Ultimate Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks

Master of the Majicks is a three volume illustrated history of the career of Oscar winning, stop-motion special effects master Ray Harryhausen, written by British journalist Mike Harkin and published by Archive Editions in the USA. The first book of the set to be published was Volume 2 - The American Films and this has now been followed by Volume 3 - The British Films which is now ready for release. Volume 1, ironically the last of the set to be published, is due in spring /summer 2011.

Master of the Majicks Volume 3 covers the films that Ray Harryhausen created whilst living in the United Kingdom, running chronologically from The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver in 1960 to Clash Of The Titans in 1981. It therefore includes Jason And The Argonauts with its outdoor skeleton fight, considered by many to be the greatest stop motion set piece ever filmed. With a foreword by The Golden Voyage of Sinbad's Caroline Munro and a preface by Hellboy's Guillermo del Toro, the A4 size hardback runs to a remarkable 640 pages and includes over 3600 colour and black & white photos and other illustrations.

The book's author Mike Harkin recently presented a preview copy to the now 90 year old Harryhausen in his London home and said of the meeting, "Ray met me at the door of his home and soon I was unwrapping his copy of the book. For the next two hours his eyes hardly left the book as he studied every page. Only a few pages were turned before his first exclamation: 'Oh my God - 3D pictures!' as he reached for the 3D glasses on his side table. It seemed that with each page he said, 'Where did you get those pictures? I have never seen them before!' Ray had only reached the chapter on Mysterious Island before he leaned back and said, 'I have never seen such a spectacular book. The layouts are beautiful, and the pictures leap out at you. You have done me a great honour by putting this book together.' At one stage Ray had tears in his eyes, he was so thrilled with it.

"The two and half hours I was with Ray just flew past, but it was getting late. I thought he was going to crush my hand as he held it tightly and said, 'This is a book to treasure. I can't imagine anyone who loves our films not wanting to buy this book. Thank you so much!'"

With such a sumptuous, low print-run, book there is always the drawback of cost. Volume 3 costs $84.95 plus postage from the USA, however copies are available from London's Cinema Store which has a excellent history of promoting Ray Harryhausen books in the UK. If $85 seems a lot for a single book then consider that copies of the sold out Volume 2 are currently being offered on US Amazon Marketplace for over $1200 each.

There are more details of Master of the Majicks Volume 3 on the Archive Editions website including sample pages and a slide show of some of the photos from the book.

There is more on the career of Ray Harryhausen on his official website.

There is an article about the British Clash Of The Titans comic strips on Bear Alley.

Ray Harryhausen at Forbidden Planet in October

Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton will be signing An Animated Life at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 24th October between 1 – 2pm.

The last great animator before the introduction of CGI, Ray’s book takes us through 60 years of bringing dreams to life. From harpies and skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts to the six-armed Kali in Sinbad, Ray explains the films' journeys, from original concept through to the critics' reviews, as well as the basics of special effects and stop-motion animation. Now re-issued in softcover, An Animated Life is a wonderland guide through a golden age of SFX magic.


Inspired at 13 years old by seeing King Kong, Ray knew his future lay in special effects. Following on from his mentor Willis O'Brien, creator of Kong, Ray took the art of stop-motion animation one step further, weaving his magic on every concept from dinosaur to alien.

Probably the single best-known name in special effects, Ray Harryhausen is both visionary and artist and has written two previous and very successful books on the subject.

In Person - Ray Harryhausen In Edinburgh

There are few movie makers other than some actors and a few directors that could be said to have become legends in their own lifetime. Special effects creator Ray Harryhausen is one of those select few with his skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts being regarded by many as the best stop motion sequence ever filmed. The first motion picture that he worked on was the 1949 version of Mighty Joe Young which won the special effects Oscar for that year and he was honoured by the American Academy with a lifetime achievement award in 1992.

For many years his Film Fantasy Scrapbook was the best reference book on his work, eventually being published in four different editions, but in recent years he has collaborated on two sumptuous reference books with co-author Tony Dalton, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life and The Art Of Ray Harryhausen. He has also recently licensed his films to Bluewater Comics in America who have been publishing various limited series titles under the Ray Harryhausen Presents banner.

To date the best of these has been Wrath Of The Titans, a sequel to the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, and the current Bluewater title is Flying Saucers Vs The Earth based on the 1956 film Earth Vs The Flying Saucers.

Now in his late eighties, Ray will be appearing twice at the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival, at a signing session after a screening of Jason and The Argonauts at the Dominion Cinema on 24 June and as the subject of one of the In Person interviews at Cineworld. The In Person event will take place on 25 June when he will be interviewed by Tony Dalton. Both men will sign copies of their books afterwards.http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

• More details of the Jason and the Argonauts screening and Ray Harryhausen: In Person can be found at the Edinburgh International Film Festival website.

amazon.co.uk links:
• Buy Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life from amazon.co.uk
• Buy The Art of Ray Harryhausen are available from amazon.co.uk

amazon.com links:
• Buy Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life from amazon.com
• Buy The Art of Ray Harryhausen are available from amazon.com