We've collected various book covers from a number of classic science fiction novels to see how different artists have interpreted the same book. The covers are sometimes surprisingly pulpy, others are elegantly minimalist, and still others are variations on the same theme. Some of these are actual covers from various editions of the books, and some are concept designs created by individuals — on spec, for a class project, or just for fun. Bear in mind that a few of the actual book covers may not be work-safe.

1984 by George Orwell:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury:

Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham:

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick:

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick:

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood:

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov:

John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

Neuromancer by William Gibson:

We by Yevgeny Zamyain:

The Space Merchants by by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess:

War of the Worlds by HG Wells:

While present-day Marvel finds itself beginning to tie up their uber-story Dark Reign with this week's Dark Reign: The List - Wolverine and Dark Reign: The List - Punisher, the future presents itself in the form of the Wolverine: Old Man Logan hardcover collection, which can best be described as "What if Mad Max met The Unforgiven, only it was about Wolverine and took place in the future and guest-starred lots of over the top parodies of other Marvel characters as their own 'descendants'?" A particularly guilty pleasure, perhaps, but definitely one that hits a particular target.

Similarly on the "If you like this kind of thing, you'll love this," DC's Ambush Bug: Year None finally finishes its six-issue run with this week's seventh issue - which replaces the much-delayed and rumored-to-be-so-controversial-it-was-killed-by-editorial sixth, originally due out months ago... and that explanation is, oddly enough, one of the best examples of the sense of humor required to enjoy Keith Giffen's weird affectionate superhero parody. More straight-ahead DC thrills can be found in Arkham Reborn - which begins the reconstruction of Batman's favorite lunatic asylum, destroyed after Bruce Wayne died/went time-traveling involuntarily - and World's Finest, which brings together characters from Superman and Batman's supporting casts to solve crimes and compare sales figures.

Elsewhere, Dark Horse has a special issue of the Hellboy spinoff Abe Sapien, as part of its new initiative to get readers to try out new series and franchises (or comics, in the first place; the upcoming Doctor Horrible special is likely to entice some newbies into the fold, I think.)

And those who like that kind of thing are highly recommended to also pick up SLG's Pinnochio: Vampire Slayer graphic novel, wherein Gepetto's little boy realizes that life without cutting your nose off to stake the undead with just isn't worth wishing for. Yes, it's as odd and wonderful as that sounds.

Those looking for nostalgic thrills updated for a new cynical age could do a lot worse than the collection of GI Joe: Cobra, the mini-series I raved about recently (It really is very good.) And for those looking for a beautifully illustrated, touchingly gentle piece of storytelling, the hardcover collection of P. Craig Russell's adaptation of The Sandman: The Dream Hunters can't be beaten; I'd even argue that it's better than Gaiman's prose original.

Just like every week, the complete list of comics reaching comic stores tomorrow can be found here, and your local comic store can be found here. And, if you happen to have some spare change left in your pocket once you've picked up everything you're looking for...? Grab a copy of Boom!'s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #5; I've got a text piece about Philip K. Dick in the back, and I need all the help I can get, coming after Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction, Rockne S. O'Bannon and Ed Brubaker's efforts...

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an interesting project.

It's a project like no other. We've never had a complete text of a novel in comics. Not [like this], with word balloons coming out of people's mouths and sequential artwork. We definitely consider it an experiment, but the first issue has been more successful than, certainly, I could have ever dreamt. Reviews were giving it four out of five stars, saying "This is great, if you love Philip K. Dick, you'll love this." When you're inside that bubble [working on the book], you sometimes think, "'I can only hope that people will enjoy this," and people seem to dig it. I was really happy, because the first issue is not Deckard blowing away androids. There's a big difference between Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but I'm glad that people are sticking around for the actual thing and not just hoping for Blade Runner the comic. This is a much deeper, bigger, project.

Did you wish that you could've re-arranged scenes to start with something more explosive? "Suddenly, there's a gunshot!"

We really can't change things, we are doing the text. In upcoming issues, there will be flashbacks where you see that kind of thing. We do like Deckard blowing away androids, but we're not going to throw it in for no reason. It's got to be something that's already in the text.

We're happy with the fact that the story goes into areas that the movie didn't. In Warren Ellis' backmatter essay [for the first issue], he talks about Mercerism, which is a religion in the book which - to the best of my recollection, I saw the movie about three years ago, last time - isn't in the movie. There's nothing about John Mercer, this character going up a hill and the people of Earth basically logging on to his experience to become more empathetic. There's nothing like that in Blade Runner, and it's such a cool concept, and something that's very visually interesting - something that Tony Parker, the artist, and Blond, the colorist, who we're very lucky to have, can really do some great stuff with. That's something we couldn't do if this was just Blade Runner. It's something you can only do with the original Philip K. Dick text.

How did the book come about?

Philip K. Dick's daughters, who have a company called Electric Shepherd Productions, contacted Ross [Richie] and Andy [Cosby, Boom! Studios co-founders] in 2008, and were impressed with what Boom! had done. They wanted to do a project that was really cool, but off the beaten track. They thought we were the ones to do it.

So how does the process work? Does Tony break everything down and decides who goes where? Do you, as the editor, place the word balloons and decides what goes into which panel?

It's Ross Richie. We have the text, and he turns it into a script, with panel descriptions, what the characters will say, what the captions will say, everything like that. Then we send it to Tony, and Tony is great at looking at panels and deciding how much to put into it. And when he's done, we send it to Blond and we send it to [letterer Richard] Starkings. And Starkings is a master of, "How does everything work?" He came up with idea for the first issue of some of the text being embedded, so it's not just caption box after caption box; some of the captions will be in the art.

It was our marketing director Chip Mosher's idea to bring in Richard, and he's just a godsend. There are a lot of great letterers out there, but Tony and Richard are such smart guys that they really make it work, this strange thing of having an entire text in a comic. The reason why we get good reviews is because of them. Those guys make it work.

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep #2 is available in comic book stores today.

One of the most immediate surprises about DADOES is how true it manages to stay to both the comic medium as well as the original book; I'd expected something more akin to an illustrated book, large chunks of type occasionally punctuated with short comic sequences, but that's not what you get here. Instead, Dick's writing is broken into caption boxes and speech balloons and, impressively, it works - Yes, some pages seem wordy, but not so much that they're unreadable; whether the distribution is down to letterers Comicraft, artist Tony Parker or editor Ian Brill, it's a great job.
Artwise, Parker does well. There are some moments of discontinuity from the text ("Long robes" become noticably shorter in his hands, for example), but not so much that it pulls you out from the story, and he handles the space and choreography of the page well. I'm less in love with the coloring by Blond, which gives everything a glossy, generic texture, but willing to let that go as a sign of my obsessive nerditry; it doesn't stand in the way of the visuals, and you could argue that it speaks to some theme of synthetic/fake nature from the story itself.

It seems pointless actually reviewing the writing, in a way; Dick's novel is very Dick, complete with the imagination and surrealism he always offers, and complaints about the lack of drama in the issue's close become particularly ridiculous when you remember that this is literally just the first 24th of the book and never intended to build to a particular cliffhanger that'd bring you back next month. What may surprise many, though, is full of information this issue is; even allowing for the amount of text contained in this issue, there's a lot of stuff to learn, and remember. Whether this will be off-putting for some more used to less-filled monthly comics, though, remains to be seen (It's interesting that the first issue comes with a short essay in back from Warren Ellis, and that Matt Fraction will be providing a similar piece in the second; fans of those writers definitely should enjoy this, if they're not already familiar with the book).
As a comic, then, it works - Surprisingly, and against expectations. But there's still a part of me that wonders why someone would choose to read this over just reading the original book, which gives the full story in one sitting, as opposed to over a 24-month period; as good as the visuals are, and as interesting as the comic is as an object, the question of "Why?" looms large, if unspoken, on every page.

The first issue of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is released tomorrow.

Where to start with this week's haul? Why not with the return of some classics?

Marvel is reissue some wonderful old-school SF in the Annihilation Classic collection (including the complete Rocket Racoon series!) Meanwhile, Dynamite finally collects the entirity of Garth Ennis' Dan Dare series (lost in limbo since Virgin Comics went under). And SLG Publishing releases Tron: Ghost In The Machine.

Also, Boom! puts out the first of this week's must-haves: The first issue of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the illustrated version of the Philip K. Dick novel that has to be seen to be believed (We'll have a review later today, but suffice to say it's unlike any other comic you've read). Also in the "adapted novel" category? Marvel's collections of Ender's Game: Battle School and Ender's Shadow: Battle School, both also released this week.

Staying in the classic end of the pool, Dark Horse revive Creepy as a new, quarterly anthology title this week, and it's well worth a look. So is the first issue of IDW's new monthly Doctor Who comic, which captures the feel of the television show better than any comic to date.

Potentially something that'll get overlooked this week, and really shouldn't, is Vertigo's specially-priced reissue of the first issue of the wonderful Fables, which should be picked up by any Fables fan. Why, you ask? Because it also contains a preview of Peter and Max, Bill Willingham's first Fables novel. Now you understand.

Those looking for superhero thrills, don't feel left out: Paul Tobin's enjoyable Dr. Doom and The Masters of Evil series gets a collection from Marvel. So do the first issues of Greg Pak's War Machine.

But the real fun comes from DC's end of the market. They're putting out the hardcover edition of Neil Gaiman's Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader (which I didn't love, but YMMV, as the kids say). They're also launching Blackest Night, their big summer event with the first issue of the main series as well as the first issue of the anthology Tales of The Corps to help you get up to speed with the main players. The dead will rise, they say, and we're waiting to see just which dead heroes are going to come back to cause trouble for Green Lantern and friends.

Dead superheroes, cosmic classics and even more can be found - as ever - on the complete list of releases from Diamond Distributors this week, and your local comic store remains the best place to buy them. Just remember to save some room in your collection for next week.

What makes Boom! Studios' new series unique is that every word that appears in there is from the novel - There're no additional scenes or abridging to make sure that each issue ends on a specially-constructed cliffhanger, just the story as Dick wrote it, illustrated as a comic by artist Tony Parker. Don't believe me? Here're the first five pages:

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep launches in June.

The series, appropriately titled Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? will include the full text of Dick's 1968 novel - famously adapted into the movie Blade Runner - alongside brand new sequential illustrations for something more than just illustrated prose. Laura Leslie and Isa Dick Hackett, Dick's daughters, are excited about the possibilities offered by the 24-part series:

We are thrilled that Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is being adapted for this audience by such a talented team. We've been incredibly impressed with Boom!'s ability to create such a faithful interpretation of the original work without sacrificing their own original instincts and artistic sensibilities... Through this medium, readers will now have visual access to parts of the novel not explored in the film adaptation Blade Runner.

The first issue of the series doesn't just offer the first part of the seminal story; Warren Ellis provides an afterword about Dick and the novel.

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? #1 is released in June.