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[Ted Belmont]

Ray Bradbury.

The very first short story I ever wrote was a poor attempt at writing like Ray Bradbury. His work's influence, on myself and countless others, cannot be overstated. RIP.

[Friday]

F451 alone would have been more than enough of a contribution and legacy, in my opinion.

[Thad]

Unsurprisingly, Evanier has a very nice obit for Bradbury.  It's a warts-and-all depiction of the man, his genius, his generosity, and the rather unfortunate things he spent the last decade or so of his life saying.  It's the kinda thing I'm talking about when I try to tell people you can acknowledge the negative things about a recently-deceased person without being nasty about it.

Or, as Sharkey once put it to me, "Well, it's not like I'm going to retroactively hate The Martian Chronicles."

[Thad]

Gaiman has more on Bradbury, an intro on his own blog to an article at The Guardian.

Last week, at dinner, a friend told me that when he was a boy of 11 or 12 he met Ray Bradbury. When Bradbury found out that he wanted to be a writer, he invited him to his office and spent half a day telling him the important stuff: if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can't write one book and stop. That it's work, but the best kind of work. My friend grew up to be a writer, the kind who writes and supports himself through writing.

Either he's talking about Mark Evanier, or Neil Gaiman has more than one friend who Ray Bradbury took under his wing.

EDIT: Evanier confirms Neil's talking about him, and adds:

That thing about writing every day whether you feel like it or not...that's one of the most important things I learned from Ray. A few years later I learned it again from Jack Kirby. I've been fortunate to know a lot of brilliant writers and artists (Neil is yet another) and while some work harder than others, they all work hard.

You and I may never be as brilliant as a Ray Bradbury or a Jack Kirby...but it is possible to work just as hard as Ray Bradbury or Jack Kirby.

It occurred to me recently that I DO write every day, but that I could use more focus and discipline.  I don't expect I'll ever do it for a living, but I sure enjoy the hell out of it.

[Thad]

A bit more Bradbury from Evanier: he tells the story of the first time Bradbury ever met Al Feldstein, the writer who famously adapted his short stories at EC Comics back in the 1950's.

A bit of background first; Evanier goes over this part of the story a couple times but I prefer the more-complete version as given in Comic Book Legends Revealed.

EC first adapted two of Bradbury's short stories without his permission.  Bradbury, on finding out, sent them a letter saying,

Just a note to remind you of an oversight. You have not as yet sent on the check for $50.00 to cover the use of secondary rights on my two stories THE ROCKET MAN and KALEIDOSCOPE…I feel this was probably overlooked in the general confusion of office work, and look forward to your payment in the near future.

Gaines sent him the $50 and, after that, Bradbury gave them permission to adapt more of his stories (and stick his name prominently on the cover).  It's one of my favorite stories of Bradbury responding with humor and creating a solution that worked out well for everybody, when he had every right to call a lawyer instead.

Anyhow, Bradbury corresponded a bit with Gaines but never with Feldstein, and they didn't meet until 2002, at a Comic-Con panel that also included Evanier and legendary DC editor/Bradbury's former agent Julie Schwartz.

Evanier tells the story in four parts: 1 2 3 4.  Well worth reading all four, as well as that Legends Revealed post as an introduction.  There's also a Who's Who post identifying everyone in the photo at the top of Part 2.