Harlan Ellison

Personal Life

Harlan Ellison was born in Cleveland Ohio in 1934. He grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Painesville and like many children of the time, he was raised on a steady diet of comics, pulp magazines and radio serials. He started collecting comics at an early age and he was an active collector for nearly eight decades. Ellison eventually sold off large portions of his collection but his interest in the art form never waned and he remained an avid fan until his passing in 2018.

Comics Work

Ellison had a deep history with comics and he consistently supported artists and writers from the field, numbering many among them as friends. His first published written work was a fan letter written when he was thirteen years old and published in Real Fact Comics #6, in 1947. Over the years Ellison had a staggering amount of letters, introductions and cover blurbs published in a wide variety of comics genres: from mainstream titles like Marvel's Conan and DC's Detective Comics to mid range series like First Comics' Nexus and Kitchen Sink's Death Rattle, down to the smaller independent titles like Wordsmith from Renegade Press and Fish Police from Fishwrap Productions. Through countless letters and articles, Ellison was a bastion of creators' rights, a fountainhead of critical opinion and a champion of independent comics.

Ellison has been lampooned and parodied several times and many of his real life encounters with different creators were fictionalized in their respective magazines. One of the best of these is Paul Chadwick's Concrete story in Dark Horse Presents #66. Concrete is given a grand tour of the home of Susan and Dwayne Byrd. The Byrds are modeled after Harlan and Susan Ellison, and it's one of the best graphic representations of their amazing home Ellison Wonderland (aka. The Lost Aztec Temple of Mars).

Original Stories

Ellison wrote several original stories for different comics series. In chronological order they are:

1970 Creepy #32 "Rock God" by Ellison and Neal Adams

1971 Avengers #88 "The Summons of Psyklop" by Ellison, Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema

1971 The Incredible Hulk #140 "The Brute That Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom" by Ellison, Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe

1972 Avengers #101 "Five Dooms To Save Tomorrow" by Ellison, Roy Thomas and Rich Buckler

1984 Daredevil #208 "The Deadliest Night of My Life" by Ellison, Arthur Byron Cover and David Mazzucchelli

1984 Daredevil #209 "Blast From The Past" by Arthur Byron Cover and David Mazzucchelli (from an idea by Ellison)

1985 Heroes For Hope "Wolverine" by Ellison and Frank Miller

1986 Detective Comics #567 "The Night of Thanks But No Thanks" by Ellison and Gene Colan

2001 Batman: Gotham Knights #13 "Funny Money" by Ellison and Gene Ha

2004 DC Comics Presents: The Justice League of America "The Secret Behind the Stolen Super Weapons" by Ellison, Peter David and Joe Giella (This was part of a series of one-shots celebrating the life and work of legendary DC editor Julius Schwartz)

2013 7 Against Chaos by Ellison and Paul Chadwick

Adaptations

Ellison wrote speculative fiction and pop culture criticism his entire career. The nature of much of Ellison's fiction work is dark fantasy similar to episodes of The Twilight Zone. Little of his bibliography could be easily labeled as science fiction, and most of it is written in short story form. This combination lends itself well to graphic art adaptation and Ellison allowed many comic book writers and artists to do so. Over the years Ellison's work has been adapted by legions of comics luminaries, including: Neal Adams, Alex Nino, Eric Shanower, Jim Steranko, the list goes on.

1954 Weird Science-Fantasy #24 "Upheaval" by Al Williamson (An adaptation of Ellison's story "Mealtime")

1972 Chamber of Chills #1 "Delusions For a Dragon Slayer" by Gerry Conway and Syd Shores (An adaptation of Ellison's story "Delusion For a Dragon Slayer" no idea why they added the S.)

1975 Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #3 "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman." by Alex Nino

1978 Ariel: The Book of Fantasy #3 "Along the Scenic Route" by Al Williamson

1978 1984 #4 "Mondo Megillah" by Alabaster Redzone (Jim Stenstrum) and Alex Nino (This was an unauthorized adaptation of "A Boy And His Dog", approved by 1984's editor Bill Dubay. When Ellison refused permission to adapt the story, Dubay had Alex Nino draw it anyway, then gave the artwork to Jim Stenstrum to write new dialogue. This resulted in Ellison winning a plagiarism lawsuit against Warren Publishing, the magazine's parent company.)

1978 The Illustrated Harlan Ellison "The Discarded" by Tom Sutton, "Riding The Dark Train Out" by Ralph Reese, "I'm Looking For Kadak" by Overton Loyd, "An Ellison Tapestry" by Leo and Diane Dillon (This is a series of Ellison's book covers presented in a gorgeous graphic tableau.), "Deeper Than The Darkness" by Wayne McLoughlin, "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" by Jim Steranko

1978 Heavy Metal Vol. 2 #5 "Croatoan" by Tom Sutton and Alfredo Alcala

1978 Heavy Metal Vol. 2 #6 "Shattered Like A Glass Goblin" by William Stout

1978 Harlan Ellison's Chocolate Alphabet (An adaptation of Ellison's story, "From A To Z In The Chocolate Alphabet") by Larry Todd

1980 Epic Illustrated #4 "Sleeping Dogs" by Ken Steacy

1980 RBCC #151 "Basilisk" by Bret Blevins, "Soldier" by Kerry Gammill

1981 Epic Illustrated #6 "Life Hutch" by Ken Steacy

1982 Epic Illustrated #11 "Run For The Stars" by Ken Steacy

1984 The Incredible Hulk #286 "Hero" (This was an unauthorized adaptation of Ellison's story "Soldier". Ellison was eventually paid and credited but only after he had to bring the situation to the attention of Marvel's Vice President. Marvel's then Editor In Chief Jim Shooter claimed that Ellison's credit got lost in an editorial shuffle on the magazine. Which still doesn't explain why they published an adaptation without permission to begin with. Many years later on his blog, Shooter engaged in a nice piece of revisionist history, laid the entire incident squarely at the feet of writer Bill Mantlo and confessed his own ignorance of the original story as the reason it saw publication.) by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Kim DeMulder

1987 DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel #5 "Demon With A Glass Hand" by Marshall Rogers

1987 Vic And Blood #1 "Eggsucker" by Richard Corben, "A Boy And His Dog part 1" by Richard Corben

1988 Vic And Blood #2 "A Boy And His Dog part 2" by Richard Corben, "Run Spot Run" by Richard Corben

1991 The Twilight Zone #1 "Crazy As A Soup Sandwich" by Neal Adams

1992 Weird Tales Illustrated #1 "Shattered Like A Glass Goblin" by Faye Perozich and Kelley Jones

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Special #1 "Quicktime" by Len Wein and Pat Broderick, "The End Of The Time Of Leinard" by Faye Perozich and Doug Wildey, "Rat Hater" by Faye Perozich and Michael T. Gilbert, "If This Be Utopia" by Phil Foglio, "On The Slab" by Faye Perozich and Gary Gianni

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #1 "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream part 1" by John Byrne, "Knox" by Diana Schutz and Teddy Kristiansen, "Turnpike" by Max Allan Collins and Craig Elliot

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #2 "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream part 2" by John Byrne, "S.R.O." by Steve Niles and John K. Snyder III, "Enter The Fanatic, Stage Center" by Stefan Petrucha and Tom Sutton

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #3 "Pride Of The Profession" by Nancy A. Collins and Heinrich Kipper, "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream part 3" by John Byrne, "The Rough Boys" by Jan Strnad and Skip Williamson

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #4 "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream part 4" by John Byrne, "Cold Friend" by R.A. Jones and David Lapham, "Catman part 1" by Peter David and Mike Deodato Jr.

1995 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #5 "Catman part 2" by Peter David and Mike Deodato Jr., "How's The Night Life On Cissalda?" by Faye Perozich and Eric White

1996 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Quarterly #1 "One Life, Furnished In Early Poverty" by Jan Strnad and Paul Chadwick, "The Voice In The Garden" by Bret Blevins, "Gnomebody" by John Ostrander and Marty Nodell, "Opposites Attract" by Tony Isabella and Rags Morales

2007 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Vol. 2 "The Silver Corridor" by Mark Waid, Ty Templeton and Gene Ha, "Djinn, No Chaser" by Gerard Jones and Jay Lynch, "The Discarded" by Steve Niles and Steve Rude, "Moonlighting" by Diana Schutz and Gene Colan, "Eyes of Dust" by Steve Niles and Curt Swan (This is a story fragment as the legendary artist Curt Swan passed away before completing it.), "Are You Listening?" by Elliot S. Maggin and Rafael Navarro, "The Man On The Juice Wagon" by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben

2010 Harlan Ellison's Phoenix Without Ashes (A four issue adaptation of the original script for The Starlost TV series pilot) by Alan Robinson

2014 Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, The Original Teleplay (A five issue adaptation of Ellison's original script.) by David Tipton, Scott Tipton and J.K. Woodward

2015 Batman '66 The Lost Episode #1 (An adaptation of Ellison's original story treatment for an episode of the 1966 Batman TV show.) by Len Wein and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Other Media

Novels

1958 Web of the City

1960 The Sound of a Scythe

1961 Spider Kiss

Short Novels

1967 Doomsman

1980 All The Lies That Are My Life

1991 Run For The Stars

1993 Mefisto In Onyx

Story Collections

1958 The Deadly Streets

1959 Sex Gang (written as Paul Merchant)

1960 A Touch of Infinity

1961 Children of the Streets

1961 Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation

1962 Ellison Wonderland

1965 Paingod and Other Delusions

1967 I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

1967 From the Land of Fear

1968 Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled

1969 The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

1970 Over the Edge

1974 Approaching Oblivion

1975 Deathbird Stories

1978 Strange Wine

1980 Shatterday

1982 Stalking the Nightmare

1988 Angry Candy

1997 Slippage: Precariously Poised, Previously Uncollected Stories

2001 Troublemakers

2011 Deathbird Stories (expanded edition)

2012 Pulling A Train

2012 Getting In the Wind

Collaborations

1971 Partners In Wonder: Collaborations With 14 Other Wild Talents

1975 The Starlost: Phoenix Without Ashes with Edward Bryant

1994 Mind Fields: 33 Stories Inspired By the Art of Jacek Yerka

Non Fiction

1961 Memos From Purgatory

1970 The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television

1975 The Other Glass Teat: Further Essays of Opinion on Television

1978 The Book of Ellison by Andrew Porter

1984 Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed ed. by Marty Clark

1985 An Edge In My Voice

1989 Harlan Ellison's Watching

1990 The Harlan Ellison Hornbook

2011 Bugf#ck! The Useless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison ed. by Arnie Fenner

2013 Li'l Harlan and His Sidekick Carl the Comet

Retrospectives

1971 Alone Against Tomorrow: A 10 Year Survey

1987 The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective ed. by Terry Dowling with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont

2001 The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective ed. by Terry Dowling

2010 Unrepentant: A Celebration of the Writing of Harlan Ellison ed. by Robert T. Garcia

2014 The Top of the Volcano: The Award Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison

Omnibus Volumes

1979 The Fantasies of Harlan Ellison

1991 Dreams With Sharp Teeth

The White Wolf Edgeworks Series

1996 Edgeworks Vol. 1: Over The Edge and An Edge In My Voice

1996 Edgeworks Vol. 2: Spider Kiss and Stalking The Nightmare

1997 Edgeworks Vol. 3: The Harlan Ellison Hornbook and Harlan Ellison's Movie

1997 Edgeworks Vol. 4: Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled and The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

The Edgeworks Abbey Series

2011 Brain Movies Vol. 1: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2011 Brain Movies Vol. 2: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2011 Harlan 101: Encountering Ellison

2011 The Sound of a Scythe and 3 Brilliant Novellas

2012 Rough Beasts: Seventeen Stories Written Before I Got Up To Speed

2012 None of the Above (Ellison's screenplay for Norman Spinrad's Novel Bug Jack Baron)

2013 Brain Movies Vol. 3: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2013 Brain Movies Vol. 4: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2013 Brain Movies Vol. 5: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2013 Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word

2014 Brain Movies Vol. 6: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

2014 Again Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word

2014 8 In 80 By Ellison

As Editor

1967 Dangerous Visions

1968 Nightshade and Damnations: The Finest Stories of Gerald Kersh

1972 Again Dangerous Visions

1985 Medea: Harlan's World

2002 Dangerous Visions (The 35th Anniversary Edition)

2003 Jacques Futrelle's The Thinking Machine Stories

The Harlan Ellison Discovery Series

1975 Stormtrack by James Sutherland

1975 Autumn Angels by Arthur Byron Cover

1976 The Light at the End of the Universe by Terry Carr

1976 Islands by Marta Randall

1978 Involution Ocean by Bruce Sterling

Miscellaney

1978 The Illustrated Harlan Ellison

1994 I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay Based on Isaac Asimov's Stories

1996 The City on the Edge of Forever the Original Screenplay

Audiobooks

2005 Run For the Stars

The On The Road Series

1983 On the Road With Harlan Ellison Vol. 1

2004 On the Road With Harlan Ellison Vol. 2

2007 On the Road With Harlan Ellison Vol. 3

2011 On the Road With Harlan Ellison Vol. 4: His Last Big Con

2012 On the Road With Harlan Ellison Vol. 5: The Grand Master Edition

The Voice From The Edge Series

1999 The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

2001 The Voice From the Edge Vol. 2: Midnight In the Sunken Cathederal

2009 The Voice From the Edge Vol. 3: Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes

2011 The Voice From the Edge Vol. 4: The Deathbird and Other Stories

2011 The Voice From the Edge Vol. 5: Shatterday and Other Stories

Video Games

1995 I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream the Interactive CD Rom co-designed with David Mullich and David Sears

Movies and Television

Ellison has written many motion picture scripts, however most of them have not been produced. The two that have are a study in exact opposites. The Oscar which premiered in 1966 is an atrocious train wreck of a movie that is nearly unrecognizable as an Ellison work. The other movie, A Boy And His Dog was actually adapted fairly faithfully from Ellison's novella. L.Q. Jones, the writer/director/producer behind this film, changed the ending so that it comes across as a bit of a misogynistic shock twist, but on the whole the film holds itself together pretty well, and it's carried more than ably by a painfully young Don Johnson.

In 2009 a documentary about Harlan Ellison was released. Composed of several years of filmed footage, different interviews and story readings, Dreams With Sharp Teeth was produced and directed by Erik Nelson and it's an excellent snapshot of Ellison's life.

Ellison's television work is a little more plentiful. He's created many hours of solidly entertaining TV, having written stand-out episodes for many series, including: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, Logan's Run, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the 1980's New Twilight Zone, and Babylon 5, just to name a few.

Awards

Ellison didn't win a huge amount of awards in the comics world. He won the Inkpot award in 1987 for his ongoing contribution to comics, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund awarded him their Defender of Liberty Award in 1998. He's won just a few others though.

Nebula Awards

1968 best short story, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

1969 best short story, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

1970 best novella, A Boy and His Dog

1978 best short story, Jeffty Is Five

2006 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award

2011 best short story, How Interesting: A Tiny Man

Hugo Awards

1966 best short story, "Repent Harlequin!", Said the Ticktockman.

1968 best short story, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

1968 best dramatic presentation, Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever

1969 best short story, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

1974 best novelette, The Deathbird

1975 best novelette, Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38°54'N, Longitude 77°00'13"W

1976 best dramatic presentation, A Boy and His Dog

1978 best short story, Jeffty Is Five

1986 best novelette, Paladin of the Lost Hour

Ray Bradbury Award

2000 2000X radio show (shared with Yuri Rasovsky)

World Fantasy Awards

1989 best collection, Angry Candy

1993 Lifetime Achievement

Edgar Awards

1974 best short story, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs

1988 best short story, Soft Monkey

Bram Stoker Awards

1987 best anthology, The Essential Ellison

1989 best non fiction, Harlan Ellison's Watching

1993 best novella, Mefisto In Onyx

1995 Lifetime Achievement

1996 best short story, Chatting With Anubis

1999 best other media audio, The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

Jupiter Awards

1974 best novelette, The Deathbird

1978 best short story, Jeffty Is Five

Writers Guild of America Awards

1968 best anthology episode/single program, The Outer Limits: Demon With A Glass Hand

1974 best teleplay, Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever

1987 best anthology episode/single program, The New Twilight Zone: Paladin of the Lost Hour

Locus Awards

1970 best short fiction, The Region Between

1972 best short fiction, Basilisk

1974 best short fiction, The Deathbird

1975 best novelette, Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38°54'N, Longitude 77°00'13"W

1976 best short fiction, Croatoan

1978 best short fiction, Jeffty Is Five

1979 best short story, Count the Clock That Tells the Time

1983 best novelette, Djinn, No Chaser

1986 best short story, With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole

1986 best anthology, Medea: Harlan's World

1986 best novelette, Paladin of the Lost Hour

1989 best short story, Eidolons

1989 best novelette, The Function of Dream Sleep

Awards Roundup

In 1976 Ellison was presented with The Golden Scroll Award by The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films for his writing career to date. In 1990 He was awarded The Silver Pen for journalism by International PEN for his commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship. In 1993 his short story, The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore was published in the Best American Short Stories anthology. In 2000 The World Horror Convention crowned him with its' Grandmaster Award. Finally, in 2011 Ellison was given The Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction, and inducted into The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.