On September 23, 2013, the Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library near Ray Bradbury's Cheviot Hills home was dedicated to Ray. There was a panel discussion on that date which included Steven Paul Leiva, George Clayton Johnson, and the inimitable Harlan Ellison. For me, the funniest part of the talk is listening to Harlan Ellison describe his horror at Ray signing books from his collection with his usual black Sharpie, due to the fact the ink would leak through the signed page. At one point, Harlan says he begged Ray not to use a Sharpie, but that Ray came at him with "a marker that was as big as Lithuania"! The link below will take you to a video that very entertaining talk. (A warning to the sensitive: Harlan Ellison uses some very colorful language in his remarks.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD5zfBTy16k

Haha, speaking of bad autograph pens, it reminds me of a story a few years ago....

Long story short, I entered a lego stop-motion animation into the "ninjago movie" contest and was awarded a prize, after signing away my rights to Warner Bros and the filmmakers.
Here's my entry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGw_X5ZZ7ho
A few months later they released the second trailer in which they'd totally ripped off my bus gag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5JV3nVOLMA&t=0m46s
and all the TV spots included that gag and everything. What could I say?
I recieved a number of prizes such as fantastic lego sets and a book of the artwork of the movie, signed by the film's directors. They used icky sticky gold paint pens that made the pages stick together. Ugh what a nightmare. I then applied to work on the next lego movie, since they loved my gags so much.... no reply.

Harlan Ellison's dark short story, "He Who Grew Up Reading Sherlock Holmes" is dedicated "[T]o the memory of my friend, Ray Bradbury". Dan Lambert wrote an article about the story in 2020 in STRAND MAGAZINE and, in doing so, related a very funny account of the 2013 dedication of the Palms-Rancho Library to Ray Bradbury at which Ellison appeared, and which is referenced in the first post above:

"The last time I saw Harlan Ellison in person was in the Ray Bradbury room of the Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library in Los Angeles on September 23, 2013. Ellison was there with Twilight Zone author George Clayton Johnson to pay tribute to their departed friend, Ray Bradbury. Before the event, I took my seat next to Carol Sperling, the Diaboli of the Blustering Gales from the South-West (a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars Sherlockian society). From behind us, we saw Ellison, decked out in a dark jacket, black shirt, and bright orange tie. He stopped to say hello to scattered audience members as he made his way up the room’s center aisle. He struck up a conversation with two ladies who were sitting directly behind me and Carol. Being a great eavesdropper, I listened to the conversation. One of the ladies asked Ellison 'Are you a fan of Ray Bradbury?'

"Not missing a beat, Ellison replied, 'Well, I dunno. I suppose I am.'

"I couldn’t resist barging in on the conversation. I showed the ladies the copy of the book Bugf**k: The Worthless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison that I happened to have with me. I said 'I’m here to see this guy.'

"The ladies stared at the book. 'Who’s that?' one of them asked.

"Ellison just grinned.

"Despite his name and photo being on the front cover of the book, the ladies did not realize they had been talking with Harlan Ellison."

To read the entire article by Mr. Lambert, click on the link below:

https://strandmag.com/the-razo...ing-sherlock-holmes/