The Electric State Graphic Novel

What the Graphic Novel Actually Is

The Electric State Graphic Novel by Simon Stålenhag is a visual adaptation of his novella, rendered in his signature blend of suburban nostalgia and uncanny machinery. It follows a road trip across a near-future California where robots, drones, and old-school tech blend into the landscape. The book is 384 pages and published by Dark Horse Comics. It's not a comic book in the traditional superhero sense. Stålenhag's art style carries the narrative more than dialogue does. Most panels are wordless, relying on atmosphere, environmental storytelling, and composition. The text pages sit between large image spreads. You're not reading so much as moving between captions and visuals, which changes how you pace through it. The format rewards slow reading. Skipping through it like a regular graphic novel misses the point entirely. I ran into a problem when trying to digitize my copy for a reading group presentation. The print edition uses a matte finish that scanned poorly under standard overhead cameras, coming out washed out and losing detail in the shadows. I ended up taking individual page photos with a DSLR on a tripod, using a color checker card for reference, then doing minor level adjustments in Lightroom. Took about 45 minutes per copy, but the output was clean enough to project without looking like a school slideshow. Just something to keep in mind if you're working with physical copies.

How to Approach the Visuals

The artwork relies heavily on chiaroscuro lighting and forced perspective. Stålenhag places enormous robotic figures in mundane suburban settings, which creates a specific kind of unease. Beginners often miss how deliberately he composes these shots. He uses architectural lines in the background to frame the machinery, guiding your eye across the page in a specific sequence. If you're studying the book for art reference or analysis, pay attention to vanishing points, not just the robots themselves. Another thing people get wrong: the color palette isn't consistent across every spread. Warm amber tones dominate the California valley sequences, while cooler blue-green washes appear in forest and mountain passages. This is intentional, but it's easy to gloss over unless you're looking for it. The color shift also roughly tracks the protagonist's emotional state, though you won't find that spelled out anywhere in the text.

Where to Get It

Dark Horse Comics publishes it directly. You can order from their website, or grab it through most major retailers. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and local comic shops all carry it. Digital versions are available through ComiXology and Kindle. The print edition is priced around $40, which is steep for a graphic novel but reflects the full-color hardcover format and page count. The paperback variant is cheaper and easier to work with if you're scanning or photographing pages for personal use. Most people treat this as a straightforward post-apocalyptic story. It's not. The world isn't ended, it's just... shifted. The robots are everyday infrastructure at this point, not relics. The story is more concerned with loss, memory, and what happens to people when the things they relied on start failing. The apocalyptic imagery is aesthetic dressing, not the actual subject matter. There's also a fair amount of criticism about pacing. The middle section drags, particularly the sequences that take place in the desert and mountain passes. Some readers bounce off it entirely. I think the sluggish pace is deliberate, matching the road trip structure, but it's fair to say it doesn't work for everyone. If you're going in expecting a tight thriller, you'll be disappointed. It's a mood piece with a plot attached.

A Quick Note on the Source Material

The graphic novel adapts Stålenhag's 2017 novella, which was itself based on his earlier illustrated books, primarily Things from the Flood. The novella has a more developed plot, while the earlier books lean heavier into atmospheric worldbuilding. If you only read one thing, the graphic novel stands on its own. But if you want to understand why the world feels the way it does, the earlier illustrations provide context the graphic novel doesn't fully unpack.