Bradbury 31, Day 14: "The Toynbee Convector"

Ray Bradbury is most renowned for the stories he wrote from the 1940s to the 1960s. Beyond that point there are many tales which fans (such as I) admire, but not a great deal of wider cultural awareness. Perhaps the best-known later-period Bradbury tale is the 1988 short story "The Toynbee Convector." It's a wonderful tale about deception and optimism: a time traveler helped change the world with tales of the world he saw in the future, but as the time of his visit to the future arrives in the present he confesses - there is no time machine.

In 1990, The Ray Bradbury Theater produced a nice television adaptation of the story, although the limited budget they worked with prevented them from demonstrating the vistas Bradbury implied (or those seen on the cover of the paperback collection of the same name).

In 1992, Topps Comics produced a comic book version with artist Chuck Roblin. Comic books, of course, have no particular budget restrictions; like the prose Bradbury himself worked within, they are limited only by the faculties and imaginations of their creators.

Tomorrow: More Bradbury!