Never trust a critic. Most of them know fuck all.
Strange as it may seem now, Ridley Scott’s movie Blade Runner received a decidedly mixed bag of notices upon its first release in June 1982. Some newspapers scribes considered Harison Ford wooden; the voice-over cliched; the storyline way too complex; the whole damn thing butt-numbingly slow and just a tad boring. One broadsheet even described the film as “science fiction pornography,” while the LA Times called it “Blade Crawler” because it moved along so slowly.
But some folks knew the film’s real worth—like Marvel Comics.
In September 1982, Marvel issued a “Super Special” comic book adaptation of Blade Runner. This was quickly followed by a two-part reissue of the comic during October and November of that year. This was when those three little words “Stan Lee presents” guaranteed a real good time and Marvel’s version of Blade Runner fulfilled that promise.
The comic was written by Archie Goodwin with artwork from Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon with Dan Green and Ralph Reese. While movies have time to develop story, plot, and character, and create their own atmosphere, comic books get six panels a page to achieve the same. Marvel’s Blade Runner managed the transposition from screen to page quite successfully. The artists picked up on some of the movie’s most iconic imagery while still managing to add their own take on the Philip K. Dick tale. Williamson offered his own (cheesy) definition of the term “Blade Runner” at the very end of the story:
Blade runner. You’re always movin’ on the edge.
What???
You can read the whole comic here. Click on images below for larger size.
Via All That I Love.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Original storyboards from ‘Blade Runner’
A treasure-trove of behind-the-scenes ‘Blade Runner’ model-shop production photos
Sean Young’s Polaroids from the set of ‘Blade Runner’
‘Blade Runner’ Polaroids