New Bradbury 100 Episode - Ray's Fanzine, Futuria Fantasia

In this new episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast, I explore Futuria Fantasia - the fanzine that Ray Bradbury produced when he was a teenage science fiction fan.

The first issue of Futuria Fantasia, published when Ray was eighteen years old, catches him just before he heads off to New York for the first-ever World Science Fiction Convention. In that first issue, he is very much focused on "Technocracy", a movement which promised to turn science fiction into political reality. The issue includes an essay on Technocracy by Bruce Yerke, followed by an early piece of Ray Bradbury science fiction: "Don't Get Technatal", a satirical look at how boring it will be to live in a utopia!

"Don't Get Technatal" was Ray's third piece of published fiction, although he hid behind the pseudonym of Ron Reynolds. I read it in full in the podcast, along with Ray's other contributions to FuFa No. 1. (I also read selections from the writings of the other contributors.)

If you want to read the whole magazine, it's freely available, since the copyright on FuFa expired decades ago. The best place to find it - and the other three issues that Ray published - is via the links at science fiction history site FANAC.

So, come with me now to the world of 1939, where fans of "scientifiction" enthusiastically support the bright future offered by the Technocracy movement, perhaps oblivious to the impending likelihood of world war...

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 53 - Ray's Fanzine, Futuria Fantasia

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

New BRADBURY 100 Episode - Chronological Bradbury: 1941

Time for another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast - and it's another in my occasional series, "Chronological Bradbury".

It's 1941, and the year that Ray Bradbury makes the breakthrough as a professional writer!

In this year, Bradbury had six stories published: three amateur pieces published in fanzines; two semipro pieces (published in a fairly prestigious magazine, but he got paid with free copies of the magazine); and at year's end, his first professional sale, to the pulp science fiction magazine Super Science Stories.

In the podcast episode, I go through each story in turn, giving a brief summary and a review. If you want to read the stories for yourself, you can find some of them online. Some of them are only available in books, though. And one of them is, alas, not available anywhere that I can find.

Here's a list of the stories covered, with direct links where there are online copies:

• “How Am I Today, Doctor?”
• “The Trouble With Humans Is People”
• “Wilber and his Germ” - I haven't been able to find this story anywhere. Let me know if you have a copy!
• “Tale of the Mangledomvritch”
• “To Make A Long Story Much Much Shorter”
• “Pendulum”

 Stories which can't be found online are usually found in The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition, Vol. 1, or in The Earliest Bradbury. 

Here's the episode. Please let me know what you think of these stories!

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 52 - Chronological Bradbury 1941

 

 

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

New Bradbury 100 Episode - Reviewing some new Bradbury product

Here's another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast. This time I review three new Bradbury-related products which I've recently received. Here are ordering links for the three:

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, 1980 TV miniseries on Blu-ray: order from ViaVision Entertainment

Phoenix 451, a collection of Ray's own dramatisations of Fahrenheit 451: order from Gauntlet Press

It Came From Outer Space, 1953 film written by Ray, on 4K HDR Blu-ray: order from Amazon US - or order from Amazon UK

Here's the pod. Enjoy!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 51 - Some Recent Bradbury Product

 

 

 

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

New BRADBURY 100 Podcast Episode: Chronological Bradbury, 1940

Can you believe it? My Bradbury 100 podcast has reached its fiftieth episode! And it's another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand - this time covering the year 1940.

Ray published nine stories in 1940, nearly all of them in fanzines (and one of them in a semi-prozine). Here's a list, with links to online versions of the stories, where they exist.

• "The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa"
• "The Maiden of Jirbu"
• "The Tale of the Tortletwitch"
• "Luana the Living"
• "The Piper"
• "The Last Man"
• "The Tale of the Terrible Typer"
• "It's Not The Heat, It's The Hu-!"
• "Genie Trouble"

In the podcast, I say more about where you can find these stories. So without further ado, here it is:

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 50 - Chronological Bradbury: 1940

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

Guesting on Podcasts

As well as producing my own podcasts (Bradbury 100 and Science Fiction 101), I've guested on quite a few pods and radio shows over the years. But it occurred to me that I don't have one place where all those appearances are gathered together.

Until now.

So here's all the audio shows which have been kind enough to invite me on, listed in sort-of chronological order. I do hope I haven't missed any...

If you have a podcast or radio show which would benefit from my dulcet tones discussing Ray Bradbury, science fiction, screenwriting, film, TV, radio drama, or related topics, please get in touch!

Take Me To Your Reader

August 2015 - "A Sound of Thunder" (Bradbury)
August 2016 - Fahrenheit 451 (1966 movie; Bradbury)
May 2018 - Fahrenheit 451 (HBO movie; Bradbury)
October 2018 - The Halloween Tree (Bradbury)
September 2019 - The Illustrated Man (Bradbury)
January 2022 - Rendezvous With Rama (Arthur C. Clarke)
October 2022 - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury)
August 2023 - "The Crystal Egg" (H.G.Wells)

 

The Ray Harryhausen Podcast

May 2016 - Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen

 

Radio Free Acton

May 2018 - Fahrenheit 451 (book and HBO film)

 

Imaginary Worlds

June 2018 - Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury - episode also features Neil Gaiman)

  

BBC World Service: The Forum 

August 2020 - Ray Bradbury

Hugos There

January 2022 - The Fountains of Paradise (Arthur C. Clarke) 

 

Words to Write By

March 2022 - Zen in the Art of Writing (Bradbury) 

 

Continuum Drag

April 2022 - The Martian Chronicles  (TV miniseries; Bradbury)

New BRADBURY 100 Podcast Episode: Reviewing Ray Bradbury

This time on Bradbury 100 I talk about The New Ray Bradbury Review, the online journal I edit on behalf of the Ray Bradbury Center.

But I lead into the discussion by examining the ancestry of the journal - which stretches way back to 1952, and William F. Nolan's original fan publication, called simply Ray Bradbury Review.

I also pay tribute to Nolan as the first person to really study Ray's work, and I discuss his ongoing engagement with Ray as both a friend and a colleague.

You can download a free PDF copy of Nolan's ground-breaking original Ray Bradbury Review here, courtesy of FANAC: https://fanac.org/fanzines/1950s_One_Shots/ray_bradbury_review_nolan_1952.pdf

And you can find the modern equivalent - The New Ray Bradbury Review - online for free, here: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/nrbr

The other William F. Nolan books I discuss in the podcast are The Ray Bradbury Companion and Nolan On Bradbury. 

Here's the episode. Enjoy!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 49 - Reviewing Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

New BRADBURY 100 Podcast Episode: Chronological Bradbury, 1939

Here's a new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast - and it's another in my occasional series, "Chronological Bradbury". Last time I covered 1938, so this time it's onward to 1939.

1939 finds Ray Bradbury writing under a variety of names:

• ...as Ron Reynolds: "Don't Get Technatal" - in Futuria Fantasia issue 1
• ...anonymously: "The Pendulum" - in Futuria Fantasia issue 2
• ...as Brian Eldred: "To Run a Successul Ghost Agency" - in D'Journal issue 2
• ...as Cecil Claiborne Cunningham: "Mummy Dust" - in D'Journal issue 3
• ...and as Ray Bradbury: "Gold" - in Science Fiction Fan

 

Here's the episode. Let me know what you think about these early stories!

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 48 - Chronological Bradbury: 1939

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

New Bradbury 100 podcast episode - B100 Live!

As promised, the Bradbury 100 podcast feed now carries the audio of my recent livestreamed edition of the pod. Pick it up in all the usual podcast places, or listen below!

Towards the end, I mention The New Ray Bradbury Review. You can find it here - and the actual content of the new issue will be online very soon. UPDATE: the content of the Review is now live!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 47 - Bradbury 100 LIVE, 2023 Edition

 

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

Bradbury 100 LIVE - The Beast, and Ray's Miracle Year

As promised, here's the video recording of my live episode of Bradbury 100, celebrating Ray's 103rd birthday.

I will also port the audio from this into my usual Bradbury 100 podcast feed, so you can also pick it up as a normal audio podcast (although some of the visual references may not work quite as well in that format...)

Towards the end, I mention The New Ray Bradbury Review, the  journal of the Ray Bradbury Center. You can find it online here: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/nrbr - but you won't be able to view the new issue's content until I click the "publish" button.

Happy Birthday, Ray!

Today - 22 August 2023 - is the 103rd anniversary of the birth of Ray Bradbury. And so, in time-honoured tradition, I will be doing a LIVE episode of Bradbury 100, streamed via Facebook.

I'll be taking you back 70 years to 1953 - one of the biggest years of Ray's life!

 

Just use this link, and look for the live stream: https://www.facebook.com/bradburymedia

 

22 AUGUST 2023 / 8pm UK time / 3pm Eastern Time / Noon Pacific Time

 

 

...and if you don't do Facebook, don't worry. I'll make a recording available via Youtube and via this blog, after the event. (You'll just have to wait a couple of days!)