Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

Here at the Cartoon Library, we are deeply saddened by the loss of the all-time master of science fiction, Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was an inspiration for all, and a true friend to cartoonists and lover of the form. His work has been adapted by some of the greatest cartoonists world-over, and in his memory we have provided below a sampling of some of the varying styles that gave vision to his writing.

First, an excerpt from Bradbury’s introduction to The Ray Bradbury Chronicles Vol.1, a collection of comic adaptations of his writing that were originally published as Ray Bradbury Comics by Topps Comics (image above).

For comic strips, comic books and the creators of comics have filled my life since I was nine years old and “Buck Rogers” exploded before my eyes in the “Waukegan News Sun”. I knew then that I was staring at something that would change my life forever. That one strip, on an October afternoon in 1929, seized me into the future and would not let me return. I learned my first lesson in aesthetic that autumn. I collected Buck Rogers for three months and then when kids in school made fun of me for believing in the future, I tore them up. A week later, I burst into tears. Why am I crying? I asked myself. Who died? The answer was: me. I had listened to those fools who didn’t believe that one day we would arrive on the Moon or visit Mars. I made my most important decision then. I went back to collecting “Buck Rogers”. In all the years since I have not once listened to any so-called friend who made fun of my hobby, my dream, my lifeblood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Ray Bradbury: