Ray Bradbury Comic Con 2009 by enemy2fashion on Flickr.
San Diego Comic Con, 2009. Bruce and I were fighting our way across the convention floor when we hit the worst bottleneck you ever saw.
Me: What’s going on?
Bruce: (looks through the crowd) Who’s the old guy in the wheelchair?
Me: (sees con badge) Uh. That’s Ray Bradbury!We stood there and gawked for a minute or two while admirers milled around and took photos, and some managed to actually talk to him. (I failed.)
Passing woman: Who’s that?
Guy: That’s Ray Bradbury.
Woman: Who?
Me: (facepalm)
Guy: He wrote Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles…
Woman: Oh. (wanders off)We saw him later at a panel, and that’s where the “buried on Mars“ quote comes from. I’m glad we got to see him, and I’m sorry that, contrary to his stated wishes, he never did make it to 100. Or Mars.