William Stout — Thunderous
Ray Bradbury Comics #1, February 1993
The legendary SF author Ray Bradbury would have turned 100 years old this year. He passed away in 2012.
Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder is my favorite time travel short story.
It’s also the very first time travel short story I ever read. (I had already read HG Wells’ novel, The Time Machine, at that point. Multiple times in fact.)
Thanks to the progressive spirit of my secondary school system, we read the Bradbury short story collection “R is For Rocket” in eighth or ninth grade.
A Sound of Thunder: Time travel. Adventure. Dinosaurs. In other words, for my tastes, perfect.
Nearly 20 years later, Byron Preiss and Topps struck a deal to publish comic book versions of Preiss’ graphic novel series, Ray Bradbury Illustrated. Main feature in the first issue? A Sound of Thunder, cover by the incredibly talented Bill Stout, who is generally in a class by himself when it comes to Dinosaurs.
(The comic features a new adaptation by Richard Corben and the reprint of the classic EC story by Al Feldstein and Al Williamson.)
And 25 years after that? Stout decides to part with the cover, and I literally stumble upon at his booth at SDCC. Hanging in the frame that hung in his studio for many years.
Serendipity at work. Lets call this one a part of the “ permanent collection.”
