The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel

by Ray Bradbury

Over a period of four years, from l992-1996, the world's best comic book artists adapted sf Grand Master Ray Bradbury's best stories in a series of different graphic novel formats. Now, for the first time, the best of these stories by the illustrators comics fans crave are collected in a single affordable volume. Each story is accompanied by an introduction by Bradbury.

Genres: Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Classics

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[Mauoijenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. Goodness.
Loved this graphic novel packed with short stories by non other than one of the masters himself, Ray Bradbury!!
Most excellent indeed.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed ‘The Best of Ray Bradbury’, a comic collection of adapted short stories. It was the different artwork styles and drawings that I liked best in this graphic collection. I don’t think some of these graphic comic adaptions adequately reflect the vitality or depth of his writing, though.

Ray Bradbury was an influential humanist writer who wrote science fiction and fantasy, sometimes using a story as his soapbox. He really had something to say often about the ways that Men were generally cruel, stupidly vindictive and ignorantly murderous to each other without much justification other than a mouth-breather’s desire for power and control. His most famous book is Fahrenheit 451. The novel really summarizes everything Bradbury believed in and how he feared the direction of what we’d call “social media” today was being taken by government control and a public that was dumbed down by both choice and ‘influencer’ misdirection. But he also was a fan of speculative and adventure fiction, loving to read stories by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Allen Poe.

However, he also was a 1970’s Republican conservative, an admirer of Ronald Reagan when he was President. He had supported the Democratic Party until the Vietnam War was escalated under President Johnson, a Democrat. (For those readers who are young, the 1970’s was a time when the majority of Republicans were somewhat sane, if selfish, businessmen and male entrepreneurs. The Republican Party was not primarily under the influence of Nazis, evangelicals, and White supremacists as they are today.) Women had no constitutional rights back then, as they still do not, and were not allowed to have much social or political weight in science, politics or marriage. Women, because of the passage of a few major laws giving women some equality to men legally, do have more participation in public and private life now than when Bradbury was doing his best writing. To me, he sometimes reflects a lack of foresight in the actual range women could be in his books, but he definitely was on the right side of history more often than not (unintended pun, gentle reader! I noticed it after I wrote it).

Bradbury believed strongly in a liberal education, free libraries and free speech, which was why he hated affirmative action and political correctness since he felt supporters of both concepts restricted free speech. From what I’ve read of him in Wikipedia, he strikes me as someone who strongly believed in “water seeks its own level”, a quote I once heard regarding how people should be allowed to succeed in life. He felt Big Government restricted people too much in rising to their full potential in life, whatever that level of potentiality might be. He liked computers, but hated ebooks because of how their availability to the public are restricted by publishers. He was a big Star Trek fan!

He died in 2012 at the age of 91.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bra...

Many of Bradbury’s stories are now considered classics, and they’ve been copied and reframed by many other authors and scriptwriters in and after Bradbury’s lifetime. While he himself was inspired by the golden age writers of science fiction, he in turn inspired many readers. While I disagree with some of his political views, I loved reading his books and stories. The man could write, and he was definitely a creator of terrific science fiction and fantasy ideas!

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is terrific and I enjoyed the variety of styles, but none of the tales rank among my favorites of Bradbury's work.

[Reanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very peculiar little collection that I honestly wasn't familiar with. I keep giving Ray a chance but maybe he's just not my cup of tea. The illustrations were unique and some were pretty awesome. It is a very good representation of Bradbury though. If you're a fan of his, you will probably dig this too.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved these short stories! Some of them were familiar and others were new to me. I was enthralled by the beautiful coloring and artwork as it truly seemed to help the stories come alive. For anyone who has read Bradbury, you'll know that his stories can stand on their own without any fillers. So to flesh these amazing stories out in full color was quite a treat to read!

[PJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read anything by Bradbury, but I really enjoyed all of the stories. I didn't really like some of the art, but all of it did a good job of making sure that the story was the important part.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some of the stories and it just felt like something was missing-to me. It almost seemed as though they were incomplete. I wasn't a big fan of the artwork, but I thought I would easily be exposed to more Bradbury works by checking out this graphic novel. Big hint-didn't help. Like I said, didn't like the artwork. "Come Into My Cellar" and "A Sound of Thunder" were the better drawn. Some of them had artwork that was just as confusing as the story. "A Piece of Wood" and "Picasso Summer" were just skippable. I could not get around the drawing. It's okay if you've never read this stuff and want to imagine it as someone else would, but this just was not my forte.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ray Bradbury. Love him. His stuff is still potent, all these years later.

This collection of shorts has been lovingly adapted to graphic novel format, and almost all are wonderful. It's both a familiar journey through stories I've known since adolescence and a visual feast, with a collection of variant artistic perspectives lighting up Bradbury's brilliant concepts.

4.25. Good stuff.

[David Matteri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of twelve graphic adaptations of some of Rat Bradbury's best short stories, illustrated by artists such as Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Matt Wagner, and others. I have loved Bradbury's stories ever since Middle School, but this was the first time I have read his works in a graphic novel format and it was pure joy. Hope to get my hands on more collections just like this!

[Guenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love his stories but they are rarely as effective in a visual format. Despite some excellent artwork, this edition is no exception. It is also flawed by the dialogue at the edge or bottom of the page sometimes being cut off. Come on - amateur mistake!

[melusine7]

Library book

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel of about ten stories by Ray Bradbury, and adapted by different artists. There were some obscure stories, as well as some classic stories, which was great because I haven't previously read all the stories. The stories included, were all adapted from the original stories to fit the graphic format, and they did a good job. It started off a little slow with "A Sound of Thunder," because that story has been told so many times, in many different forms. But, the book picks up steam after that, and I finished the rest of the book very fast. A fun alternative for Bradbury fans, and the artwork was all very good. This made for a good combination!

[Jourdan Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel a little guilty having neglected the wonderful medium that is the graphic novel; after reading The Best of Ray Bradbury, I promised myself that I'd enjoy more comics.

The Best of Ray Bradbury is a collection of some of Mr. Bradbury's most beloved stories illustrated as comics- Golden Apples of the Sun, Come Into My Cellar and The City are some of the standouts of the collection.

The stories, for the most part, are short pieces of science fiction/fantasy interspersed with gripping drama- it's classic Bradbury. I do have a minor gripe- in the last story, one of the pages seemed to be cut or formatted wrong; I lost a word or two. Besides this, however, it's well done.

Something interesting about this collection is that every story is done by a different artist- this makes each story memorable in its own way, because each artist brings a different atmosphere, a different feeling to the work he illustrates.

Overall, I recommend this collection to just about anybody- if you're a fan of Bradbury, it's a must-have; this book showcases some truly fantastic fiction that's written in an almost poetic manner. If you're not familiar with Ray Bradbury, or if you think that you can't enjoy comics, sci-fi or fantasy works, give this collection a shot- it won't disappoint you.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best of Ray Bradbury contains illustrated adaptations of some of Ray Bradbury's most famous stories. The text and the art unquestionably captures the essence of these classic science fiction tales from the 1960's. The language and clothing reflect the time period, and are not modernized. Reading it, I felt as if I was holding a yellowed paperback published in the 1970's. Definitely authentic.

The art for each story is unique. No artist's style is the same. Best of all, Bradbury (who is still alive and writing) has written a moving introduction to the book. The introduction really touched my heart. It has to do with following your dreams, and how he got his start in writing sci-fi. And as a delightful bonus, Bradbury has written brief introductions to each and every story in the book!

[Stephanie C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happen to be one of the biggest Ray Bradbury fans, so I found myself "running to the shelves" for this masterpiece of graphic art. And yes, the artwork was AMAZING. So why only 2 stars? First, there were multiple typographical errors, and I just find that really sloppy and it frankly took away from the piece. Second, the actual book was completely cut wrong, so there were quite a few pages that were missing the first line of dialogue. Third, and most importantly, the adapted stories for the graphic novel were very confusing to say the least. If I didn't already know Bradbury's stories, I would have been completely lost. Still, the artful is truly amazing, and for that I gave it 2 stars. I was pretty disappointed, though, especially because I had paid a pretty penny for this, and I expected more since a well-renowned author and famous artists were part of this publication.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories as reimagined by well respected graphic novelists. At a glance, this seems like a great idea. Bradbury's poetic style seems to cry out for imagery. And some of these adaptations are very nicely done and include very nice, evocative images.

The trouble for me is that I have read all of these stories before, some of them multiple times. So to read these words again and have new images juxtaposed on top of them was at times disruptive. Did I need a new set of images to go with these words? And do the images provided here complement or intrude upon the ones I already have in the back of my mind?

This book is an interesting experiment and not a bad idea - but for me its a mixed review.

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually have a hard time rating short stories. Some are good, some aren't, and most of them are in between with potential. This was interesting, worth reading, but still didn't totally pull me in or blow me away as a whole. I did feel like the stories got better as they went on-I least into: A Sound of Thunder, The City, The Golden Apples of the Sun. My favorite was The Visitor, but I was also a pretty big fan of The April Witch (though I hated what this story had to say about consent in relationships, especially in typical male/female roles that it was clearly displaying--it really was interesting despite the uneasy knot in my stomach), A Piece of Wood, and Come Into My Cellar. And the Fog Horn did seem very sad. The other stories didn't mean much to me either way.

[stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had previously read all of these stories as short fiction, but they're very nice in graphic novel form as well. They short story versions are all better in my opinion, but it is really interesting to see them in panels too. My favorites in this are "A Sound of Thunder", which is beautifully adapted, and "Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed" which is completely gorgeous. To be fair, these are two of my favorite Bradbury stories, but the artists who turned them into comics did such an excellent job.

[Lisa Rathbun]

I enjoyed all the different styles of art, really amazing and varied. I did think some of the stories were confusing; I would prefer to have read ALL of the stories in the original and then read the graphic novel to further enhance my enjoyment or contemplation of the story. Bradbury writes the intro and gives a brief intro to each story: really cool.

[J.w. Schnarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury is a master of the short form in fiction, there's no question. Pairing him up with artists to create stunning new visions of his masterpieces is a no-brainer for a great graphic novel. A lot of my favourite stories are in here, and a few of my less-favourites, but overall well worth the read and definitely recommended.

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Italiano è stato tradotto in due volumi diversi, comunque di buona qualità, a parte la brossura a volte debole. Tanti tra i migliori disegnatori e scrittori si sono cimentati con queste storie, e se avete letto gli originali letterari di Bradbury vale la pena vedere con quale perizia sono stati resi.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here are some of Bradbury's best short stories in comic/graphic novel form. While I didn't like a few of the art styles, most were great adaptations -- Bradbury's stories really translate well in the comic medium.

[Ingrid Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit skeptical about these classics being turned visual, but the artwork from different artists is all wonderful, and each artist adds a particular flavor to each story. I'm glad I have this one in print.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first rate collection of short stories from the SF godfather with illustrations from such luminaries as P. Craig Russel and Dave Gibbons. This is a can't-go-wrong kind of selection, I would recommend it to anyone.

[Kaye · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of the stories deserved 5's, but the majority of them were kind of lame. So, overall, I will give this volume an "okay".

[Breck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like reading Ray Bradbury, so it was cool to see some of his shorts stories in graphic novel format.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Mignola illustrating "The City?" Yes, please.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a pretty good adaption of the Ray Bradbury stories. There were some that were better than others.

[Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great adaptations of many of the best of Ray Bradbury's short stories by many great graphic novel artists.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the idea behind this. There is a good selection of artists, but some of the stories were boring. Between the flat stories and some formatting issues, I was left underwhelmed.