R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

by Mike Hansen

Ray Bradbury in 1975 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sad news: Ray Bradbury, one of the greatest authors of the past century, died yesterday at age 91.

He wrote 27 novels and over 600 short stories, many of which stand as among the greatest works of English literature of all time. Not only did he make science fiction respectable, but he made it necessary to read – his audience learned much about the world in which they lived by experiencing his dreams of the future. Some of those dreams have even come true.

Everybody has heard of (and should have read) Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, A Sound of Thunder… Bradbury taught me how to be a better writer, a better reader, and a better dreamer.

Many of his finest short stories were adapted into comics in the 1950s by EC Comics, and these are well worth tracking down.

Tributes to Bradbury and his genius have multiplied throughout the day, and rather than add to them with another lengthy piece I’ll just share this: a short video of Bradbury at Comic-Con, crediting newspaper comics with teaching him how to be a writer:

(thanks to Orion for the video link)

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