A Boy and His Dog is a cycle of narratives by author Harlan Ellison. The cycle tells the story of an amoral boy (Vic) and his telepathic dog (Blood), who work together as a team to survive in the post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war. The original 1969 novella was adapted into the 1975 film A Boy and His Dog directed by L.Q. Jones. Both the story and the film were well-received by critics and science fiction fans, but the film was not successful commercially. The original novella was followed by short stories and a graphic novel.
The film adaptation was an influence on Love and Monsters (2020) by Michael Matthews. The story and its film adaptation have also been mentioned to be influential in the creation of the Fallout video game series by Black Isle Studios.
Publication history
Ellison began the cycle with the 1969 short story of the same title, published in New Worlds, and expanded and revised the tale to novella length for his story collection The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World the same year. He subsequently bookended the original story with two others in the same world: "Eggsucker" (The Ariel Book of Fantasy Volume Two, 1977), and "Run, Spot, Run" (Amazing Stories, 1980).
The stories were adapted as a two-issue black and white comic series illustrated by Richard Corben, Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog (Mad Dog Graphics, 1987). The series was collected as a color graphic novel of the same name in 1989 by NBM/St. Martin’s Press, and was in turn published in French by Comics USA (Vic & Blood: Les chroniques d'un gars et son chien, 1989) and in Spanish by Norma Editorial (Vic & Blood, CEC #72, 1990). Both the graphic novel and the prose stories were collected in Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and His Dog (Edgework Abbey/iBooks, 2003). Ellison's introduction to the collection explains that 1969's A Boy and His Dog is part of a larger novel that he has been writing for over 30 years and that story is finished, but the last, longest part is written as a screenplay with no current plans for production.
Ellison suggested as late as 2003 that he would combine the three stories (possibly with additional material) to create a novel with the proposed title of Blood's a Rover (not to be confused with the Chad Oliver story or the James Ellroy novel Blood's a Rover). In January 2018, Subterranean Press announced the publication of Blood's a Rover, combining materials from the author's files, versions of the novella and short stories that have been expanded and revised, material from Corben's graphic novel, and previously unpublished material from the unproduced 1977 NBC television series Blood's a Rover.
Setting
The novella and the film adaptation have the same alternate timeline setting, diverging with the failed assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Instead of concentrating on the Space Race, technological advancements in robotics, animal intelligence, and telepathy take place. A more heated Cold War takes place, culminating in a conventional World War III. A truce is signed, lasting another 25 years, though mounting tensions lead to World War IV in 2007, this time involving massive nuclear warfare and only lasting five days. Civilization is almost entirely obliterated, leaving the surface of Earth reduced to a desolate, irradiated wasteland.
Years later, in 2024, foragers who remain above ground must fight for the remaining resources. Most survivors in the former United States are male, as women were usually in the bombed cities while many men were out fighting in the war. In the novella, nuclear fallout had created horrific mutations, such as the feared burnpit screamers, known for their noise and deadliness (in the film, they appear in only one scene, though they are only heard).