Ray Bradbury began in Weird Tales like other Fantasy and Science Fiction writers in the 1940s. Like Fritz Leiber, Ray was a Dorothy McIlwraith contributor, publishing in an era after Farnsworth Wright. Since his first story, “The Candle” was November 1942, Ray missed the days of Virgil Finlay and Joseph Doolin artwork. This meant many of his best stories were illustrated by lesser lights such as Fred Humiston and A. R. Tilburne. Fortunately, Boris Dolgov did many as did Lee Brown Coye in the later issues. Despite being in every issue in 1944, Ray never got a single cover.
These early stories formed the majority of books like Dark Carnival (1947). Ray’s second last story in WT, “The Black Ferris” (May 1948), would be the kernel from which Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) was grown. You will find classics like “October Game” and “The Jar” but also others you have never heard of like “The Ducker” and “The Poems”. I quite enjoy these early Bradbury stories, partly to see his growth as a writer, and partly because he had not yet hit the heights of his poetic language that would be his trademark. These are stories first. Good, scary stories. Strictly a matter of taste (or lack thereof) of course.
“The Candle” (November 1942)
“The Wind” (March 1943)
“The Crowd” (May 1943)
“The Scythe” (July 1943)
“The Ducker” (November 1943)
“The Sea Shell” (January 1944)
“Reunion” (March 1944)
“The Lake” (May 1944)
“There Was An Old Woman” (July 1944)
“Bang! You’re Dead!” (September 1944)
“The Jar” (November 1944)
“The Poems” (January 1945)
“The Tombstone” (March 1945)
“The Watchers” (May 1945)
“The Dead Man” (July 1945)
“Skeleton” (September 1945)
“The Traveller” (March 1946)
“The Smiling People” (May 1946)
“The Night” (July 1946)
“Let’s Play ‘Poison'” (November 1946)
“The Handler” (January 1947)
“Interim” (July 1947)
“The October Game” (March 1948)
“The Black Ferris” (May 1948)
“Fever Dream” (September 1948)
With “Fever Dream”, Ray left Weird Tales. His reputation in Science Fiction circles had been growing steadily and it was time for him to write the stories that would become The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and other classic collections. Ray never divorced himself from his old Weirdie days. Instead, he became a champion of all things Halloween. Beginning in 1994 with the title story “From the Dust Returned” (Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 1994), he visited his old Weird Tales stories in a novel also called From the Dust Returned (2001). The entire book is a love letter to those old Pulp days. It bore a cover by Charles Addams.
