years have passed. He married bleak dystopias and technophobia and expanded consciousnesses like no one ever had. Mainstream success evaded him in life, but he has become an important facet of the zeitgeist in the time since his passing.

The nuts and bolts of the Philip K. Dick story are here. From his birth in the late 1920s through his wildly productive stretch in the 1950s and 1960s to his descent into altered perception and deep paranoia toward the end of his life, it’s all put to page. Most of the major beats of Dick’s life (including his five marriages) are addressed, though the weirdo highlight of all of them is always going to be that stretch in the 1970s when he came to believe that the Roman Empire never fell and that the world we live in is nothing more than a simulation/hallucination.

While I admit to never having delved deep into Dick’s biography, I do have a fair amount of familiarity with the surface details of his backstory (though I’m much more informed about his later years than his beginnings). There wasn’t a lot of new information for me, though there’s no arguing that Queyssi did due diligence as far as research is concerned.

However, the manner in which that information was conveyed was new. Marchesi’s illustrations lend a welcome sense of immediacy to the story. Seeing the man, rather than just reading about him … it makes a difference. And when the inherent flexibility of visual storytelling is utilized in service to the personal narrative, it’s really quite something.

“Philip K. Dick: A Comics Biography” is an unexpected treat. Anyone with a fondness for Dick’s work would enjoy checking it out. It’s an all-new way to look at the man. Even if you – like me – aren’t necessarily gung-ho about digging into your heroes, this one will likely prove rewarding.

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!

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.

I'm a fan of Philip K. Dick and all the work that has sprung from his stories, but I don't know a ton about the man himself. This was a nice slice-of-life biography that doesn't attempt to paint a too-flattering portrait of the author. It did raise a few more questions for me about his mental health, particularly toward the end of his life, and now I might have to pick up an additional biography.

The creative team behind this biographical graphic novel deliver an enjoyable and professional work that is informative. Admittedly, I have an interest already invested in this subject because I have enjoyed Philip K. Dick's work for years.

Even so, I think readers of a wide variety would enjoy this book. There are interesting wordless panels, the art is detailed, the story takes us in interesting directions to help us know more about this engaging author. A recommended read.

I went into this with no background knowledge of Philip K. Dick other than the well-known fact that he is the creator of classics like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "The Man in the High Castle." Now having read this, I have discovered both someone I found to be a tragic figure (especially in regards to his family life), and also a deeply interesting figure as well, whose works I now plan on reading in the near future. In my mind, there's little doubt that there will be plenty others whose interest will be sparked too by Queyssi and Marchesi's "Philip K. Dick."

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.

Brief graphic novel biography of Philip K. Dick, with artwork that is very reminiscent of Dick Tracy comics. Not very in-depth, more like a brief overview of some of the main events in his life.

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.