The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel (Paperback)

by Ray Bradbury (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Gr. 6-up. Here's a collection that will have graphic novel fans and die-hard Bradbury readers scrambling for the shelves. Some of the best artists in the business have adapted the author's short stories for the comics page. Each adaptation is accompanied by a preface by Bradbury, offering insight into the inspiration for the story, and each artist is paired with a story that suits his artwork perfectly. Among the best are "Come into My Cellar," from Dave Gibbons (of Watchmen fame), a Tales from the Crypt -like story of invaders from outer space, complete with a cliff-hanger ending and retro artwork, and "The Golden Apples of the Sun," adapted by P. Craig Russell (Sandman), an interstellar exploration of the uninhabitable star. A wonderful showcase of graphic novel artists and a great introduction for readers new to Bradbury's dark fantasy world. Carlos Orellana
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

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. Among the stories and illustrators paired together here are:

• COME INTO MY CELLAR illustrated by Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons

• THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN, illustrated by P. Craig Russell (Sandman)

• A SOUND OF THUNDER, illustrated by Richard Corben

• HOMECOMING illustrated by Steve Leialoha

• Also featuring Daniel Torres, Wayne D. Barlowe, Dave McKean, J ohn J. Muth, Mark Chiarello, Mike Mignola and Michael Lark

• As booksellers get more selective about graphic novels, this all-star line up will appeal to its audience for it author and artists.

• The illustrators have enormous popularity for their work on high-profile comic characters such as Batman and the Hulk.

• "A Sound of Thunder" film adaptation scheduled for summer 2003 release. The film stars Ben Kingley (Gandhi, Sexy Beast).

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: IBooks (August 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743474767
• ISBN-13: 978-0743474764
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #802,963 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, February 12, 2004

By	Kari Gilbert (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love Ray Bradbury, and I love comics, so I was hoping that a combination of the two would be excellent. It wasn't. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed this graphic novel. It just wasn't perfect. One of the major issues I had with it is that in several of the stories (most notably Dark They Were With Golden Eyes) the pictures and text had a tendency to run off the edge of the page, as though the page was not in quite the right position during the printing. Usually it was not more than a letter that was missing, and I had no trouble in determining what was meant to be said, but it was still annoying. There were also several typos in the brief intros to each story.
The art is wonderful, and fits each story very well. The writing, of course, is Bradbury and I don't think I need to say any more about that. Each story stays very true to the original, and I believe that every line of text is directly from the text of the story, which is nice. Of course, a lot is missing as well, but that's what the pictures are for.
I do think that it helps to have read the stories before reading this. There was one story that I was unfamiliar with, and I don't feel that I got quite as much out of that one as I would have liked. Familiarity with the stories definitely seemed helpful in my appreciation of the renditions of them in this graphic novel.
All in all, an interesting experiment that worked out fairly well. It's enjoyable, but I would recommend it mainly to Bradbury fans, as I don't think others will appreciate it as well.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stories, good art, November 29, 2004

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Bradbury, more than most well known SF writers, put a human face on his tales of maybe-if and far-away.

Here, some of comics' best artists put faces on Bradbury's tales. On the whole, the matching of artist to story was brilliant. Jon J. Muth's watercolors illustrated an eerie, atmospheric experience within another mind. Harvey Kurtzman's geometric, brash figures walk through a noir murder mystery, narrated by the deceased. Richard Corben's piece opens the book, showing not a hero or has-been but a never-was, who screws up 65 million times over. P. Craig Russell's pictures give life to two stories, both that want the kind of majesty he puts into visual storytelling. All that, and lots more.

These are good comics - masterful artists rendering a master's storytelling. Good for anyone who like narrative comics or who likes Bradbury. I have the good fortune of being both.

//wiredweird

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars from the publisher, ibooks, September 21, 2003

By A Customer

please note that the second printing FIXES the error that inverted two mike mignola pages accidentally.