The other day I went to Mars. It was an eerie and confusing place. Martians were not tiny green men with large black eyes but beings that look similar to ourselves. Martians and humans travel across the sands in large ships that glide with the power of wind. There is even a hotdog stand to feed the hungry new inhabitants of the planet with food that reminds them of home. As Earth humans slowly take over the planet I saw it change from a well established Martian civilization to a planet of small towns made to look like the ones we live in here. Entire cities built by the Martians become ruins that Earth children play in, it leaves a somber feeling. They are running around an abandoned city that was once bustling with commerce, lively hoods and the sound of a different species of children laughing. My means of seeing all these intriguing sites was not a NASA top secret new spaceship but a graphic novel I found right here at MVCC.
Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles: the authorized adaptation is a graphic novel version of Bradbury’s book of short stories, The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury was one of the most critically acclaimed American writers of the last century. Many of you may have read his book Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a dystopian civilization were books are outlawed. This graphic novel was approved by Bradbury, he even wrote the introduction which gives us the reader insight to his fascination with Mars starting at a young age. With the colorful panels, and easy flow from story to story, its no wonder why he approved of this stunning adaptation of his beloved stories of Mars.
Other works by Ray Bradbury that we have in our collection are below:
Novels: Dandelion wine: a novel, A graveyard for lunatics : another tale of two cities
Short Stories: The Stories of Ray Bradbury, The vintage Bradbury: Ray Bradbury’s own selection of his best stories
Poetry: When elephants last in the dooryard bloomed : celebrations for almost any day in the year
Don’t forget the Graphic Novel Symposium September 18th and 19th!