Posted on May 21st, 2023 in Bradbury Media Corner, Guest Blogs by kyliadki | Tags: Bradbury Media Corner

Ray Bradbury grew up reading and collecting comics, and so he was simultaneously angered and flattered to discover that EC Comics in the 1950s were adapting his stories without permission. Once an amicable solution had been found, he encouraged EC to continue, so that dozens of his stories ended up in the pages of Vault of Horror, Weird Fantasy, Haunt of Fear and Tales of the Crypt. These adaptations were republished recently in a handsome volume called Home To Stay: The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories.

The EC series wasn’t the only time Ray made his way into comics. In the 1990s, he had his own comics line: Ray Bradbury Comics (also published as The Bradbury Chronicles), published by Topps. Overseen by Byron Preiss, the series carried modern adaptations of Ray’s classic stories, including a beautiful version of “A Sound of Thunder” (drawn by the great Richard Corben).

There’s no doubt that comics again and again introduced Ray to new generations, and kept his work visible to a wide audience just as much as the various film and TV adaptations of his work did. The fact that he excelled in the short story form made him an ideal source for comic adaptations.