I'm not sure if thie story is in fact written by Ray Bradbury.. I don't remember the name of it.

All I remember was that it was about the wind, and how one man discovered how the wind actually plotted and killed people by creating hurricanes and such. Then those it killed would become a part of it's "voice" I guess..

Does anyone recognize this plot and know the name of it? It's probably going to be something like, "The Wind", but I tried looking it up and I got nothing.I would really love to read it again. Thanks for your help <3

You guessed right. It's "The Wind," from "The October Country."

"The Wind" also appears in Ray's collection, DARK CARNIVAL.

Hi there, new to this forum. I'm not much of an avid reader of Bradbury's, but I do have a story by him that I'm looking for.

There was an EC comics adaptation that appeared in Weird Science #17 (1953) and it is such an excellent story.

In the comic, it is called "Plucked!", but I can't find a story by that same title in the contents of any of his collections. The premise is this:

Two guys, one a scientist/sociologist and the other a science fiction publisher, and their wives are at the publisher's house in the country for Thanksgiving. They are well off and their maid is busy preparing the turkey in the kitchen while the two couples are seated in the dining room enjoying a few drinks and having a conversation about strange things in history.

The topic of mass disappearances is brought up by the scientist. He tells the others that he has discovered an obscure trend that occurs every 200 years in sections of Earth that are experiencing their "peak of prosperity". He checked all the known census reports, birth and death rates, and none of it could be easily explained. He's noted that there were no wars, desease, or famine to account for the mysterious drop in population in these places at these times. The last such "event" occurred just about 200 years ago, suggesting that this may happen again at any time.

Well as the afternoon progresses, the sci-fi publisher uses his imagination and comes up with a very creepy theory to explain it and it turns out to be very true, and the effects are felt as they are being served their dinner.

If this sounds familiar, can someone here give me the the short story in which this is based upon? Thanks : )

Wally Wood seems to have been the artist on this.

http://costa.lunarpages.com/ec/ws17.html

Could he be the writer as well?

That's the cover alright, and yes, Wood is the artist, and the story is credited to Wood, but it clearly says it's a Bradbury adaptation. A different title, perhaps?

rb451

Of those stories listed, The Long Years is the one by Bradbury. I don't recognize the story you describe as being one of Bradbury's but someone else with an encyclopedic knowledge of these things on this site will come along shortly, I'm sure, and set us straight.

Best,

Pete

I agree with pterran that “The Long Years” is the only story in “Weird Science” #17 that is by Ray Bradbury. I can understand the confusion though. The cover shows a block with Ray’s name in it. The cover and the illustrations for “Plucked”, the cover story, are by the same artist, Wally Wood. But I assure you it is definitely not by Ray. Although illustrated by Wally Wood, I doubt that it was written by Wood either as the EC artists had all they could do just to meet their deadlines. EC had others writing the stories. People like Kutzman, Gains and Feldstein. Although EC would publish a Bradbury story in each of the succeeding issues of “Weird Science”, they would not put Ray’s name on the splash page until “Surprise Package” in issue #20. I’ve enclosed as complete a list as I can put together of Ray’s stories adapted by EC. The dates are short story publication dates, not EC publication dates. Hope this helps.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT
34 There Was An Old Woman (1944)
36 The Handler (1947)
VAULT OF HORROR
29 Lets Play Poison (1946)
31 The Lake (1944)
HAUNT OF FEAR
16 The Coffin (1947)
18 The Black Ferris (1948)
CRIME SUSPENSTORIES
15 The Screaming Woman (1951)
17 The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl (1948)
SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES
7 The Small Assassin! (1946)
9 The October Game (1948)
WEIRD SCIENCE FANTASY
23 The Flying Machine (1953)
25 A Sound Of Thunder (1952)
WEIRD SCIENCE
17 The Long Years (Date?)
18 Mars Is Heaven (1948)
19 The One Who Waits (1949)
20 Surprise Package (1949)
21 Punishment Without Crime (1950)
22 Outcast Of The Stars (1950)
WEIRD FANTASY
13 (Vol. 1, No. 13, May-Jun, 1952)
Home To Stay – Based on:
Kaleidoscope (1949) and The Rocket Man (1951)
17 There Will Come Soft Rains (1950)
18 Zero Hour (1947)
19 King Of The Grey Spaces (1947)
20 I, Rocket (1944)
21 The Million Year Picnic (1946)
22 The Silent Towns (1949)

Wow, Chapter 31, I'm impressed with your diligent research on the matter. I have most of these issues and some I knew were Bradbury and some I did not. In fact, when I was checking out some of his collections, I was coming accross story titles that sounded very familiar and I didn't realize why. For example, "There Will Come Soft Rains" was a title I read before and now you helped me remember, it was in the EC comics.

I suppose I should get one of his master collections, "Complete Book Of Bradbury" or something of the like? Does that one truly have all of his best work?

I don’t know of any book by that name and know of no book of Ray’s stories that could be called complete. But in my view, any collection of his that you choose to buy will be the right one.

I’ve noticed something troubling about my list. There are two stories on it that I’m not sure of because I have no source other than EC telling me that they are by Ray. Both are in “Weird Science”. “Surprise Package”, (1949) #20 and “Outcast of the Stars”, (1950) #22. Sorry about the confusion.

Chapter 31,
I don't know much about EC or Weird Science, but "Outcast of the Stars" is certainly the title of a Bradbury story from 1950; it appears in several Bradbury books under the variant title "The Rocket". I don't know of "Surprise Package", though. About 16 of the EC adaptations appeared in the books The Autumn People and Tomorrow Midnight, but from your list it looks as if a lot more have never been published in book form. ("Outcast of the stars" was in Tomorrow Midnight I believe.)


rb451,
The two books that come closest to being "The Complete Ray Bradbury" are The Stories of Ray Bradbury (c.1980) and Bradbury Stories (c.2003). Both are excellent reads. The former is arguably a better introduction to Bradbury since the stories are in more or less the order of their first book publication, so you get something of a sense of how Bradbury developed as a writer. Amazingly, there is no overlap between the two books, which means taken together they come pretty close to being a definitive collection of Ray's short fiction.

rb451,

See what I mean? This is the best. Board. Ever.

Pete

Yes, "Surprise Package" was an original Bradbury comic story not collected in book format. Source: Nolan's "Ray Bradbury Companion."

dandelion,
wow, another fascinating fact! Just when I think I have a handle on Bradbury's body of work, some oddity like this pops up.

I figure this would another good place to mention Jerry Weist's Bradbury: an Illustrated Life, which documents the Bradbury-EC Comics saga really nicely, with lots of illustrations from the comics and a whole run of letters exchanged between Ray and the EC crew.

philnic and dandelion,
Thanks for the clarifications. You’ve helped me untie the knot I’ve been fiddling with. Also, I’m looking forward to picking up the two books you mentioned: Jerry Weist’s book and the Companion.