Marvel Comics and Shepard Productions have announced that the limited series adapting Philip K. Dick’s existential science fiction story “The Electric Ant” will debut in comic shops this April.  David Mack (Daredevil) is adapting the classic science fiction short story while Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men) is providing the interior art and Paul Pope (THB) will create the covers.  Brian Michael Bendis will serve as consulting editor on the limited series. David Mack will also provide a variant cover for the first issue of the “T+” rated comic, which will have a cover price of $3.99.

First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine in 1969, “The Electric Ant” is the story of Garson Poole, who wakes up after a flying car crash to discover that he is an organic robot, an “electric ant” whose subjective reality is controlled by a micro-punched tape in his chest.  When Poole begins to modify the tape, things change and the nature of “reality” (how much of what we think is real is actually out there and how much is a product of our interior consciousness?) is brought into question.  The story, which inspired Frank Miller’s Hardboiled, is typical of Dick’s “high concept” science fiction that has provided the inspiration for such films as Minority Report, Blade Runner, and Total Recall.  Marvel announced the adaptation at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con (see “Marvel To Adapt The Electric Ant”).