cover image Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog

Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog

Harlan Ellison. St. Martin's Press, $8.95 (64pp) ISBN 978-0-312-03471-9

Noted fantasy and science fiction writer Ellison ( Angry Candy ) and Corben (the Den series) form an ideally matched team in this forceful adaptation of Ellison's novella A Boy and His Dog. Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, struggle to endure in the aftermath of nuclear war. But when Blood sniffs out Quilla June--a girl who has come disguised as a boy to the womanless nuclear wasteland from an underground world (to which the population has fled from destruction)--Vic discovers love while Blood sees his own survival threatened. Quilla June's haunting question, ``Do you know what love is?,'' envelops the ending in a poignant irony as Vic must choose to save the life of one--Quilla June or Blood--at the expense of the other. As always, Corben's visuals are a dramatic blend of bold linework, light and color. He's as convincing in depicting a violent clash as he is in creating a scene of limpid eroticism. (Dec . )