Monday Mars Madness VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Be It What It Will, I'll Go To It Laughing"

A story's title based on a lesser-known line from Moby-Dick becomes appropriate...

...when you reach the last page of the story!

If you don't get the reference, Ray Bradbury penned the screenplay for the 1956 Moby Dick movie.
Written by David Campiti and illustrated by Tom Yeates, this never-reprinted story from Pacific Comics' Vanguard Illustrated #3 (1984) is a sincere tribute to Bradbury and other SF creators, though overwritten and a bit too "self-fanservice" for my taste.
The underappreciated Tom Yeates' superb artwork compensates for that, and makes reading it worthwhile.

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Green Shadows, White Whale

A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day"

This 1950s comics tale is considered the gold standard in utilizing a sci-fi motif for social commentary...

...rightfully-so, I must say!

Perhaps it's a tad slow-paced, even pedantic, by today's standards and the pay-off isn't as shocking as you might expect, but this oft-reprinted tale by writer Al Feldstein, artist Joe Orlando and colorist Marie Severin from EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1953) was quite controversial when it first appeared.
Even when it was reprinted in the Comics Code-approved Incredible Science Fiction #33 (1956), it caused hassles.
The Code wanted Tarlton changed to a White guy!
Publisher Bill Gaines refused!
The Code tried to get EC to, at least, remove the beads of sweat from Tarlton's brow!
Bill Gaines, again, refused!
The Code refused to approve the comic.
Gaines said he didn't care.
As it was, "Judgement Day" was a reprint fill-in for a new story ("An Eye for an Eye") the Code refused to approve, and, since it was EC's last color comic ever, they'd print it without the Code stamp.
The Code gave in and approved the reprint without changes.

No less a personage than Ray Bradbury praised "Judgement Day" effusively in the final letter (among many...except one...that praised the tale) in Cosmic Correspondence...

Public praise from one of the Masters of Science Fiction/Fantasy!

Can't argue with that...

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Judgement Day and Other Stories
Illustrated by Joe Orlando

Fantagraphics' EC Comics Library

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder DUKE "Last White Man"

From the first issue of a long out-of-print 1950s Playboy competitor comes this Ray Bradbury tale...

...which was presented only once with this title!

Intended as one of several new stories to link previously-published Mars tales in the now-legendary anthology The Martian Chronicles (1950) as a sequel to "Way in the Middle of the Air", it was delayed due to editorial requests for revisions and ended up initially-appearing in 1951 in a non-science fiction magazine dedicated to short stories in every genre as "The Other Foot"...

...before finally making its' appearance in a later, equally-legendary Bradbury anthology in 1951...

How did this unusual retitling come about?
In 1957, with Playboy dominating the newsstands, a new publisher introduced an African-American counterpart called Duke, which featured Black creatives and cheesecake models.

(The centerfold models were called "Duchesses"!)

Along with acclaimed Black writers Langston Hughes, Erskine Caldwell, and Chester Hines, the premiere issue featured Ray Bradbury's short story "The Other Foot", now entitled "The Last White Man"!

Unlike most of Bradbury's works, this tale has, to date, never been adapted into any other media!

(Sadly, Duke only lasted six issues.)

AFAIK, the only time "The Other Foot/The Last White Man" has ever been cover-featured was in a rare, limited-run book produced by, of all companies, Xerox, in 1967!

Try finding a copy of it at a reasonable price (or even a clean scan of the cover)!

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Tomorrow Midnight

Adaptations of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi stories from EC Comics!

Plus a new cover by Frank Frazetta

Reading Room STAR*REACH "Why Viking Lander / Mars"

A very kool, never-reprinted adaptation of a Ray Bradbury poem...

...first performed by the legendary author at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con the week after the Viking probe landed on Mars!

AFAIK, the poem's never been reprinted in any of the Bradbury anthologies, or anywhere else, for that matter!

It's only appearance was in Star*Reach #6 (1976), illustrated by absolutely beautiful art by Alex Nino!

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Star*Reach
Greatest Hits

Reading Room: TALES OF HORROR "Beast from the Deep"

Today is Ray Bradbury's Birthday...

...so let's celebrate with the only comic adaptation of one of his stories (albeit uncredited), from Minoan/Toby's Tales of Horror #7 (1953), based on the short story "The FogHorn".

Ironically, the comic tale is a far more faithful adaptation of the story than the movie Beast from 20,000 Fathoms which came out at the same time!

Though the writer of the comic is unknown, the artist was John Rosenberger, who spent the 1950s to late 1970s doing work in every comics genre from romance to superhero to horror for almost every publisher in the field!

This was one of the last comic adaptations of Bradbury's work in the 1950s.

The earlier ones were done by the legendary EC Comics crew, and initially, were also uncredited...until Ray Bradbury found out!

HEREs an article detailing what happened next.

The cover from this story is one of the dozen in the...

Dinosaurs of the Comics and Pulps

2014 12-Month Calendar

Francesco Francavilla's Kool Tributes to Ray Bradbury!

First, his reimagining of one of Ray's earliest stories...

...comparing it to the published artwork from the story's first appearance in 1943's Weird Tales!

and a second page with art portraying a Bradbury tale adapted on the original Twilight Zone, plus a famous movie based on a Bradbury plot written for the screen (not adapted from a previously-published story)...

Trivia:

The unused alien makeup concept from this movie was used as the Metaluna Mutant in This Island Earth!

Bradbury's original plot for this film, along with several alternative versions, was finally published in the now hard-to-find book It Came from Outer Space from Gauntlet Press in 2004!

Copies go for anywhere from $90-$300 each (and that was before Bradbury passed away)!

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

We just got word of the passing of Ray Bradbury...

His website said it best...

...one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think.

His more than five hundred published works...exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.
Once read, his words are never forgotten.