Revisit the wonder of summer, through the eyes of SF author Ray Bradbury, who passed this day, 5th June 2012.
In “Take Me Home”, one of the last essays he ever wrote — Bradbury reflected on childhood, fire balloons, and the quiet magic of Independence Day in small-town America.
It is a hot afternoon in July, and I have put myself, by memory, back on my grandfather’s front porch in Waukegan, Illinois, sometime around 1925. I am three years old, and I am watching my grandfather and my father launch the fire balloons…
This lyrical piece, published in The New Yorker in June 2012, just days before Bradbury’s passing, is a meditation on memory, family, and the meaning of home.
Read the full “Take Me Home” essay here in The New Yorker website
remembering Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s contribution to the literary landscape and our collective imagination made him one of the best-known writers of our time. As a master storyteller, champion of creative freedom, space-age visionary, and guardian of the human heart, he has been embraced by millions across many generations and all walks of life.
In a career spanning more than seventy years, Bradbury, who died on 5th June 2012, aged 91, inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
He wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. He was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honours.
Many of his stories have been adapted into comics, by artists including Al Williamson, and many others, and as audio dramas.
Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, “Live forever!” Bradbury later said, “I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.”
• Read the full “Take Me Home” essay here in The New Yorker website
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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