Many thanks for Arthur for the tip: Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen and Forrest J. Ackerman appear tonight and together for probably the fantastic monsterist event of the year. Venice boy Bradbury put romance, breadth and vision in his writing that triads with Bester and Dick for some of the deepest and most resonant American lit—not just genre lit, either—and without him there would be a weeping puncture wound in the national capacity for imagination. Harryhausen is a real-life Frankenstein: he made some of the best monsters (Clash Of The Titans, Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, Ymir from 20 Million Miles To Earth, who shames Cloverfield monster with his dignity and grace) in filmdom and made them come to life with pioneering stop-animation work, and anyone who has ever known the childhood joy of a Sunday afternoon monster matinee owes him (and Toho) a deep psychic debt. And Ackerman (besides being Bradbury’s first agent!) ran Famous Monsters of Filmland (the paper of record of monsterism) and rescued uncounted SF artifacts from total cultural dissolution—a cultural ambassador between this planet and wilder ones who gave lasting form to fandom. These are some giants and putting them in a room together is too rare an occasion to ever happen again. If you miss this, some delicate inside part of you will surely wither.

— Rob Battin

RAY BRADBURY, RAY HARRYHAUSEN AND FORREST J. ACKERMAN AT MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION AT BOOKFELLOWS, 238 N. BRAND BLVD., GLENDALE. 7:30 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. WWW.MYSTERYANDIMAGINATION.COM.