In his youth, he spent much time in the Carnegie Library in Waukegan, reading such authors as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. At 12, he began writing traditional horror stories and said he tried to imitate Poe until he was about 18. In addition to comics, he loved the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan of the Apes, especially Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. The Warlord of Mars impressed him so much that at age 12, he wrote his own sequel.Contemporary Authors Online. Ray Bradbury. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Web.Heller, Terry. Magill's Survey of American Literature. Revised Edition. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2006. Print. The young Bradbury was also a cartoonist and loved to illustrate. He wrote about Tarzan and drew his own Sunday panels. He listened to the radio show Chandu the Magician, and every night when the show went off the air, he wrote out the entire script from memory.
